Rating: 
Summary: GREAT VALUE FOR PRICE
Review: I purchased this player in January initially as a replacement for a 5 disc CD changer. I went ahead and purchased it because it played DVD's as well. I use a Yamaha receiver to power it. I use the Optical DTS and Dolby Digital outs for sound and run S-Video to the TV for video. No need for any RCA's. The optical cable is perfect for CD's too. I am happy with the 500 line resolution since I don't have HDTV. I also agree with the other review that it makes a little noise when you play the DVD's, but it is doubtful you will notice that unless the volume is all the way down.
Rating:
Summary: High quality, versatile, good value performer
Review: I selected the DVC503 because I wanted a multi-disk DVD player with excellent image and sound quality, Dolby and DTS support (but no decoder built in), but also as a replacement for my 3-disc CD player. So CD and CD-R support was critical. CD-video support is an added bonus, but I can't see myself using it much. The DVD image quality is superb -- it is definitely worth using the component video outputs if you have a TV that supports them. I have seen other DVD players run into problems with scratched DVDs and/or highly compressed scenes giving poor picture quality. No such problems with the Pioneer. The player loads DVDs quickly and starts playing them quickly, and I have yet to come across a DVD that doesn't work -- even with a wide variety of DVD's of varying quality from netflix.com. Regular analog stereo sound is great, and the unit performs very well with regular CDs -- sounding just as good as my old NAD CD player. Digital audio outputs go to your external Dolby and DTS decoder via coax or optical interconnect. I took off one star for the fact that the unit often does not recognize audio CDs. You have to open the sliding tray, re-seat the CD and try again. Reading the Amazon reviews, this seems to be a problem for lots of DVD players, but it is still irksome. On the other hand, the Pioneer does have a CD-only mode which makes the unit behave more like a regular CD player for those times when you just want to listen, and this goes a long way to compensating for the CD recognition problems. The Pioneer remote is logically laid out and easy to use. The on-screen menus are simple to understand, and once you have the unit set up it's unlikely you'll need to use them again. The Pioneer remebers where you were on a DVD if you push the Stop button, so that you can pick up exactly where you left off. Some other DVD players don't seem to have this option. The price of the unit seems very competitive to me, especially when I compare it to single DVD units that often don't have component video output. I have no need for a built-in Dolby digital or DTS decoder, as any recent surround-sound receiver contains those functions already. There's no point paying for extras you already own. I am glad I bought my Pioneer DVC503, consider it good value and would recommend it to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: A fair value for a combo (CD/DVD) changer
Review: I wish I could have found more info on the various changers available prior to buying this unit. I was down to comparing two specific units: the Pioneer 503 and the Sony 660. If I had better information on how the Sony handled CDs and CDRs, I'd probably have bought it, as I think the DVD replay is superior in that unit versus the Pioneer. Since Sony doesn't claim the 660 will play CDR's but Pioneer does claim it for this unit, and since I only have space for a single changer for both CDs and DVD I went with Pioneer. What I Like: The 503 plays DVDs fine, CDs fine and CDRs fine (individually). What I don't like: The 503 only has one speed scan forward or reverse on DVDs, and it does this in a "step" fashion showing a short frozen snip of a next scene 30 seconds or so further ahead or behind on the track. Versus multiple speeds (fast and faster forward/reverse) and a smooth continuous picture. A bit hard to find an exact scene your looking for and to stop at the point you want. Next dislike: The 503 doesn't recognise some CDs or CDRs right off the bat. Here is the test I used: I loaded the unit with one DVD, 3 CDs and one CDR, then played back using random all discs. The unit doesn't try to play the DVD (good), but only goes between two of the CDs randomly selecting tracks, skipping the 3rd CD and the CDR all together (bad). I could force the unit to "see" the other discs by manually skipping on the remote (it then would stop on all CDs and CDRs) -- go figure... All-in-all this is an ok combo unit for the price, however I wish someone would do a thorough review of the Sony DVP660 and reveal if it can play CDRs. Maybe I'll buy one and keep the one that can "do it all"!
Rating: 
Summary: First time DVD player buyer and very impressed.
Review: I've had this player for four months now and have been very impressed by it. Initially bought it on the strength of pioneers reputation and once again, have not been dissapointed. Didn't plan on getting a 5 disc, but saw the price and jumped on it.
CD/DVD button switch is a little annoying but a very minor inconvenience. Over all, this player rocks.
Rating: 
Summary: DVD laser gone bad after 3+ years
Review: I've owned one for over a year now. It's great! I havent had a bit of trouble out of any of my pioneer products. It reads pretty much any recorded format I can throw at it. The remote is configured very well, aswell as the menus.
Rating:
Summary: It has been a very good player so far.
Review: I've owned one for over a year now. It's great! I havent had a bit of trouble out of any of my pioneer products. It reads pretty much any recorded format I can throw at it. The remote is configured very well, aswell as the menus.
Rating:
Summary: Superb and Multifunctional!!!
Review: Initially I had no intention of buying a regular DVD player, but when my Playstation 2 wouldn't play some of my favorite DVDs I started shopping around. I mainly focused on this player and a 5 disc Sony DVD. While the Sony player was a comparable and nice piece of equipment the Pioneer model had everything I wanted in a DVD player and more. It plays CD's so I was able to take out my CD player when I got it home, and I could also watch VCD's on it as well. The last selling point over the Sony model was it was much more inexpensive [..at the time]. What sold me even more on this player when I got it home is it's features. I was able to set the screen color when I change DVDs, it has adjustable letterbox and widescreen modes (a necessity for any big movie buff). Last of all is that I am a huge anime Otaku and it has a feature that enhances all of the colors in animated DVDs, making them seem more vibrant and thrilling. With all those features, great picture and sound quality, I don't see how you can go wrong. I've had this player for 6 months and have never been disappointed by it.
Rating:
Summary: It will play CD-R
Review: It's simple, I bought a Sony 660, got it home and found out it wouldn't play the CDs I had made at home. This unit is worthless to me and I returned it. After doing the research that I should have done previous to purchasing the Sony, I have found only a few companies manufacturing DVD players that will play CD-R, Pioneer, Phillips, JVC and Denon. I hope people will support these companies and boycott the big boys like Sony. I used to be a Sony and Toshiba fan, but not anymore.
Rating:
Summary: Choose Pioneer 503 over Sony 660
Review: Just like the person from Wisconsin, I bought a Sony 660 DVD/CD player, hooked it up, and found out it didn't play CD-R. (The book says this as well.) That makes it worthless. I returned it and bought the 503 from Pioneer. I like it. It is simple to use and lacks some of the more advanced features of the Sony which I would never use anyway. It does exactly what I ask of it and was ... cheaper with the current ... rebate from Pioneer. Along with this set-up I also bought the Philips 980 home theater system. I looked at more expense models but this one sounded the best.
Rating:
Summary: Beware of Pioneer
Review: Like others who have posted here, I have also had a bad experience with Pioneer. I had to take my Pioneer LD player to the "authorized service center" (which was 100 miles away) twice in a two year period. After it quit for the third time, it was out of warranty. Pioneer refused to do anything about it, but would be happy to sell me a new one. I will NEVER buy another Pioneer product!
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