Picture quality, features for price

Intermittent audio sync problem; picture freezes when switching from Layer 0 to Layer 1 on dual-layer DVDs

I bought this unit 2 weeks ago. Shortly thereafter I read about the lip sync problem and scrutinized every DVD I played on it. Everything seemed fine until I played "L.A. Confidential" and the pix froze at the end of a chapter. I thought it was a bad disc until the same thing happened with "Saving Private Ryan." Then the lip sync problem appeared in the second chapter on Layer 1 of that disc. When I stopped and restarted at that point, the dialog was back in sync. That was when I went to the place where the pix froze and discovered that it was at the layer changeover point. I checked L.A. Confidential at the problem area and found it to be the changeover point. Having read the horror stories below and not wanting to subject myself to weeks of Sony's hit-or-miss service on a brand-new unit (I've been down that road before), I returned the player to The Good Guy$ and got a refund.

I make my living in the motion picture sound business. In my background, any audio sync anomalies or playback errors are considered unacceptable. In my book, any playback device that exhibits either problem is unacceptable and thus useless. If the unit performed properly, I would gladly give it five stars. Since it does not, I give it one.

What a shame. If Sony cared one iota about their cutomers, they would recall this seriously flawed product and save potential buyers the hassle of returning this product or sending it in for service. If you are considering buying this product, I urge you to read the revies below and reconsider.

After reading the positive reviews here and elsewhere, I just bought a DVP-S7700 (not at the Good Guy$, who expected me to believe that they could't *possibly* sell me one for less than $950). Hopefully I'll have better luck with that unit.

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I bought my 550D a couple of days ago and so far I have watched only a few movies -- no "lip synch" problem, yet. After reading the serial numbers that are supposedly faulty I called Sony at (800) 222-SONY and talked to a rep. My SN is 837,691 which is indeed in the range 80,000 to 8,750,000. But I called to make sure. The woman acknowledged the bug, but refused to tell me which SN numbers are bad and which ones are good! She said if I am experiencing a problem Sony would "repair" my unit in 10 days. I told her that it makes sense for me to return the unit since I can do that within 10 days of purchase and wait a while before I buy. She said that was my decision and even then refused to confirm or deny the the range of bad SNs I gave her from another post here. So tomorrow I am returning my unit.

Audio outputs

Purchased this unit after researching price on the internet... found one site that was significantly below list... was selling for $379.99 but sight was a bit uncomforting... went to Circuit City and bought for $408!!! No shipping and no waiting... great price... great DVD player... no problems although serial number appears to be above the listed "bad" range. Love it!!!

I have this unit hooked up to two kenwood 160 watt amps with jbl l 100`s , i`m useing the on board decoder no center , don`t need a sub.the sound is fantastic. the sony does a great job of decoding the Dig dolby.the picture is flawles inputting through s-vid.on a mitsubishi 40" direct view.Listen to the matrix or yellow submarine for stunning rear effects . I`m glad i got the sony for the decoder alone it`s well worth it .

Had this product for a few months and never saw the lip sync problem until this past weekend watching "Phantoms." I stopped the movie, resumed it, and it was fixed. Nothing I can't deal with. Picture quality has aalways been excellent.
4 stars because I think people give out far too many 5's, and nothing's perfect enough to get a 5, in my mind.

I just contacted Sony and they are well aware of the Lip Sync problem with the DVP-S550D. They advised me all units on store shelves will have this problem. The only way to solve the problem is to take your unit in for repair. They have no idea when new units will be on store shelves.
I am taking my unit back to the store. Sony should pull all units from store shelves.

I highly recommended that everyone take their units back to the store they bought it from... Print all reviews for this product and insist the store takes the unit back...

I'm back... after about two weeks, I got my DVD player back from the Sony Factory Service Center. They told me that they replaced a chip. (Well, that's what they told me and they also gave me what is supposed to be my old chip.) Anyway, after viewing some DVDs, I have not seen a lip sync error yet. Time will only tell if I will see it later. But, after reading CVP's writing about the revision number, I decided to check the one on my player. I found that the revision on my unit is now 2.100. Well, now that it seems to be fixed, my rating is back up to 5 stars.

I bought my 550 about a month ago, I did ran into "audio dropping" problem at the middle of "Alien 3". I called Sony Tech Support, the technician recommanded to try optical connection and that seem to corrected it.

I purchased the Sony 550D DVD Player after being very dissapointed with the Pioneer DV-414. The Sony must be one of the best players on the market today (within reason). The video and sound quality are superb. Compared to the Pioneer the biggest differences are in the sound, build quality and user-friendliness.The menu's are very clear and graphically appealing. So far I haven't noticed the kind of sych problems that I had with the Pioneer The remote for the 550D must be one of the best that i've seen in a while. It has a jog shuttle and glow in the dark buttons. Within 10 minutes I felt comfortable naviguating the menus and the discs. Right now i'm still playing around with the video digital noise reduction so I can't really say if that feature is really worth it. Otherwise I am very impressed with the freeze frame, frame by frame and smoothscan performance. There is a feature that let's you view multiple angles simultaneously but its very choppy and there is no sound. The Sony 550D also comes with an offer for 10 free DVD rentals from netflix.com (about a $40 value). This player is an excellent value and it includes all of the latest DVD technology.

First let me say this: I love this machine. I only received it yesterday, but so far I can offer no less than 5 stars. The sound quality, picture quality, and built quality are all excellent. I have some experience with DVD players as this is my FOURTH in under 4 months!
First there was the Panasonic A110-layer change problems and slow speed made me sell that one. I ordered the Toshiba 2109 as its replacement. HOLY CRAPPY DOWNCONVERSION Batman! Wavy, distracting lines were EVERYWHERE! I regret not demo'ing this unit locally before buying it online. Sold that one. I ordered the Panasonic A120 hearing they had fixed the layer change problem and had also made it a faster machine. But before it arrived, I brought some discs to a local vendor and demo'ed them on the A120 they had just gotten in. First of all, the A120 is an UGLY CHEAP FEELING machine. The buttons were TERRIBLE. Then I saw the 550 still in shrinkwrap. I demo'ed it there, LOVED IT, and ordered it that night.

I've watched 6 or 8 discs (not in full) and the Sony has glowed with all of them. ANTZ looks particularly impressive. The notorious Zorro layer change skip on the A110 caused no problems for the Sony. Now, I bought this unit more for its normal disc play performance and not all its bells n'whistles but WOW are there are a lot of whistles. From slow-mo to Picture Memory to the enormous remote. Ah, but therein lies my one complaint.

I know it comes with THE STANDARD, the Sony 7700, but I DO NOT like this remote. It's too big, I DON'T like the jog/shuttle dial and the buttons are not layed out where I like them. Believe it or not, i DO like the Panasonic's remote. Luckily I have a 32" Sony V Series TV and the remote has the same button layout (as Panasonic) and DVD controls on it so I just use that and I shelved the 550's remote. It's a personal preference. I don't use most of the bells and whistles found on the 550 remote. BUT it is nice to know they're there if I ever feel like playing. :) All in all, 5 stars to Sony for releasing this wonderful player that even looks nice on the rack too! Hopefully, it will continue to shine as I give it more of a workout over the coming weeks.