The nucleus of your home theater
Written: May 24 '01 (Updated Jul 11 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Plays all disk formats (cd-r/cd-rw/dvd/cd). All digital outputs. Options galore. Cheap.
Cons: Unit is large and bulky. Buttons on remote are too small.
The Bottom Line: With all the supported disk formats, options, and an attractive price tag to boot, this DVD player is an awesome deal.
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| sludgetrough's Full Review: Pioneer DV-C603 Multi-disc DVD Player |
The Pioneer DV-C603 is essentially the same as the DV-C503, with the addition of the Progressive Scan video output option. What's that? You have no idea what that is? Well, before you click the 'back' button on your browser and read reviews on the (slightly) cheaper DV-C503, stick around, I'll explain everything...I promise.
There were a few main features that I had in mind while choosing a DVD player. I wanted a 5 disk carousel. I wanted CD-R/RW compatibility. I wanted digital outputs, and I wanted Dolby DTS compatibility. I got all that and more with the DV-C603. In a nutshell, I am very happy with this DVD player, and have only minor complaints. A full review follows, but if you don't feel like reading it, know that this is one of the finest DVD players on the market under the 500 dollar mark.
Still with me? Excellent! Here comes the full-blown review. I broke it into two sections, hardware and software. So without further adeu, let us press onwards!
Hardware
First of all, here's what comes in the box besides the DVD player itself: You get a remote, batteries for the remote, power cable, composite video/audio cable, and a pretty decent instruction booklet.
The first thing I noticed about the unit itself was the unusually large size. It seemed unnecessarily bulky, especially given the fact that it's extremely lightweight. I understand that carousel players need to be a bit wider to accommodate the 5 disk tray, but the unit was very tall, and very deep. They layout of buttons on the front of the unit is elegant and intuitive. The action on the disk eject tray is fast and disks load up very quickly.
The remote is the exact opposite of the too-large unit. It's too small, with every button on it being the same exact, too-small size. You need to squint to distinguish one button from another. The arrow keys are especially important for navigating DVD disks, and they're so small on this remote that you simply cannot work them without averting your gaze down towards the remote. A rocker switch for the arrow keys would have been much welcomed. The keys glow in the dark, but are not backlit. They are very visible while glowing, but after 5 minutes you're stuck with a remote that you can't read, with buttons too small to navigate by touch. A backlight option instead of the glow-in-the-dark buttons would have made more sense on such a small remote.
The first thing I did was put this player through its paces by testing every disk I had to see if it could read them all. I'm proud to say it passed with flying colors. DVD players rarely read CD-R disks for some reason. Most of the ones that do are quite a bit more expensive than this player. Philips and Pioneer are the only DVD player manufacturers whos entire product line reads burned disks. Not only did this player handle all of the above formats, but they also played the elusive CD-RW disk format. These are erasable CD's which are incompatable with every single CD player I've ever tested, including the CD-ROM's on many older computers. Imagine making your own music mix from your existing CD's, listening to it on your player until you get tired of it, then erasing the mix and starting over again and again ad infinium. If nothing else, this player is worthwhile simply for this feature...but wait, there's more:
Output ports are very important. This player has them all. Composite, S-Video and Component video jacks are all present. On the audio side, Composite, Coaxial, and Fiberoptic ports all await you. It is imperative if you want to set up a home-theater system that you use the Component jacks for video and either the coax or fiber jacks for your audio. Otherwise you get picture and sound identical to that which you get on VHS already. I know this means buying cables that are not included in the box. Bite the bullet and do it, the resulting sound quality is worth it.
Software and features:
Let's start this out with a quick explanation of what Progressive Scan gets you. Basically it's a different way of reading the disk and sending the video information to your TV. The result is a near flawless picture on your TV screen. The downside is that you need a HDTV in order to use this feature. As you know they are quite expensive right now...most of them are over 5,000 dollars (ouch). To use a High Definition TV without a Progressive Scan DVD player would be utterly stupid, however. Here's where a bit of forward-thinking comes in handy. The DV-C603 DVD player is almost the same price as the DV-C503. Eventually HDTV's will go down in price. Do yourself a favor and spend a few extra bucks now on the better player so you don't have to spend 3 times as much later when you get your HDTV and want the extra quality that Progressive Scan input gets you.
The onscreen menuing system that comes with this DVD player is cool indeed. It's very well laid-out, and comes with a plethora of options. You can even tweak the color of the Pioneer splash screen, and enable an optional screen saver that kicks in if you leave a movie paused for too long.
The player is Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS compatible, which is no big deal because most DVD players these days are. This model also has an option for SRS 3D sound. SRS is for people who don't have a 6 speaker theater system, but just have 2 stereo speakers. SRS simulates a 6 speaker environment by using just the 2 stereo speakers. The effect is pretty cool for the people who want a home theater experience without having to buy a home theater. Audiophiles with a real 5.1 speaker setup will want to leave this option off, however.
Well, that's about it. The MSRP on this player is 499.99, but I found one on xtremeshopper.com for 250 and 30 bux shipping. For the price, this is one of the coolest players you can get. With the options to play all formats of disk and the progressive scan video, this one unit should replace 3 or 4 components for many years to come. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch Terminator 2: special edition on DVD for the billionth time.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250
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Epinions.com ID:
sludgetrough
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Location: Michigan
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Ex-Gateway employee with a knack for electronics and a quirky sense of humor...
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