written by arthure on 20/12/2003
I bought the Pioneer DV636D in october 2001 for £300 multiregion. plays dvd and cds with superb sound and picture. Bass response is very low indeed and the ability to play cd-r/w is a big bonus (tried philips, verbatim, vivastar). according to most sites it has no trouble with dvd-r/w or dvd+r/w but I haven't tried this yet. most modern players will also play jpegs and mp3 but i'll not upgrade this player until it dies a sudden death. I would recommend any pioneer DVD player on the strength of this machine alone!
written by Steve. on 17/07/2003
My Pioneer DV636D died recently after two-and-a-half years
of very light domestic use. Still plays CDs
but stick a DVD in and it freezes up, sometimes
with a "carpet" pattern on the TV screen.
Pioneer official service centre says it needs
a new MPEG decoder board and it will be 270
quid to fix. So forget that, and forget
buying Pioneer again.
written by Sandy. on 28/11/2001
I have been researching the web for ages looking for a dvd/cd player. I had a Cambridge Audio cd player and traded this in against a NAD T550 paying £200 and receiving £100 for my cd player at a very good shop called Richer Sounds. I was told it would be a very good music player for my cd's and would be very good with dvd's. It wasn't, and I was very disappointed.
I returned it to the shop and checked out the Pioneer 636. I saw it on numerous web sites, and I paid especial consideration to a British hi-fi magazine web site called hifichoice.co.uk. They gave the 636 a good write up.
When I got the Pioneer 636 home I set it up and found it to be fantastic. It played my cd's, but it didn't just reproduce the music - it actually played the music. My music came alive. I even found myself preferring it to my Cambridge Audio D500 cd player. Although it lacked a certain amount of bass I still found it to have sufficient for my tastes. I play a lot of rock, and when I played Metallica's Master of Puppets, the player made me realise what I had been missing - it completely blew the cobwebs away.
I use this DVD player primarily to play my cd's. I occasionally take take the player downstairs from my bedroom and play dvd's on the telly. I don't have a massive home theatre (just a basic hi-fi system of Mission cyrus amplifier and mission speakers)- although I will probably upgrade at some point.
I have only had this a week so I can't comment on reliablilty - but if you are looking for a DVD player that can rock along to your cd collection and spin a very good dvd picture then this is the one for you. I am completely in love. Other things I like is the ability to dim the display or remove it completely and a wonderful funky blue light below the disc tray.
This DVD player is a bargain. it retails in the UK for £400 and I got it for £300 multi region - it's a steal.
get one!
Do you have a question about this product or company? Simply type it in the box below and one of our community will give you an answer
Once we've checked over your question we will put it live on the site and our strong community of experts will hopefully give you some great answers that you find useful.
We will email you when the question is on the site
Ventech's Response to 116454_Steve.'s Review
Written on: 30/05/2005
I had a similar experience. My DVD player died after 15 months. The Pioneer agent told me that the laser diode only had a life of 1000 hours so it was my fault that I had trouble according to them. I paid £116 just to have the DVD drive replaced. I checked with laser diode manufacturers & they told me the laser diodes used in DVD drives had a life of 100 000 hrs or more. The manual warns about overheating, and as I live in a hot climate ( 40 Deg C or more in summer) despite airconditioning I believe the thermal management of the player is inadequately designed. I wouldn't recommend Pioneer DVD players, since Pioneer apparently make buyers pay for their latent & patent defects, hiding behind a short warranty period.