I tried to convince my wife that we *needed* a DVD player for almost a year before I won her over, although it took a guarantee to finish the redecoration of the lounge to finally tip the balance in my favour. Never has wallpaper been stripped, newly hung and painted, the woodwork ripped off and replaced, or new curtains magically made to appear, quite so fast in the history of the DIY trade.

All this time I was doing research, checking out the reviews and the recommendations in magazines and on the web, until I came to my decision. The Pioneer DV-717 was reviewed by What Hi-Fi? and given high marks for almost everything, both video and music related. And was rated well against the other mid-range machines that I could find - I decided if I was going to buy a DVD, it was going to be a good one that would last a good long time, no point in buying a budget machine this time I felt.

So I headed off down to Comet and, after having them call Richer Sounds and confirm their price (at the time Comet offered to beat any local price by 10% of the difference), the price dropped from 550 pounds to 470 pounds. Nowadays this machine goes for around the 400 pound mark but this was a year ago so I'm not complaining. I eyed the gold-plated interconnects for a brief moment then figured I wouldn't get away with that with my wife and decided to leave them. This was about the only mistake I made really - they say you should budget 10% to 15% of the price for cables. This is good advice so take note, the cables in the box are, as with almost all hifi and video products, crap.

My initial impression when opening the box was, boy this thing is BIG. While slightly wider and taller than most DVD players, this machine is deep - some 36cm which gave me a few problems fitting it into the chosen location. Add to that the 5cm or so needed for cables and it starts to occupy a lot of space - much more than the old budget (but still good) Technics CD player it partly replaced. My other first impression was, this thing looks so cool in champagne finish, a sort of gold/silver mix. I had been concerned about it looking out of place next to my other, predominantly black, components. No fear.

The little blue LED that lights up except when a CD is being played just makes it look even better. The basic controls on the front are almost never used due to the remote, while the display is clear and easily read.

So, out of the box, plug it in, and away I went. In first was the original flipper and non-anamorphic version of Armageddon. I was blown away, especially when I put the sound through my (simple stereo) JVC receiver and AR speakers. Fantastic! I was hooked. A couple of minor quibbles - the little animation of a Mickey-Mouse type gloved hand instructing me to turn the flipper disk over was kind of cheesy, and the menu-not-accessible graphic looks like it has been done on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Change then to the excellent Godzilla disk (the disk, not necessarily the film) and I could really play with the remote and menu system. Easy to use, straight-forward and economically well-designed sum up the remote. My only quibble with it is the fact that is that I really don't see the need for a big dial to control slow-motion playback or see an exact frame. The fast forward and fast reverse buttons allow change between half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth speeds and they do the job just fine I think. The big round dial just makes the remote bigger for a facility that I personally don't need - I don't have any of, er, THAT sort of film on DVD, well, not yet.

Picture Quality = 10
I've found that this machine works hard to give excellent picture quality. It does have some processing options to reduce picture and sound noise but I've never needed them. The only disk that this machine fell down on was Blown Away and that was entirely due to the mastering of the disk. All sorts of smearing seen when the picture was very dark. I sent it back.

Even with a 10 meter long SCART connector between the DVD and the TV, there is no appreciable level of picture degradation (I didn't skimp on that cable because of its length).

My initial use of the machine for Region 1 was The Matrix - is there ANYONE who hasn't bought that? - and, after finally figuring out that the picture was black and white because I had the Auto option selected for output, I changed it to the PAL setting and all was well again.

Sound Quality = 7
Same as for the picture quality, very good in my opinion but with one major flaw. The sound is full and fresh when desired, brash and exciting for action sequences and still able to give sparkling clarity for quiet moments. This machine was borderline as to whether it should have a built in Dolby Digital decoder or not. My feeling is maybe it should have, but when combined with a suitably equipped receiver, it sounds fantastic even so. No DTS either, but then I don't really care.

Darren Sidney adds: "I own one of these players and can confirm that it DOES have DTS output when linked to a suitably equipped amplifier/decoder."

Switch to playing a CD and this dual laser machine shines happily too. I think this player copes with CDs on a par with the top-end budget or lower-end mid-range CD players. There's no loss of bass that is frequently found when playing CDs on cheaper DVD players. It handles CD-Rs too.

However, my one significant problem with this player shows up in the sound category. The output level is VERY low compared to the output levels of my video or satellite TV decoder. It is a real pain to have to treble or quadruple the volume to watch DVDs - especially when you forget to turn it back down again before reverting back to another input and end up waking the kids with a Bounty Kitchen Roll advert on full blast. Ouch! I asked Pioneer via their, slightly irritating, website (c'mon folks, just how many times do you have to select an option before you get there, eh?), if it was possible to adjust the output level. In a word, no. I can largely cure this problem by configuring my new Digital Receiver correctly to compensate, but its still a pain, and that doesn't help when I want to tape a CD.

Build Quality = 9
For a player of this cost, you expect it to be good and it is. The machine as a whole feels heavy and solid, The disk tray is solid enough, but my one year old has given me a scare or two by managing to open it. I doubt it could take his weight if he tried to use it to stand up with!

The gold phono terminals on the back are also good and there is a pair of scarts too to connect up the TV and hifi.

Playback = 8
This machine hasn't flinched yet - the quality of Blown Away was the disks fault, not the player. Once modified (by HiFi Profis here in Germany it plays all my discs play without a problem. No remote hack though, the player has to go into the shop to be modified which cost about 70 pounds. I now have a little PCB edge sticking out one of the ventilation slits on the side of the machine.

The change between layers on a two-layer disk varies in time but has never been much of a problem. Some disks, like the re-issued Armageddon, have the swap in relatively poor places which are noticeable. A black screen swap isn't even noticed.

Speed = 8
Loading a disk can be a little slow (up to five seconds), but I'm usually still sitting down again and so don't notice.

Looks = 8
The front panel design is neat and efficient while retaining aesthetic appeal. I have to mention again the blue LED coz I just love it. I marked it down slightly because of the champagne colour which might put some people off, but that's because I was told in the shop that it only comes in that. I later found it is available in black too. I don't care though because I like it.

Overall = 9
When it comes down to it, my only real problem with this machine is the sound output level. Everything else is great, and even this is not too much of a problem really. An excellent DVD player and a good CD player to boot. Connect it up to a Digital receiver and the sound spills out. I just bought a Harman-Kardon AVR45RDS as my latest piece in the puzzle. The Matrix or the Mummy now sound so good they can dry your hair for you. Anyone remember the old Maxell advert?

Gareth Williams