Pioneer DVC603 DVD Player

Rating:
Summary: BE AWARE
Review: BUYERS, BE AWARE.
I had 2 DVD players made by Pioneer. They are nice machines... for a little over a year. Then the warranty expires. The problem these players seem to have has to do with poorly designed dual laser pick up (one - for DVDs, the other one - for CDs and Video CDs). The first player I had stopped playing CDs and Video CDs, I got the other one - this one stopped playing DVDs.
On the positive side - the picture is very good, so if you are after a short-term buy go ahead, otherwise look for another brand.

Rating:
Summary: A great unit for the price
Review: I bought one of these about 2 months ago. So far it works perfect. It will play anything, SVCD,VCD,DVD,CDR,CDRW, with no problems. It is quiet. The remote is a tad small and hard to read in the dark. Picture and sound quality is excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this
Review: I bought one of these in March, 2001. By July the thing had died. After a month in the shop, Pioneer decided to send me a replacement. It arrived DOA. This product is a piece of junk, its cheaply made and Pioneer's warranty is worse than useless. They've already stopped selling this garbage and won't send me a new one or refund my money, just keep sending me someones junk. Don't say no one warned you. Avoid this thing.

Rating:
Summary: Not a CD player
Review: I purchased the DVC603 for two reasons, to be used as a DVD player and to replace/consolidate my Sony five disc CD player. After using it now for five months I'm now not so happy with my decision. Although it does a great job playing DVD's (as almost all DVD players now do) it does a poor job functioning as a CD player. If a CD has the slightest scratch it will skip and about 30% of the time when I put a CD into the player it has trouble reading it and opens back up again, very annoying. Finally, if your like me and you like to load five CD's, hit randon and let it go beware, it takes a long time to shuffle between CD's. Unfortunatley I had to go back into the garage, unbox the old CD player and bring it back into the house. Now I'm stuck with a five disk DVD player.

Rating:
Summary: Not a CD player
Review: I purchased the DVC603 for two reasons, to be used as a DVD player and to replace/consolidate my Sony five disc CD player. After using it now for five months I'm now not so happy with my decision. Although it does a great job playing DVD's (as almost all DVD players now do) it does a poor job functioning as a CD player. If a CD has the slightest scratch it will skip and about 30% of the time when I put a CD into the player it has trouble reading it and opens back up again, very annoying. Finally, if your like me and you like to load five CD's, hit randon and let it go beware, it takes a long time to shuffle between CD's. Unfortunatley I had to go back into the garage, unbox the old CD player and bring it back into the house. Now I'm stuck with a five disk DVD player.

Rating:
Summary: Versatile CD and DVD player
Review: I've had my Pioneer DVC603 connected for about a week now, and I'm quite happy with the quality and versatility of this unit. I replaced a broken sony ES CD changer and an older sony DVD player with this single unit. The pioneer sounds better than the old Sony ES CD player did for audio CDs, and looks great with DVDs.

This is one of the few DVD changers on the market that will play CD-R and CD-RW discs. Since I have some musician friends, the ability to play homemade disks is essential. The only other changer that I know of with this capability is the Harman-Kardon 50.

One of my favorite features of this player is the "CD Mode". I was afraid that with a combined CD/DVD unit, the player would start playing DVDs if you had a couple in the tray along with your audio CDs. When you select CD mode on this player, it automatically skips playback of DVDs that it finds. Way cool.

The older sony DVD player had problems with audio lagging behind the video on some DVDs. I've tested with the Pioneer, and it maintains perfect audio/video sync with all the DVDs that I've tried so far.

Rating:
Summary: Good Product
Review: I've had this DVD player for 18 months now and have experienced no problems. DVD's look fine and CD's sound quite good. No problems with skipping, the only issue I've come across is that sometimes the unit has trouble picking up a CD/DVD in a slot. After reopening and hifting the disc a little the problem is resolved.