Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
To correct some claims in previous reviews:

1) This player DOES have a DTS decoder. I have played many DTS discs. I'm not sure how someone could say this. the big DTS logo on the front panel should be a dead giveaway.

2) The out-of-sync problem with the audio was well-known with this unit shortly after its release. All one had to do was take it to any Sony service center and a new chip was installed, permanently fixing it, and it was free. It is ludicrous to suggest a class action suit. You can't sue a company who is already making amends to a problem.

Overall this unit is a nice DVD player. It will play some burned DVD-Rs that my newer JVC will not play. It will play standard audio CDs and Video CDs (VCD), but will not play SVCD nor mp3s. This would not be expected for a unit of its age anyway.

The remote is laid out logically and is easy to use.

Pressing "Play" with the disc tray open will automatically close the drawer.

I have never found any of the region code cracks via remote that will work on this unit.

Strengths:
Simple to operate, plays many DVD-R recordings.

Weaknesses:
Sad screen saver.

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba, Yamaha, JVC, Panasonic, Coby.

Price Paid:  $320.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
This is my first DVD player. I'll have it five years nearing the end of this calendar year (2004). It has served me fine, but it now starting to have problems powering up. It's intermittent and not consistent, so I assume it's from age. It's dear to my heart, which is why I'm not going to replace it until it's absolutely dead.

Strengths:
There's nothing here particularly thrilling, but the audio and video here are still great, considering its age as well as the fact that it's early technology. I heard tales of this era of Sony players having sync problems, but I never experienced this even once.

Weaknesses:
No progressive-scan, but that's because of its age. It's old, but has served me well.

Similar Products Used:
This has been my only player to date.

Price Paid:  $0.00 from circuit city

Summary:
Ive been using this piece since i bought it many years ago. It's still in one piece, nothing had happened with it. The performance hasnt decay and there are not any issues at all.

Strengths:
good capability of playing multiple formats, its prepared to deliver DTS sound through coax or fiber.

Weaknesses:
noisy motor but it does not bother anymore after you turn up the volume

Similar Products Used:
other newest players by sony, the PS2, another players with mp3 capability that crack or get frozen with the movie or even just become hotter and there is no playback in them when this happened.

Price Paid:  $200.00 from BrandsMart

Summary:
This is my second review of this DVD Player. The first one was exactly 2 years ago! This unit is still running strong!! I don't know why other people are having problems with this piece. I use it at least 3-4 times a week and it never fails me. I have been a loyal SONY consumer for a very long time and will continue to be one. I use S_Video and a Coax Cable and this thing kicks butt!!

Strengths:
Ease of use. No frills with this one. It does what it was designed to do and that's to play movies with little effort.

Weaknesses:
The noisy motor which usually disappears after I turn up the volume!

Similar Products Used:
This is the only DVD Player I've ever used in my home!

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
My family purchased this DVD player a few years ago (can't remember exactly when) as part of a home theatre system (our first).

Having no experience with other DVD players prior to purchasing this model, and in fact never having watched a DVD before, we had no idea that something was wrong with this player. My family and I had assumed that the problems with voice synching (the first problem we encountered) were inherent in the technology. We found that by simply stopping and starting the DVD, the problem went away. As this only happened occasionally, we didn't worry about it.

Then we started having problems with the movies "freezing". We would be watching a movie, it would stick and then jump to some other part of the movie, sometimes the beginning, sometimes a random chapter/scene. Very annoying. To get around this, we would have to jump to the chapter/scene ahead of where the movie froze, then rewind to just after the freeze point, and go from there. When you are watching somthing like Jurassic Park, and the thing locks up and you have to spend five minutes fooling with the player in the middle of the movie, the movie experience suffers dramatically.

However, because this happened infrequently, and mostly with rental movies, we just assumed it was because the rentals were all scratched up. After all, scratched cd's tend to have similar problems.

Well, the DVD player started locking up more and more. Any the freeze "areas" of the movie started getting bigger- I recently watched a movie where I was unable to see over 5 minutes of footage, because it was all frozen or jerky. Doesn't sound like much, but hey, this isn't even supposed to happen, right? The guy at the movie store started looking at me funny for bringing back all these 'broken' DVDs...

Then of course there is the Blue Screen Of Death (BSoD), common with some computer problems. Yeah, we got one of those too.

We'd just be watching a movie, and it would freeze up. But instead of skipping, the screen goes blue and there is the C:13:00 (I think?) text in the bottom right hand corner. This, we thought, is not supposed to happen.

When this happens, we have to eject the disk and put it back in. Very annoying.

The most recent BSoD episode was even worse than usual: The DVD player went totally unresponsive. The eject button didn't work. The power button didn't work (yeah, I couldn't even shut the thing off). I actually had to turn off the system power bar (basically unplug the DVD player) and then re-power the unit to get the DVD out. This, we thought, is definitely not supposed to happen.

So, in conclusion, I don't really know what to think. I'm a pretty reasonable person, and I like to think most other people are reasonable. I think that it is reasonable for there to be a few lemons in every batch of product, as this is just a fact of mass production and is totally acceptable. I had just assumed that my family had the misfortune of recieving one of these lemons, and due to our own lack of knowledge, did not rectify the problem while there was an opportunity to do so (Sony warranty period). This being the case, I came to the conclusion that the problems would just have to be accepted until a new unit could be bought.

However...

In light of the fact that there are hundreds of people out there experiencing similar problems with this product, it would appear that the problems are not a side effect of mass production but rather some type of design issue (as I have no relevent background with these devices, I have no idea what may be causing the problems, save that it probably isn't a manufacturing issue), the responsibility for which falls upon Sony.

I believe that Sony should address this problem, for there is a problem. Such actions are the definition of good buisness.

Strengths:
Excellent picture quality, excellent sound. Remote control works quite well and the buttons are well situated. Setup is simple and straight forward, and the instruction manual is well written.

Weaknesses:
Does not come with a digital output cable. Until two days ago, we had not used a digital cable simply because it was not provided and we assumed it was not needed (lack of knowledge showing here..). I bought a Monster Cable two days ago. I was quite sickened when I heard the difference in sound.

And of course:

- DVD player can not figure out how to line up the A with the V. (Sound out of synch with picture)

- DVD player cannot figure how to make the V work reliably. (Random video freeze ups)

- BSoD. 'Nuff said.

Similar Products Used:
None! Wish I had though.