Product Description

Organize your disc library and enjoy quick access to 400 Blu-ray Disc movies, DVDs, and CDs with the Sony BDP-CX960 MegaChanger. A user-friendly interface makes it easy to find the movie, TV show or CD you’re looking for by sorting and grouping title, genre, cast and more. The BDP-CX960 also features stunning Full HD 1080p quality in Blu-ray Disc technology and DVD upscaling to near HD quality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #805 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Black
• Brand: Sony
• Model: BDP-CX960
• Released on: 2009-10-06
• Dimensions: 9.50" h x 17.00" w x 21.10" l, 29.90 pounds

Features

• Organize and play 400 Blu-ray Disc movies, DVDs, & CDs
• Experience Full HD 1080p/24p video output
• Quickly load rented movies through the rental slot
• Converts DVD video to near HD quality via HDMI
• Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD decoding/bitstream output

From the Manufacturer
(September 6, 2009)
Organize your disc library and enjoy quick access to 400 Blu-ray Disc movies, DVDs, and CDs with the Sony BDP-CX960 MegaChanger. A user-friendly interface makes it easy to find the movie, TV show or CD yourre looking for by sorting and grouping title, genre, cast and more. The BDP-CX960 also features stunning Full HD 1080p quality in Blu-ray Disc technology and DVD upscaling to near HD quality.

Organize your disc library and enjoy quick and easy access to 400 Blu-ray Disc movies, DVDs and CDs. Click to enlarge.

Store and play 400 discs
The Sony BDP-CX960 Blu-ray Disc MegaChanger can store and play 400 Blu-ray Disc movies, DVDs and CDs, allowing you to free up valuable shelf space and relocate all your discs to one convenient, easy-to-access location.

Displays jacket art, title, & more
The Sony BDP-CX960 Blu-ray Disc MegaChanger can take advantage of internet connectivity to download movie metadata such as jacket art, title, genre and cast information from the Gracenote service, and displays it in an intuitive, easy-to-navigate on-screen display.

Sort and group your discs
Enjoy quick and easy navigation of your Blu-ray Disc movies, DVDs and CDs with the ability to search and sort by title, genre, director, cast, and more from your remote control.

Fully-featured Blu-ray Disc player
In addition to storing and playing up to 400 discs, the BDP-CX960 offers all the capabilities of a fully-featured Blu-ray Disc player, including Full HD 1080p video output, HD audio support, BD-Live access, and the ability to upscale standard DVDs to near HD quality over an HDMI connection.

Find your movies fast--search by jacket art, title, director, cast, genre and more.

Start watching a rental movie right away via the dedicated rental slot.

Rental slot for quick loading
Quickly insert and start watching a movie right away with the dedicated rental slot. In addition, a button on the player gives you one-touch access to the rental slot for quick loading or ejecting.

Full HD 1080p video output
Full HD 1080p video output provides high-resolution HD images so you can take full advantage of your HDTV and the detail of Blu-ray Disc video content. Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD compatibility lets you play your favorite Blu-ray Disc movies, DVDs, and audio CDs.8

DVD Upscaling via HDMI
DVD upscaling via HDMI makes your existing standard DVDs look better on your HDTV by upscaling them to near HD quality via HDMI connection.

BD-Live technology
BD-Live technology brings you the next generation of interactivity, allowing you to download and stream bonus content, such as additional scenes, shorts, trailers, movie-based games, and more. (BD-Live enabled Blu-ray Disc, USB flash memory, and Internet connection are required.)

Support for enhanced audio formats
The BDP-CX960 Blu-ray Disc player supports both internal decoding and bitstream output of enhanced audio codecs, including Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD Master Audio. These high definition audio formats delivers "lossless" surround sounds with 7.1 channels of discrete audio that is nearly identical to the master studio recording, allowing you to enjoy uncompromised sound from the comfort of your living room.

Download and stream bonus content such as additional scenes, shorts, movie-based games, trailers and more.

Support for internal decoding and bitstream output of enhanced audio codecs, including Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD Master Audio.

Product updates
Product software upgrades can be easily downloaded and installed on the CX960 through your internet connection.

xross media bar
xross media bar user interface makes it simple and intuitive to browse and search for movies, as well as navigate menus, controls, and user settings.

Ethernet port
Ethernet port provides connectivity to a home broadband connection for network updates, disc metadata downloads, and BD-Live access.

Built-in USB port
Built-in USB port enables you to connect a portable USB storage device (sold separately) for additional storage capacity and lets you take advantage of specially created content from BD-Live with compatible Blu-ray Disc media.

BRAVIA Sync
BRAVIA Sync capability utilizes the HDMI CEC function to easily turn on and control your compatible HDMI-connected components via a single remote.

24p True Cinema
24p True Cinema capable lets you watch films at their intended 24 fps (frames per second)--the way movies are shot and mastered--so you can enjoy more cinematic picture quality.

Precision Cinema HD Upscale
Precision Cinema HD upscale uses advanced conversion and processing to detect image changes at the pixel level, rather than at the level of whole scan lines. Additionally, separate algorithms are used to process the moving and still parts of an image, resulting in sharp backgrounds with moving objects that are free from motion artifacts.

Bonus View
Bonus View feature provides "picture-in-picture" capability with select Blu-ray Disc titles--useful for viewing director or actor commentary while the movie plays.

Meets or Exceeds Energy Star 3.0
The Sony BDP-CX960 Blu-ray Disc MegaChanger meets or exceeds Energy Star 3.0 requirements.

What's in the Box
BDP-CX960 400 Disc Blu-ray Disc/DVD MegaChanger, Remote Commander (RM-ADP036), 2 AA Batteries, Instruction Manual, Warranty Card, Product Registration Card

Customer Reviews

Overall, I love it!
Initial review (10/09/2009), will update in the coming days:

Overall, I love it! Below are a few things I found while installing the unit:

My current entertainment center could not accommodate the changer due to its extremely large size. The width of the unit is pretty standard for a component; however, the height is 9.5 inches and almost 22 inches deep. My entertainment center does not have adjustable shelving, therefore the changer will not fit, and I will have to purchase a new shelving unit (bummer, but not a show stopper).

Once connected to my HDTV and surround receiver, the unit was very easy to set up via the onscreen guide. Initial set up was pretty quick, loading discs was not.

Okay, on loading my collection of 283 discs, the player began "Loading Disc Information" from Gracenote via the Internet. ***YOU MUST CONNECT THIS UNIT TO THE INTERNET*** or you will be forced to manually type the information into the player. I bring this up as I previously stated that I loaded 283 discs, and all but 12 could not be found on Gracenote. Why is this important? Well, you must type it in manually...... via the remote!! Prior models of this changer had a computer keyboard input for this, however, this one does not. Not a huge deal if it's only a few titles (it was like sending a text message a few years ago before QWERTY keyboards appeared on phones, for the letter "c" you have to hit the number 2 key three times, etc.) Actually, for 12 titles it was painful.

The player connected via the Internet to Gracenote for disc information. This process is time consuming so be patient. The "Loading Disc Information" portion for 283 discs took roughly 2 hours and 45 minutes. Once complete the changer will initially alphabetize your collection and place all the discs that it could not find at the top of each folder (e.g., Photo, Music or Video, etc.) This is where you have to type in the disc information.

Gracenote, hum, not so sure about this. Sort of strange results as I have both a DVD and Blu-ray version of a few movies and they are cataloged differently on the player. One example is "Young Frankenstein" one version is placed under "comedy" and the other under "horror". Also, it appears random, however, Gracenote found the movie "Airplane" which is roughly 29 years old, but could not find or have record of "The Wizard of Oz" on Blu-ray. Also, on boxed sets, it found some but not all of the collection (e.g., "Family Guy" it found disc 1, 2 and 4, leaving disc 3 to be manually entered???)

On BD-Live, pretty cool. You will need a USB thumb drive of at least 1 GB. And, the drive slot is on the back of the unit. So I would recommend that you place the drive in first before you place this unit into a cabinet and connect all the cables, as once you get going and then decide you need it, it's a bit cumbersome getting to the back of this unit (especially since it will be loaded with up to 400 discs, etc.)

On the rental slot, start loading your collection in slot number 2 as the "quick" rental slot is reserved for slot number 1. If you don't plan on using this, which I don't, then begin loading with slot 1. Actually, you can start loading disc wherever you want, just thought I would point that out.

Lastly, many of your DVD's will be located under multiple folders (e.g., Photo's and Video's) as the disc may contain JPEG images, which will qualify them as photo's, etc.

Well, I have only had the player now for roughly 27 hours and love it thus far. I will update this review if I experience any strange behavior or if something dramatically changes my opinion.

UPDATE 11/14/2009:

One month later, I still love it! There are reader comments and responses (below under comments) however, I thought I should make note that the player performed well with a power outage (I intentionally unplugged the unit to perform this test). This is extremely important if you have ever owned a prior Sony Megachanger as those units would not retain any data beyond at 6-8 hour period without electricity (I have personal experience regarding this and it was extremely painful.) This is a solid unit so far, and I promise to update this review and related comments should anything change. Stay tuned folks.

UPDATE 12/15/2009

Sony released a software update to the player today, December 15, 2009. I went from version 15.1.010 to version 15.4.013. The download and update was pretty smooth, and completed within 8 minutes. The screen on the unit will flash "Version Up 0/9", where there are 9 updates to be performed, etc. The system took the longest at 7/9 at roughly 4 minutes, however, when competed, you should see "Finished" on the box and it will then turn off. I have no details of this update as of yet. The system found two DVD's as NOT recognized (strange as they were there before), however, Gracenote found them and all is good. Best regards.

Very nice BD changer
It's about time an affordable BD changer appeared on the market. Picture and sound quality are equal or better than the PS3 it replaced. Been testing with Planet Earth, and the output is amazing. Also tested the up-scaling using the extended 'Return of the King' DVD, it's output was nearly good enough to keep me from buying the BD when (er. if) it appears.

Thank God for the new interface! It is much faster and easier to use than the old 'Disk Explorer' from the 300 and 400 disk Sony DVD changes.

The disk loading, and Gracenote, do need some improvement. If you just want to try the unit out after newly installing it, then start with only one disk. Because, every time you select the 'Load All Disks' option, it restarts from the beginning (disk 1), even if half of your collection was already stored.

The Gracenote had no info at all for about 1% of my collection. Another 2% had no picture jackets. And, perhaps the most annoying because of the number of times it happened, about 5% of my disks ended up with foreign language titles. You do have the option to over-ride this, which I did, and manually enter a title. Also there is the option to manually select different database entries - but all of the failed BD's had only a single entry. The player did manage to save my manual edits even when the disk was ejected and reloaded.

Regrets, I Dont have them,..
I bought the sony BDP-CX960 to accomodate my ever expanding DVD library that was eating up my shelving space, slowly and surely.
I only read the one review available from amazon when I bought it, and the specs from sony [...]web page.
Having owned multiple sony coponents over the years, I felt comfortable pulling the trigger on this 649 dollars baby.

I briefly read through the manual some before setting it up. I have connected to a pioneer VSX-1019 receiver via the BD HDMI input, outputing to a samsung 58 inches 1080p PN58B650 Plasma TV. the speakers are 4 Polk audio m70's for front and polk cs2 cc speaker and Polk M-60 for saurround rear with 2 Polk audio PSW505 subwoofers,..

All I can say is WOW, WOW,...

THE SONY DBP-CX960 SETUP MENU was very easy and intuitive, smoothly guided me through the all set up, from choosing audio, to picture quality to upscale, etc,.. all were easy and straightforward.

Now came loading the BD and DVD discs. After connecting the RJ45 in the back to my network, I loaded about 100 DVD and BD discs.

Via remote I instructed the machine to load all disc informations, which it does by connecting to gracenote, web site that downloads the discs informations and displays the jackets for easy recognition, as well as genres, actors year, etc,..

well out of 100 disc I loaded, it recognized 100 discs and downloded all there info, some were older one from the mid 90's,... no problem.
the process took somE time, so you bettEr get it started and get busy with another project. I did not time the process, but for the 100 disc I think it took about 1 h +/- 5-10 min.

The picture quality is amazing, and the sound could not be better.

Now i can sit in my favorite chair, flip through my DVD collection and not worry about loading the disc...that is what I was looking for.
No need to manually enter any information, wow,..it is about time somebody made good use of the internet in this business.

By the way you can do the same for audio cd and other media format.
It can connect to your computer via your network and displays picture, music and movies,.. not bad at all.

The list goes on and on,.. in a brief summary, the machine has lived up to my expectations so far, after one month of use, and has delivered what Sony has proclaimed. Great picture, excellent sound, HDMI connection, and others connections, and easy set up and operation.

If you are debating weather to spend the extra buck on this baby, and want to treat yourself for an early X=Mas gift, go ahead, take the plunge, the price keeps falling,.. it is in my opinion worth the price i paid for it.

Hope you'll find this helpful