I started using my old DVP-NS300 after my newer and cheaper player conked out. Then remembered why I'd stopped using it. It is frustratingly sensitive to (apparently) every minute speck of dust or scratch on any DVD, and has a habit of "sticking" (unable to fast forward, pause, play, etc.) or just skipping forward to another point in the film.

My experience has been very similar to Moviefiend. Am about to give mine away.

Looks impressive sitting on the shelf. Auto power off feature is nice. On screen display is wonderful to tell you why your disc won't play.

It won't work. How much weaker then that can you get?

For a Sony product, this DVD player has really been problematic (Ok, I'm trying to be nice here). I have had to clean every DVD before I watched it. Period. No Exceptions. About 9 months ago the sound problem started. I'd put in a movie and after about 10 minutes of really great video and sound, the sound would vanish. Voila! No slowly degrading quality or anything, just silence and I'd be left with just really great video. I cleaned the laser with one of those discs with the little brushes on it. After a few cleanings (eight or nine) it started working again, but only for a while. Ok, I thought, it's fixed. Nope. I've cleaned it until the little brushes on my disc are bent to one side. I've struggled with this machine for a while now. I'm going to go buy one of those $39.95 units. If the cheap model bites the dust, I won't care. I'm done paying big bucks for a formerly reliable name.

Similar Products Used:

Orion (cheap Wal-Mart Brand - works great by the way), Sony DVD burner installed in the Computer (I use this to watch my movies when the freestanding unit won't work)

Works good for 6 months. Nice Menus

The nice Menus will eventually be all you can watch.

I'm sorry SONY, just because this is a cheap player doesn't mean we should expect it not to work. This player worked great for about 6months then started its gradual decline. Constant C13 dirty disc, and no disc errors along with terrible skipping and freezing made movie watching miserable. Beware of Sony's 'affordable' stuff. I hope someone class-actions them.

Great picture and sound

Quality issues

We’ve been having the same problem other users have complained about. After just over a year, our player started giving us C:13:00 errors which became more frequent until finally it seemed to even tire of this and would simply shut down for no apparent reason and at the most inconvenient time in a movie (on new and just-cleaned DVDs). Someone else mentioned that dimming the display seemed to work for him. It didn’t for us, but then the display never actually noticeably dimmed. So, I turned off the display outright and we are now again enjoying DVDs and the features we originally bought this player for; great picture and sound. Even previously problematic DVDs now play right through to completion. Except for this one issue (albeit a major one), I found this player to be exceptional. I don't know how long this “fix” will last but for now our trip to the local electronics shop for a new (non-Sony) DVD player has been postponed.

For those of you who are seeking a CD-R media that works with this Sony DVP-NS300 unit, you may want to try the following: Memorex: Music CD-R, 32X, 700MB. I have found other CD-Rs that work, and they all have one thing in common: the light-blue dye. Not all 32x use this (Cyanine possibly) dye. The Memorex Music CD-R 40x use a different dye, therefore, probably will not work. I purchsed the 32x at CompUsa, December 2002. In addition, I have only used these discs for audio purposes. The other "brand name" compatible discs that I have found are: Office Depot CD-R, 650 MB; and Prime Peripherals CD-R, 700MB (purchased from OfficeMax). I only have these physically discs; consequently, I cannot tell you what speed they are nor any package indicators. The light-blue dye is the key.

if u value picture quality above all else ( i do ) buy it. sound will be digitally outputted to dolby reciever so perfect anyway. easy to use, looks classy, good features and high sony build quality/

very very fussy about cdr brands, no mp3 support ( who care ? )

absolutely superb picture quality. when u use a large screen the quality is the best I have ever seen on any DVD player (excluding other sonys). if u use a lcd projector, this player gives a far far better picture than other more expensive ones that even had component output.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, Pioneer, LG, Kenwood and samsung.

Surround sound with "night" feature allows for night watching without the loud boom from waking up others.

No Mp3, but I hardly listen to that anyway.

Bought this set as a display set offer set at a leading electronics store, and what a bargain it has turn out to be. Have used it for a week, and is suitably impressed. All the problems I encountered with my previous DVD player don't happen on this unit. For example, this unit has no problem with dual layer disc, wherus my previous player has a bad habit of freezing and crashing. Its precision drive allows it to play even 'problematic' disc without any problem. For example, the unit played "The Matrix'; without a hitch, whereus my previous player could not even load the movie!

Similar Products Used:

Sharp DV-740

Does have a Nice DVD picture and sound quality

IT skips on almost every DVD you play.

I regret ever buying this POS. And after reading these reviews i'm regreting it more.. Half of these reviews that I have read claim that they can read some CDR formats. IT says on the DVD player that it will play Video CD's???????? From my understanding that's VCD? I'm probably wrong becuase why would they add a feature like that.. I mean I only spent $184....(there are plenty of other DVD players out there that provide more features) Also I have noticed that the DVD player does skip.. I must have gotten the bad one to. BEcause I think most of the people that have claimed they can listen to CDRS are mixing this product up for the DVP-NS300S which claims it will play CD-CDR-VCD. None of my CDR's and VCD's will work in this player, which makes it almost useless to me. But, from the post's i have read these are some suggestions for possibly playing CDRS verbatim and princo CD-Rs and even RW was working on it !!! . I think people when burning these CD/R's are not finalizing them or they are using poor burning software. Now as for the CD-R playback. The NS300 will play CD-Rs, but only certain brands so you might have to experiment. Mine will play PNY CD-Rs but not Memorex CD-Rs (the only kinds I have to test it with).

Same bad experience as other reviewers here. Unit quit working after less than 1 year, complaining "NO DISC" about 20 seconds after trying to load any disc, even brand new ones. This is one product that I wish I had purchased an extended warranty for.

Decent build quality, flawless playback, dual audio outputs (nice), easy-to-navigate setup menus.

No CD-R/RW compatibility (c''mon, Sony!), clunky tray mechanism, no scan fwd/rev buttons on player front panel.

Overall, a decent entry-level player for the money, but not necessarily the best value. There are several models from Panasonic, Toshiba, and others that give you more features (like CD-R/RW playback, for instance) for the money. So far after almost a year, the unit seems pretty reliable. It plays all of my discs flawlessly and loads them much more quickly than my old Toshiba SD-2150 ever did. After a year, it hasn''t really required a cleaning yet. The picture quality is above average for this price class; it outshines my old Toshiba, but is a bit dark at times (I''m currently using an s-video connection, the best my TV will except). My most major gripe is its lack of scan fwd/rev buttons on the main unit (these functions are only found on its factory remote). I find it really annoying, especially when playing audio CDs. I guess this is something I''ll have to live with until I get my SACD player. The other thing as mentioned before is the "clunkiness" of the open tray mechanism. A lot of times I find myself pressing the eject button two or three times before the player finally spits the tray out. It shouldn''t be like that. Lastly, CD-R/RW playback would have been really nice (it seems like everyone else in this price range has it). Sony marketing dictates that you must buy the DVP-NS400D to get that feature, even though most owners of modern home theater equipment don''t need an onboard Dolby Digital processor. I find myself transferring a lot of my home videos to VCD lately, forcing me to view them exclusively on my PC. Because of this, I''ll probably be getting a better model soon.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba SD-2150