Are all DVD players junk??? Grrr.

[Storm861triple]

I bought a Denon DVM 2815 just under a year ago. A cell phone works better and lasts longer than this this has/will.

I am just about 100% unhappy w/this player, and here is a bullet list of why:
*Carousel and eject are excessivly noisy and SLOW!
*You can't enter a comand ahead of time. If you place a disk in the tray, and hit "close", you have to sit there and wait for it to close, load, and get ready to play before you can hit "play". If you hit "play" before it's ready, you might as well have not hit it at all. Same goes for disk skip then play and pretty much any other command. One at a time please. Lame.
*If you put 5 CD's in the machine, and hit "play" (when it's ready), it will only play one disk then stop. If you're having a party and want more music, you need to hit "disk skip", wait, wait, wait, then when it's all set and ready, you can hit "play", and it will play just one more disk.
*If you select "Random play" either for one disk or all disks, it DOESN'T ELIMINATE A "PLAYED" TRACK!! It will play the same track multiple times...and NEVER play some other tracks! Junk!
*The only way to get continuous music that appears "random" for dinner/party etc, is to program your own play list, which takes a long time. The On Screen Display is not great, so you neet to hadn write a play list first, and cross each one off as you enter it into the menu, so you don't miss a track or double up.
*It skips way, WAY too easily. Brand new, blemish free disks even. It just can't deal w/some disks. The primary function of its existance...it can barely manage.
*It's not even a year old yet, and it is already having a very hard time playing both CD's and DVD's (that are in fine conditon). Some times it won't play at all. Once (and IF) you get a CD or DVD to "load", you're good to go (except for the skipping issue), but sometimes it just plaine won't load a disk. Sometimes you can play a disk all the way through, issue free, then it stops (like I said above) so you go hit "play to hear it again....and it won't do it. Or mostly you just turn it on, throw a disk in wait, wait, wait, and it just won't ever play. Very annoying when you have a date over and can't get the move started. Or mood music for dinner. Unacceptable.

Any advice for why it won't load/play? Or advice about the play strataegy/random issue? Or the skipping issue? I'm about ready to smash it to smitherines. At least I'd get SOME satisfaction from my purchase if I do that...

[RGA]

Personally I would dump the thing. Carousels are notoriously poor quality even from better companies like Denon.

I would buy an inexpensive reasonably good DVD player to be used strictly as a dvd player. Then I would buy this for all your party and feature needs -- you might be impressed that it actually sounds pretty good -- is fairly quiet and you can buy a second one to daisy chain. I have been pleased with it. It will take a lot of time to set-up and load but you can connect your home keyboard up to enter all the information and load by genre. You need to keep a spreadsheet to know where the discs are located but once all this is done your collection is at a fingertip and that is pretty darn cool. http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDetailDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=158007&navigationPath=n32100n32110n46844

[twochannelsonly]

Personally I would dump the thing. Carousels are notoriously poor quality even from better companies like Denon.

You are so very right, and yes I havent heard a great sounding DVD player yet.

[Florian]

.

You are so very right, and yes I havent heard a great sounding DVD player yet.
Well a good one is the new Onkyo DVPS1000 and the Marant DV9500.

-Florian

[StanleyMuso]

Well a good one is the new Onkyo DVPS1000 and the Marant DV9500.

-Florian
I've had bad luck with laser powered products in the past, both DVD and CD (including Denon and Marantz) and have little faith in their quality, no matter the price or their performance when reviewed.

[N. Abstentia]

I've had lots of bad luck with Denon equipment, especially players. Come to think of it, every single Denon I've ever had/seen has had problems..except my old Denon turntable :)

[royphil345]

I think they are all junk!!! I've owned a few CD and DVD players that didn't last too long before they couldn't read a disk well. I've got a DVD player that sometimes locks up when playing video CDs and another that sometimes pauses for second while playing DVDs and consider myself lucky they work at all... And you definitely have to hit the buttons on the remote when the machines want you to!!! It's more like they control you from across the room instead of vice versa. Of course my Sony 5-disk CD only player that sounds horrible will probably last forever.

Have a couple really old VCRs around here that work just fine!!!

Sometimes as a LAST RESORT you can remove the top cover and GENTLY clean the laser lens with an alcohol swab to resolve skipping / reading issues. The laser assembly is very delicate though, and it may work like new or may not work at all after this. LAST RESORT Works sometimes, but usually the laser assembly needs replacement or some adjustment has drifted out of spec and the player will require service / replacement.

[Florian]

I have had DVD and CDP's from Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Rega, Unison Research and never had a problem :p

[RGA]

DVD's often pause as the player searches for the dual layer...this is not the fault of the player. My player locked up on me and I used a CD cleaner disc (always skeptical of these as many can damage your lens). But I used mine and the lock-up problems went away. $20.00Cdn I paid for the perfect Image 20/20 from Parasound. I bought it from UHF magazine.

Apparently UHF has found a superior one or Parasound stopped making the disc. Worth a shot -- they can save players that people think are wrecked when they may not be. http://www.uhfmag.com/Digital.html

[Woochifer]

DVD's often pause as the player searches for the dual layer...this is not the fault of the player. My player locked up on me and I used a CD cleaner disc (always skeptical of these as many can damage your lens). But I used mine and the lock-up problems went away. $20.00Cdn I paid for the perfect Image 20/20 from Parasound. I bought it from UHF magazine.

Actually, the layer transition time does vary by player. Other factors such as the disc itself and dirt on the lens will also affect the layer transition as well, but performance on benchmark tests can and do vary.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=122

[Storm861triple]

Well thanks for all the replies. What I've learned from this thread is that from now on, I'm going to buy the absolutely cheapest DVD player that money can buy, with the best warrenty.

Then I'll buy a good sounding CD player.

[nightflier]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that a DVD player will always be slower than a CD player because it has more complex disk formats to check before it can start up? I have auditioned a ton of players and the DVD players always seemed slower.

One CD player that has lasted for years for me is the Onkyo DX-C380. It has most of the required features, sounds acceptable, and is reasonably speedy. It's not the fastest or the best sounding player out there in the $150 range (that's what it cost new), but should be fine for parties. Add a DAC to it and the sound will improve dramatically (an advantage of buying cheap players is the noticeable improment from a DAC).

For DVD players, I don't think there is anything fast out there when it comes to changers. For individual players, I would play with the store models and see which ones are fast and look to be tough enough, but I would also pay close attention to the video processing capabilities. Not all budget DVD players are the same.

[RGA]

Yes Woochifer I know the players time vary I own two and have tried others but there is a time gap with all the ones I've used -- some discs are a lot better than others such that one doesn't even notice the transition. The Aspire while just $50.00Cdn (bought Boxing day of 2003) is better than the Pioneer I have (though the DVD player I believe I bought in 1998 or 1999 and was Pioneer's enry level at that time DV333.

The Pioneer is considerably faster starting up and searching the medium of what is played -- but then again it has less things that it can play.

Nightflier
The Aspire has a slow start-up time as I gather from what you say wants to figure out what's been loaded in it. I also wish it had a better memory...it defaults to one of the 5.1 surround modes if the player is turned OFF rather than just put to standby mode. I run the marantz in 2 channel -- so a few minutes into the movie you realize there is no dialog track - so then you have to go into the player's sound mode (which isn't very intuitive) and then scroll left push enter - a new scroll bar pops up and you have to scroll up to 2 channel and then push enter so you can get dialogue. The Receiver also has a bunch of crap just to turn the thing off or on.

I know how to do it but I fear when I give this stuff to my mom so she can watch some movies it's going to be rough going for her. The receiver is so badly designed in terms of user friendliness that after i post here I am sending an E-mail off to Soundhounds to see what kind of trade-in I can get fro the receiver.

The problem with the Marantz's user UN-friendly design stems just from simple issues like changing from CD to tuner to DVD player -- and the marantz really gets upset when you listen to CD through the DVD player. If you start changing this stuff around then for whatever reason you can't trunt the receiver OFF with the remote -- you push the big red power button at the top and it SHOULD overide everything and turn the amplifier off. If they want a learning remote kind of feature that allows you to turn other componants off there should be a second button.

So to turn the stupid receiver off you have to push AMP and THEN push the power off button. The thing has so many of these counter-intuitive little goofball things... I had the Pioneer Elite VSX-95 in the mid 90's an AC-3 receiver and it was noted for strong ergonomics -- sound quality aside that Elite was much easier to use and very well appointed in the features department and I never had a single 'scratch my head this is dumb" moment in the time I owned it. You would think that after 10 years you would not be "scratching your head - this is dumb" with virtually EVERY single thing the receiver does.

I think the whole point of a receiver is to do everything and make it simple and easy to use -- I know Pioneer doesn't get a lot of props in the home theater arena back then nor to this day but if their user friendliness is still that superior I would strongly consider them. Then again the new ones could be just as badly designed for for all I know.

[hifitommy]

after reading a nice review in tas, i snagged a sony ns500v for $169 delivered. not only does it play sacd nicely, rbcd never sounded so good in my system! thank buddah for upsampling!

this unit has been functioning flawlessly for about 2 years now and i couldnt be happier, and thats a sony, who seem to be known for not so good stuff these days. well, their dvd/sacd/cdps are just fine thank you.

[sam9]

One of the few Sony products I've ever liked is a carosel player. Can play all five disc in sequence, random disc, reandom track one at a time. Most formats except MPE and DVD-A (but will play alternate tracks. No problems at all after 4 yoears.

[RGA]

well if anyone is still reading this thread - there is a 400 disc Sony changer that plays cds, dvds and SACDs -- the price here was dropped in half -- $499.00Cdn it also does MP3 among other stuff.