Pioneer DV C503 - DVD changer - black

by Pioneer

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 15 pounds
• ASIN: B000050XPQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,417 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

From Digital Living Today

For those who want to play both DVDs and CDs but don't want their stack of equipment to pile up like the Tower of Babel, Pioneer has made a 5-disc changer that can play CD-Rs, CDs, and DVDs. The DVC503's features are similar to earlier generation 5-disc CD changers, boasting an optical and a coaxial digital output, as well as two sets of audio outputs, one composite video, one S-video, and one component video out. The D/A converter is a fine 24-bit audio and it comes with a one-year warranty. Space saving, versatile, high quality phonics at a very reasonable price make the DVC503 a choice to seriously consider when looking for a DVD or new CD player.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

152 of 155 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars High quality, versatile, good value performer, November 15, 2000

By 

digerati "digerati" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Pioneer DV C503 - DVD changer - black (Electronics)

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.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pioneer DV-C503, January 21, 2001

By 

Hoss (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pioneer DV C503 - DVD changer - black (Electronics)

I did a lot of research before buying this player. And it paid off. If you want a good 5 disc player that plays CDR's or VCD's flawlessly? Look no further. I primarily bought this to replace my CD Player which was dying and this full 24bit DAC sounds amazing. The bass defintion compaered to my old Technics is like comparing apples to oranges.

THe Video is just as good for a player in this price range. Good features, fast loading, great sound and a good picture. A bit thin on scanning features but so what. The only con I have found, is the drive is a bit loud when playing DVD's. So if your placing it very close to your viewing seat it could be annoying. Remote is fair, could be better. But it's more than usable.

I'd buy it again!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A fair value for a combo (CD/DVD) changer, December 9, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pioneer DV C503 - DVD changer - black (Electronics)

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"!