Price Paid:  $900.00 from some small elec jobb

Summary:
I first put all my cds in the machine, put the player in random mode and it worked like a charm. Six months later it started to reject cds and I started to take them out . Now it is February 2007 and I have about 150 dvd titles in machine it plays most but often rejects discs after doing a disc read. It plays mp3 files downloaded and burned on computer disc. Almost all the time.
I find the machine slow and very fickle about what and when it will accept a title.
Strangely it plays any porn title without a hitch.

It was a good idea that did not come to life!

Strengths:
1/ Number of discs held.

2/ ability to title discs

3/ plays mpeg files

4/ on screen library

Weaknesses:


1/ slow..........

2/ unpredictable performance

3/ noisy operation

Price Paid:  $938.00 from HookedOnTronics

Summary:
This is just a "first impressions" review. I am far from exploring all the features of this unit. First off. This is a beast. It is 21" deep. Anyone with less than 20" of shelf space will have to do a little cutting on the backboard of your cabinet. If you have the room, you can connect up to 2 more 5900s/5050s for a total of 1200 discs. This unit comes with both a keyboard remote and conventional remote. The keyboard remote is wireless and is a bit slow to respond to keypresses ( you'll have to type slower ). It is a must for entering your data into this unit. The NetNamer software is a much easier way to title your collection of discs ( you must register your changer and download the PC application from Kenwood ). It connects to the changer via an RS232 port ( cable provided - but I needed a longer one to reach my PC ). I found the software easy to use and it gets data from CDDB. The button placement on the handheld remote is a little confusing but anyone that shells out $1000+ for this unit probably has a nice programmable remote. I just programed my Marantz and tossed the Kenwood remote in a drawer ( you'll need the Keyboard from time to time to enter your new discs ). Titling memory is good for most situations, but I have a lot of dance complilations with different artists on a single disc. 20 characters for TITLE, 20 characters for ARTIST, & 20 characters each for up to 25 TRACKS. It is still enough to take quite some time to catalog your collection. The manual could have been done better ( seems like an English translation at times ) but it provides most of the info you will need to get started. Video - I think that this is the best picture I will ever glean from my HDTV when watching DVDs ( HDTV not available here ). The OSD is not very pretty but it does the job and provides easy control over the media being played. Selectable black level and video processing settings. Very good deinterlacing with no noticable artifacts. Audio - I have not tested the DVD-Audio, but CDs sound just as good as you would find on a decent stand-alone CD player. Audio is high-quality. Supports CD-Text. Has built-in DTS/AC3/DVD-A decoder. Good suppport for custom speaker level & delay settings. MP3 - This area is probably the only sore spot I have for this changer. No ID3 tag support. Support for only ISO9660 level 1 file names ( 8.3 names & hard to make out what is being played ). On the bright side - VBR mp3s work fine. 320 kbps mp3s work fine. Nested folders are recognised ( it seems to pick the first folder and play everything in it then move to the next one ). Reads all of my various brands of CD-R media. Another major drawback is that MP3 audio can only be output through the analog audio, so you must switch your receiver from 'digital' to 'analog' mode to play mp3s. Connections - Component video( progressive - switchable on back panel ). S-Video (2). RCA (2). Pre-Amp outs for 5.1 audio. 1 Toslink AC3 ( wish there were 2 so I could have different settings for DVD & CD for my receiver ). AC3 coaxial out (2). RS-232 for PC data transfer. This should be more than enough for most people.

Strengths:
Video quality User settings for video/audio 400 disc capacity Title memory DVD/CD/MP3 all-in-one

Weaknesses:
User manual Not enough mp3 support No digital out for mp3 audio

Similar Products Used:
Sony CDP-CX240 Pioneer DVL-909

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from Good Guys

Summary:
This unit hold an incredible amount of dvds and cds, it plays mp3s, dvd audio (requires special inputs in your amp!), as well as pc authored cds and most dvd-r and dvd+r but not luck with dvd+rw.

Strengths:
This thing holds 500 discs! All the discs that I like are accessible without loading and unloading.

Weaknesses:
I would rate audio playback at 9 out of 10, however dvd playback is not very good at all and I would rate it a disappointing 6 out of 10. My Sony 9000ES beats this unit big time with every dvd I have ever tested. The on screen cataloging and searching system is poorly designed. The device takes almost 1 minute to warm up when you turn it on and 1 minute to change a cd. It is supposed to flip dual sided dvds but fails on that 90% of the time. Remote control is horrable but wireless keyboad is cool, especially when you are catloging a large number of discs. However they did not find it necesary to have on screen display when entering title and performer names - you have to watch the LCD display - luckily the size of that display is quite large. Overall, this could have been a much better product with more attention to dvd output and on screen display. One more thing - mp3 menus - only the first 8 characters of the file name are displayed.

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from the good guys

Summary:
A great product. The sales guy initials (H.G.) Had a disk of the Kenwood video test disk. Put it into the machine, and I was convinced. Perfect rendition of video material. I hooked it up to my machine and disconected the Sony 9000. I am not missing anything. Perfect black gradation, and noticibly no artifactation.
I love this machine. Who thought Kenwood could get on top of the market so quickly. Not sure how the new receiver line will stack up next to my denon avr5700. I don't know how this machine would stack up next to the $300 panasonic with the saje chip. But the guy seemed like he knew his products, so i took his word on it.

Strengths:
Picture Quality

Weaknesses:
none yet

Similar Products Used:
DVPS9000ES sony, DVD4800 denon, SD9200 toshiba, dvrp91k panasonic

Price Paid:  $1500.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
This is a preliminary review as I've only had it for less than a month. So some of the features have not been used. The software to download titles for all DVD, Cd, DVD-A if not yet ready at the Kenwood website, so can't test that.

DVD audio sounds great played through 6 channel component system, video displays from these sound discs good and navigation works well.

The real story here is the execution of the video section. DVD's have never looked better; extremely sharp and clear with no artifacts at all. The Faroudja chip is amazing. I watch on a 64 inch Pioneer Elite which shows no mercy in revealing flaws. There are no flaws from any decent DVD played in this machine. Any flaw you might see is due to DVD quality alone.

The icing on the cake will be the ability to download all the title information by hooking this unit to a PC and the website. I will report further when I can use all the features.

Strengths:
The most incredible beautiful picture from DVD I've ever seen!

Weaknesses:
Can't switch between interlaced and progressive video from menu, only from switch on rear. Remote is cluttered, too many small buttons with hard to read labels. Lousy manual that can't be understood even after reading it three times!

Similar Products Used:
Sony 9000ES, Pioneer 38A, several JVC's