Price

Layer changes, quality control, disc "freeze"

If there's one thing this DVD player has taught me, it's you get what you pay for. I paid ~$200 for this player online. While the picture and sound quality is above average for the price, there are many problems with this player that approach intolerable. For instance, layer changes take forever and are "jumpy". It really detracts from the movie-watching experience. Also... huge problems with The Matrix and Fight Club. (And Apollo 13 as well, I'm told, by the Pioneer service rep). There are points in both Matrix and Fight Club where the audio drops out, the display on the unit freezes, but the video continues. You can imagine how annoying this is. I called up Pioneer and said they are aware of the problem and are "working on a fix for it." This fix is going to be available free of charge, but the rep declined to say when. Beware of cheap DVD players such as this one!

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Pioneer DV-414

Great Value

Incompatable with other remote devices

I would recommend the Pioneer to anybody concerned with adding a quality component to their home theater. Build quality is good, tolerances are tight for the price range. There are better DVD players out there at much higher prices but personally I would spend my money elsewhere. With technology changing things by leaps and bounds in the digital arena, I would not put too much money in a DVD player with the quality of the entry level devices. Put your cash in a high quality receiver and speakers if you want better performance. If you have $10K+ in your system, go ahead and spend more on the Elite Series but I would contend that you would get only a slightly better quality signal at a significantly higher price.

Since the a DVD player is reading compressed data and then transmitting it digitally to your receiver, I would be inclined to think that the quality of the processing chip on your receiver will make much more of a difference than the DVD player itself. As long as the receiver is fed a pure signal, what it does with that signal makes all the difference in the world. There is just not that much difference in quality of signals when you get into the digital arena.

I understand that some reviewers have gotten lemons but I will assure you that if you look at the other players reviewed, you will find that every manufacturer puts them out on occasion. Go with the Pioneer, buy from a reputable source and you will go far.

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Sony S330

Audio

N/A

I can only rate this for audio. I'm using it as a transport to power my Adcom GDA 600 D/A converter. All I can say is I'm very impressed. Also compared it's analog out to the D/A. Difficult to tell the difference. Though finally the Pioneer shows some hardness in the upper end. Slight softening of bass. Overall this would make an incredible stand alone CD player. And it can play 96/24. I'm using a Philips DVD in my video setup. Audio does not compare.
Associated equipment:
Conrad-Johnson PF2 pre-amp
Conrad-Johnson MF2100 amp
Magnaplaner 1.6QR
MIT speaker cables
PAC interconnects
Adcom GDA 600
Monster Power HTS 3000

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Sony, Philips

1. Do not have built in dolby digital and dts decoder.
2. Do not have gold plated output terminals.

Very good player. the weakness are do not have built in decoder for dolby digital and dts, secondly do not have gold plated output terminals and advanced GUI.

Very nicely priced, simple to operate.

No 5-channel out.

This player is a terrific bargain. I paid $189 for mine at www.pch.com. It's worked quite well and has all of the features you could ask for in a starte model DVD player. Menu options are easily mastered, and the playback is as simple as your VCR ever was.

video, audio, true 96 KHz output

tray noise

Rather than rehash what everyone else has been saying, I'll make this short and sweet. I too have a player made in Malaysia that has an audible tray noise during playback. If you have any interest in tweaking this DVD player to enhance the performance or for adding damping to the transport to reduce the noise, I would check out http://themorgue.org/audio/pioneer-dv525/
http://www.sstage.com/maxdb/ -- see the June and July articles. I personally have not tried these mods but intend to in the near future. At the very least, I will be adding damping material to the transport and the chassis to reduce the transmission of noise. If you have a glass covered rack, you wouldn't have to deal with the noise issue but since I don't, it bugs me about 10% of the time. On the other hand, if you would like to have modifications done to your Pioneer player but don't feel confident to do them yourself, I would suggest
www.tweakaudio.com -- which has a very good reputation on this site.

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Toshiba 2108

Looks, ease of use, nice price (all regions!), plays CD-R

tray noise and little noisy mechanism

I have been looking for an affordable DVD player a long time. It also had to be able to play my own CD-R's, it had to be an all-regions player. And of course sound and vision had to be awesome! I did like the Harman Kardon DVD-1. But it was more expensive and did not like CD-R. The Sony's I liked were too expensive as was the Pioneer 717. I already have a AV digital (Marantz SR5000) receiver so I didn't need built in decoders.
Well, the Pioneer has all i need! I think it is a very good player. Great sound as well! I am using it just to watch movies. For cd's I am still using my Denon DCD820.
I bought my Pioneer at Zwolsman (www.zwolsman.nl) in Amsterdam. They offered a good price (FL 949,-) which included the modification to watch all regions DVD's.
So, thumbs up for this great deal!

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none

Looks great, smooth picture, great price

noisy tray

The price is very good and its zone free, Sure I would like it to be with macrovision disabled but...
The sound is great, I use it with my Harman Kardon AVR-65 that includes a decoder so i did need to pay more for a dvd with build-in decoder.
The tray is a little noisy and gives you the feeling that its goind to stop working every second, but be sure that it will work much longer that you have been expacted.

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Hitachi DVD (Computer Type)

Will play anything flawlessly!

Kinda cheap looking.

This sucker will play anything you put into it without a glitch. I've played DVDs, CDs, CDRs, and CDRWs. Some of which would bring any other DVD player down to its knees, but not this dude. I've yet to find something that will make it flinch. I tried the ProScan(can't remember the model #) and it pixelized several places on only the second DVD I played. Took it back to Circuit City the next day. You can't go wrong if you buy this player. The only complaint I have is I think they could have made it a little bit more durable and "prettier" BUT......

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Proscan

Reliability, chipset

Flimsyness, noisy loader

Well, I work at a very high end audio store, but we were looking for a good cheap CD player. I was wandering around costco when I saw the Pioneer. I picked it up and brought it to my shop. We tested it out with many CD's, including the burmester CD's. It played the Burmester CD that usually won't even play in our wadia 270. Good job pioneer! If anybody buys one of these, put a thin layer of silicone on the inside cover, that quites things down nicely!

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NAD 522, DV-333