Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Cheap DVD Players

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Community » The Afterlife » Cheap DVD Players - Be Careful Buying One (Page 3)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Author

Topic: Cheap DVD Players - Be Careful Buying One

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-17-2007 10:27 AM

Steve - I have to agree with you about the plasticky-green-faceplate era. That was a low point for sure. I think that was the same time they were offering "changeable" color on the face plate backlighting (orange or green). It was fun to demo for people though.

Frank - sorry you had bad luck with Pioneer. Clearly, you are in the minority since the company has been doing quite well for as long as I can remember. If your personality is the same in person as it is online, I'm glad we were not your dealer.

| IP: Logged

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 12-17-2007 10:46 AM

Ok Frank, no more hinting around. Cool off or you need to leave the forums.

| IP: Logged

Frank Dubrois
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 896
From: Cleveland, OH
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 12-17-2007 10:50 AM

quote: Mike Blakesley
If your personality is the same in person as it is online, I'm glad we were not your dealer.

My personality is my business and between me and my friends.

As for being my dealer, I wouldn't deal with you personally for several reason (which I won't bother getting into), and secondly, I wouldn't deal in Pioneer unless it was exclusively the Elite line.

| IP: Logged

Kurt Zupin
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 989
From: Maricopa, Arizona
Registered: Oct 2004

posted 12-17-2007 11:15 AM

I'm sorry but I love how everyone on here gets along fine and can have civil debates. The only time two people got heated when Frank wasn't involved was Bobby and Mark awhile back.

Frank you really need to cool down about stuff man. You get way to heated and abrasive for no reason.

| IP: Logged

Frank Dubrois
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 896
From: Cleveland, OH
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 12-17-2007 11:41 AM

Brad,

The personal attacks were not my doing. The only time someone steps in to stop the problem is when I respond to the personal attacks. Since when is voicing an opinion a problem here? Who in the hell needs to back up an opinion with hard facts? What gives some of these people the right to tell me that "I don't know shit" when actually I DO know shit about a lot of things. Perhaps instead of coming down on me for responding to personal attacks, you might consider stopping the personal attacks at the source. Does anyone really need to tolerate having their spelling and sentence structure analyzed? or maybe being told that unless your opinion is based on hard cold facts, its crap? or being told that they don't know shit about something? Can you really expect me to sit by and let these people talk to me like this without responding? Should anyone?

I agree things haven't been going smoothly...but if you look back, it's not all my fault here. I won't dish out crap anymore, but then I don't expect to have to take anymore crap either.

| IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-17-2007 11:52 AM

Well apparently "don't know shit" is where this particular problem started. OK, I apologize for that. I should have said, "You don't know much about Pioneer" instead because that is clearly a fact (not an opinion).

Even though you love to throw around the "that's my opinion" phrase, you can't expect to make a statement that's complete and utter nonsense and not get an argument.

Addendum for Steve G.: When I first read your post I thought you were talking about the plastic-green car stereo faceplates, but re-reading it, it's clear you meant home audio equipment. I don't remember anything like that but we might not have been selling the home stuff at that time.

| IP: Logged

Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 12-17-2007 12:08 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
If Toshiba had retained the S-Video feature in the HD-A3 so it could have worked properly with my current gear as a standard DVD player then I may have considered buying one.

I didn't even realize that the A3 had cut out the S-Video output. I guess the product manager for that item bent over one too many S-Video pins in the past! Man, I hate it when I do that! It does suck that they had to remove the connector, most likely just to reduce cost.

It's too bad that the timing couldn't have worked out better, as the HD-A2 HD DVD player is a great HD unit and it upsamples DVD's really well. $98 was a steal, and I feel fortunate to have been able to grab one.

| IP: Logged

Frank Dubrois
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 896
From: Cleveland, OH
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 12-17-2007 12:36 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
you can't expect to make a statement that's complete and utter nonsense and not get an argument.

How can actually owning the product...using the product...and then being disappointed by the product NOT carry any kind of weight? After all, I am the end user. Products are being made for me to use. If they fail me, why can't I voice my opinion and state that any given product is crap? As you saw, I owned a lot of pioneer products, they all went to hell in what I would call a premature period of time. The only product I was satisfied with was a Pioneer Elite product. It performed flawlessly for a good period of time. I think my opinion on Pioneer products is quite valid.

| IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-17-2007 02:33 PM

You can bet that if the kind of trouble you described was common to everyone, they would have been out of business years ago.

It's really amazing that you had THAT much trouble with those products. We've sold mostly car audio from Pioneer over the years, everything from the cheapest cassette decks to the best CD players and it's been a problem free line for us. We carried their home line for at least 10 years and I can't recall more than two or three units brought in for warranty service. Personally I had a CD player (a 100-disk changer) that quit about 2 years after the warranty expired. I sent it for repair, and it's still working fine today.

| IP: Logged

Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 12-17-2007 04:12 PM

I see you CAN get samples of the Greenish Pioneer stuff on eBay...here is a gem...the CT-9R

There were receivers and such to match...just cheap feeling yick devices.

| IP: Logged

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 12-17-2007 06:30 PM

Frank, whatever is bothering you I hope it will pass over the next month. The mods have voiced their opinions on your recent posts and you are officially on leave from these forums for the next 4 weeks to cool off.

| IP: Logged

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-17-2007 07:09 PM

Steve - A HA, now I remember those units. Yup, they were cheesy. The controls were indeed cheap-feeling. (Slide controls...a bad idea) I wonder if they were farming that stuff out or something. I notice the one on the ebay listing is being sold for parts only!

I remember the "cool" aspect of those was supposed to be, you could stack'em in a rack and the control panels of all the pieces would line up. This was when "rack systems" were all the rage.

| IP: Logged

Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 12-17-2007 07:22 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
Well apparently "don't know shit" is where this particular problem started.

Actually the attacks really started back on Page 1 of this thread when I was accused of buying nothing but cheap crap (and having numerous other problems). The whole thing smelled like trolling.

quote: Scott Jentsch
I didn't even realize that the A3 had cut out the S-Video output. I guess the product manager for that item bent over one too many S-Video pins in the past! Man, I hate it when I do that! It does suck that they had to remove the connector, most likely just to reduce cost.

I don't know. I have a feeling that S-Video connector doesn't cost much of anything at all -at least not in terms of physical parts. Perhaps Toshiba didn't want to pay a licensing fee or something to include it on the HD-A3.

Still, IMHO, omitting certain connection standards just means fewer kinds of equipment can be connected and that's only going to reduce the potential number of customers. It's really not a good business decision.

On the subject of Pioneer products, I think they've generally made really good products over the years. Back in the late 1970s my father bought a few pieces of Pioneer rack-mountable pieces of home stereo gear (the Spec-1 and Spec-2 power amp and pre-amp, a Dolby NR cassette tape deck, a reverb unit and an equalizer). My brother has that equipment and most of it still works. The power amp is the only thing a bit flaky now after nearly 30 years. The protection circuit trips on now and then.

Of course, the DVD player I just lost was a Pioneer 5-disc carousel changer. But I think the overall weakness in carousel designs is what made that player unusable.

I have enough confidence in Pioneer products that I will definitely look at their line of audio-video receivers for possible replacements for my now-old Yamaha RX-V995 receiver. Onkyo, Denon and Yamaha all make some good products too. My old Yamaha receiver is a decent unit (paid nearly $1000 for it brand new). But it does not have component video switching and was built years before HDMI started appearing in anything. I'll probably buy a new HDTV well before I get a new receiver. But I'll probably have some strange combinations of cable connections happening for awhile -with at least a couple video connections being run straight into the TV set. I already know I'll have to do that when upgrading to either DirecTV HD or DishHD.

| IP: Logged

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 12-17-2007 10:06 PM

Frank sent me two friendly emails tonight, and by friendly I mean rude. He won't be returning.

| IP: Logged

Kurt Zupin
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 989
From: Maricopa, Arizona
Registered: Oct 2004

posted 12-18-2007 02:35 AM

Lets all hold a moment of silence for Frank.......ok that was to long. No more "great" opinions will be heard. RIP Frank

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.