Customer Reviews

Sony DVP-NS57P/B Progressive Scan DVD Player, Black

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

NOTE: This review is a copy&paste of my review for the 2005 SKU/model/version of this player ... Sony DVPNS50P. After that it became the "55" model before this year when it became the "57" model.

DECEMBER 2005: I have only had this item for about three weeks or so. I am hoping that it "holds up" over time, unlike a lot of other DVD players on the market that apparently fail so quickly they are practically disposable in nature.

The "pros" on this item (so far) are:

* sleek, slim, uncluttered look of the unit

* comes in either black or silver, so you can match it up to your other devices.

* easy set up. There's a electrical plug, trip-RCA jacks and an S-video jack. Hook-up is a snap. Hardware-wise, the device, then, is really uncluttered.

* seems to be a good deal for the price.

The "cons" (so far) are:

* as said elsewhere by other reviewers... it IS slow. Slow to boot a disc. Slow to re-start a disc that has been stopped. Just slow.

* the display readout on the front of the box. It scrolls words like "welcome," "open" "close" and "no text." The firmware engineer was apparently out to lunch on this one. There's not even a clock display. It will display the time the DVD has played, thank goodness.

*the on-screen menu is pretty lame. Must have been the same engineer. The menu choices are only displayed as cryptic graphics, and the choices for each graphic are brief and uninformative (as in "on, off, auto" or similar types of statements). You will absolutely have to work through the manual to figure it out. And you won't find a lot of useful functionality after you do. It is a pretty bare-bones box.

* The remote control could use a good bit of improvement. The text is large enough to read ... but the buttons barely protrude from the face. You have to grasp this thing firmly, get your finger right on the button and apply a good bit of pressure to score. And a lot of the buttons can't be pushed while the thing is sitting on the coffee table ... the back of the device is beveled at the top, so if you press on the buttons near the top -- common usage buttons like TV on/off, box on/off and open/close -- while it is sitting on a level surface, the thing just flips up in the air. And the range is horrid. It can't handle getting its signal over the edge of my coffee table three feet away from the box. You've got to pick it up and aim it directly at the device if you want the box to respond. There's no facilitation for using the remote at night (no glow in the dark, backlighting, light-through, etc.) AND the remote came in silver. Who at Sony thought that I would want a silver remote if I bought a black box? Was molding cases for the remote in two different colors too big a challenge for them ... or did it just make it easier for Sony to manage its inventory?

* The box has already told me "no disc" incorrectly a couple of times. Jogging it opened and closed resolved the issue. Either the tray is not designed to align the disc 100% when inserted ... or this is an indication the device is going to have read problems down the road. Time will tell.

Still, IF it is quality, IF it is durable, then it's worth what I paid for it.

UPDATE: September, 2006. After owning one for almost a year ... and buying two more this summer ... I can still recommend this unit. Every once in a great while, it gets confused enough so that I have to unplug it from the wall to "reboot it." It has tracked flawlessly on almost every DVD ... just a freeze here and there on some heavily used Netflix rentals. I do not see any evidence of dual-layer freezing.

UPDATE December, 2007. All three units still working fine and still recommended.

UPDATE March, 2009. No problems! Recommended!!!

NOTE: The "57" does NOT have S-video input; the "50" does. I replaced the remotes with a Sony RM-VL600 'trainable' remote. $20 and well worth it. Check it out.

I've had this DVD player a few weeks now and have watched a couple dozen DVDs. None have given me any problems, including scratched DVDs and DVDs burnt on cheap media which would freeze and skip on my old econo DVD player.

The pros: The user interface is excellent. It seems solid, quick to respond, and well made. I love the speed up/slow down feature, very cool. It's sleek and compact looking, excellent remote control response range.

The cons: The remote will not program for too many TVs, there's only about a dozen codes and none of them work for my older TV. I'm sure it's fine if you're TV is from the last 5 years or so, or a very common older one though.

This model is one of very few DVD players I looked at that wasn't made in China, definitely a plus in my book (although many other Sonys are).

I can't yet speak for long-term use, but overall, I'm very impressed.

My old Sony DVD player, which was the same model started getting some problems after 7 years of performing an excellent duty. I decided to by the same model again and was amazed that the price dropped significantly. I paid less than half what I paid the last time. DVD players got cheaper, but not that much cheaper.

Compared to some other DVD players that are around the same price and which I know personally from own experience or from experiences by friends of mine, does the Sony provide a much better quality in picture and sound than those.

You can certainly buy a more "fancy" DVD player with a lot more gimmicks for a much higher price, but if what you do is just playing back your DVD movies, from the original disc or DVD-R/DVD+R backup (single and dual layer), this Sony will do just fine. It does not have the ability to play back MP3 Cd's, but I honestly never used such feature, even when I had it with a different DVD player.

I own a Sony dvd player (model #DVP-NS300) which I've had for over three years and have easily played 400+ movies on it. The past few months it's started randomly freezing up while playing and jumping back to previous chapters. It wasn't the discs because they would play on my computer or a no name brand I got at Wally world for next to nothing. All my movies are either brand new discs or used ones I purchased on sale from the local video stores. I don't own anything but legit discs; none of mine are "burned".

I was reluctant to buy another Sony after some of the reviews I've read on here, especially the one about freezing up just like my old player has started doing. But I decided to take the risk figuring I'd return it if it didn't pass my "acid test" which is a movie I couldn't get to play all the way through, even on my computer which has played everything I've put into it up to that point. This disc is wickedly scratched. I bought the Sony DVP-NS57P/B from a local store today because it was on sale for the same price offered here, and figured it would be easier to return if it didn't pass my acid test.

I'm happy to report it not only passed my test 100% but has a couple of features my old model didn't have. It has a Slow Play and Fast Play, both with sound. You can play a movie up to 4 times faster or slower and still listen to it. The sound matches the speed of the video, but it doesn't sound like Donald Duck or some drunken slur. You can actually understand it. Another thing I like about it is the Zoom feature. It zooms in x2 or x4, which is really great if the credits are small.

The one drawback is I don't like the new remote as well as the old one. It's boxier with sharp corners, a couple of inches longer, silver instead of black, and doesn't fit my hand as well. The silver color makes it easier to locate in low light, but I could operate the old remote in the dark whereas this new remote will take some getting used to because everything has been moved around or made smaller. The old remote works with the new player, but the old remote doesn't have the F/S Play or Zoom buttons.

I HIGHLY recommend this player since it seems to be an upgrade from my old model which I was very happy with all along. Who knows, maybe in another three years and another 400+ movies I'll need to replace this one too, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I visited an electronics store recently and brought a few DVDs (both -R and +R) that I made on my PC. We hooked up 3 players selling for about the same price. The Philips player kept stalling and pausing and then stopped completely after a few minutes. The Toshiba SD-4000 was the same, couldn't play my homemade DVDs. I got a little worried.

Finally, the Sony DVP-NS57P worked perfectly, no problem at all! I'm very, very happy and can now play any of my DVDs. It's definitely the best for me and for anyone not concerned with features most people don't use.
So, I've saved you a lot of hassle of testing machines. Get this one.

Pros

Sony has no trouble playing problem disks that plagued my other players. But, it also doesn't play a few disks my other players struggle to play.

Sony menu functions are very well integrated compared to the hodge-podge look of lesser brands making it easier to use this player without reading a manual.

Installation is very easy. Plug the cables depending on what you use, component video, digital or line-outs. The power cable is not removable. There is no HDMI jack, since its maximum resolution is 480p via component video.

The case is all black, with 4 buttons difficult to see against the black case. The DVD tray opens slower, but is quieter when it runs. The ELD display is far clearer and more informative about the status of the disk or the chapter playing.

Images, sharpness and colors are superb on default settings. Sony includes manual or preset image adjustments to maximize its output.

When powered ON, the Sony will resume playback from whence you stopped for up to 6 separate disks.

It has has on/off and volume control for TVs in the DVD remote.

Variable play from 1.4x to 0.5x speed, but with sound.

Sony has sound function that takes the basic output of 2 speakers and tries to emulate surround sound.

Sony will create thumbnails of each DVD chapter independent of the DVD menus. This helps quite a bit in home made DVDs that have no menus.

Cons:

Remote is well laid out, with similar function buttons set near each other but in opposite directions for opposite functions, i.e., rewind left, forward, right. However, like many el-cheapo DVD players, the buttons are too small and one cannot differentiate functions purely by feel. You have to gaze at the buttons to read the function.

All advanced functions are controlled by the remote, so its indispensable.

Conclusion:
480p quality is good enough to appreciate on 32" or less HDTV sets until you upgrade to a 46" and over 1080p DVD player. Although Sony explicitly mentions it has support for copy protection schemes built right into the data [ e.g. the video file or image, not just the disk], I have not yet encountered data that would not play.

Yes the ability of this unit to read/play imperfect discs is better than most, but the design, programing and functioning of the remote is poor at best. To start, the buttons on the unit are too small and are in the wrong/less than convenient positioning. The keys function slowly/poorly. The actual programming is reqiures too many steps to effect desired actions such as slow play requires hitting of pause then then slow rather than just pressing slow key to effect desired reduced speed. The .6 slow play is unique and liked.

I recently replaced my original DVD Player from July 1998, which cost me nearly $800 at the time. The price of the SONY DVP-NS57P/B Progressive Scan DVD Player is the first nice thing about it -- $55.00 -- sweet!

This player plays ALL of the DVD formatted discs I have that could not be played on the original player, which had been moved to my bedroom, following other DVD Player purchases, such as an ALL-REGION PAL-NTSC PLAYER, which I had purchased as an after-market mod.

This SONY unit plays CD's, CD-R's, CD-RW's, MP3 CD's, DVD's, DVD-R, MP3 DVD, and quite a few others.

This is a fantastic unit, especially considering the low price. This price show how ubiquitous the DVD has become in our media saturated society.

The remote is well laid out, and easy to use.

However, there is one thing about this player that I DO NOT like (although not enough to return it) and that is the on-screen menu system. It looks like SONY tried to keep this as simple as possible, but in doing so, they lost some menu features, which mostly deal with the time coding of the currently playing disc.

There are just not enough options and settings, as compared to the other players I have in my home, including the ones in my Apple Computer.

But, this small insufficiency was only enough for me to drop one star in my rating, as everything else is just so damn excellent.

Sony DVP-NS57P/B Progressive Scan DVD Player Black

Player died after only 6 months of light-to-moderate use, in a household with no kids or pets.

I would never buy this DVD player again, even if it were only $10. The buttons on this player are very slow to respond. Sometimes I'll press the power button and it doesn't even turn on. I often have to hit a button 2 or 3 times before it works, this goes for all buttons, power, eject, etc. There is a definite lag between button depress and response --- this may not seem like that big of a deal but it really is extremely annoying. This player also will not turn off automatically. I've had previous players that will automatically power down x amount of minutes after a CD or DVD ends, not this one, it stays on, wasting energy until you manually turn it off. (And remember, you may have to hit that off button twice...)