Customer Reviews

Sony SLV-D500P DVD/VCR Combo

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I had already ordered a Sony SLV-D300P DVD/VCR Combination player, when I read the uniformly bad Amazon.com customer reviews. Apparently, the SLV-D300P had a significant problem with skipping on all but the newest DVDs. Having learned to respect the accuracy of Amazon.com customer reviews, I sent the SLV-D300P back and ordered its slightly more expensive ($$$-$$$ more) successor, the SLV-D500P. I figured that if Sony had created a lemon, they would fix the problems in the newer model. I was not disappointed. The SLV-D500P is easy to set up, easy to use, and has excellent picture and sound quality. Most significantly, I have had no problems with skipping with over 3 dozen DVDs, including new, used, and from the local library. I have encountered no negatives with this product, and would highly recommend it, particularly for its relatively affordable price.

I just took delivery of the Sony SLV-D500P DVD/VCR Combo earlier today. Contrary to some other reviewers' experiences, my unit has no noise issues whatsoever. The picture quality with both DVD & VCR is decent, but I do have some quibbles:

1) The DVD output doesn't offer 3:2 reverse pulldown for watching DVDs of films [movies] (which have a different native frame rate than video, & require this feature to avoid nasty visual artifacts.) The Phillips combo offers this at the same price, but has gotten bad reviews for other reasons.

2) The VHS output doesn't offer an S-Video Out jack, so one is forced to use the lower-quality Composite or Antenna Out jacks.

3) To use the Component Video outputs (which yield the best quality) of the DVD player, you must turn on the "Progressive" setting, which, despite a button for it on the front panel, is frustratingly difficult to do, and often requires repeated attempts. (And the DVD output will be scrambled until you do.) And then you must turn it off again when using the VCR, or the VCR picture will be scrambled!

4) The remote is terrible! (32 buttons of the exact same size [tiny] and shape, which do eveything from selecting channels to controlling system settings.) Don't even try to use this in the dark!

If you can afford the space, buy a separate DVD & VCR - you'll be glad you did, & you can buy both for the same total cost. If you don't have the space, as I didn't, this will do.

After I ordered the SLV-D500P, I read the review below
about the unit being loud. I was a little worried,
but after I received the SLV-D500P my
fears were put to rest. It isn't loud at all,
either this guy got a bad unit or is reviewing the
wrong product.

First we tested a DVD-R that we made using our
iMac SuperDrive. It worked wonderfully.
The picture quality is excellent, but be sure
to modify the built in sound settings if you
don't have surround sound, because the volume will
appear relatively quiet compared to your TV audio
unless you modify the DVD player settings to say
Audio: TV. Then it will sound fine.

We are using this DVD Player with the
Sony KV-27FS100 Flat Panel TV. This combo
makes an excellent relatively low cost, but quality,
Entertainment System.

I got this 2 weeks ago to replace my old VCR and add a new DVD. I am not a handy man and by looking at set up menu and it took me less than 1/2 hour to set it all up. Menu option is so user friendly. I run so many DVDs & VCRs and it is fine so far with no problem. I have no HDTV so the progressive scan I have no comment. Love this and I am highly recommend this DVD/VCR combo.

I have bought Sony products over the years for their high quality. This item is a very big disapointment from the start. I bought it mainly for the DVD operation which never worked. The door would not open. Took to Sony repair shop who replaced laser. Still did not work, returned to repair shop. They replaced laser again. Did not work. Now Sony is going to do something, not sure what. But after paying a high price I have no unit.

We have always stood behind Sony's quality and their products have lasted a long time, until now. After 3 months, the tracking on the VCR tapes would not work. First we blamed the tapes and discarded them. Upon trying the tapes in our other machines, they were fine. We removed/reinserted the tape as the manual suggested, but that didn't help. It started out that the tracking would not hold after about 3 hours, then 2 hours, now 1 hour. E-Mail to customer support has been futile. We keep being pointed to other sites. Why can't they do that for us? The cost of mailing the unit in for repair nearly pays for a new unit.

I'm a girl, okay? Not a tech-head girl either. The last VCR I bought was years ago, and it was going on the blink. So I knew I needed to get with the DVD program, but still had all these tapes! So I wouldn't look like I was buying myself a new toy, I bought it for my husband's birthday. Since it was a surprise, I had to wait until he was out of the house to install it. I ran home on my lunch hour, hooked it up, and learned most of the functions by the time I had everything straightened up and had to rush back out.
So - it's easy to hook up, it's easy to operate. No loud noises, everything works as it should. Yes, the buttons are tiny on the remote. It looks good and I would recommend this for anyone scared to buy. Don't be.

I don't have any issues with noise, like the other posters, and the progressive scanning is simple to use. I've viewed new and old VHS tapes, recorded with it, works perfect. I've played CDS, MP3s and DVD-R with no prob.I've had no problems using rented (and worn, scratched) DVDs and most of the time it works perfect. However, just about every other DVD I watch will "lock up" in the middle of a movie, (pausing, but the only way to release the pause would be to skip back a few frames and push play) not the DVDs-happens with new ones as well. The local repair shop apparently can't work on combo players and I would have to ship it to Sony on my own---not worth risking it to me, so I'll just live with that one prob.--other than that--I happened to get it cheap, because the older model I picked out was out of stock, so I got it as they just received it in store that day at the older model's price....so I think it was worth it, and I'm happy with it...

I purchased the first Sony DVD/VCR combo and it worked great, for about 4 weeks. Then half way though a movie it started jumping from scene to scene before it froze up. I tried a couple of different disks but all I get in return are error messages. I received a replacement unit and on this one the DVD player only works on half of the disks I've tried. The other half I get "can't read disk, clean disk, error", etc... These are the same disks that worked fine on my original unit until the crash that is, and they all work fine on my Marantz 6400. I really like the way the Sony 500P interfaced with my Wega TV but it seems like Sony is just interested in selling low quality DVD players

It works great as long as you don't play any scratch DVD's or messed up tapes. If you play like old tapes or messed up DVD/CD's it will ruin the thing. Just take very good care of it and you'll be okay.