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Review 3 of 8
Price Paid:
$500.00
from The Good Guys, La Jo Summary:
This is the fourth DVD player (excluding my PC DVD-ROM) that I've bought in about two years, and it has the best picture and audio quality of the four (the others were Sony, Pioneer, and Toshiba models). I'm using my S1200 with a Toshiba 50HP81 plasma display, a Yamaha RX-V2200 receiver, and an enhanced M&K 750 THX 6.1 speaker set-up.
Like all of the Yamaha Natural Sound hardware that I've auditioned (I own three such units), the sound quality of the S1200 is excellent. DVD Audio and DVD Video discs play with pristine clarity and warmth. A friend of mine listened to "Never Going Back Again" off the Fleetwood Mac _Rumours_ DVD-A, and he thought that I was processing the sound through my receiver to make it sound live (Yamaha's Natural Sound products are typically that good). Sound separation and definition was a little better than that of my Toshiba SD-4800, and a lot better than my Pioneer DV-444.
Another thing that I find particularly nice about this unit is its onscreen set-up interface. Audio and (especially) video set-up is very versatile and controllable, right down to a nitpicker's details, like separate sharpness controls for horizontal and vertical resolution, and three different digital processing settings for the reduction of picture granularity.
Furthermore, unlike all of my other DVD players, this one is plasma display-friendly, with black level settings and a default picture quality that doesn't require me to crank my display's brightness and black extension way down or way up.
Lastly, it played the DVD-R's and DVD-RW's that I put into it with no apparent problem, even though the manual states that it doesn't like DVD-R's, and that it flat-out won't play DVD-RW's. Strengths:
Fantastic sound and picture quality right out of the box, very few tweaks required. Extensive sound and (especially) video customization features. Plays all media I've thrown at it thus far (DVD, DVD-A, CD -- and even DVD-R and DVD-RW, despite the claim in the manual that it sometimes can't play the former, and never plays the latter). Weaknesses:
None. (No complaints about the remote; I virtually never use any packaged remote, since I have a Home Theater Master MX-500 universal remote.) Similar Products Used:
Sony (don't remember model), Pioneer DV-444, Toshiba SD-4800.
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