Great DVD..... till it broke
Written: Nov 29 '05
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Pros: Great picture and sound quality, On screen display, 5.1 outputs, black
Cons: Limited disc type playback, region coded, expensive but only lasted 5 years poor service
The Bottom Line: Great second DVD player to match old Black Stereo. Picture, sound quality are excellent, recommended if less than $50 since it may break, otherwise buy a new one.
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| bainf's Full Review: Yamaha DVD-S795 DVD Player |
Yamaha DVD S795
Just quick note about the DVD if you are thinking of buying it second hand as it was made in 1999. I think it may have cost over $1500 when released.
I bought it second hand on EBAY for $140 two years ago because it aesthetically matched my Yamaha AMP of the same era and had Dolby digital outputs which I required as my AMP is classed as "Dolby Digital Ready". It has the inputs for 5.1 surround but cannot encode it itself. It was bought in 1999 when Dolby digital was first starting and it was another couple of hundred dollars for the next model which had an encoder "built in" to the amp.
Good Points.
This model has all the standard features except Zoom.
It has an Onscreen display which helps for Setup and it even has visual representation of speakers to help you set them up with correct delay so sound all arrives at your ear at the same time which I liked. It does make a difference to the sound quality to get this right.
It has a Dolby digital encoder built in so it has the 5.1 sound outputs as mentioned.
It has an optical output.
It has a LED screen which can be set to be dull when playback.
It has its own headphone jack with volume.
DVD LED screen has little speakers representing what type of Dolby output is available.
Very good picture quality
Remote is simply set out.
Bad points.
It is region coded and there is no way around this and I HAVE LOOKED. There are no special button presses on Remote control or dip switches in unit. Supposedly you can get it "chipped" but who would bother at the price of DVD players these days.
The thing I bet most people want to know about this unit is what discs does it play as the manual which can be found on the net is vague. I don't think burnable DVD's were available when it was made.
On mine it plays bought or hired DVD movies, DVD's from China, burnt DVD-R, burnt DVD+R, bought CD's, and that's about it. DVD's must be in DVD format, not Divx or JPEG or WMA, etc
It does not play any type of CDR's, can kinda struggle through DVD-RW and DVD+RW but is very jumpy or will not even load them sometimes so it is not worth it.
Perhaps it will play expensively branded DVDRW's but I have not seen it. I say that because it does not play some cheap DVD-/+R that I bought, jumped a lot or would not load them, but would play some more recent different branded ones that I bought perfectly. None of which had a problem on my friends el cheapo DVD player. All DVD's were burnt on the same computers burner. So if you intend to burn DVD's make sure your brand will play on this player before you buy 100 of them. If I had to make preference I would say the picture quality of DVD+R is better. I was able to get around not playing CDR's by using a free program to convert MP3's to DVD. You can make a massive Party Mix song disc using this method.
Player worked faultlessly until one week ago when my wife turned it off and then went to turn it back on to get out hired DVD and nothing. It has now died completely. I had to unscrew it to get to the DVD to return it to shop.
Spoke to Yamaha they were very little help and explained to me the nearest service centre was 100km away. I live in a densely populated area (Gosford, NSW) so I was less than happy. I guess people do not fix DVD players these days anyway as they are very cheap. I asked them for the service manual as I am a technician, though not in this field, but they would not give it to me.
I know that if I bought this new for over $1500 dollars and it lasted less than 5 years I would be furious, and at lack of support that did not involve extra money. I have always liked Yamaha stuff and was about to buy a new AMP and DVD recorder but it will not be from Yamaha which is shame as I have always liked the reproduction of sound they give.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 140 on EBAY
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Epinions.com ID:
bainf
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Reviews written: 3
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