Sony DVP-NS775V DVD/CD/SACD Player

Rating:
Summary: I have been saved!
Review: After converting over 300 VHS tapes to DVD+RW format, I thought my efforts would go completely to waste as my computer (PowerbookG4) and three DVD players (including my Philps 585) refused to play about half of my collection without skips, freezes, or complete failures.

Finally, in desperation, I bought the Sony 775. It plays anything and everything without any skips or freezes. Even problem discs that fialed on other players came to life without so much as a hiccup. Precision Cinema 3 is fantastic. And the audio! When you set the unit to enhanced audio it BOOMS through my home theatre system!

The only drawback I have noticed is that some films, converted from VHS, have excessive pixelation when the screen changes quickly. This degradation in quality can be minimized by turning on progressive scan and turning off sharpness controls through the remote. The remote is also not backlit and in the dark of my home theatre it is harder to use. Even so....

This is a great product and it has added at least ten years to my life through reduced stress.

EJN
Fairfax VA

Rating:
Summary: Very versatile player for a good price
Review: I bought this player at the very end of 2004 after they introduced DVPNS975, so the price was much much cheaper. As compared to DVPNS975, this player has exactly the same function, same look and same remote control except for this one (DVPNS775) does not have video upscaling via HDMI only(i.e., converting 480 by artificially adding lines to 720p or 1080i).

1. So far, I have watched about 30 DVDs (many of them were rented from Netflix), it didn't freeze anything yet. So I suppose my particular box is okay. The problem reported by other reviewer *might* just be caused by some flaws in manufacturing.

2. The most impressive thing about this player is its functionality that it plays DVD, VCD, CD, MPEG as well as SACD. Actually, this player's price is lower than single SACD player.
The only catch is that SACD audio signal is only output from the 5.1 multichannel output and not from the digital audio output. This is logical and no other alternative since currently no receivers I know can decode SACD bit streams.

3. On the DVD playing mode, it has all the convenienct buttons you would expect, changing the audio setup, angle, slow, fast, frame by frame viewing, zoom, video equalizer (standard, dynamic1, dynamic2, cinema1, cinema2, memory or user defined), picture ore scene navigation to look for particular part in the program.

4. Connection to HDTV is easy. You can choose the TV type, wide screen, standard, aspect ratio, black level for compoent video output, etc.

For people who are interested in video upscaling DVD players (such as DVPNS975), in my partial opinion, I am not completely sure how much that will help the quality because of the following reasons.

1. DVD video is SDTV format and it only contains 480 lines of vidoe information.
2. Video upscaing uses algorithms to double lines based on the information on adjacent lines.
3. Many HDTV can double the lines from (analogue) information itself.
4. My HD-DVR (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000) does digital video upscaing on 480 signals to (720P or 1080i). I compared the upscaled 1080/720 signal shown on my TV with the 480i/p signal shown on my TV on movies (HBO), the quality has no clear difference that I can tell.

I personally would wait for HD-DVD, Blue-ray or something like China's EVD to be introduced later this year or next year.

Rating:
Summary: 16 by 9 or 4 by 3?
Review: I had a Walmart Panasonic player which I liked in every respect except on dark movies like Master & Commander it did a very poor job of cleanly reproducing the picture at the higher brightness and picture levels needed to lighten the picture on my 36" Sony XBR 400. It had great variable aspect controls which I appreciated when dealing with widescreen DVDs on my 4 x 3 screen. Took it back and bought the Sony DVP-NS775.

This player does a great job of producing a nice, clean picure at all the TV's brightness levels. In progressive scan it is simply beautiful. Perhaps that is because it has a 108MZ 12bit DAC processor as opposed to the 54MZ 10 bit found in the panasonic and most other players.

My only complaint about the 775 is it has a lousy aspect control feature. The only adjustment I can make is to set the TV at 16 by 9 and watch a picture decidedly squeezed and elongated at that ratio. Otherwise I use as little as half the screen. I am keeping this DVD player because of its ability to produce such a great picture.

Can't comment on the CD, SAC, etc. player abilities.

If you have a 16 by 9 set, I don't believe you will beat the picture quality you get for this price. If you have a 4 by 3 TV, you might want to do some research and consider other players. None seem to have the flexible aspect ratio controls the Panasonic has.







Rating:
Summary: Amazing buy
Review: I have just received this player and watched a couple of movies as well as listened to a Rolling Stones SACD disk. In general terms my opinion is very favourable. I will explain why: this player substituted my old SONY SACD-DVD player 550. Good, but unable to play some burned and original DVDs as well as some CDS. I tried the new one with the problematic DVDs and the result was fantastic. Those movies that I had to see on the computer can now be played with my large screen TV and listened thru my audio system (a good one by the way: Sonic Frontiers pre and Mesa Baron amp. The quality of the video is very good, much better than the 550's. The audio quality of SACD is also better, so why complain when I have solved many problems with only $130.

I do not understand why two reviewers has reading problems with the unit, mine ran flawlessly.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Picture! Flawed Player!
Review: I really wanted to love this DVD player. I am a big Sony fan and waited for this unit to come out due to complaints regarding the DVP725 (it's predecessor). Once I got it home, I took it out of the box and hooked it up. The resulting picture, once the setup was complete, just blew me away! The progressive scan output on this unit through the component out just blew me away(repeated for emphasis) on my HDTV! The picture rivalled that of units I'd seen costing hundreds more. The features on the player are plentiful and useful. Then came the problem!

3 of the first 10 movies I watched froze up during playback. I noted the points on each DVD and tried them on four other players, including my older Sony, an XBox, and a newer Sony combo unit, and a portable. None of the other units had any problem with any of the discs. I took the player back and swapped it out for another. This new unit, too, froze in the exact same spots. I went back, again, to the retailer, and we tried 2 of the DVDs in their floor model. It did the same thing in the exact same spots! We tried the DVDs in several other demo models. None had a problem with the DVDs, only the Sony!

Reluctantly, I swapped the unit out for another brand. The picture on my new unit is quite good; however, not, in my opinion, as good as the Sony. It, however, has not frozen once with the dozens of movies I've played through it.

With an extensive DVD collection, I was not about to risk a 30% freeze rate on my movies! (These were not scratched or old DVDs. Two were new and one was only being watched for the second time!)

This is just, outright, a flawed product! The three units that had the same problem had different manufacture dates. IMHO, this is not a bad batch but a technical flaw. I suggest that you steer clear of this unit and wait until Sony figures out how to do it right, especially since it only has a 90 day labor warranty and, if you don't run into a problem until after that 90 days is up, you're left with a $130 paper-weight!

Rating:
Summary: Good DVD/CD Player
Review: I've been using this DVD player as my main CD and DVD player for my house and it sounds great with both. I've had no problems with DVDs freezing up or CDs for that matter. The optical output is also a nice feature.

Rating:
Summary: Decent Player.
Review: i've had this player for a few weeks now. i bought it to replace my older Sony 725 DVD player. i noticed 2 things right away. it takes awhile to read the discs after tray closes. with my 725 player, you can press play as tray was closing and disc would read & play in an instant. i also notice that the picture is slightly darker than my 725. i suggest going into an electronics store and test out the player before buying. for the price though, it's still a good player.

Rating:
Summary: Freeze-Fest!! Avoid This Player
Review: Like two other reviewers, I've run into the freeze issue. I believe it occurs at the layer transition, but am not completely sure. The problem is replicable and does not happen with the same disc on any of my other players, even the Sony NS575P (one lvl down from this...but no optical).

So, its time to return this nightmare....please learn from our mistakes.

Rating:
Summary: Bargain-priced DVD player from Sony with SACD capability
Review: Sony makes outstanding DVD players and this model is no exception. As is the case with most good DVD players these days, this Sony has progressive scan which gives enhanced picture quality when playing DVDs with a high-definition TV. You may not have HD TV yet but you probably will have one within a year or two, at which time you'll want a top notch DVD player with progressive scan capability, such as this Sony.

What sets this model apart from other progressive scan DVD players -- aside from the fact that it's a Sony -- is that it plays Super Audio CDs. Most modern DVD players play CDs as well as DVDs, but very few have the capability to play SACDs which are the highest fidelity audio medium currently available. And SACD circuitry can actually improves the sound of regular CDs as well. So if you want both the best picture and the best sound, a progressive scan player with SACD capability is the one to get. This Sony has both of these features at a bargain price.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty appearance out of the box, but nothing more.
Review: Very attractive looking DVD player that has great picture quality and sound, but it freezes randomly in almost every film. I know one other person that bought this same exact DVD player and it does the same thing. I thought it might be the movie that I was using so I threw it into my cheap GoVideo DVD player and it played without a hitch. This is the SECOND Sony DVD player that has failed me and the last.