Pioneer DV-333 DVD Player
Great First Player
I bought this player as an avid video/audiophile as well as a movie junkie and bought it as a second player for a second movie room.  The first thing that struck me was the front panel;  Pioneer got it just right with very little clutter up front making a very simple and elegant looking box.  The setup was a breeze with a very simple on screen guide.  I popped in my first disc (my personal favorite demo:  Mission Impossible), and I was quite pleased with the result.  The picture was very crisp, using the composite video inputs, and the sound was extremely clear with the digital out to my Yamaha receiver.  While the player doesn't come with all of the bells and whistles of players a couple hundred dollars more,  this player delivers worth every penny!  I do however have a couple of complaints.  The remote is small and not backlit, and while the primary control buttons are well positioned, they are still small and hard to manage in the dark.  Also with the remote is that I have had some problems with it responding from certain angles.  Another minor dissapointment is that the fast forward, rewind, and slow motion are somewhat tricky to deal with.  It takes a few laps to get to that particular moment you like to watch again and again (i.e. Seann William Scott's decapitation in Final Destination).  But this mistakes really only stick out to those of us picky enough to care.  However, some other neat features, such as the ability to play CD-R's, DTS playback, and a full 24-bit conversion rate (necessary for all of those 5.1 and DTS CDs out there) make up for it; features rarely seen in players in this price range.  And the solid audio/video playback, ease of use, and flexibility make this one of the best first-buy players out there; well worth the extra over the bottom barrel and below players (please don't waste your money on those, just swallow the extra C-note).  The DV-333 packs in features that some boxes don't have and boosts some pretty beefy movie viewing.  Pioneer most definitely got it right this time.