Great Video and Sound Quality

Does not play CD-R's

I have only had this player for a little over a week. I have watched six movies with no sign of the lip sync error. I picked this unit up at best buy on an open box deal. I paid $200 and that included the $70 4 year warrenty. Not to mention they threw in a optical Monster cable. I figured I could not loose with that kind of deal.

I've had the S530D for about two months now. So far I have not run into any lip sync problems at all. I have watched a couple dozen or so movies, some rentals and some I own. I have been very satidfied with the overall quality of this unit. The picture is amazingly clear, bright and sharp. The sound is better than many theaters I have been in (Apollo 13 sounds incredible!). The remote is very simple to use, as well as the on-screen setup and menus. If I do encounter the lip sync issue, I may have a different opinion, but to me, this is an excellent player, and at under $400 it is a great buy.

Good picture and sound quality when it works right

Inconsistant performance

I've had my DVP S530D for about five weeks. I have not yet experienced the lip sync problem,but I do have another problem that I havn't seen mentioned in any of the reviews. Sometimes,the player will just stop right in the middle of a movie,and skip back to the first chapter. This has happened on three different movies. Another time when it froze,it wouldn't go any further after reaching a certin point on the disk,even when I hit the fast forward button. I thought the disk might have been defective,but it didn't do this in a friends player. These problems are intermittent,and over the past several days it has performed flawlessly. I agree with the comments about the eject button. A few times I also had to press it twice to get the tray to eject. Because these problems are showing up after only five weeks,I have to question the long term reliability of the player. I attempted to return the player,but the shop did not offer me a replacement or a refund. Instead,they wanted to send it to Detroit for service with a five to ten day turnaround time. In addition to the DVD player,I also purchaced a $2000 Sony television from this shop,so I'm a bit pissed. I called Sony's customer servive to see if they would authorize a return,but they would not. I have to say that the audio and vidio really are quite good with this player,and if it weren't for the reliability problems,I would consider it to be one of the best around for the money. This is my first experience with Sony products,and I can only hope that the television doesn't start having reliabilaty problems.

Similar Products Used:

None

I bought this Player at sears and have been reeally impressed with the picture quality. The picture looks better than all the late model players in the same price range. Loaded with extras and dynamic sound including an above average remote and a great GUI. There have been no bugs or sync problems so far so I have to give it a five!

The Sony 530 DVD player has the BEST picture among all the DVD player in its class and price (Toshiba3109, JVC701, Pana310, Pion606...) The sound is true and not EQ, no distortion or hiss. Very fast disc loading and playing. Also no lip sync problem after 14 movies so far. No layer change delay (Sony has a layer indicator on screen, which is a neat feature/toy). Remote is easy to use and universal (limited to mostly used functions). The back panel has dual s-video and dual stereo outputs with dual composite video -- these extras are very useful for me!
Don't get googly eyes for fancy features and nice front panel designs and overlook the quality that you deserve for your money. Because the bottom line is, you bought the DVD player to watch movies; not to stare at it! Ever wonder why Denon, and HK components are pretty simple looking but the quality is best!

just got this player about a week ago and all I can say is WOW!It goes like this, about 2 &1/2 weeks ago I purchased the Toshiba SD-3109 to replace my Pioneer 414 that displayed the audio sync problem. As far as the picture is concerned, I thought the Pioneer had an amazing picture but the sync problem overshadowed every great feature about this player. So I heard about the Toshiba and ordered one without ever seeing it first hand, I just assumed that their 4Th generation player would be awesome. I was wrong. The Toshiba had a bunch of great features (hdcd,zoom,dual tray)but the picture was severely flawed, it seemed as though they made the picture too sharp...every little line was totally distorted and using the enhanced black level made everything way too dark even after Video Essentials calibration. So I took it back and decided to do my own little in-store tests. I took along two of my best dvd's (picture quality) and began my tests. I noticed the Sony's picture quality right away (it downright smoked the Toshiba), at first it seemed a little soft but as I looked more closely I realized what truly great picture it put out. I watched a few scenes where the Toshiba totally distorted horizontal lines( I don't know what you call it when a player does that?, bad down conversion, pixelation?) and the Sony handled them flawlessly. I could not believe the difference, It was astounding!! This being my fifth DVD player in less than a year I have seen em' all and this player is by far the best one yet!! I started out with Phillips 1st or 2nd generation, got rid of it for the Toshiba SD-2008, traded that in for the Pioneer 414, switched that for the Toshiba SD-3109. And now I can relax and just enjoy the feeling of knowing that for the price I paid I have the best player out there! The S530 is loaded with features, although at first it seemed a little overwhelming, after a day or two that goes away. The sound quality is awesome and the selection is great. This player lets you fine tune it like no other sub-$500 player I've ever seen. Everything from speaker size to speaker distance to using Sony's own cinema EQ enhancements for DD & Pro-logic. This is a real performer, I could tell a difference in sound quality as soon as I jacked it into my system....I was blown away. The Remote is ok and the special effects are amazing(slow-mo for & rev, scan speeds) and the player handles layer changes with a swiftness I've never seen before. From the handful of reviews I've read off the web and in HT mags they say the picture quality is on par with e reference S7000 or S7700. It feels great watching a movie and knowing that unless I want to spend a sh**load more this is the best picture I can get. Although I'm not using component video you'll be amazed at the S-video output alone! Bottom line is for $399 I'd say you can't get a better player.....you be the judge.....check this piece out for yourself, you won't be sorry.


System I used to make these claims...

32 inch Trinitron
Monster Z300 Reference S-video cable
Klipsch KLF-20's fronts
KLF-C7 center
KSP-S6 rears
Mirage PS-12 subwoofer
Kimber Kable 8PR speaker wire all around
L A T International DI-20 digital coax
All hooked up through my Yamaha V2095

THE 530 DOES NOT HAVE A DUAL LASER PICK-UP, ONLY THEIR 7700 HAS THAT BUT IT COST THREE TIMES AS MUCH!!!!!!!

I have had this player for about 2 weeks and everything has worked as it should,which does not seem to be the norm for any DVD player that I have seen,until now! Using with Denon avr 2700, Def Tech DR7 speakers[5 years old],Def Tech c1 center and cheap surrounds for now. Sound for movies and music is great.Picture quality is great.

Tracking is bad

Will be playing fine and then audio will be off with picture. It jumps to from one scene to another in mid-movie.

Great sound and picture.

Quit working after 1 year and 3 months.

I felt like Sony let me down with this DVD player. I was happy with the quality until it just completely stopped working a few days ago. Of course it is now 3 months past the 1 year warranty, so Sony will not pay for the repairs. I called their 800 number and they said it would cost $179 to repair - at that rate I might as well buy a new one! I can't do anything with the player now. If I try to turn the power on, it just shuts back off - what a rip off! I don't trust Sony products anymore after this experience!