Sony redeems itself!! resume from where stopped, best audio auto select

lip sync

3rd update on the lip sync problem. My last post on the 28th had the player at Sony with the parts on back order. Viola! the next day Fedex shows up at my door with - get this - a Brand New player (what, did Sony read my last post?). Now that's customer service. No screwing around waiting for parts to fix a brand new machine, not even a call to say come and get a new one, nope, overnight delivery right to my front door. The first thing I did was check the serial #, well into the 3's. Good sign. The next step was to hook it up and see the firmware version; 2.4 - nice. Thanks to all who helped explain the how-to on determining the firmware. This is absolutley crucial. Played The General's Daughter with no problems.

Ok, so I'm back to loving this machine. Sony did a nice job of fixing the problem correctly the first time (other then recalling them to begin with). Within 10 days of getting it home, I've got a perfectly operating player with very little skin off my nose. Bottom line; very nice player for the money with excellent quality video and audio reproduction. Absolutley silent transport with quick load time.

Recommendation; buy this machine and enjoy with one caveat -make sure your dealer will allow a return or better still, allow you to determine the firmware BEFORE you leave the store. Every player and equipment will have problems, the advantage here is that; 1) There's only the one problem 2)It's easy to avoid by checking firmware.

Thanks to this forum for making the situation MUCH easier to identify and correct. Again the steps to determine firmware; Power - Off. Then from the remote select TITLE, then CLEAR, then POWER. A diagnostic window will appear with the firmware in the lower left corner of the screen.

easy to use, set up

power switch

Have returned the machine twice for power switch problem, and to have the update done to eliminate synch issue. It was explained that this is new technology, they're still working out the bugs. Use with an all Sony home theater, and have been satisfied in general.

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Excellent programmability, Easy to use, DTS & Dolby Digital Out, It's a SONY

Audio-sync problem

For this price range - I don't think that you can buy a better player. When you upgrade later with the Technics Decoder, you get ever feature you need.

It is true however that it has a problem with the audio. I watch about 8-10 movies a week, and I'd say about twice a week the audio will fall out of sync. Last week I was watch the Eagles DTS disk and I lost my DTS audio all together after I had put it on pause for about a minute. I had to turn the player off to get the DTS signal back.

When you fist get it - go through all of the settings. The default settings have just about everything turned off. And the down-mixing on the audio is set to D-PCM which was truely screwing up my surround sound. I was ready to take about five different components back to the store before I was able to narrow it down to the player. Then after going through the menus "NO I DO NOT READ THE MANUAL" I found that changing that down-mixing from the default D-PCM to Dolby - voila - instant perfect surround sound.

It is a great player - it is worth the money - and I'm taking mine into the shop this weekend to get the audio fixed. That is why I can only give it a 4/5 on overall.

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Toshiba SD2109

Remote's ergonomics and capabilities, Quiet tray and transport, picture, and price

Manual was somewhat diffficult to use at set-up

Despite all of the negative reviews of this product and the positives on the Pioneer 525, I got this to replace a 525 that was either defective or poorly made; your choice. Because of concerns raised by many on this site I made sure that my dealer, Wellman & Griffeth, would assure my satisfaction or refund my purchase. In addition to being competetive with respect to price with on-line retailers they have earned a my trust. My machine has firmware 2.40 and has played flawlessly!!! [so far]. I could have spent much less or much more, but I don't think I could have gotten a better DVD for my needs. Plus it controls my TV and receiver. I'll reserve the right to update this if the dreaded lipsynch problem appears. With the 30 free rentals and 7 free DVDs, I think it was a very good value.

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Pioneer 525

Good image,great sound

none yet

As my first Dvd player,I can't compare with anything else but I really enjoy the quality of the image and the great sound I get from my Yamaha HTR-5250 A/V Receiver.But reading the review on your site, I am a little bit anxious about the lip synch problem. I did not notice it yet,I found out my firmware version to be 2.21. Can anybody tell me from witch version the lip synch is no more a problem? If ever I meet that lip synch problem, I will post another review.

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First DVD Player

Great picture.

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I have this product for about 6 to 7 months now, and so far I have nothing wrong with this. It has worked with every DVD I have thrown at it. This was a great buy for the price.

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Great entry-level DVD Player. Video quality is excellent using using an S-Video cable or RCA cables.

Disk eject often slow to respond to command on unit. Using remote it is instant.

I purchased this unit in January 2000. Great video quality with or without S-Video. Prior to purchasing the KV-35S42 35" Trinitron TV for the living room, I used the KV-27S20 27" Trinitron which is now in my bedroom. The 27" did not have an S-Video input so I used RCA cables. The picture quality this DVD player provided was excellent then, and slightly better now using the S-Video out. Either way the DVP-S330 is a great entry-level player for Home Theatre.

Sound quality is excellent in DD and DTS 5.1 when taking advantage of the optical audio out. I use Bose 301 fronts, a (Bose) VCS-10 centre channel, (Bose) Model 100 rears and a Yamaha YST-SW90 sub-woofer. My guests comment that it sounds as if they are in a theatre when watching movies at my place. For $264 I couldn't have gone wrong. Of course, if you can find it today it will likely be cheaper due to the fact that it has been discontinued, so "hats-off" to you for saving cash!

Combined with it's ability to output a crisp, clean video image I give it a 5 star rating for value (in it's class), but only a 4 star overall rating because of the difficulty I have trying to eject a DVD using the eject button on the unit itself. Unless I've just pressed stop, I have to hit the eject button a couple of times to get the DVD back. If I use the remote, however, it is always quick to respond. Perhaps I should have brought it in for repair whilst it was still under warranty, but I decided I can live with it and didn't want to be without a player for 2+ weeks. Soon it will be in my bedroom anyway *grin*

This DVD player has been discontinued and it's successor is the DVP-S360. If you can find a retailer who still has one, it will likely be better priced than the 360. Aside from the eject problem, which may only be specific to my machine, I say go-for-it because it will still have a full manufacturers warranty should you encounter any problems. It will likely be much better priced than the S360, and unless you want composite video outputs, the S330 is all you need.

That's my two cents...

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KV-35S42 35" Trinitron TV, KV-27S20 27" Trinitron TV (bedroom), STR-DE945 DD/DTS Receiver, STR-DE315 Pro Logic Receiver (bedroom), CDP-CX235 200 CD Mega-changer.

Does everything you need it to do if you have a kickass reciever!

none and I will elaborate!

My system consists of a Denon AVR3300, Sony XBR 32" Wega, and of course the Sony DVP-S330. I use Digital Coax for the audio and S-video for the picture.

I have watched numerous movies and have had no problems except for one case where the rental movie Swingers had a monster scratch on it and caused the playback to skip. Lip Syncing does not seem to be the players problem as much as the actual disc. I noticed after getting hitched on the scratch that the sound was a little ahead of the picture. To assuage the problem I simply waited until it reached the next chapter and made it restart on that next chapter.

Everyone wants to blame the player and not the media they are using. With rentals scratches are almost going to be completely unavoidable and such is going to plague the DVD format unless they decide to go back to the oldschool caddy-style encasement used in early computer CD-ROM's

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First gen. DVD-ROM with Hardware decoder... running coax down the hall from the computer.

good picture & sound, versatile connections

none so far

I've only tested a couple of DVDs on this machine (mind-blowing for one like myself having his first experience with DVD) so this post may be a bit premature. So far it's has played DVD titles impeccably (I wish it had a zoom, but after all this is an entry level player) and it does OK playing commercial CDs (although the sound is harsher than with my reference CD player).


I am posting this premature review primarily to let it be known that I received this product a week ago with firmware version 2.6 installed. For those who have read previous reviews and may be worried about the lipsync problem, I think it's safe to buy if the source has lots of turnover. I really don't know the nature of other main problem cited in these review (power button problem) but whatever it is, I haven't experienced it.

One thing I like about this dvd is the extensive options for connecting - it has both optical digital and coax digital audio output and it has two (2) sets of SVHS video outs with associated RCA audio outs. My television doesn't have component input jacks so the lack of component video out on the 330 doesn't affect me.

At $180 I paid less for this DVD player than for VCR (yes it's been a couple of years since I purchased my VCR). I expect street prices will settle at this level. My rating is based on the assumption that this is an enetry-level DVD.

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Solid quality for entry level product by SONY

I want to thank all fellow reviewers here that prevented me from buying a lesser product. My units serial number is above 300 000 and the firmware is -2.30-. No lipsync problems at all so far. Price paid in Honolulu: $249.00, not bad considering the "paradise-taxes" we usually have to put up with.
I really like the clean picture on my SONY 32XBR TV and the well designed remote control.
I find it surprising that this whole DVD-market is such a mine field of shoddy designed products. Oh well, I'm happy with this unit...until I'll upgrade I guess...