Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have been into DVDs for about six years now, so I have spent a LOT of time watching them.I started out on an old full frame tv and now have a 30" widescreen HDTV (1080i resolution).I plugged this player in with an HDMI cable (available here on Amazon far more cheaply than in your local store).So that's my perspective, now onto the review...
This player is the first multi-disk changer I am aware of capable of HDMI upconversion.At least at this price.I can also confirm that it is capable of playing vcds, which is often a hit or miss proposition since the format is so uncommon in the US.
As someone who watches a lot of tv shows on dvd and multidisk editions of movies, being able to load multiple disks at once is desireable for obvious reasons.I did find the interface for changing disks to be somewhat confusing at first, but once you figure it out you can change disks fairly quickly.But be advised that all the extra disks make this player fairly large.Much larger even than my first dvd player, let alone the miniature ones they make today.
The HDMI upconversion is the real holy grail here.Most people who own HDTVs do not actually subscribe to HD channels.I do subscribe to the HD pack and premium movie channels through my cable service, so I know what 'HD' tv shows and movies are supposed to look like.
And here's the verdict:This player makes DVDs look just as good as HD broadcasts.Maybe a bigger tv than I have can tell some difference, but for comparison purposes I decided to take the most digitally packed movie I could think of (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) and watched the pod-racing scene.I know, bear with me for a minute.This scene has thousands of small moving objects in the audience and lots of detail all around.The picture looked beautiful.It was as good as I have ever seen pod racing look, and as good as anything I've scene on an HD movie channel.
How does HDMI upconversion compare to the new 'High Def' dvd formats?Well, consider this...The next generation dvd players offer two advantages over current gen dvd players: 1) HDMI upconversion to a higher resolution and 2) Higher disk capacity for larger files.Now consider that every movie you have ever seen has already been fit onto just one or two current gen DVDs just fine.Once you 'upconvert' those DVDs to the higher resolution of this player (1080i or 720p), then you will get a picture that's basically the same thing as the next gen players.The next gen players will be able to support 1080p resolution, but there are very few televisions on the market right now to use with it.Most HDTVs, except for a handful of the most expensive models, only support 1080i or 720p.
So for now, there really just isn't anything better on the market than this player. And for the current generation of players, I don't expect there ever will be anything better.
*UPDATE*
SA-CD users take note:Amazon has a misleading statement in the title.This is NOT an SA-CD player.Apparently a number of people are buying this player primarily to play SA-CDs.So be warned that Amazon's title is just plain wrong.I haven't found any other errors in the title or product description, but there is no SA-CD capability of any kind.
On that note, another music related issue is that when playing music cds it only shuffles tracks on one disk...not all five, as some might expect.
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Product Description:
Store hours upon hours of entertainment in Sony's DVP-NC85H/S five-disc carousel changer. This versatile unit plays DVDs and a variety of older disc formats, such as VCD and SVCD, as well as your favorite music CDs. And since the unit supports HDMI connections, you're sure to get the best picture possible.
HDMI Compatible
High-Definition Multi-media Interface (HDMI) is an interface format that provides uncompressed digital audio and video directly to a digital television. It represents the current state of the art in high-definition video and sound because the information never has to be converted into an analog format. Another benefit of HDMI is that it puts all that information into one cable and one easy-to-use connector.An added benefit of connecting the DVP-NC85H/S to your set with HDMI is that the unit can "upscale" commercial DVDs, which are rendered at 480p resolution, to a digitally interpolated 720p resolution, which makes for a much sharper picture.For analog sets, the DVP-NC85H/S includes a 108 MHz 12-bit digital-to-analog converter for sharp picture and clear action. It features composite, S-video and component video connectors, as well as optical digital, coaxial digital, and RCA analog audio outputs.Precision Cinema Progressive
While other DVD players detect image changes at the scan line level, Sony's Precision Cinema Progressive (PCP) system detects them at the pixel level. This makes the picture more faithful to the source--whether film or video--because the technology uses separate, optimized algorithms to handle the differing pixel behavior. It also uses separate algorithms to process the moving and still parts of an image, resulting in sharp backgrounds with moving objects that are virtually free from motion artifacts.Precision Drive 3 System
Sony's DVP-NC85H/S delivers excellent picture and sound quality--even from damaged discs. How? The unit's Precision Drive 3 system allows you to playback some DVDs that may have been damaged or warped without a degradation of picture quality. This feature comes in handy when watching rentals or other heavily used discs.MP3 and JPEG File Playback
The DVP-NC85H/S plays MP3 sound files and JPEG photo files. Simply insert the disc and use the remote control to navigate through your folders to your files.
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