Customer Reviews

Sony DVP-NS710H/B 1080p Upscaling DVD Player, Black

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

This DVD player does an excellent job of upconverting in my opinion. I also have a far more expensive Oppo DVD player and I would say they are on par.

One 'feature' I dislike about these DVD players is in the manufacturer's quest to make the box look sleek and simple, there are only a couple of buttons: open/close, play and stop (aside from the power button). Why, oh why, do manufacturers not put skip or fast-forward buttons on the box? Is this to force us to buy new remote controls when the kids make them disappear? I just don't like the idea that a piece of equipment become less functional without the sometimes elusive remote control.

Still, it does provide a beautiful picture, very sharp and one I believe almost maximizes the contrast, color and clarity provided by our expensive plasma tv.

A very good value when considering the quality for the price point.

Bought this to replace a Toshiba player that was nothing but trouble.
Good picture, easy setup, and unlike the Toshiba it plays everything I've tried in it. It takes a good 30 sec to a minute to lock on a disk. But once it does, it plays flawlessly. Even with some rentals that are in less than pristine condition.

We received this DVD player last week and hooked it up to a new Samsung 550 tv. I am not picky. I put the dvd in and it plays...that makes me fairly happy with the purchase. This player saves your spot after you take out the movie. That may come in handy when my little one has 6 movies that she is watching at once.

The sound is very nice for movies and dvd's. I like that it can hook up to my 1980's Sony stereo system.

The only negative and it is small - The power and open/close button are designed to be hidden so the player looks sleek. They are kind of hard to push.

Added the Sony DVP-NS710H/B Upscaling DVD player to our home entertainment center after acquiring a Sony Bravia LCD HD television. Amazing difference in playing older commercial DVDs, but best improvement on my home-made DVDs with both digital pictures & movies!

You might think (based on the model numbering) that when Sony replaced the DVP-NS700H with the DVP-NS710H, it maintained or improved the key features. Unfortunately, Sony has REMOVED the optical digital audio output that was present in the NS700H. This significantly limits how this player can be used. For example, my surround sound receiver (also made by Sony!) has ONLY an optical digital audio input.

BTW, as of this writing this product is being sold in stores and online but Sony still has not posted its support documentation on their eSupport website.

Make sure whatever you intend to use for Dolby Digital/DTS decoding has a compatible available input (HDMI or coax digital audio). Otherwise, look elsewhere. I say this as someone who has been nearly all-Sony for CE products, but this company is driving me away lately.

I bought 10 of the earlier versions (DVP-NS700H) to use as video sources in my work. One failed after just one month of use (~80 hours of playback) and a second one failed after 4 months and ~200 hours of playback. That translates to about 40 and 100 movies, respectively. In a household that watches just two movies a week, both units would have failed within their first year of use. I consider that terrible reliability. The newer 710 model uses the same laser circuitry and electronics as the 700, so I expect it's reliability would be comparable.

Five of the remaining 8 units failed between 1 yr and 2 yrs of service. I have since purchased four Toshiba DVD players that performed for much longer periods without the early failures I experienced with the Sony units.

The thorn with the Sony failures? Sony's 'warrantee' service asked for $87 in repair charges for each of the defective units still within their 1yr warrantee period! (I could buy a new one for under $60.) To get a used replacement, they still wanted $35! That is NOT a legitimate one year warrantee in my book.

Another problem with this unit (NS700) is the inability to force 1080P output. That mode is only supported in 'auto' mode, which means if the connected TV doesn't negotiate with the DVD player exactly as Sony wants, then the output will NOT set to 1080P. Therefore, it won't output properly to some 1080P capable TV sets. Better quality DVD players allow you to actually force the output to 1080P.

I cannot recommend this product to anyone based on the poor reliability.

Sony DVP-NS710H/B 1080p Upscaling DVD Player, Black

This is a great buy! My old dvd player crapped out and I needed a new one to mate with my 52 inch Sony Bravia flat screen TV. Took it out of the box, hunted my spare HDMI cable to use (it comes with composite video cable), plugged it in, popped one of the wife's DVDs in and used the TV's remote to get it running. Total time: about 3 minutes.

The picture and sound quality is awesome.

I had to do a lot of detailed research to find an updscaling DVD player that will play DVD+ and DVD- R/RW and Dual Layer DVD + and - formats at this reasonable price. Many cheaper models will only play one format (only + discs) and most do not play DVD DL discs. In my work as an A/V specialist I am using all types of DVD media so a player that can read them all was a must!
The picture quality is great with the HDMI output, and it reads scratched discs pretty well too.

This is a great DVD player. Image and sound quality is great.

I like that I can control my TV (a Samsung) via Sony's DVD remote.

I have a couple of design beefs. The buttons on the front of the unit are tiny and located at the fold between the front of the unit and the top. This looks very stylish but it's not as easy to punch the buttons to operate the device. I wouldn't mind this since normally you use the remote control. However, there appears to be no eject button on the remote control so you have to use the buttons on the front of the device. This is a minor but no less annoying shortcoming since it does take some time for the device to eject a disc. If you could push eject on the remote control, it would likely be ejected by the time you get up and move to the device. (I solved this problem by purchasing a universal remote which allows you to have a custom eject button for the device).

I did a bit of internet research on upconverter DVD players and compared the Sony NS710, Toshiba XDE500 and Samsung 1080P9. Based on reviews and comments I read, each of these have their pros and cons and were rated fairly evenly so it was a matter of price, convenience and personal preference. I ended up with the Sony simply because I already own a Sony Receiver and I thought it would result in reduced remote control clutter.

Since my Receiver is not HDMI capable, I connected the player directly to the TV via HDMI. The coax digital audio output went directly to the Receiver. I have both coax digital and optical audio inputs to my receiver, so not having the optical out did not make a difference to me. The overall picture quality of this player was quite impressive, it was definitely comparable to the 720p signal I received from my cable service, not quite the Blue Ray level but noticeably a step or two better than a non-upconverting player (which I had connected to the TV prior to getting this one) or normal SD broadcast.

Set up was plug and play. There were quite a few adjustments available (e.g. to perfectly sync the audio with the video, etc.) but I found that I did not need much adjusting to make everything work. The initialization time to read the DVD was quite short, about the same as the old DVD player it replaced. The unit itself was quite thin and light with minimal controls on the front face. Most of the controls need to be accessed with the remote. The remote control for my audio receiver took care of normal player operation.

The performance of this unit confirms my decision to put off my Blue Ray player purchase. Now I can wait until they finally freeze their standards and when the prices for the players (and BD DVDs) come down to a much more reasonable level.