 |
|||||||||
| Home >> HDTV Reviews | |||||||||
 |
Date: 2010-02-10 Bare Essentials Only, Many Features Missing ! Since this is the only currently available player I could find that will hold hundreds of discs and also play DVD+/-R discs, I guess you would have to say the performance is acceptable. In many ways though, it's a step backwards from Sony's previous players and other contemporary players on the market today. 1. There is no way you can program this player to play more than one DVD disc, although you can do this for CDs. 2. It is a wired Ethernet port, but the only thing you can use it for is to download Gracenote data for pre-recorded DVDs. 3. NO streaming video (Netflix, YouTube, MPEG files from your PC, etc.) 4. USB port can only be used for JPEG pictures (no remote control, streaming, etc.) 5. NO direct access to DVDs, to play a particular disk, you have to scroll through the entire list, starting with this number one. 6. NO S-Video output. 7. Although it has a "rented DVD playback slot", this only allows you to load a disc into the slot number one. (Big deal) 8. It takes 45 seconds just to turn the power on, plus another minute to locate, load, and play a DVD. Overall, the performance is OK, but for this price it's missing too many features. I think Sony needs some competition in the market for this type of player. Date: 2010-02-05 Follow the yellow brick road.............. I own two of these units, and love them!! They are everything that you would want from a blu-ray changer, and more. I found, through trial and error that the changers work at their best with the original firmware that came with it, and that the firmware update removes it's viability and causes nothing but grief. When I received my first changer, I loaded all of my discs. Everything worked perfectly. Even Gracenote found all but two of my 400 discs. Then I made the mistake of 'upgrading' the firmware. To my chegrin, 75% of my discs now came back "Invalid Disc". I managed to restore the original firmware, and voila, all of my discs were once again recognized. I have read most of the reviews posted on Amazon for this unit. Many of them seem to be written in anger and haste and may be tainted by the writer because of this. To believe that the changer destroys discs is nonsense. If the reader inside of it destoyed 1 disc, then it would destroy all of them. Also, regarding Gracenote, if the description, or icon does not say what you expected, 'Load' that disc again. Gracenote will usually put up a menu with multiple choices for that disc. Pick the appropiate one. I was so satisfied with my first unit, that I bought a second one. I have split my blu-ray discs so that unit #1 contains titles starting with 'A-O', and unit #2 contains 'P-Z'. Both are hooked up to the internet, and both work carefree, perfectly. Date: 2010-02-01 Blu-ray DVD changer Excellent quality, easy to use. Gracenotes initially identified 198 of 200 discs completed, in actuality only identified about 185, leaving us to input the remainder manually. Still, a great feature and will still buy this product for it. Date: 2010-01-20 Long Time Coming This 400 disc player is a vast improvement, I had Sony's previous model the DVP-CX985V and it has nothing on this model. First of all the GUI is ten times better, the way the movies are displayed. You can sort & group movies better and easier. Being able to connect to the internet for automatic Gracenote access when you put in a movie for the titles & picture display is the best thing they could have ever done. All your movie titles are listed on the main screen instead of like previous models having to go through folders. The "rental slot" button is another great additon, push this button and it automatically goes to slot 1 everytime for rentals or borrowed movies. The picture quality is great and the sound is excellent, no complaints there. The only downside is disc access time is still a little slow. Also, the unit is pretty bulky so you need a good size shelf or cabinet for it. Date: 2010-01-18 Big and Beautiful I've owned two of Sony's 400 disc DVD mega changers (DVP-CX995V) since they came out about five years ago, and I really love them. You just can't beat the convenience of being able to browse your DVD library using a remote. The only thing that I regretted when I made the leap to Hi Def discs a few years ago was giving up the convenience of being able to put my discs in a mega changer. So naturally I jumped at the opportunity to purchase one of these Blu-ray mega changers as soon as I found one for a reasonable price. The only thing that I'm disappointed with this device is the size. It's 2" higher and 1" deeper than its predecessor. This may not sound like much but it makes a big difference. It's quite a bit heavier too. A notable improvement to this model over the previous one is the ability to download disc information via an Internet connection (from the Gracenote database). This worked well for me as 54 of the 55 Blu-ray discs that I inserted were found and catalogued. I wasn't crazy about some of the genres that Gracenote assigned but fortunately I was able to change them. I was also able to tweak disc titles as desired. When you do have to input disc information manually, it's tedious. The remote uses a cell phone keypad texting paradigm and that's not bad (and quite an improvement over the previous model), but this is just not the kind of data entry that lends itself to a remote. What's really needed is USB keyboard support. The previous model supported a keyboard. And while it was essential for imputing information into the previous model (there was no Internet connection so almost all information had to be manually entered), it would still be nice to be able to use a keyboard with this model too. The box art in the GUI is cool. Sure, it would be better if it was larger (such as with a Netflix player) but still, it's pretty cool. I like that the changer remembers how you last sorted the discs even after it's powered off. I like to leave mine sorted by genre and then title. My last nit is with the Blu-ray format itself. Why do some discs load so agonizingly slowly? (I've had a couple of other Blu-ray players so I know that it isn't a problem with this one.) Why do some discs block the changer from resuming play where you left off? It's not a good thing when copyright protection gets in the way of the viewing experience. And if you ask me, HD DVD was a superior format. It's too bad that there won't be a mega changer that incorporates Blu-ray and HD DVD. All in all, this is a great upgrade from the previous DVD model and is an excellent addition to my home theater system. * Price is subject to change. |
||||||||
 |
|
|
|||||||
| Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | |||||||||
| ©2008 HDTV-Source, All rights reserved. | |||||||||
