Shines on old NTSC TVs

For the executive summary, read only the bolded items.

This is my third player since 2006.

I own the Cyberhome CH-DVD 300S [reviewed on epinions] and Philips DVP642, all still work. However, they have quirks. Cyberhome won't play some of my burn-it myself DVDs, played scratched Netflix disks poorly or not at all, but was low priced, physically small and played any format and region, easily. The Philips plays near all disks but its quality control and production issues in China led to known reports of malfunction in a 2 year span, so after 1.5 years of ownership, it stopped working a month ago. I repaired it, but I think its days are clearly numbered. DVD mechanisms are delicate, well made but rarely last 5 years, so its almost a rule that these units are nearly disposable.

Rather than wait for my preferred player to die, players are so cheap today that I can get a new primary player and set the old one as backup. Nearly all DVD players have highly desired functions that were once reserved for specialty players: shuffle, A-B play, variable slo-mo, frame by frame, variable speed play and variable fast forward or reverse, image zoom, and jump to scene or time. Most DVD players easily implement these functions, but some make accessing these functions easier than others: Sony> Philips > Cyberhome.

Most modern players play all DVD burn-it-yourself formats. However, DVD players today differ in how well they perform error correction to play scratched or warped disks.


All DVD players can display standard TV well, but they do differ in the quality of progressive scan. Whatever differences are most noticed in a side-by-side comparison.

Sony had a reputation for excellence in all products but in the last decade its degraded to make its competitors more than viable options. However, the Sony NS57P is exemplary of old Sony, it has excellent electronics and ergonomics.

When disks are played on the Cyberhome or Philips, a good disk starts up after a fixed delay. You know something is wrong when this delay is extended, but for defective disks the delay is very variable. After 1 minute of hanging, the player will often respond that the disk is not playable. On these same disks, the Sony has no trouble playing problem disks. It takes slightly longer to start DVDs on the Sony for all disks, but the delay is uniform for all disks, defective or not. One has a more confidence that the Sony knows what its "doing." Further, the Sony functions are very well integrated compared to the hodge-podge look of the Philips and Cyberhome, were one menu system is unlike the others, suggesting Sony puts more engineering into its player.

This review compares the Sony against the Cyberhome and the Philips DVD player.

In the Box

Like many DVD players, the DVD players are thin, small and light. About 1.5" thick and the perimeter of a 1.5 sheets of bond paper, end to end. Included is the remote, RCA cables, AAx2 batteries and users manual.

Player & Setup

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 [jacks found on all modern TVs today, such as LCD or plasma.]

The case is all black, with 4 buttons difficult to see against the black case. Buttons are for off/on, open/close disk, play, stop. 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.

Picture Quality

On line-out, the video is far superior to Cyberhome and Philips. Images, sharpness and colors seem brighter on default settings. Sony includes a sharpness adjustment feature to maximize more its NTSC output. Its 480p output is far sharper and color faithful than the Philips.


Ergonomics

Excellent. I did not have to read the manual to learn how to use nearly all the functions, including special ones specific to this unit.

Play: new disks play instantly. When powered off, the Sony will resume playback from whence you stopped for up to 6 separate disks! An unusual feature in a single player, but likely reflects Sony's re-use of its custom electronics. This is great if you have a carousel but for a single player, its great for previewing scanned chapters in burn-it yourself disks.

Sony TV Control: has on/off and volume control for TVs in the DVD remote.

Variable play: from 1.4x to 0.5x speed, but with sound. Most DVD players do not have sound when using slo-mo or fast play or rewind.

Enhanced Sound: with take the basic output of 2 speakers and tries to emulate surround sound or adds ambience.

Chapter Search: the 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. It takes some seconds to generate thumbnails, but quite a time saver!

Remote

Typical of Sony, its 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. I have old Sony remotes, and the buttons are bigger and laid out distinctly, that one can figure out functions by feel.

All advanced functions are controlled by the remote, so its indispensable. However, unlike Cyberhome or Philips, one can figure out the functions by reading the feedback on the TV screen. I did not have to read the manual to use advance functions.


Conclusion:

Superior to the Cyberhome and Philips, had I known about Sony I would have bought this unit alone. 480p quality is good enough to appreciate on HDTV sets until you upgrade to a 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.