Price Paid:  $300.00 from Overture Audio

Summary:
I've had this unit for over two years now. I play about 70-30 music and video on it. Overall I have enjoyed the performance of this unit. For the last several months the unit has intermittantly refused to read discs. Often this happens after playing one disk and trying to switch to another. This can be resolved by switching the unit off and on, often several times. The problem seems to be getting more and more frequent. I've contacted Onkyo about the problem. They said I need to send take it in for service. I haven't done this because I am concerned with the ridiculous service prices I've heard for these things. I also have an Onkyo TX-DS575x receiver. I am starting to experience intermittant problems with that unit as well. Sometimes the unit will not play any sound. This is resolved by switching back and forth between sources. Onkyo has said that unit needs to be serviced also. Because of the reliability issues I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND PURCHASING ONKYO. The performance is very good to excellent, however the reliability concerns are just not worth it.

Strengths:
Performance

Weaknesses:
Reliability

Price Paid:  $377.00

Summary:
After intermittant troubles in reading disks, the unit was unable to see the disks any longer. Brought it into a authorized serve center and the estimate was $350 to repair. Am now trying to get Onyko to either repair, assist in the cost of the repair or a credit towards a new unit. Not sure if I want to go for #3 since I really not sure if I would ever purchase another Onkyo product again.

Strengths:
Good quality in picture and sound

Weaknesses:
Unreliable and costly to repair.

Price Paid:  $700.00 from Harvey Norman

Summary:
I have had to take the player back 5 times for warranty repairs in the last 8 months (lucky it has a 5 yr warranty). It continued to display the same problem, it would freeze and then after freezing would not detect any disks. It has just come back again and Onkyo's Australian supplier swear they have swapped my player for another, I should have written the serial number down, I know, but I forgot... hopefully this player will function well. When it does work, it works well with any pressed (original) DVD from any region and any audio cd's. I have not found a vcd that is pressed and not burnt so I can't test it's vcd functionality. As yet I have not been able to get it to play any cd-r's but i will try the sony's mentioned by another reviewer.

Strengths:
Excellent dts and dolby digital ex quality through an optical cable.

Weaknesses:
Unreliable (I could have had a lemon). Seems to only like pressed disks, no good if you make your own vcd's (I can't watch my family home videos through it).

Similar Products Used:
Acer 40x DVD ROM in Pc (perfect functionality for over 3 years)

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Cambridge Soundworks

Summary:
I am writing to warn potential buyers from buying this model and the next model of Onkyo DVD players. This one doesn''t read all discs, freeze often, and gives error messages. In addiiton customer seervice is very poor and you will be stuck with a melon soon.

Strengths:
None for the price. You get a better deal with other machines of same price

Weaknesses:
1. Doesn''t read all discs 2. Skips and freezes 3. Ejects and closes continuously 4. Gives disc errors

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic Sony

Price Paid:  $199.00 from hifi.com

Summary:
This was my first DVD player so I have very little to compare it to. I bought the 5 disk thinking I would eliminate my old CD player, however this unit lacks some of the ease of use features of my CD player so I kept it (a good move with respect to the multi room feature of my new Marantz 7200 reciever). Contrary to other reviewers I havn''t had any trouble with this unit in over a year. It does pause sometimes between chapters (less than 1 second) but this seems to be related to the disk not the player.

Strengths:
Price & quality

Weaknesses:
Not progressive scan.