Yet another newbie asks: please recommend a DVD player... (1 Viewer)

[Brett_H]

Guys & Gals,
Please bear with me here, I'm a newcomer to the HT scene. Here's my story:
Being newly-engaged, I'm on a serious budget in order to fund my upcoming wedding. I promised myself that I wasn't going to do anything HT related until after my wedding and house hunting were over with, but recently my former roommate passed along his old receiver; a Yamaha RX-V870. While not the latest and greatest, it's still quite a step up from the Aiwa mini-system I was used to! It's currently mated to a pair of older Infinity bookshelf speakers with the old Aiwa speakers weakly attempting to pull surround channel duties. No center channel, no subwoofer, no DTS, no DD, just good old Pro-Logic and the "phantom" center channel! I'm hoping to find a center channel sometime in the near future, but I rank this purchase higher on my wish list. (To be honest, even this current setup is enough to get me in trouble with my neighbors in this thin-walled apartment.)
That said, now I'm just itching to find a DVD to serve as both a video source along with replacing my aging Playstation as my CD player. If you couldn't tell by now, I'm looking for something on the lower end of the budget scale, preferably something that could be had on the Ebay market or through closeout. My fiancee gave the green light to a used Pioneer DV-525 for $75, but I was too slow on the reply an missed out on that. So I suppose I'm looking in the sub-$125 price range.
Here's my qualifications:

• It will be played through my Sony 27" TV, so good 4:3 capabilities would be a plus.
• Non-progressive scan. I'm going to be stuck with the Sony as my primary TV for a long time to come...
• S-Video output. One thing the '870 does have going for it is S-video switching, so I'd like to take advantage of that.
• CD-R playback capability: I have a fairly large and ever-growing live music collection so this is an absolute MUST.
• CD-Text recognition would be a very big plus, as most of the CD's I burn have CD-Text burned on them.
• Don't care about CD-RW, and MP3 doesn't excite me.
• Decent build quality
• Digital outs are not a consideration, the '870 only supports analog in so...
• Decent DAC's for audio playback
• Ability to play rental DVD's with few lockups, skips, etc. (Is there such a thing?)

Another related question: Since the receiver only supports Pro-Logic, what sound format should I listen to when I eventually do get a DVD player?
That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Thanks for reading this far, I really appreciate any help you care to give since I'm pretty much starting from scratch here. If I've been too vague on anything, please let me know and I'll do my best to clarify. (Of course, if anyone has an older generation player that they'd like to get rid of, feel free to pass that info on as well!)
-Brett.

 

[NickSo]

I'd recommend the Toshiba SD1750, but im not sure if it meets your requirements...
Check out BensBargains.net, i think i just saw a bunch of players for low prices with free shipping online...
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[Sean Conklin]

I can recommend what i use: Philips DVD-711 it plays DVD's CD's,Video CD's, CD-R's,CD-RW's,and plays my MP3 recordings(burnt at 8X).
Its loaded with optical and digital coax out, S-Video out, Component Video out, Composite video out,analog stereo out,most new players in the $150 range has these features.
Mine was $219 at a B&M(Circuit City)but across the street a place called the good guy's had it on sale for $149. So CC matched that price and gave me a $20 mail in rebate, so it cost me $129.
I have had absolutely no problems with this player, handles layer changes impressively smooth and quick, fast loading, I love it!
But look around for players with these features and you'll find one that meets your needs and price range, Happy hunting!
And Welcome to the Home Theater Forum!
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Sean
"I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said.......I drank what?"

 

[Brett_H]

OK, I think I've managed to narrow down my choices a bit. I'm looking at the following players:
Toshiba SD-2700
Panasonic DVD-RV31K
Pioneer DV-343
These are all going for roughly the same price, and they appear to have roughly the same feature set. The Pioneer is lacking MP3 playback, but that doesn't really concern me. (I suppose it would be a neat trick, but not a must-have.) Keeping in mind my above qualifications, anyone care to recommend one of these? Which would play the best on my 27" 4:3 set?
Thanks for the input so far.
-Brett.

 

[Bob-N]

I was able to audition w/DVD-RV31k but I found it was a good performer and you should be able to pick one up for about $180 incl shipping. Only thing is that it doesn't appear to have S-video out (component and optical only) and doesn't have a time remaining on disc function. I'll be buying this piece in the next month or so.

 

[Rob Dawn]

I've had the Pioner 343 model for a few months now and it has worked great - DVDs and CDs both. I don't think I've put a CD-R in yet, but its suppossed to support that format. Its played every DVD & CD that I've put it in flawlessly.
I'm using the S-Video to display on an older 32" Sony TV - 4:3. I think the picture is great - can't tell the difference between it and the busted Sony - but I haven't compared with other brands.
My only (minor) complaint is that the fast-forward and -reverse is no where near as nice as it was on my old Sony that stopped working (like so many other people!). You might see if you can see one in operation and make sure you're OK with it. Basically, the Pioneer appears to just skip frames to fast-forward (so the picture seems to jump all over the place), whereas the Sony was perfectly clear - just in high speed.
Good luck,
Rob
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My Equipment
[Edited last by Rob Dawn on October 22, 2001 at 01:14 PM]

 

[Brett_H]

Bob-N,
You had me worried with the lack of S-ideo out on the Panasonic, but according to this picture on Crutchfield's web site, it appears to have it. I double-checked on Link Removed and they don't mention it. I'll be sure to double-check if i decide on this one.
Oh, and for anyone that reads this and is looking for the same info that I am, there's a lot of reviews on Audioreview.com:
Panasonic DVD-RV30
Toshiba SD-2700
Pioneer 343
Thanks,
-Brett.

 

[Bob-N]

Sorry, I was also looking at the Panny site and it didn't mention it. However, I didn't use the s-video so I couldn't remember if it had one or not.
BTW, Amazon.com has the DV-343 for $149 plus free shipping. They also have a $10 off "coupon". Does that make up for my error?

 

[Brett_H]

Bob-N,
Thanks for the tip! No problemo on the S-video out...
-Brett.

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

I'm currently using the Panny RV-31k, and can confirm that it does have S-video out. Also, I haven't found a single disc (out of 350) that has a problem with this player, even stuff with seamless branching. Having color controls on the player itself is a nice bonus for calibrating the DVD player differently than the TV/monitor, since DVD calibration rarely matches up with broadcast TV.