I'm looking for a not too expensive (but not $45 chinese) DVD player to suit my NEC 42" SD plasma. Any recommendations? I'd like it to have the following features;

1. progressive scan - selectable on/off, both NTSC and PAL
2. region free
3. component out (minimum)
4. digital audio optical out
5. (optional) can play DIVX, MP3

Is the Pioneer 676(?) any good? Is it really worth spending more on a "quality" player?

Thanks

I've used Pioneer DVD players for the last ten years and never had any problems with them.

SteveO

Yeh well my existing one is a Pioneer and it's been fine except for one small thing - the bastard gives me an electric shock when I touch some parts of the case! I'm checking warranty at present as I think some Pioneers have 3 year warranty.

The LG DF8900 is the best player going around that fits your requirements above.

Ballpark price is $150 at Good Guys, Megamart, Big W.

The Pioneer 676A is an excellent player at the price (~$200). Though the Momitsu V880N (~$600) is even better ... and the Pioneer 969 (~$1,200) even better again, you'd really need a top-notch display to appreciate the slight PQ differences.

The 676A is also able to play "high resolution audio" DVD-Audio and SACD formats.

My understanding is that the current crop of Pioneer DVD players available here were progressive scan for NTSC only - ie not PAL?

Certainly their DVD recorders (eg 520H) is progressive scan for NTSC only.

I actually thought it was still quite common that when DVD players say "progressive scan" it really means progressive scan for NTSC, if they do both NTSC and PAL then they advertise it as "PAL Progressive Scan" or something similar?

For this reason I had been looking at Toshiba DVD players (well actually a DVD recorder but getting progressive scan for DVD playback is an important point).

Is this still the case or have things changed?

Any views on Toshiba stuff?

Any other good DVD recorder recommendations?

I bought a Zensonic Z300 when it came out about 10 months ago for $140 including delivery and I have been extremely happy with it. It was a few month ago superseeded by the Z330.

I recommended this player to all my friends and have yet to find a format that this player does not play. If it is on a disk, it will play it, well, sort of at least. It gets the "best toy bought in a long time" award from me for sure.

http://www.zensonic.com/players.php

Good luck.

Well i'm looking for one also, but i have been checking out the JVC n512s. It can play DVDA and it also has a 12 bit/108 MGhz video converter which is pretty good for a player that's at $200.

Most other players are 54 Mghz.

I just bought a Pioneer 676 for my parents, but I tried it out on my projector first. It's a brilliant player for the price($179 from Hardly Normals). I can confirm it is definately Progressive Scan on PAL, and it also has a 12 bit/108 MHz Video DAC. I think for the price it's unbeatable.

The Pioneer 676A is a great unit and plays pretty much everything. A great unit for a great price. But I would also recommend the Yamaha DVDS550 which retails for $299 - doesnt have DVDA or SACD but does do CD Upsampling (192kHz) and is PAL/NTSC progressive (and can convert from one to the other if required).

I bought the Pioneer 676A a few months ago after a lot of investigations. It is an excellent player. I have read lots of great reviews of it too. The DivX playback is excellent. And it gives you SACD and DVD-Audio, which is brilliant for the price. One problem is that it can have a slight "jumpy" looking when playing packed bitstreat XviD videos. However, this is easily overcome by running the file through a quick conversion program before burning to DVD. (Until recently, it appears most if not all players had this problem.)

I have read that the LG DF8900 is excellent too. It appears it does not have the packed bitstream problem, which saves a little bit of hassle. However, it does have a memory card slot, which the Pioneer does not have. This can be great for playing videos or music too if you don't want to burn a disk. The LG is a bit cheaper, but it does not have SACD or DVD-Audio.

If you want to read more, check out the forums at http://forums.eyo.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=42 and http://forums.divx.com/eve/ubb.x/a/frm/f/531101651

It seems like this is falling into a Pioneer vs LG thread. One thing I would be concerned about is what happens 3, 6 or 9 months down the track. I've NEVER heard anything good about LG's warranty service. What is Pioneer like?

the 676a will indeed do what your after and yep you can pick it up for around $200. I bought one for my parents a little while ago.

I gave it a decent run through before passing onto my parents (have to do this so able to provide the helpline phone support !). Perfectly good dvd player in my opinion and if your running a 37-42" display you'd have to be pretty picky I think to fault it.

I found the audio side typical pioneer - upfront, in your face thin sound not to my liking in comparison to my denon 2900 but thats just personal preferences.

On the upside it plays discs discs of all kind and mp3s particularly well. Very nice remote. And considering the cost very nice built dvd player.

warranty eise I don't think you can beat it, it comes with pioneers 3 year warranty (1 year standard, but if you register it on the net they give you another 2 years for free).

grab one I don't think theres much else around in the price range that will beat it.

I damaged my pioneer DVD player and had it sent back to Pioneer to have it repaired, I made no secret of the fact that it was my fault and made no attempt to make a warrantee claim.

Pioneer contacted me and asked to see proof of puchase and proceeded to repair it under warrantee, I had been expecting a bill for at least $400.00, it was significantly damaged and was an expensive unit, and they repaired it for a nominal fee of $60.00.

Well I'd like to get one (676A), but they seem to be sold out everywhere I've tried, and most retailers say they are having trouble getting new stock. Myer told me they'd have some in about 1.5 weeks. If anyone finds a retailer in Melbourne that has them for $200 or less, please let me know.

I'm thinking of purchasing the 676...

How does the DivX feature work again?... (simple as burning file on DVD-RW, and play on player or)

Can you place multiple files etc?

I have the Pioneer 969avi...gr8t player....but in hindsight I would not have spend the extra cash on the Universal attributes. Instead i would have preferred buying a good stand alone dvd player...either Arcam or Denon. Arcam is more expensive, but the picture is exceptional.

As for universal players....the sound is still not IMO as good as stand alone SACD or CD players.....@ least thats my personal experience....my sony sacd player sounds hell of a lot better than my pioneer!!...hands down!...

Just take any DivX of XviD file and burn to any blank CD or DVD, R or RW format and both + or -. You can put as many files on it as you can fit (within limits). Great way of saving time and space.

I agree, you can buy better quality, but it costs more. For under $200 you can have a pretty good DVD player that plays DivX and Xvid. And if you want to splurge from time to time to buy a SACD, you can still listen to them and they sound great.

Despite my best efforts, I have found it difficult to get SACD or DVDF-Audio disk and if I do, they are expensive. If they were readily available at a reasonable price and I have the other equipment to enjoy the top quality, I would go for something better too. However, for $200, you can't get better value of money.

done, buying the now....

I'd like to get one in Sydney as well. However, I've checked out some HNs and JBs and they only stock the 373 for $199?!

Could anyone tell me where I can get a 676A in Sydney for around $200 please?

Thanks in advance!

today some place told me they are out of stock at Pioneer and it would be about 2 weeks. On the weekend Myer told me 1.5 weeks so I guess I'll go out shopping again around then.

Myer now has it listed for $199 (was $219) but told me they won't have any in until around 24th April due to Pioneer delays.

I too am looking at getting the SD NEC plasma and was just researching what DVD player to get when I saw this thread.

I can get Sony gear pretty cheap through a mate, so was looking at the DVPNS575B

It seems to have all the 'talked about' features, although I shouldn't pretend to understand them all! (PAL/NTSC Progressive and Component Out).

I understand the NEC has a DVI Input though, and I don't think the Sony has that type of Output? Should this be something I need to look for remembering that the NEC is only SD??

Or are Sony DVD players simply way behind the others?

Thanks,
A