Yamaha DVD-S1700 DVD Player Reviews

+ matches my amp

- tad exspensive compared to all other multi standerds players

+ The main good points about the player is that its picture quality is excellent, depth of colour. and it looks as though its built to last. good range of connections on the back. I am currently running an active cinema setup, as it has the 5.1 outlets on the back. Using a PC surround sound setup, Logitech X540, with female 3.5 stereo socket to 2 RCA phono plugs, (need 3 of these for the 6 RCA connections on the back), these link the subwoofer/main hub to sattelite speakers, but instead of connecting the sub, i have bought a very capable Vita 50 sub, now the small sub and sattelites, work the surround perfectly, and i have rolled off the sub frequencys of the X540, to match the 40HZ of the vita, so the X540 handle the high top midbass frequencies and the Vita subwoofer, catches the lowest room rumbling frequencies that adds to the whole cinema effect. It makes a moderately good sounding setup sound fantastic. Whilst also leaving out the cost of a digital reciever.
One downside is that you have two volume controls to match. But if you use the volume on the Vita, at 1/3rd of the volume of the cinema remote control, it integrates nicely.

- Sadly it does have some slightly niggly design issues. It doesnt have open or close on the remote. When fast forwarding on search, especially the x6 speed, it does not locate at the exact point you start playing again, its like its finding an index point closest to the part you search to. Its pretty basic for the money, with not too much menus about how to set the audio up. I have a brilliant Yamada DVD player that cost £35 about 7 years ago, and it has some very handy, and as far as i can see, comprehensive controls, for the audio settings. For instance,
when using the 5.1 outputs on the Yamada, you was able to select how the digital mode was set up, it has a true setting for the subwoofer, which means all the low fequencies were sent only to the sub. With the yamaha, and another Xoro player i used. what happens when you connect the subwoofer, is that the left right, left rear/right rear and centre channels, all are output through the sub. It is not truly independent, of the other speakers.
Its quite annoying, as the cheaper older model i had, had ways of eliminating the rest of the sound, and purely had the one channel of purely subwoofer effects. Annoyingly, now with the setup like that it makes spoken voices boomy, as they are occupying the lower frequencies of the sub. Its like accentuating every other speakers signal with the waffle of the sub. And that meant that the true deep bass effects, werent literally present and seperate from the overall mix. But, what i did was buy an active sub, as mentioned before, and then, it finally brought back the real lower notes independantly. So maybe not such a problem of the DVD player, but certainly a lack of sound shaping ideas.
also another slight niggle, is that it can be temperemental with DVD-R,s, it will freeze and lock up, if you are going to burn a film, and use coopys oon this player, i would set the burn speed lower, as it picks up errors too easy, this might be a niggle of my DVD player, or it could be that the upscaling software and lasser are more sensetive to faults. With a deeper amount information and more complex reading of the discs, i think it needs solid recordings. But to be fair, i bought this for 5.1 sockets on the back, and the picture quality, which is fantastic

+ Superb picture, well built, looks good, Prerecorded disks look good, 5.1, RCA sockets on the back, negate the need for a digital reciever. Just plug into a multi channel power amp. Apart from a few niggles, the main thing is the picture is excellent.

- heres why it gets only 7 out of 10. with recorded dvd's it freezes. The search buttons dont seem to stop where you fast forwarded to, or rewinded. Regularly the DVD when i tried to playback a point, used what must be some sort of location point on the disc. I want to search and then playback to the exact place where i stopped it at. No eject button on the remote. i know we have to get up to open and close, but nice if you can open it , when you get up so that you dont have to wait anymore time, than loading up the next disc. Also, unlike my cheap yamada, this has adequate settings but not as good as my old cheapy.

+ Fantastic picture quality, plays discs previously less playable;
DVD-Audio sound is better than I have ever heard, brings a new life to my collection, enjoying them again as if they were new to me.

- Almost everything has to accessed from remote, a hidden panel would be nice in order to do basic functions (menu etc.,) from the unit.

+ Plug and Play hdmi connection makes life easy most setting are automatic

- Sound setup not clear if you are using optical 5.1 link to av eqiupment

+ player very easy to use.excellent quality for the money.

- none

+ Easy to use very good sound and picture.

- None really for pro e at time of purchase