It has a good picture and doesn't skip. It looks good with my other a/v components, and has a nice selection of outputs.

Needs a screen saver, the remote control is not easy to navigate through menus because the enter button feels just like the up,down,left, and right buttons, so you end up hitting the wrong button quite often. The fast forward requires you to hold the button down, you can't just hit it and wait to get to your desired location. And the fast forward display isn't smoothly played back, unlike the Proscan, which looks beautiful in fast motion. It doesn't have any type of zoom feature, and it doesn't have very many buttons on the unit, making it impossible to navigate through menues without the remote.

Good playback, but lacks buttons on the unit, remote control quality, has no zoom, and has poor scanning abilities. Construction is adequate at best; It feels a little on the light side.

Great sound, picture, and ease of setup

If I had to be picky I would say it needed zoom

I personal love this DVD player, it was a great addition to my current setup. Sound quality is great, and the video is pretty damn good also. One of the reasons why I picked the 525 is that I wanted to have a complete pioneer setup which turned out nicer then what expected. I think it would sound even better with a real nice Pre-Amp/Amp setup.


This was added to the following setup,

Pioneer Elite PRO-200
Pioneer 608 Reciever
Paradigm Monitor 9 (Mains)
Paradigm CC-350 (Center)
Paradigm ADP-350 (Rears)
Paradigm PW-2500 (sub)

Similar Products Used:

Many.

For the price you're buying it for its a steal.Better than average picture,strong audio,lots of features.The only way to better this DVD player is to go up to the Pioneer 09 which cost five times as much with does not play CDR-CDW.

None

If you want a good DVD player for sub $500 there,s no dvd player that can match the 525.Remote is fine and the tray rotation noise is not noticable.

Similar Products Used:

Sony

i have had this player for about a month and a half now and have had _no_ problems whatsover. i previously did tons of research to figure out what would be the best player to get in the $300 price range, and i came up with the 414. but, i was a little apprehensive after hearing about all the audio problems. everything else about it seemed great, especially picture quality. it was also nice that it passed the "blacker than black" signal and had full 96/24 from the digital outs (_very_ few players do that).

then i heard about the new model and jumped on it, figuring i could return it if anything went wrong. well, i am happy to report that i have had no audio synch problems or picture problems.

i've watched over a dozen movies including: the matrix, heat, the usual suspects, and super speedway. not once did i have an audio problem. hope this inspires some of you to try this player out.

yes, the remote sucks (smallest buttons ever), but i have a universal one to use instead. overall, it's high-end performance for $300. also, i got mine from crutchfield, and in addition to the 5 free movies and 13 free blockbuster rentals, i got 8 free netflix rentals! not too shabby.

appearance

cheap, cheap, cheap, build quality

I think that DVD players are not all they're cracked up to be. I've tried both Sony and Pioneer models and have yet to find a solid unit that performs well. Pioneer is a little better than Sony in terms of performance; however, Sony's players are built better.

I returned my DV-525. There were lip-sync problems when playing Austin Powers (the jet scene with Vanessa). The unit sounded harsh, when compared with my old Yamaha CD player. I could also hear the DVD spinning in its tray when playing a movie. This unit is worth US199.00...US225.00 tops! For US300.00, I expect near perfection.

I know that I'm out of view with the other reviews for the 525, but it's my honest opinion.

Consumers should force a better product from builders and this website is a good way to do it! I think that Pionner, Sony, etc. should come clean and let the public know they DO NOT HAVE THIS FORMAT FIGURED OUT. Just read the reviews for Pioneer's 414 and be glad that you did not buy one. I'm lucky I can return my 525 (YEAH for Crutchfield)! I'll consider buying another DVD player 1 year from now.

Sorry. I hate to break the perfect record here but I picked the 525 up last night. I have had a Toshiba 2107 for the past couple of years but wanted to move it to another room. Never had any of the pixalation problems that I have read about. Last night I plugged this unit in and I was mortified at the quality (in comparison to my 2+ year old unit). The colors were washed out...Major pixalation on every disc I tried. Played the Eagles and there was even slow mo hitting. It's boxed up. It's being displayed on a Sony XBR250 and running through a Sony DB930. 3 stars I guess.

I don't know what problem the guy had with the bad quality of his Pioneer 525 DVD Player, mine works great and the picture quality is superb, maybe he had a defective one??? Well I definately give this player 5 stars for quality and price, I got mine from OneCall for $249 after a price match. They didn't give me any problems with the price match which I was suprised about. Well if you are looking for a great player for a cheap price get the pioneer 525, it plays VCD's, DVD's (obviously) CD's, CD-R's, I haven't had any problems with any movies, music or vcd's I threw at it.

I purchased this unit from Onecall just after its release in early August. I've watched about 20 movies (DD and DTS) so far and have no complaints. Ok, one complaint: I saw a freeze-frame layer change during Daylight, but that's been it so far. No lip-synch problem, great picture and great sound through my Nakamichi AV-10. For a DVD player in the $250-$300 range, you can't beat this machine. A great value. I'd buy it again.

After reviewing all the reviews and shopping around, we finally took the jump and purchased the 525 from onsale.com for $239. When it first arrived, it looked light and plain compared to our other Yamaha components. We have watched several movies (Ronin, Bug's Life, etc.) with no problems at all. The picture is stunning as well as the sound. We played VCDs and CDs with zero problems. The remote is pretty plain too. For quality and price, I think this unit wins hands down. It has all the component output connections, DTS, S-video, etc., all the bells and whistles for a nominal price. I would highly recommend it to any beginner looking.

I just got my DV-525 from onsale.com, paid $249 on a stupid auction where everyone kept bidding above what one should normally pay. If www.onecall.com really does offer the player for $220 *shipped* I will be quite upset but it would be a great bargain for you. Onsale's came to $249 plus UPS & tax = $278. They ship it from Mountain View, CA so gotta pay tax too. I haven't seen many auctions go below that, but I only checked 2-3.
So far everything is great, has all the outputs one could want, and yes, I played CDRs on it w/o problems. Haven't tried CDRWs yet though. One thing that I noticed was the 'made in China' on the box, but that's OK, as long as it doesn't have any problems. Aesthetically speaking it's rather plain, but following NADs approach, I'd rather they put the $$ into the components rather than nice blue LEDs and whatnot.