Sony DVP-NC85H/B HDMI/CD Progressive Scan 5-Disc DVD Changer, Black

BACKGROUND: I have a fairly high-end home theater (rich people might pooh-pooh this assessment, but I'm a value-oriented consumer), containing a Hitachi 42" plasma monitor (1080i), a Denon AV receiver, and an iPod dock. For changeable media, I wanted two DVD players, one a changer, and one a single disk unit. I get my high-definition signals off my local cable. All of these play out through a 5.1 array of Jamo speakers, five of which are identical and mounted in the walls. The chunky subwoofer pumps away in a corner. It's all controlled by a Universal Remote MX-850 which I've learned to program. Also, when I was buying the home theater rig, I insisted that all components have and accept the High Definition Multimedia Interface socket(s), which replace as many as six cables per device with one. After a full year of operation, I am continually impressed with the quality of the picture and sound delivered by this installation. So when it came time to upgrade my old DVD media player(s), I wanted something good, affordable, and capable of tiding me over until the high-definition DVD players becaame affordable (given that we consumers are faced with the stupidity of two competing standards, each with their own salient features, this decision could be delayed years until a clear winner emerges. My guess -- there will be a VHS/winner and a Betamax/loser after this is over, but we'll have to be patient unitl this is clear. Forgive the aside.). WHAT I LIKE ABOUT IT: (1) It's Sony, which is no longer a lock guarantee of highest quality, but still a fine marque. They seem to understand the design and building of video-based comsumer electronics as well as or better than the rest. (2) Everything worked right out of the box. Since I bought it at the same time as another Sony single-disk DVD player, I was interested in having a minimum of zaniness in the installation. Plug in the HDMI cable, hit "power" and go. A-OK on this one. (3) The HDMI output is the answer to a dream. When the interface fully catches on, it will become sooooo much easier for the unskilled to buy and set up their home electronics gear. Introduction of the standard will proceed faster when consumers realize that they can buy high quality calbes much less expensively from specialty electronics suppliers. But that's another issue. (4) The upconverted signal really works as well as you can reasonably expect. Although nothing photographed in less-than-HD can look as good as HD, there is some amazing movie and TV photography out there that, when provided a clean electronic path, looks GREAT on an HD set. The upconvert feature available on this unit is worth the money if you can't bring yourself to splurge on Blu-Ray or HD DVD while the aforementioned standards battle rages, or if you already have a sizable investment in non-HD DVDs. (5) The unit remembers the viewing status/position of a slew of titles, so that you can switch around between the titles in the player (and maybe some more that have been removed from the player prior to completion of play), and the clever little device takes you right back to where you were. Hitting "stop" twice lets you go anywhere you want on this disk, as do the navigation tools built into the disk. (6) The remote is simple and functional (and identical to the one I got with my other new DVD player -- this is a small bonus and essentially irrelevant given my use of a universal remote, but some will find it refreshing to only learn one new remote if you like to have two DVD players at the ready to switch back and forth between movies and CDs with impunity. We media junkies have our quirks, and this is one way to accommodate those quirks with no muss and fuss and little expense. (7) The profile of the unit is slim enough to install in virtually any available slot. Remember to give it airspace for ventilation of heat and you'll be fine. (8) Here's a big one -- it plays virtually every kind of disk format you can throw at it. It played some homemade movies of mine that I couldn't get to play on any previous player. Awriiight! WHAT I DON"T LIKE ABOUT IT: Not that much, actually. (1) You can't rotate the carousel while a disk is playing. Opening the drawer ends play on the disk that's in play. No biggie. (2) The blue LED that indicates operation of the HDMI circuitry is very, very bright. I have all my gear in a closet right outside my theater room, so this is not a factor for me. But I can imagine that this illumination in the same room with the viewing screen could be distracting or maybe even problematic to some users. Tone it down, Sony. Does it really matter to the viewer that upconverting is going on? Shouldn't you figure that out simply by marveling at the picture quality? (3) In the world of the truly picky, here's one. The back panel output for optical audio emits a red glow that could have the same effects as described in (2), above. Sony, why not simply provide a little plastic plug for this socket? There, I've said it all and more. Now go buy one. They're less than 150 bucks.

The DVD player Sony 5 change disc player doesn't read the disc. and couldn't play any 0f my disc - which some of my dvd's are brand new. I had to sent the Sony player back. HOW WAS THE ITEMS - TOTALLY A WASTE OF TIME!!!

I purchased an admittedly very pricey new-old-stock example. So far, it has worked perfectly. It replaced an Adcom single CD player and a much older Sony single DVD/CD player. Both audio and video quality are first rate. I connected the HDMI output directly to my Toshiba flat screen TV, and for CD listening I ran RCA cables to my Van Alstyne T8 preamp, which is connected to a home-brew two-channel vacuum tube amplifier. Over the years, I have noticed that Sony products will play just about any DVD without complaint (with the exception of their early Blu Ray models, which can be cranky at times). This unit is no exception. It plays DVD's recorded on really cheap media I would never record on myself, without a hiccup. Example: Some time ago, I bought a complete set of "Fernwood 2 Night" and "America 2 Night" shows transferred from old VHS tapes to no-name DVD blanks. They look good on this Sony!

First off the vendor carefully packaged this item, like it was their own going to a loved one. The hook up was simple and it works perfect for my needs. A have a lot of CDs that I haven’t transferred to digital and I’m old school and love and entire box set on random. This handles this. It took me a minute or two to figure out the dvd and switching the tv over. Picture quality is brilliant. I would recommend this product but more than that this vendor who remains available for questions.

I have had this unit for just about two months now. Video is fine from the DVDs. I am not quite the A/V connoisseur as some reviewers are - I'm significantly less discriminating. But it looks as good to me as any I have seen. I don't generally use it for anything else - just watching DVDs, though it does claim to play a lot of other types of disk. The things that I dislike about this DVD player are as follows: 1) The unit is extremely slow. Powering on, and especially when starting any DVD. It says "loading..." for much longer than any other DVD player I have used. Perhaps this is required in a unit that plays very high quality, but to me it is just annoying. Some DVDs take 30 seconds or more just to load and show anything at all. Too long in my opinion! 2) Another reviewer mentioned how difficult it is to see the numbers of the slots when the tray is open - and that's an understatement! Maybe it is these "old eyes" of mine, but where my entertainment center is there is no direct light shining down, and I can't tell what number is next to the slots in the tray without shining a pocket flashlight on it. No exaggeration - that is the truth! Also each slot number is between two slots and I have mistaken which slot I used on more than one occasion. 3) The remote control is terrible. I mean really bad! Thin and light, I will give it credit for at least having all the necessary buttons in logical places in the remote. (The Panasonic HT-830 I just trashed had the absolute worst layout for a remote I have ever seen. NO Open/close Tray button on top, but instead it was listed in the middle of its 100+ buttons and required a SHIFT press!). The Sony remote for this player for some reason requires that I press every button twice. Changed batteries 3 times and I am only 7 feet away, but it literally takes two presses for each button. Also it is not universal - can't control any other device. While this is certainly a good player as far as the "neat" features it has - especially being able to swap out DVDs with the tray open WHILE you are watching another DVD - that's a killer feature that I love called Exchange! But the not-so-great remote and the excruciatingly SLOW loading times costs it 2 stars, and give this player a grand total of 3 stars. For the price, though, it is a good deal.