Page 1 of Pioneer DVD 525 Any good?

Can anyone tell me if they`ve had any good or bad experiences with the Pioneer DVD 525?

Does it play MP3? CDR? CDRW? Can it play trouble disks like The Matrix? Whats the sound and pic like?

Cheers, Chris Horton

Not quite what you asked but I`ve had a Pioneer 515 for ages (7 - 8 months ish) and it has never done anything wrong in the slightest - I`ve recently tried an Audio CD-R and it worked fine - haven`t tried CD-RW yet (will try it for you if no-one else has tried) but it doesn`t do MP3 - and isn`t hackable (region or macrovision) via anything else but a re-chip (there was a mention of an external box which plugs in the side but that seems to of disappeared unless anyone reading this knows any better).

I would have no hesatation in buying another Pioneer - after all they were the only people making laserdisc players for years so they must of got the best knowledge of laser based disc players around !

I`ve got a 525 multiregion bought from Scan about 4 months ago.

Picture and sound are excellent, and I`ve had no problems with any discs including the Matrix.

It plays my CDRs and does not seem too fussy about brand. I`ve played both music and VCD cdrs on it with no problem, including VCDs burned myself.

It will not play MP3 CDs as far as I know although I wish it could.

The only annoyance is the quite bollocks remote control, which has loads of small keys, all evenly spaces. Quite impossible to operate in the dark. Personally, I use the remote for my HiFi to control it.