Your Standalone DVD-Player ?

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 04 Mar 2006, 21:52

What Brand ?
What Model ?
Are you happy with it ?

It's just a survey. I guess the best way to learn about the efficiency of a DVD-Player is to ask those who use it.

I'll go first:
-Pioneer.
-DV-575 (known as 578 in the US).
-Quite happy. Despite some stuttering and aliasing, this is by far the best and fastest player I've ever had.

Next, please.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 04 Mar 2006, 21:58

-Pioneer.
-DV-656A.
-Very happy with it. DVD-A/SACD compatible, region free, not much of a pause whilst changing layers, and excellent quality!

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 04 Mar 2006, 23:06

Panasonic DVD-S75 multiregion.

I've been happy with it while I've been using it on my widescreen CRT but now that I'm upgrading to a plasma I am thinking of replacing it because it only does NTSC progressive scan and I would prefer both NTSC and PAL progressive scan for the new TV...

As a player in its own right, its great - plays everything I throw at it, had great DD 5.1 & DTS 5.1 from the onboard decoders before I upgraded to an amp with optical input, plays DVD-Audio, MP3s & WMAs, JPEGs, pretty much everything.

The only downside is that it does not do PAL progressive and also it was around when HDMI and 720p upscaling wasn't even an issue. These days most new players have that feature and thats something I'm looking into because the plasma I'm getting (on Friday - woohoo!) is HD...

sky75 · Post by **sky75** » 08 Mar 2006, 16:17

Pioneer
DV - 585
So far I'm very happy with it. I bought it to replace my Sony RDR GX300( I think that's correct?) DVD recorder which was my only player at the time. It has on board decoders for Dolby Digital, DTS, SACD, DVD audio and DIVX compatibility . It also plays MP3, JPEG and just about everything else. not that I need it at the moment but it also features progressive scan ( PAL & NTSC) for whenever I can afford to upgrade my TV. it is also multi-region and compared to my Sony recorder the layer change is quite quick but could be better.

Unrealnils · Post by **Unrealnils** » 08 Mar 2006, 17:19

I'll go first:
-Toshiba
-sd 330e
-I've only had sub £200 (budget ) players and as this stands it fine both sound and picture are more then acceptable for my 28inch widescreen it plays everything i throw at it...........

I dont use it much now as i have a HD 19 inch widescreen lcd as my monitor so prefare to watch movies on that

Cheers dell bargians

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 09 Mar 2006, 02:52

I've got a Pioneer DV-525 which I've had since... oh, before you were born. Or maybe before this millenium began. It has never failed, and the only things it can't play are DivX files and the like. But for those, I bought a Kiss Technologies DP-1000.
The only thing I don't like about the Pioneer is the remote. The buttons, whilst small, aren't a problem. The layout, however, is. All the buttons are the same size, and they are all equally spaced apart. Now that I've had it years, I can kinda guess where my fingers are in relation to the button I want to press, but back in the day, it was a pain.
As for the DP-1000, the machine itself is fine, but the menu is a bit poo. But, I paid £70 for it, so I'm not that bothered. It's only for 'stop-gap' purposes anyway.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 09 Mar 2006, 12:07

JVC XV-NP1 DVD Player/Memory Card Reader

Very good player IMO, I bought it after my Philips 762 died (the lens kept scratching discs) - the AV is good (can do DD and DTS) and the picture seems more "natural" than my Philips (lower contrast and duller colours). It can do Prog Scan PAL as well (I think) and maybe Prog NTSC but I'm not sure.
I dont like the remote though - too many buttons on it and its too big - my Philips remote was much smaller and more stylish. On the other hand the Philips was huge compared to my current player which is very slim.
JVC player cost me about £100 (worth about £160 in 2004).

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 09 Mar 2006, 12:13

I see that most of you own Pioneer players.
For some reason I thought that asian movie-lovers were mostly using Malatas.

Mordib · Post by **Mordib** » 09 Mar 2006, 12:18

tosh 330e, repeatedly top of tests for sub £600 players. you can get one now for about £60 too. lated for years, works great...

Yi-Long · Post by **Yi-Long** » 09 Mar 2006, 12:29

I recently bought a region-free Denver 706K, for 30euro. It's an ok player, plays alot of stuff (havent tried it out much yet) Videoquality is OK and sound as well.

Before that I had a region-free Pioneer 454, but it had video-problems. There were coloured bars moving over the screen, so now it's collecting dust under my bed before I dump it somewhere outside in a ditch.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 10 Mar 2006, 09:00

The Malatas are basically for the US peeps needing some PALs

And afaik they don't offer much in the quality department.

I have a Sony which looks and sounds great. Only problem is the non-transparent layer changes, but the next upgrade for me would be a €1500 Denon player... which I'm not about to do.

And... there's NO need to stick with the original crappy remote

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 10 Mar 2006, 09:48

My next player will be the as-yet-unreleased Panasonic DVD-S52.

It is coming out in June and will complement my new TH37PX60 plasma (if it ever turns up at work from Panasonic!) because it features an HDMI socket & 720p upscaling.

I really don't care about recording any TV programs so I won't be buying a DVD recorder as they are more expensive than the players & players have more & better features for disc playback than recorders anyway...

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 10 Mar 2006, 11:18

@Pioneer lovers:

A new batch of Pioneer players is coming out in may.
They'll be called 390, 494, and 696. Two of them will have DVI/HDMI output.

If you want to upgrade, I recommend you wait for those to arrive.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 10 Mar 2006, 12:01

Don't want to upgrade TV/DVD yet.
There's the issue of wall space in my room anyway