Price Paid:  $499.00 from HYPER-FI

Summary:
I have used the 956 for 2 years now and have just recently changed to the Philips DVD958, WOW what a machine. I have used merdian Dvd players on my prime set-up for 3 months and this philips beats it on all counts,Picture, Sound and ease of use. Jitter on this machine is better than my merdian and even better than my pals PRO Denon DVD.
What is even more upsetting is that when you open the lid of the meridian, guess what greets you!, a downgraded version of the 958 series machines. £2500 is a lot of money when £499 will get you the upgraded philips machine. I can hearterly give this machine full marks. Try it (if you can find one) and don't let the meridian salesman tell you that their machines not a philips, £675 of the £2500 is commisson. need i say more

Strengths:
DVD 958, PURE SOUND REPRODUCTION, VIVID DYNAMIC PICTURE

Weaknesses:
NONE

Similar Products Used:
MERIDIAN DVD, DENON PRO, PHILIPS 956

Price Paid:  $270.00 from Electronic City, Jakarta

Summary:
I've used this product almost for 1 month. I use it every night. First time I plug it to my Philips Match Line TV using RCA connector, the picture is not good. Then I use the S-Video connector (which fortunately come with the DVD not like many other DVD player). The picture is very different. It's great, shining, and very smooth. I'm not sure whether the TV or the DVD has more contribution on this, but one thing for sure that I realy satisfied with the picture.

The sound is also great. I used the 3D TruSurround since I don't have a receiver yet. I conect the DVD player audio output to my TV then connect the TV output to my Altec Lansing active speaker ATP-3 which already included a sub woofer. The virtual sound was realy good. I can differentiate far sound and near sound.

The on screen display was very nice. Its very easy to learn an used. You can access all fetures from the OSD menu. Lots of features, including picture setting (only if you use Video Component output), Speaker setting (if you use the 5.1 analog channel), Slow motion, fast motion, zoom, etc.

This product provide RCA, S-vido, and Video Component output for video, and for audio, it has Coaxial and optical output (for digital audio), and 5.1 analog output.

Im still not sure about the use of DTS & Dolby built-in decoder, since its most likely available on today A/V receiver.

The jog dial is another cool feature. Unfortunately it's available only on the player, not on the remote. But, I can still use the remote to simulate the jog dial. The still picture is great!

The karaoke function is not much different with other product. It can pitch up and down (even for movies :-). Its also have 2 mic input and a headphone ouput.

As the summary, I really satisfied with the picture and sound, I also love the gadgets. With only IDR 2,800,000 (arround US$ 270) I got a very good player compared to other entry level products. It's like you have an almost high end DVD player with entry level price. Just add progressive scan capability, this player will be the same as any other high end product.

Strengths:
Great picture, great sound, 3D TruSurround from SRS (good if you still use only front speaker and a sub woofer) provide very good virtual surround sound, Slow motion (3 speed >> and <<), Nice OSD menu, DTS and Dolby digital decoder built in, nice karaoke function, lots of features.

Weaknesses:
Can not play MP3, Playing with playback speed for VCD could cause problem (its entirely different when playing DVD, well its a DVD player anyway :), No jog dial on remote.