Price Paid:  $359.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
This unit has been a dream to own. It has surpassed my wildest imagination on some of the fuctions it has been able to perform. When I purchased this unit I was just as yellow about DVD's as the next person. The purpose for me buying this unit was more for AUDIO than VIDEO. I was looking for a unit that would allow me to playback CDRW's and to my delight not only did the unit work flawlessly in that arena it also played back un-finalized CDRW's and CDR's as well. By me being in the music industry as a Disc Jockey that was a big plus. Since then I have all but discontinued the use of any regular CD player in my house. I also went out and purchased 2 DV-C503's to use in other areas of my house solidifying the death of all my old CD players. I could hardly believe the beautiful sound being heard from these units as I used them to playback all types of music in my house. By the way! It was no joke in the picture department either. I have always been a big fan of Pioneer Electronics because they have always been a cut above the rest in the technology department. They have always given us technology the other companies have yet to explore at any price.

At the beginning of this review I stated that this unit has been a dream to own and it has been. Now time for the nightmare. I like so many other owners of this unit started experiencing the issue of the door continuously opening and closing after the first year of ownership. Not only has it happened to this unit It also appears on my other 2 units which are the DV-C503. I don't know what happened here but Pioneer really dropped the ball on that technology. Everyone I know has the same issue with this unit and any other manufactured circa 2001. If you ask me I think that we all need to get together and have Pioneer do something about these short-comings.

Strengths:
Beautiful picture
Unmatched sound
Playback of unfinalized CDR's & CDRW
Ease of use

Weaknesses:
Terrible drawer mechanism.

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic
Hitachi
Sony

Price Paid:  $499.00 from Safe Superstore

Summary:
This is one of the greatest mid-range DVD Players ever created by Pioneer. Not even the newer Pioneer models today could hold a candle to this one. It has pin-sharp picture quality when compared to newer Pioneer DV-355(which I own) and can be also a little bit revealing when playing some poorly produced DVDs. In this case, the picture artifacts. However, as good as this DVD player sounds, it is not without flaws. This unit have problems playing certain Paramount titles that are released in the pre-2000 era cause I had problems playing titles like The Relic. About half across the movie, the player will stop streaming out audio. This particular problem will not go away until you "rectify" it. To do so, when the abovementioned started, you just have to stop the movie for a few seconds and then play it, the movie resumes from the point where/when it lost the audio stream. Another flaw, when use extensively on a daily basis, the laser lens life might be shorten. Mine has been "decommissioned" for quite sometime already for the unit's lens "gave up" just a little under 2 years of usage. I still have the unit with me and I intend to get the lens replace. Still, despite these few glitches, this unit is one of the best there is.

Strengths:
A great mid-range unit.

Weaknesses:
Choosy with certain/particular DVDs. Short lens life span.

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer DV-355 DVD Player

Price Paid:  $250.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
Worked great when I first got it, however at time went on, I began noticing certain DVD's not playing in the machine. Wasted a lot of time exchanging DVD's thinking I had defective DVD's, writing lots of e-mails to studios who produced the DVD. Had engineers send me the layer change information, because often movies would just 'hang up' and stop, sometimes the picture breaking up. Found that DVD's that once played in the past wouldn't play again, often ejecting themselves, sometimes even turning the player off! Eventually tried the same DVD's in another machine and found them to work fine. Finally pulled it out of my stereo cabinet and threw it across the room, at 2:00 in the morning when I had to pull a spare, cheap $40.00 dollar Apex, Wal-Mart special I kept as a back-up, rewiring my stereo rack to watch a movie.

Strengths:
Had fine picture and sound quality (when it worked), but often found needing to change the audio settings going from one DVD to another, but I suspect that was the issue of the different mixing on the DVD audio tracks by different studios.

Weaknesses:
Didn't seem to be a popular model as when in contact with DVD producers, this was one of the models they didn't test their DVD's on. They suggested contacting Pioneer to see if there was a firmware update. By that time the unit was out of waranty, and with $40.00 DVD players on the market, why waste the time and money?

Price Paid:  $250.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
great picture + sound. unit has not given me trouble playing DVD's, VCD's, + CDR's. This unit has been great to me over the past many years. hell it's been so long i don't remember when i bought it. i do remember i bought it when it first came out... well the only problem i have with the unit it the annoying problem with the disc tray. it will open fully then close again automatically. ejecting again, it may stay open. quite annoying.

Strengths:
good picture + sound + plays almost everything.

superb sound with my 6.1 dts-es reciever.

Weaknesses:
tray eject mechanism/switch not built well.

Similar Products Used:
Hitachi, Sony, Zenith, Toshiba, Magnetbox, RCA, Pioneer 333, Apex, and others.

Price Paid:  $199.00 from best buy

Summary:
well, this is cool,, after having my player for over 4 years, and still seeing reviews for is great . well mine has played flawlessly for the entire time with HEAVY use with movies and music on a constant daily basis. the only problem i have had is with the tray wanting to close when i hit the open button. but really a small issue ,considering it has lasted this long. i am thinking now about doing some mods to it ,just to see , bout to get a sacd player anyways ,,so this little stanknugget of a player is gonna be retired as a audio unit anyways. oh yeah ,, i am a big guy with big hands , and the remote was a b!tch at first to use . but after over 4 years of use , i have about memorised the button layout anyway. oh well i guess you get what you pay for , and this player IMHO has paid for it self over and over again,,, best $200 i have spent,,,hope to if any others have enjoyed it as long as i have ,,, ciao

Strengths:
umm,,, leemme see, video ,sound ,internal build quality , all around a good 'ol unit

Weaknesses:
not many, giving its vintage (hehe), oh,, the remote and the tray mechanism, which only developed in the last couple of months,, iguess it is getting a little grumpy with its old age ( for digital , it is old)

Similar Products Used:
ha! it was my very first dvd palyer,, it deflowered me (hehe)