Good DVD player
Written: Jan 26 '00 (Updated Jun 29 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: quality + features
Cons: no burned VCD support
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| c_knight's Full Review: Pioneer DV-C302D Multi-disc DVD Player |
Video:
This DVD player has three different video outs, S-Video out (you need a newer TV for S-Video, but S-Video is higher quality), standard RCA/composite out (what most VCRs use, that yellow pronged cable that is next to the red/white audio cable(s)), and the 3 channel component output (I'm not sure what uses component out, but it's supposed to be high quality also). So except for really old TVs that only have the coaxle input, you should be able to connect this DVD player to it. Even if your TV doesn't have composite inputs, you could also route the DVD player through a VCR that does.
As for the quality of the video, when playing back DVDs, it is very crisp and looks very nice. I am not a great judge of picture quality of DVD players, but I see no noticeable problems with any DVD playback. The DVD player supports frame advance and the fast forward and rewind are accurate too (it's much harder to control on my parent's Sony DVD player).
Audio:
As the specs show, it does full 96 khz sampling for audio and has both dolby 5.1 and dts audio outs. This means that unlike some of the cheaper DVD players, it plays back DVD audio at full quality. It doesn't get any better than this. The quality of the audio playback is superb and you can control the method of audio playback (2 channel stereo, 5 channel stereo, dts). So if you don't have a full 6 piece speaker system, you can still use the standard 2 channel audio out. Also, there are a second set of audio outputs so you can have two sets of speakers connected at the same time.
Other Features:
It also has the three disc changer which has turned out to be quite convenient when playing DVD box sets. Just load up three discs and watch a whole box set in one sitting (makes for a convenient movie marathon). Since the DVD player can also play audio CDs, you could load the other slots with music CDs to switch to after the movie.
It also has a nice memory feature that it remembers settings for up to 15 DVDs (like language selection, aspect ratio, etc). It is also capable of playing video CDs (VCD). About VCD, it doesn't seem to be tolerant enough to play burned VCDs, but it does play commercially produced VCDs just fine. And for seeing those favorite scenes again and again, it has the A-B repeat feature. If you have other Panasonic equipment such as a receiver, you can connect the two devices so a remote will work when pointed to either device.
Ease of Use:
I find both the on-screen menu and the remote easy to use. The configuration menus are intuitive and easy to navigate. The remote is not too cluttered and is easy enough to use.
Size:
This is actually a rather large DVD player, probably because it has the 3 disc changer. However, it is pretty light and durable. I feel comfortable placing a large TV on top of it without damaging the DVD player.
Conclusion:
I would highly recommend this if you want high quality audio/video and like lots of audio and video outputs. If you just want to watch DVD movies, or don't plan on using the 3 disc changer feature, go for a cheaper model.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
c_knight
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Location: Ohio
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 14 members
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