Onkyo DV-CP500 Multi-disc DVD Player

I bought this player to replace a Panasonic changer that is similar (even similar looking!) that doesn't play CD-R's or MP3's. I bought this Onkyo refurbished for 99.99 at an online outlet, as I've heard good things about Onkyo and still believe their receivers are on par with Yamaha or Denon. But this player does some weird things, and I don't think it's because it's a "refurb". On one set of discs (my Family Guy DVDs) it will suddenly start accelerating the speed of what your watching, by about 1.5 times. It's very odd, and these discs are brand new. Stopping the disc and hitting "play" again seems to fix this problem. I use this as my primary CD player as well, and it plays most discs beautifully. One or two store-bought discs refuse to play normally, and they play normally on my old Panasonic and in my Mac (they are not copy-protected discs, if you're wondering).

The remote is not the best, as it doesn't have direct disc play (i.e., I can't choose "disc 3" directly, I have to hit "disc skip" however many times it takes to get there). I thought there would be a way to do it that involved a combination of buttons, but the manual mentions nothing. You can select a disc directly on the front of the unit, in case you were wondering.

It also has a slow reaction time to commands, such as disc skip and powering off, and a display delay when changing CD tracks (meaning it will display the previous track number for a few seconds while the current track has already begun playing). The tray also has a rather loud grind to it when you are spinning the carousel, which I didn't expect from an upper-tier unit.

There are good things - it has a "CD Play" button that will allow it to skip any DVD's you have in the tray automatically (again, not selectable on the remote). The sound quality is excellent - the difference between my Panasonic and this is not HUGE - but I notice a difference nonetheless.

It also has only one set of audio-out RCA ports - meaning that you have to choose if you want to hook it up to your stereo or your TV. My Panasonic had both, so I could occasionally just use the TV speakers.

I suppose I got what I paid for, which was admittedly cheap. I would not pay retail for this changer - Sony makes one that I'm sure is more capable for around $150-200 and if you're willing to pay for it, I would go with a Yamaha changer or possibly another $250-plus changer. Unless you have a separate CD-changer, spend the extra money. Panasonic still makes changers but they have tiny LCD displays on them, and I like players with big read-outs - I like to be able to see what track is playing from across the room.