Overall performance and quietness

Remote, FF and Rev scanning

I was looking for an entry level DVD player to get me through until the "next big thing" hits. I was just looking for a player that had all of the standard features and that was relatively quiet during operation. I read many reviews here of several players that made a lot of noise i.e. whirring during playback. My equipment rack is next to my viewing/listening position so I wanted to make sure the DVD player wouldn't be a distraction during movies. I had to visit a lot of stores before I could find one that actually had all of the players powered up so I could compare the noise let alone actually check the picture and sound. The Pioneer was the quietest I found without spending another $200 (even then some were noisy). The Sony and Panasonic were the worst and a couple of Toshiba's were bad too. An expensive Denon was very quiet. The store had a Pioneer changer and a Pioneer Elite changer that looked exactly the same except for the glossy finish on the Elite. The Elite was pretty quiet but the standard Pioneer was very loud.
I've been very happy with the DV-333 in all aspects except the remote and fast-forward and reverse scanning modes. The scanning is not as good as some other players like the Sony. Sony also has the entry level remote nailed. It's the only one I saw that had decent buttons and could also run your TV if needed.

Similar Products Used:

Entry level Sony, Panasonic, etc.

Sharp picture quality, dual language menu display, zone free and plays both NTSC/PAL disc.

Transport is a bit noisy and feels too light in weight.

I think I have got the Asia version of the DV-333, it is called DV-3300. The feature of the machine is exactly the same as DV-333, except you can choose to display menu and commands in English/Chinese and the finish of the machine is in Champange gold instead of in the regular black. The machine is a bit costly, but if you need the functions it is cool.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic DVD-A100, Sharp DV-600U

Great value for the price. Excellent picture and sound. Dolby/DTS output. Plays CD-R's!!

Plain looking. No DTS?Dolby decoding, but who needs it when you have a receiver to do that!!

I think for this price, there is no better DVD player out there. Has a resume feature that lets you stop a movie, turn off the power and when you start it again, the movie continues from where you left off. Excellent.

Outstanding picture, Great sound (as yet through old mini system that really needs replacing), Great remote, All the connections you will need, Plays CD-R / CD-RW, got a great price in Canada.

One minor glitch, player is not yet calibrated with Avia.

Saturday I picked up my new DVD Player, and in short, I was extremely happy with it.

I picked it up at Visions, Calgary South for $327 CDN, new in box, which I think is a good deal.

We've been watching movies on it all weekend. Fight Club, Three Kings, Starship Troopers, John Carpenter's Vampires, Star Trek Generations, the Mummy, Sixth Sense, House on Haunted Hill, Austin Powers, and of course, the Matrix. How did it perform?

Tray noise:
none when disk is spinning at low volume. very minor noise upon tray opens

Scanning/Slow:
Pioneer is known to have jerky scanning forward and back. This one is no exception. That's not an issue with me because I dont watch movies that way. I've no need to be precise with scanning. Some machines have infinite scanning speeds, but are somewhat difficult to precisely control, which defeats the purpose. For me, the Pioneer is better.

Remote:
Nothing special. It only controls this player. No backlighting. It does have little "nubs" on certain keys so you can feel around when you get used to it. The button layout is logical, it gives a quick response to button presses. It fits well in the hand And it doesn't have the names for the keys written on the keys themselves, so they wont get worn off. I like it.

The only minor glitch I did see, was in one scene in starship troopers. Chapter 17 "FEDERAL NETWORK". The second scene of that chapter called "Bugs that Think" has two people discussing the brain bug. The woman on the right is wearing a patterned sportsjacket, that, for a few seconds of the scene, and only from a certain angle, displays some shimmering. It was very hard to notice, and I tried it on my computer DVD: same effect.

Perhaps this "problem" was because I dont have Avia yet, and am using composite video cables directly to a Sony 27S22 tv, which has displayed some of this shimmering effects even on cable.

It has all the connections you will need, (one of each) with a switch on the back to select composite/s-video, or component video. It is preset to component.

The player is advertised to play CD-Rs, haven't tried any yet.

AT the time of purchase, I was also considering the sony 550, whhich i could buy a demo for $400 canadian, regular $800, but I didn't, because it had been running continuously, and I have recently seen some horror stories regarding this model. I also could have gone for the well rated Panasonic 320 player for $500 but it was extra money I didn't want to spend, and both of these players had extra features I simply wouldn't use. The Pioneer was well rated as well, and I found it at a great price, so I'm happy.

If anyone has problem disks for this player let me know and I'll try them.

If you have ANY questions about this player, please let me know.

I LOVE THIS PLAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUY IT!

Similar Products Used:

computer DVD-ROM, have experience selling DVD players so I have seen just about all of them in action.

Easy to use, Superior features.

None.

Absolutly Fabulous!

I didn't have to return it. The other players listed above were purchased in the order presented. They all had one common failure, they skipped and locked up completely everytime I watched anything.

This was the first player that wouldn't lock up on me, however not every player is flawless. This one did however freeze 3 times, and all were rentals, 2 were from scratches the other was from a big greesy hairball on the disc surface itself. It seems that some dvd players will lockup on scratched discs this player won't under normal circumstances.

The remote has some issues, but a remote is a remote. I'm not going to go into details, you can read the other reviews for that.

The last thing that I believe is inherent in all dvd players is the layer change (a two second pause for the laser to refocus onto the second layer of the disc). This player seems to handle them nicely. I've read to see what others have to say about this issue and have found them to be less distracting than other players, "hardly noticable", I believe someone said about the player.

Now since I haven't been able to sit through a movie with the previous players, my knowledge on this subject is limited. I can tell you that the layer changes on most discs that I have watched on this player are in-between scenes, much like in the theaters when the reel changes occure (for more information on reel changes, see 'Fight Club'), except for 'Coyote Ugly' where the layer change came right after a scene change.

I purchased this unit on the basis of what others had to say here. I would recommend the same to everyone else.

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Apex AD-500 (returned), Konka KD1800U (returned), Hitachi DVP305U (returned).

Bang on value, picture, sound, flexibility, smooth

At this price, it would be stupid to moan about it!!!

This is brilliant, though it is my first DVD player. This
is infact the DV-343, and it is great value. Pictures are
sharp, clear and detailed, while the sound (through good
speakers e.t.c.) is tops!!! If you are in the market for
your first DVD player, buy this one. After all, it is a
Pioneer, and you wont be dissapointed. I love it!!!

Similar Products Used:

Computer DVD player

CDR/CDRW support

Great DVD player which replaced an ancient Technics CD player. DVD picture is incredibly sharp and the sound is great! Interestingly, CD music is clearer and the instruments are more distinct with the pioneer than with my old Technics CD player even when using the analog outputs. With digital out (optical), the sound quality is incredible!
I thought about going with the 433 model pioneer, but since I don't have HDTV, the progressive scanning mode is useless to me.

Similar Products Used:

Sony

This is a follow-up to a previous review in which I reported "popping" noises when Dolby Digital mode engaged using the optical cable.

I sent that unit back to Amazon who replaced it with another unit of the same model. The new one does not make the popping noises and works well.

Pioneer obviously has a bit of a QC problem, so the prudent buyer will promptly check his unit.

NONE THIS PLAYER SUCKS

EVEYTHING, REMOTE IS JUNKY, LIGHT WEIGHT LOOKS CHEAP PLAYS CHEAP WAS VERY UPSET WITH PERFORMANCE LOCKED UP TRAY WAS STUCK OUT WHEN RETURNED VERY LOUD WHEN PLAYING SOUNDED LIKE IT WAS GOINT TO FLY AWAY

THIS PLAYER IS JUNK HAD IT FOR TWO DAYS BEFORE IT LOCKED UP WOULDNT PLAY THE PERFECT STORM 747 AIRPLANES DONT SOUND AS LOUD AS THIS PLAYER DOES WHEN IT SPINS DISCS

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NONE THIS IS A TRUE PIECE OF GARBAGE

price, quick load time and layer transitions (less than 1 second), lots of neat display options (such as transfer rate), plays just about anything except 8-tracks and vinyl, awesome movie playback quality, although...

the sound volume is a bit low for movies. Also, yes it is quite ugly and the remote is not the best as well.

I sold my Samsung 709 after having the darn thing skip on me about 7 times a movie, on brand new discs no less, and I owned it less than a year. Despite the ease of hacking the 709 to a multi region player, I never watch imported DVD's anyway so I want something that will play my movies without skipping and freezing. I did not want to buy another player so soon, but since I kind of had no choice after being burned by the Samsung corporation I decided to buy a more reputable brand. I bought the 333 based on reviews here and so far they are dead on.

Right out of the box the unit was great (so was my Samsung though, so I will remain wary until the machine proves me otherwise). It loads DVD's almost immediately (samsung took about 8 or 9 seconds), and the picture quality is really, really good. The samsung had a sharp picture too, but the horizontal resolution lines (i'm no techno-jargon guy, i dont know the terms) often interfered with angled objects such as houses, etc, making diagonal lines look jagged (kind of like a staircase effect) on the screen. The Pioneer does not suffer from this flaw. I would venture to say that its about a good a picture as I've seen on a lower end DVD player, if not the best. I havent noticed any freezing yet. I also didnt find the menus hard to navigate at all, and there are a slew of options as well. And whats nice (at least opposed to my samsung) is that the player's setup menu is superimposed on the screen during a movie so you dont have to stop, adjust, and then start from the beginning of the chapter.

the ability to play any sort of compact disc shaped media is also awesome!

To address some of the complaints...I'm kind of a quiet equipment freak and I didnt notice any excessive tray noise that everyone complains about. I suppose to have no noise you'd need no friction, and that's just impossible. Second, yes it is quite ugly. The samsung was better, and THAT was even ugly too! But I care more about quality than owning a piece of artwork (kinda like what sony does, wowing you with eye candy for their crappy products). And yes, the remote features tiny, unreadable-without-a-microscope-buttons. I think Superman with his x-ray vision must be the QC guy for Pioneer's remote control division.

Lastly, the audio level is a bit low during movie playback. I tested a movie, than popped in a cd at the same volume and the cd almost scared the hell out of me. Of course, there may be some sort of iternal volume adjustment that I'm missing, but if not...be forewarned so you dont blow your eardrums while switching to a cd, or another component on your receiver.

Well, so far so good with the 333. I have 60 days to return this bad boy to Sears should it falter. No repairs, no waiting. If it breaks, its going back. Period. And of course you all will be the first to know!

But as of now i would absolutely say that this is the best DVD player you'll find under 200 bucks. Pioneer better not let me down like Samsung did...

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Samsung 709