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Author Topic: Cheap DVD Players - Be Careful Buying One Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-18-2007 03:38 AM                     Whoa...make that three unnecessarily friendly emails!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-18-2007 10:00 AM                        This is the one time I wish Brad would break his own rule and post those emails here! Although I have a feeling my name might pop up here and there, so maybe not. Seriously, I think ol' Frank has anger issues for sure. I wonder if he's had his blood pressure checked.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-18-2007 11:32 AM                     Let's just hope his anger issues stay confined in "cyberspace" via e-mail and that he doesn't act out on anyone in the "real world." Not that I'm concerned about anyone hunting me down. There's at least 3 other people in my town with the same name as me. That might cause some confusion for anyone looking to drive around 1000 miles non-stop while shitting into their Depends™ in order to catch up to me. One of these same name folks is a convicted felon for bank robbery and also a "deadbeat dad" on child support (DHS called me by accident when they were looking to collect). A real nice guy. My friends here in town had lots of fun with that when that fellow was in the news (for walking away from a halfway house and not returning). What was this thread about again? Oh yeah, cheap DVD players! Be careful when buying one!  |  IP: Logged Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 12-18-2007 10:00 PM                        And may I state, for the record: I have never met Barry Bonds and I never gave any kind of steroids to anyone. Thank you. Oh, what fun it is to have a common name and the most famous one of us is not our best representative.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-18-2007 10:36 PM                        My first "real" piece of audio equipment was a Pioneer SX-525 receiver. I graduated from that to Pioneer separates: SA-9100 amp and TX-9100 tuner. In those days all Pioneer stuff was still made in Japan and you could tell they cared about making quality products.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-18-2007 10:51 PM                        I had that exact receiver. Found it at my grandmother's house. Worked great, but it didn't look that nice. Can't remember what I did with it. Fake woodgrain makes anything sound better.  |  IP: Logged James Westbrook Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1133 From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa Registered: Mar 2006 posted 12-19-2007 03:12 AM                     The last Pioneer home stereo item I bought was a 6-disc cd changer which used the cartridges that one would put the cds label-side down in. I wore it out. It was the better of the home stereo cd players I had. The Technics carosel cd player I replaced it with started having skipping and sticking issues that I mistook as a cd-burning problem and I replaced my CD-RW drive in my computer before I realized it was my player that had a problem. I now have a Sony SCD-CE595. It's competitent but slow. BTW, I don't mind if any of you critique my spelling or punctuation.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 12-19-2007 03:49 AM                     I've had a Pioneer 18-disc changer, which uses 3 6-disc cartridges, for about 15 years and it still works good- twice it developed a skipping problem but I was able to fix that with a laser tracking and focus adjustment inside the machine. My main DVD and laserdisc player for 9 years has been the DVL-909, I've gotten a few other cheap DVD players since then but I still like the DVL the best. I have it modified for region-select and no analog Macrovision, which causes slight bending on my 11 year old 4x3 TV. It gets through scratched discs from the public library while they have trouble on the other machines, the only real problem I've found with it is on homemade dual-layer discs, it freezes at the layer change and you have to manually advance it. I've got a newer Pioneer DVD player that also plays DVD-Audio and SACD and plays PAL DVDs in NTSC, but it doesn't get through scratched discs as well as the older one does. I'm waiting for dual-format HD players to be more common and reliable before I start upgrading to HD. Too bad Pioneer is 'exclusive' to Blu-Ray, as I bet they would have made a good dual-format machine.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-19-2007 01:52 PM                        I'm late reading in on this thread, but I agree completely about the newer DVD players being generally awful in build quality in comparison to older units. Know what the most reliable, most trouble-free player I've ever had was? My $750 Panasonic A300 that I bought in summer 1997. It still works and doesn't skip when playing discs, but it doesn't have component outputs and its picture quality isn't up to the newer ones, but it's been solid mechanically. The next best DVD player I've had was the Toshiba 3109 that I bought in 1999. It's still hooked up and working, although it doesn't look quite as good picture-wise as a couple of the newer units I've had. Both output 480i only. The newer units often look better than the old ones, but they have real problems. They've cheapened the drives to the point that none of the newer players can seem to play a disc all the way through without the picture breaking up into staticy rectangles at least once or twice during a movie. It's embarrasing to play movies for friends because this usually happens. I have Panasonic and Toshiba models from the past couple of years and they both have this problem, although they have stellar picture quality via 480p through component. At the time, it was hard to find a plain DVD player costing more than $100. I'm one who would love to spend $300 or $500 on a solidly-built long-lasting reliable player that also had the newer better quality picture to go with it. It seems I can have the reliability with the older player, or the better picture quality with a new model, but not both at once. Help!  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-19-2007 09:35 PM                     Oh, you CAN have both...you just have to set aside your price expectations! Here is Denon's top-o-d-line... DVD-5910CI  |  IP: Logged Brad Allen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 688 From: Evansville, IN, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 12-19-2007 10:41 PM                     I like Denon's equipment, but really, would most folks be able to tell the difference in the picture a $3800 STANDARD Dvd player produces? Yikes!  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 12-19-2007 11:38 PM                        There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for the Denon to be that large. What is this, 1972? I like how their $99 HDMI cable brags about its flexible jacket which helps reduce vibration. Yeah. Vibration might change some of those 1s into 0s and vice versa! Anyway a friend of mine has a Denon DVD player and it is kind of shitty. Granted it only cost a couple hundred bucks, but that thing is slow and not very good.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 12-19-2007 11:47 PM                     I think the vibration would be that the cable could introduce extra sound but the fact is that the thing you're connecting it to will be heavy and usually absorb the sound if the people who designed it weren't morons.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-19-2007 11:49 PM                     Here's a pict of my two Pioneer open reel machines - A RT-1011L home based and a RT-1050 professional 10inch reel units. Just proof of how much I think about Pioneer and their quality - in which I've known since the mid 70's when I put my first cassette player and their speakers from this company in my car..and have always been impressed with their in their audio products. Interesting thing about Denon was their products under their earlier Denki Onkyo name of the 60's and 70's - and they made superb audio products, especially with open reel machines and high end electronic devices...and this unit that Steve presented is no difference.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-20-2007 07:46 AM                        $3800? Damn. I wonder which would last longer--the $3800 Denon or a stack of one hundred $38 "Wal-Mart Special" players. Odd that the Denon doesn't even have balanced audio outputs. For that price, I'd expect it to have every feature imagineable. I wonder if it lets you turn off the on-screen display and if it plays (or can be hacked to play) all region-coded disks. At least it seems to have a serial port for automation control. Agreed with Evans that someone should make a quality DVD player for $500 (or thereabouts) that works, is well built, has a built-in 6-channel decoder, isn't region coded, and has a way to disable any on-screen display (or, better yet, disable the display on the component output, but not on composite). I would buy one.  |  IP: Logged

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