Customer Reviews

Sony DVP-NS775V DVD/CD/SACD Player

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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!

I bought this 2 weeks ago from BestBuy. I was looking to purchase a new DVD player to go with my new home theater setup and thought I'd buy one that played both DVD Audio and SACD. Most good universal players are quite expensive, like maybe a Denon or Marantz. I found two that were affordable and available, the Sony NS775 and the Pioneer 578A. The Pioneer plays DVD-A, unlike the Sony and I was attracted to that first.

Fortunately I got a chance to see them both in action! I asked a salesperson in BestBuy if she could hook them up for me and she... very surprisingly... obliged. Even got component cables and asked me what size TV i had. Then went and got a demo DVD disc and hooked both the Pioneer and Sony to a TV that was the same size as the one I have.

Well, after about 10 minutes of viewing, pausing and switching, I realised that the Pioneer's image was a little sharper than the Sony. But what made me purchase the Sony instead were the vibrant colors and the solid blacks. I know that the TV was not calibrated properly, but that was exactly what sold me on the Sony. Even with a TV that was not calibrated, the Sony's PQ was better than the Pioneer.

I did not have the opportunity to check the settings on the Pioneer, but the Sony does come with basic SACD control that include Distance Settings. Bass crossover is set at 120khz for small speaker settings. I purchased a Diana Krall multi-channel SACD and tested the sound quality at home with my Denon/B&W setup. She sounds... live.

DVD sound is good, not great. But then I'm comparing to a Denon universal DVD player that I had auditioned ( I think it was the 2900). The Sony does not separate the sounds as much I'd like it to, but it does a commendable job. I tested the sound with chapter 4 (??) from Master and Commander. The sound effects in the scene where Russel Crowe's ship gets hit by a double whammy of cannon balls has a lot of information and will overpower most receivers and dvd players. The Denon does a great job of separation while the Sony does about 85% of the Denon's. But compare the price and I'm sure you'll be perfectly happy with the Sony.

Picture quality has been great (at this price level). The images are smooth and clean and I've yet to see any pixelation or layer-change delays. The Sony has two advantages over the Pioneer. It has Black Level setting for both component and s-video. And Block Noise Reduction. Both the Pioneer and the Sony have 3:2 pulldown. I wish that the Sony played DVD-A disc, but it's never going to happen. (Sony is part of the SACD group along with Philips.) I have checked both DVD-A and SACD titles and I find that most of the music I like is available on SACD. Plus the SACD camp does have a great idea with Hybrid SACD. It will play on both regular CD players (like the one in your car) and SACD players. Now that is a very cool idea.

All in all I am very satisfied with my purchase and I don't think anyone will regret purchasing the Sony NS775. Unless you want DVD-A capability. I believe Toshiba also has a universal player out at this price point, but I have never really liked Toshiba's players. That reminds me of the build quality of the Sony. Its very solid compared to either the Pioneer or Toshiba.

I bought the SONY NS775V mainly for its 12bit/108MHz video DAC. It that respect, it did not disappoint. The 480P video from the SONY NS775V is significantly better than the video from my Panasonic S47.

However, the (redbook CD) audio from the SONY leaves very much to be desired: it is tonally dry, texturally flat, harmonically bland and emotionally uninvolving. Compared with the Panasonic, there is, to my ears, no contest. (The Panasonic's 24/192 audio DACs, and its "Multi-Remaster" feature, make listening a true pleasure, giving redbook CD's an "analogue" richness, and adding believable presence to movie soundtracks.)

For me, the audio contribution is at least equivalent to the video contribution in terms of generating a satisfying
"cinematic" experience. It seems that the Panasonic better provides the former, and the SONY the latter.

The dilemna for me is whether I am willing to make a significant (negative) tradeoff in audio quality for the sake of a better picture. Since, on average, I use my A/V system more for music listening than for movie watching, I lean more toward sacrificing better video for a the sake of gaining (much) better audio. If the SONY even came close in audio performance relative to the Panasonic, I would consider keeping it. But I would say that the disparity in audio performance between the two units is greater than their disparity in video performance. (I guess I've learned, too, through this experience that I'm more of an audiophile than I am a videophile.)

Even after 30-40 hours of break-in, the redbook CD performance of the NS775V is extremely disappointing: the music sounds choked and utterly lifeless. The cold and distant nature of the audio while one is sitting down to watch a DVD takes a great deal of pleasure away from the movie experience, too. In addition, during my audition, the SONY did freeze up on, and eventually was unable to play, a DVD which had been no problem at all for my Panasonic S47.

I'll probably end up getting the Panasonic S97, which is about 2x the price of the NS775V, but has Faroudja processing and an 11-bit/216MHz video DAC. The "best of both worlds" may indeed be possible, but will necessitate my spending the extra money.

If you are restricted to the $100-125 price range, the following is advised:
(a) If you have decidedly preferential, videophile tendencies, then get the SONY NS775V.
(b) If you have preferential, audiophile tendencies (like me), then get the Panasonic S47.

Happy Viewing/Listening!

POSTSCRIPT:
After 50+ hours of break-in, and sustained absence of the Panasonic, the NS775V sounds better, although it is never rid of that trademark, stark and overly candid sonic signature indicative of Sony. In addition, the SACD performance is respectable (again, after 50+ hours of break-in). Bottom line is that the video playback on the NS775V is VERY special for the price, and makes this unit well worth its salt. I will therefore add another star to my rating. 4-stars ****

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.

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.

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

One of the nicer features on this DVD player (apart from the affordable price) is its ability to remember where you left off on a DVD, even if you've played different DVDs on the player in between. So if you were watching a DVD of a TV show earlier in the week and watched several DVD movies in between, when you put that TV show DVD back in, it'll remember where you stopped.

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.

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.

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.