Product Description

Enter a world of sharper images and surreal sound effects with Sony?s DVPNS975V DVD Player. Created to simulate the ultimate entertainment, this DVD/CD/SACD Player is packed with features.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58926 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Silver
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DVPNS975V
• Dimensions: 9.00 pounds

Features

• Playback support for DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, stereo/multichannel SACD, CD-R, CD-RW, JPEG CD, and MP3 CD
• Image up-scaling to high-definition 720p/1080i through HDMI digital-video output
• Precision Cinema Progressive video output renders seamless, flicker-free images on high-definition and HD-ready TVs
• Precision Drive 3 with Dynamic Tilt Compensation improves readability of damaged discs
• 12-bit video DAC with 108 MHz processing for pristine video (through component-video, S-video, and composite-video outputs)

Amazon.com Product Description
Sony's DVP-NS975V is a must for videophiles. The player up-scales standard MPEG-2 DVD-Video signals to full high-definition 720p or 1080i, a feature anyone with an HDMI-compatible TV can appreciate. Still watching analog TV? The player also handles your standard-definition (480i/480p) DVD-Video, audio CD, and Super Audio CD (SACD) entertainment--including playback of recordable CDs filled with MP3 music or JPEG image files.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a lossless, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface to link any AV source with an audio and/or video monitor, such as a digital television (DTV). HDMI supports standard-definition (SD), enhanced definition (ED), or high-definition (HD) video, plus multi-channel digital audio--all using a single cable.

The DVP-NS975V plays just about any disc out there, from DVD-Video to DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, and DVD+RW, and its onboard processing technologies, like Sony's Precision Cinema Progressive de-interlacer and 3:2 pulldown reversal, make all of them shine. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p or 720p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines (at 480p) of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

Precision Cinema Progressive technology uses a 12-bit video DAC (digital-to-analog converter) with high-bandwidth, 108 MHz processing to detect image changes at the pixel level, rather than at the level of whole scan lines. That makes this player's picture more faithful to the source--whether film or video--because it uses separate, optimized algorithms to handle different pixel behaviors. Separate algorithms are also used to process the moving and still parts of an image, resulting in sharp backgrounds with moving objects that are free from motion artifacts.

DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2 reverse pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture. Composite- and S-video outputs bring compatibility with nearly any television.

Depending on the disc, SACD music releases provide super high-fidelity multichannel and/or stereo sound. As an anti-piracy measure, the DVP-NS975V performs its own decoding of SACD signals, passing high-resolution analog, not digital, audio to your integrated amplifier or surround receiver. This means you'll need an audio/video receiver with multichannel analog-audio inputs to appreciate multichannel SACD releases. Built-in SACD bass management helps you tailor the output level of the ".1" LFE (low-frequency effects) channel to your system, as an appropriate level may differ from the output level appropriate for Dolby Digital and DTS surround mixes.

If you're not planning to use the SACD capability for multichannel programming, both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can also be routed through the player's digital-audio outputs (1 each RCA coaxial and Toslink optical) for simpler connection to a compatible receiver (multichannel analog and digital-audio interconnects are not supplied).

Precision Drive 3 provides a mechanism for reading DVDs that are in less than perfect condition, eliminating errors in playback due to imperfect, scratched, or warped discs.

DVD resume memory kicks in whenever you stop a DVD. Later, when you come back to it, the player will pick up right where you left off before. The player holds resume points for an impressive 40 discs. Other playback features include 10-second instant replay, DVD/CD Text display (with applicable discs), a digital video enhancer, digital video EQ (equalization), custom parental control memory for 40 discs, as well as Advanced SmoothScan and SmoothSlow Modes.

What's in the Box
DVD player, remote control, 2 AA remote batteries, a stereo analog audio/composite-video interconnect, a user's manual, and warranty information.

Customer Reviews

Garbage
I bought this in November. It used to freeze occaisionally if the buttons were pressed too quickly on the remote. The unit has now died. Any DVD put into the tray causes the player to hang. It wont even power off. To get the DVD back out, I have to cycle the power via the wall socket, then hit eject.

Sony support's response: Mail it to a repair depot, they'll repair it and mail it back. This can be very inconvenient, and given the extremely low quality of the player itself not worth the postage.

Looking at other reviews, it is clear this is a widespread issue. That Sony won't admit the issue or offer to swap it out boggles my mind ... the worst customer service I've experienced.

*** Added comment 8/16/2005. Amazon customer service gave me a refund which mostly covered shipping for repair. Sony's Loredo Exchange center indicated they have discontinued the model and have no equivalent unit to send me and offered to forward it for repair it or buy the unit back. I just received a check for the unit.

Extra Star Given for Balance
I'm not sure where all the angst came from in the negative reviews here. I've had this long enough to know that we got a good unit. The main reason I'm posting a review is to make a couple of comments about the upscaling capability of this unit. First off, the upscaling logic will NOT make a lousy DVD look as good as your favorites. The good news is that it does provide quite a bit of improvement on some discs and you don't even have to have the best TV monitor to see the improvement. Before replacing our 11+ year-old Toshiba 32" TV, we had plenty of time to verify this claim. We also had two other DVD players to compare to, both decent players by Panasonic and Pioneer, both without upsampling capability. One improvement you will notice is significant softening of noise features. DVDs that I classify as "bad" often display increased image distortion as the subjects within the frame move faster. The upsampling capability tends to make these artifacts less noticeable.

Another comment about video quality - I've asked myself and heard others ask if HDMI cables are worth the money. Our TV has HDMI inputs as well as component video inputs. There is no doubt that the HDMI input provides for better picture quality. Since this DVD player has both HDMI and component outputs, it's easy enough to switch the TV input to compare. And if you shop around, you can now get HDMI cables at a much more reasonable price than you could a few months ago. I've compared $250 Audioquest cables to $60 AR cables using this DVD player and a 1080i standard monitor and am hard pressed to say that I can see any difference. However, the Audioquest cable does seem to keep a good connection longer than the AR. More expensive HDMI cables are more supple and seem to handle being bent around in the cable quagmire much better than cheaper ones.

The HDMI output will ONLY work with HDCP compliant Monitors
Yet another reason NOT to buy this poorly designed DVD player. Sony has doubled the price of this DVD player after it included a HDMI digital output capability. However, the encryption is turned ON all the time! This means you can NOT feed the digital input of ANY monitor thta does NOT HDCP compliant. You must use the old fashioned component or S-Video inputs with your expensive digital flat panel monitor.