Multidisc-DVD-Player Reviews

I needed a new player and decided to go with a changer (oh, I'm so glad I did. They are so much more convienent than the single disc players). I wanted a quality player that didn't make a spinning noise when playing discs. I was tired of hearing spinning noise at quiet points in the movies. I also wanted a player that had quality slow motion capabilities and progressive scanning.

I did the research, shopped around, and talked to people and I settled on this model from Onkyo. Everything I was hoping for in my player has been realized.

Only complaint is that the remote is not "ergonomically" designed and has no backlight. But that said, the remote is more sturdy and of better quality than some ergonomically/backlit remotes i've had. And the Onkyo remote has more "quick access" remote buttons. A single button leads you right where you want to get to. For example, while watching a movie, if I missed some dialogue, I can just hit the "Subtitles" button on the remote and rewind a little to see it again with subtitles. Hit same button again to turn off the subtitles. So the remote is good too but not awesome in intuitive layout/placement of buttons. But the remote is also the least important thing to me because if it is a serious problem one can always get a universal "high-tech" remote if they don't already have one.

Best DVD player I've owned yet. I'm totally happy with it. i wanted to write this to let others know my experience who might also be wondering about this player. Good luck in your selection.

I did not buy this through Amazon, but I have to let everyone know, it is an awesome product. If you run across the DV-CP701, stay away. It has problems with showing green tint artifacts on backgrounds. The new 702 however has no problems and performs beautifully, especially when paired with the HTR S-760 Component HTiB. Great purchase, if you can find one!

This DVD player has been worth the money. Granted, it is more expensive than many others, but read the reviews on others...they all have problems. The Sony 665 has problems and Consumer Reports wasn't impressed with picture quality. Pansonics have glitches with playback, JVCs are almost as expensive...there is a new Toshiba out that might be worth considering.

The video and audio on this player are impressive...and I've had a Toshiba and Panasonic 5-disc changer in the past. The audio out of this player (digital connection to a Yamaha receiver) is incredible, much better than the others. There is a button for random play on the remote. I read people complaining about the noise on the Onkyo 701...there isn't a noise issue on the 702. People also complained of long times to change discs on the 701 and 702...this is still ture but it is no slower than the Panasonic F87 (which I owned and returned) and the F87 claims to have a fast disk exchange.

Having the 6th disk is nice and ordering it through Amazon/Crutchfield is an added bonus. The player arrived 24 hours after I ordered and I used the free/standard shipping. The item shipped from the east coast, so if you live out west, you might have to wait a day or two.

Great product, no complaints, looks sharp, awesome performace. Highly recommend, despite the price.

I actually had to special order this one from my local electronics store based on a lot of research. I'm pleased that I did every day.

The picture quality seems very good with rich colours. Sometimes it is abit slow navigating through menus but I've never had a problem with playback. The picture quality on every movie I've played has been very good. But this isn't really why I bought this player.

The real kicker on this player is for those of us who have discovered DVD-Audio discs. If you don't know, DVD-A is a high-resolution audio format that encodes up to 6 channels of very high quality audio on a DVD disc. The quality of these discs (most of these discs) is stunning and if you have it hooked to a quality home audio system, you will realize a depth to your music that you never heard with regular CDs.

The video from this player is as good as most others, but the audio coming from anything you put in is far superior to other players that are even close to this price range.

I recommend this player to anyone who is critical about the audio quality coming from their speakers rather than just the image quality on their movies.

I previously had a Sony 5-disc DVD changer which did not play CD-R. So I had to keep my old CD player. The DVD-F65S replaces both of these components and is slimmer than either. Plus picture quality is far superior.

-Likes
I like the progressive scan output on my HD-ready TV. The picture has an almost 3D quality to it. I noticed an immediate difference compared to my Sony player which was no slouch itself. The sound quality is excellent, though I think this has more to do with my receiver. I like the feature set and the ability to play my burned VCD's and MP3's. Plus the price is incredible for what you get. The best deal on a progressive scan DVD changer bar none.

-Dislikes
I would prefer to have access to all controls on the unit itself as opposed to on the remote only. I think all players should have menu access available on the player in case you can't find the remote. The buttons that are on the player are quite small and feel flimsy. The display is almost useless from my regular viewing position. Thankfully there is an onscreen display if needed. The owners manual does a poor job of explaining some of the unique features of the player. Finally I would have liked to have a remote that could control the volume of my TV and/or receiver. But for a list price of $ (I paid [less $] including tax & shipping) it is hard to really fault this player.

Note that the editorial review has a couple of errors. The DVD-F65S does not include Depth Enhancer or Bass Plus (It has no other audio outs except for the stereo analog and optical). But it does include the Cinema modes and Dialogue enhancer which I feel are more important and useful.

I got this almost two years ago and have had absolutely no problems.

The good news: attractive product, reasonably good sound and features. Please see many of the other reviews for more detail.

The bad: I had owned the system for several months when I started experiencing 'popping' sound through the speakers. And when I say 'popping', I mean truly heart-attack causing, like a lightning strike-very disconcerting.

Being a good techie, I immediately assumed I was experiencing power surges...although my surge protector wasn't tripping.
Step Two: Check all connection. Still have the problem.
Step Three: Waste an entire Saturday completely disassembling my AV setup (dvd, tv, VCR, Satalite, XBox), check every wire and connection, completely and carefully reassemble. Same problem.
Step Four: Search internet to see if anyone else has problem.
Bingo! (Note to self: Next time search internet at Step Three, instead of wasting Saturday...)
Known problem of overheating of circuit board in subwoofer. Game over.
Neat system, but appears I now have to replace the system; from what I have read, fixing is not going to be cost effective, and no guarantees that the problem goes away.
Buyer beware; there are a lot of people who are happy with this system, but a substantial number of us have had the same issue, and I wouldn't be surprised if more folks see this happening over time.

This unit looks great, sounds great, and the price is unbeatable. The overheating seems to be causing a lot of people problems, if not for that I would give this unit 5 stars. If you have some guts and some basic knowledge about electricity and electronics you can avoid these problems. I got a really good deal on one, then found out about the overheating. Not wanting this to be a problem I decided to investigate. I popped off the back panel of the sub to find that the fan wasn't actually working. I imagine that it is supposed to kick on when things start getting hot, but my unit was already really hot. The heatsink inside was almost too hot to touch. The fan is 80mm so I took a standard led case fan and replaced the stock one. The stock one has some non standard screw holes so I had to use some strong adhesive foam tape to hold the new fan in place. Then I ran the wire outside the sub and rigged up a small ac/dc power adapter to power the fan. It took about 30 minutes to do and now my unit runs very cool, and has a cool looking blue glow on the wall coming from the fan to boot. You could just use the stock fan and rig up an adapter to it but I didn't want to cut off the connector in case I needed to take the unit back. For the adapter use something between 7 and 12 volts, lower voltage = quiter fan but less airflow. If you don't want to open it up, you could just mount a fan right on the outside of the vent. I think the major problem is there is a defect in the board that doesn't turn the fan on, and you don't want a bunch of really hot electronics with no airflow.

Very attractive system with many features. Progressive scan DVD player looks great on my projector, thanks to the high end video circuitry in the 5 Disc DVD changer. Sound is very clear and accurately reproduced though the six speakers. Movie dialogue comes through very naturally. Does a fine job at decoding Dolby Surround. Movie "bass" effects are clear and pronounced through the active subwoofer. I've tested this system in store next to an expensive Bose and the quality is more or less comparable.

It is a known fact Panasonic DVD players are among the best in the business. Many more expensive DVD players(costing considerably more than this system) made by other brands use Panasonic internals for their players.

All DVD players must contain an MPEG decoder. In addition, progressive scan DVDs must contain a special device called a deinterlacer. Interlaced video frames are sent to a television in two pieces, by first drawing all of the odd lines, then the even ones. The deinterlacer essentially doubles each frame of video(producing a very defined picture) by filling in missing information. That is the true meaning of "progressive scan." This is the basis for HDTV, and be aware that your (Projector,TV,LCD) must be able to display HDTV or progressive to take advantage of this great feature. As with any other product, deinterlacers vary in quality and must be able to handle various film encodings. Panasonic uses top notch internal hardware to perform the deinterlacing(DCDi) and decoding. The results are spectacular!

Don't expect the bass to blow your ears out - no system at or near this pricepoint will. The subwoofer is powered but yet conservative (but more than other systems in its class). Don't buy this unit to play at maximum volume. System can be cranked up to loud but not extreme voulme. Sound will be more than enough for rooms <250 sq ft. I would say the same thing about the expensive Bose. The true measure of a system is not how it plays at maximum voulme, but rather the accuracy and clarity of the sound.

This unit also makes a great system for listening to FM Radio, CD/R etc. Unit supports many types of Discs. Music seems rich and pleasing, in some cases exceeding much more expensive units.

The speaker stands will save you the cost of buying wall mounts. This system has a plethora of features that are stated in the manual. For example, there are multiple surround modes, seating placement adjustments and digital input capability. Unfortunately the owners manual is written like an engineering course lab manual - so it may take the non- technical some time to learn all of the arcane features. Also, you should purchase at least a 16 gauge spool of speaker wire - do not use the doorbell wire that is supplied with the unit.

Overall I will give this unit 5 stars, because it is priced very well with respect to its competition (Sony Dream system 990) and it exceeds that and other products in its class in terms of quality and features. On the other hand, if you desire a very loud, extreme bass systems - don't consider a home theatre in a box. Purchase a component receiver/amp with large poweful speakers. And of course, a Panasonic progressive DVD player for the best video!

After studying the many DVD players on he market that played the different formats, I decided to take a chance on this unit. First of all the price was right, not too cheap, not too expensive. Secondly, it plays all the formats that I wanted it too since my original sony single bay DVD player couldn't play any format other than a movie. Third, it had the component video and progressive scan options I was looking for which are a big plus for the Home Theater guru like myself. Finally I knew the Panasonic name is pretty well known in the electronics industry. After giving it a good working over for a few months now I would HIGHLY recommend this DVD player. The only 2 downfalls to this player in my opionion (the reason for the 4 stars, I'd actually give it 4.5 stars) is #1: The remote and it's tiny buttons. It's hard to get use to and feel around on the remote if you have big paws. Luckily I find myself not really using the remote a lot so other than that, no complaints really. #2: It helps if you remember what bay # you put the DVD in to play becuase of the reading process it has to do when you insert a disc. If you don't take note what bay has which disc, then you have to go through and read all 5 bays. That seems to be the only major weakness. But a press of one button on the remote and the unit reads all the discs (which takes a few seconds) then shows you a menu on your TV what format every disc is in the player.

It has played my VCD's perfect after making them with the nero software on my computer. I've enjoyed many JPEG cd's I've made, and it also plays my MP3 cd's perfectly. It has a nice nametag menu for the mp3's for ease of searching for songs. I love that feature! And of course the DVD movies are great. Also a big plus is the 5 bay carousel and what I really like is that you can change DVD's in the other 4 bays without stopping play. One more thing that I would definitely recommend is to splurge and get a component cable (I bought the Acoustic Research AP091 cable) and go that route for the hookup. I noticed a BIG difference in the video clarity and the colors are so much more vibrant it is truly amazing. I had been using an S-video cable on my last DVD player and upgraded hesitantly to the component video on this unit. I thought the component hookup was hype, but it does make a difference playing on a good TV. This unit is being used with a 43" Hitachi digital TV and the video is amazing. Especially for the JPEG photo's that you can view. Great for creating family photo albums!

So far This unit works great and has performed up to my standards and beyond. There may be better units out there or cheaper ones that might do as well but for the money this one is perfect in my opinion. All the cd's I've made have worked fine after converting them to the different formats on my computer. Bottom line, I have had no problems playing anything on this fine unit and found it is worth the money.

It plays everything I've put in it - DVD, DVD+R, CD-R, CD-RW, CDs with MP3s on them, and does a much better job of it than my old Toshiba 2200. The picture is better than the older Toshiba, sharper and smoother with much better color. Try the enhanced black level setting in the setup menu - it makes things look better on my Trinitron. It's also very slim, as the name suggests, if you care about that kind of thing. You can probably get better performance out of a more expensive player, but I haven't seen anything better at this price.

This DVD player will play ALL of your CDs/DVDs (including DVD-R, DVD-RW, SVCD, VCD, MP3, CDR, CDRW). Has not failed to play any of my discs. Video quality is very good. This is a great step-up from the cheap Apex DVD players that many people buy; it has many more features and higher quality but it is still priced reasonably. A complaint is the loading time, but it is bearable.
One of the people who gave a bad rating said that they bought the player out of country and it didn't work; that's their fault for buying a broken player from Mexico. And another person gave a bad rating because it wouldn't play 5 DVDs at one time...so you can increase the overall rating of this unit accordingly.

This player stopped working after 4 months (one month over warranty). The changer threw all the CD's out and jammed the unit. The door wouldn't open. It was a total disaster.

I recently purchased the Toshiba, and find it to be easy to use, the cd options are great. I love being able to play 2 songs from each disc until the discs are completed. What a fun option. I have had a toshiba phone for years, and hope the DVD player will work the same.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, mine worked flawlessly out of the box. It has some great audio options, and after I hooked up the optical cable for audio, I saw lights turn on on my amplifier that I didn't know existed. The zoom feature is nice for viewing things in the background for concerts, etc. I would recommend it strongly, however, make sure you measure your TV cabinet, as it it bigger than a single disc style, and it sticks out past my entertainment center shelf, which sort of bugs me. Overall, it is a nice product.

You can add my name to the list of "victims" on this product! I also bought this DVD Player 18 months ago as part of a Home Theater system which included the Onkyo TX SR600 Receiver/Amp and the fantastic Bose Acoustamass 15 speakers. No complaints on the receiver or speakers, but the DVD player started acting up after 12 months and has now just quit altogether. It lights up but can't get the drawer to open. I found all of these negative reviews while researching a replacement, which I guarantee will NOT be another Onkyo.

Echoing the woes of previous reviewers, I add the story of my experience with this DVD player. I bought it as part of a home theater package with the TX-SR600 receiver and speakers. The receiver and speakers have worked fine, but this DVD player stopped working after 14 months of extremely light use (1 DVD or CD played a week or less). This DVD player now gives a "disc error" for any CD or DVD I put in. I'll have to add this one to the growing cemetary for Onkyo DVD players as the 1 year warranty is over and it will probably cost more to fix it than get a new DVD player from another company.

I bought this DVD player as part of an Onkyo home theater package. The other components work well, but I've had the same problems as others listed here -- it finally quit working completely 13 months after purchase. Onkyo's authorized service center claimed it was due to abuse (not!) and refused to honor the warranty. In addition, the national service center drug their feet, didn't return phone calls, lost multiple faxes of my receipt - it took over a month for them to tell me they weren't going to pay to fix it, while there were DVD rental disks trapped inside!!

I've owned Onkyo products for 13 years, but my replacement DVD player won't be another Onkyo. Very unhappy with their Service Center and authorized repair center.