DVD purchase decisions... I need lots of help

Posted by Tim S. [IP: 209.176.105.58] on February 01, 1999 at 16:53:11:

In Reply to: DVD purchase decisions... I need lots of help posted by Kurtis on February 01, 1999 at 02:17:44:

I seen the rest, now I have the best! The Pioneer DV-414!! I had the Panasonic DVD-A310. This was a 2nd generation player so I can forgive the less detailed picture, but not the most serious glitch possible. This player will "SKIP CHAPTERS" at the layer change on certain DVDs. The Mask of Zorro is the one I experienced this on. The layer change was very smooth and I would have missed Chapter 18 entirerly, if I didn't hear the audio silence at the layer change. I called Panasonic and they DO KNOW of the problem, but have no fix. To me, that's unacceptable as the Toshibas also are. This is the season's end and these manufactorers new series will be out soon. Why have they not recalled these defective units? This isn't a bad batch, but the entire line for the year! The answers are that most people will not notice right away and these companies will play the gambling game, which the consumer LOSES! I almost missed Chapter 18 and most likely would have never known this. I believe this is why so many Panasonic owners say they never had problems. I believe they had them, but never noticed they have been missing chapters! The Pioneer has not had the ch. skipping problem on Mask of Zorro and hasn't had any out of synch problems at this time. I have watched 7 DVDs with no problems. It is possible that Pioneer could have had a bad batch of players or had an earlier synch problem in the early life of this model. They seem to have fixed it right away (AS THEY AND ALL OTHER COMPANIES SHOULD OUT OF RESPONSIBILITY) as I have not had problems. I believe the Pioneer menu's LAYOUTS and OPTIONS are much better than Panasonic's, although Panasonic has much better graphics on their menus. I also feel the picture is sharper on the Pioneer. The Pioneer also can pass the PLUGE signal. This is not a performance factor but ONLY a televion calibration factor. It is much easier to calibrate a TV with a player that can pass the PLUGE signal. I didn't buy the Sony 300 or 500 because the new models are comming in spring, which the dealers want full price on these soon to be obsolete 2nd gen. players. I also heard many complaints on a poor downconverted anamorphic picture. I have heard also of complaints that some discs will not play and others pixellate. The 2 brands I will consider for future DVD players are Pioneer and Sony. I talked to Toshiba and they acknowledge they have defective units for sale at stores and will not do a recall. The reps. at Panasonic act as the ch. skip problem is relatively new to them and only state they have no fix, but you can take it in for repair and see if the service people know of a fix. That isn't good enough for me and seems unresponsible for a company selling expensive DVD players. The Pioneer was only $300 for a 3rd gen. player with "COMPONENT OUTPUTS"(which is a MUST) and DTS(which is questionable). This is inexpensive enough to take the plunge till all the format's buggs are worked out.

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