Picture Quality, Sound, AC3, Remote

NONE

Excellent picture quality and sound quality, awesome remote, never had a problem had the unit for a year, awesome for Music and DVD never played a Video CD... Overall ***** 5 STARS

I have owned the Sony 550D player for over six months now and am very satisfied with it. It has the best picture quality that I have seen in a DVD player. (When compared with JVC, Tohsiba and Panasonic models in the same price range). I have played hundreds of DVDs on this unit and all of them played flawlessly with the following exception. During playback of a couple of discs, the audio became out of sync withe video. Apparently, this is a known problem with this unit (and a few other models from the Sony line). The problem is easy enough to fix. Simply rewind for a second or two and the audio is rock solid for the rest of the viewing.

Although this is annonying when it happens, it happens so rarely that I would still highly recommend this player based on its excellent feature set and outstanding picture quality.

Near flawless performance. Have seen loss of audio synch only once or twice. Stopping and restarting DVD fixed problem.
No problems with CD-Rs either.
Curiously, single-speed playback missing.
Luminous buttons on remote are nice although luminescence does not last the 2 hours or so of a typical movie

Pretty much everything

How great must it be when most people can only complain about the Blue Light....that's gotta tell you something

I have been running this player since March of 1999. As of yet, nothing has come out to make me feel I need to upgrade. I am chceking out new hone theater equipment at least 4 or 5 times a month, so that is quite a compliment. Very good quality of sound and picture. Set up menus are very easy to use and user friendly. And the remote, while a little too awkwardly big for my taste is set up well, and it works very good. (Even after a complete dismantling to clean it after an errant drink spill)
Gotta love the 500....Go Sony, another quality component.

Similar Products Used:

APEX DVD, Pioneer

Built in DD decoder, Optical and coaxial outputs, dual S-video out; the remote

no DTS

I got this dvd player for around $400 at Crutchfields in aug 99. At that time that price was unbeatable. I'm currently running it through a Denon AVR 3300, via the coaxial output, with Dynaudio Audience 50's as the mains, B&W CC6 for the center and B&W 302's for the rear. I have the S-video running into my Sony TV. The coax is much better than the optical (which I run into my MD player), and the S-video is amazingly better than the RCA signal. This is a great player and i won't replace it untill somethin better comes out (ie 7.1 or DTS/DD audio) that requires a new player. this has been a solid starter for me and by no coincidence it is the oldest component of my current system.
In addition, the remote is extremely easy to use. Glow buttons are a nice touch (though I wish 'time' was one as well). i have dropped this remote several times and I think i lost the jog dial piece, but i can still operate all the features, even the jog dial (by sticking my finger into the circle and moving it along the tumblers inside).

Similar Products Used:

Sony 330

Yep - sorry if my previous posting messed anyone up. I have tried the DTS Dances With Wolves with no luck and further conversations with Sony confirm that the 500 will NOT pass thru DTS. In fact, on Dances it won't even recognize the Dolby Digital, but defaults to Pro Logic. Still a wonderful unit, but the fact that they gave me bad info doesn't make me happy (and yes, Sony and I are in the middle of "negotiations" about that fact).

I recently purchased the DVP-S500D, and am very pleased with the unit. It's great in all respects but one...it will not pass DTS signals. Make no mistake, this unit will not pass DTS signals. The DVP-7700 is the first Sony unit that will pass DTS signals, and later this spring, Sony is supposed to be releasing three new DVD players, the DVP-S330, the DVP-S530D, and the DVP-S550D, all of which will pass DTS signals. As I'm still in my 30-day return window, I'm going to return this unit and wait on one of the DTS-capable Sony ones, but if you don't need/want DTS capability, I highly recommend this player!! It's heads and tails better than the Panasonic DVD-A310 I had previously (especially with regard to the on-screen menu detail). Also, the Panasonic seemed to garble the picture from time to time, especially when switching layers, which the Sony has yet to do. Great player, if it only has DTS...

Everything

None

This unit is one of the very best in its class: great picture, great sounds and built to last. I am impress. In this world, I know only one thing. You get what you pay. Sony had done it again!

I notice a few reviews talking about the blue DD light that is too bright. I believe there is the option to place the player in a "dark mode." You lose all lighting on the front faceplate, though. The feature is toggled from the setup menu.

Well hear is my bad news about this player. I cannot get it to pass the DTS sound track from DTS DVD's. I bought Liar Liar DTS just to see what it will produce. No luck. This makes me really mad due to the salesman told me it would. I bought the E9000ES receiver about 2 weeks after just for that reason (of course it sounded great too) So now I am stuck with it. Great player but no DTS DVD. Anyone have an idea to share that I am missing here?