Cannot read certain VCDs.

Great picture quality and onscreen menu system. Easy to operate.

Many! Please read below.

None really, just very minor things.

“Consumer Reports” magazine conducted a test three months ago. Among the DVD players tested, Sony S560D was rated second (behind the more expensive Sony S570D) for the picture quality, features and ease of use.

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The Sony DVP-S560D looks much like the Sony S360, but in addition to its features it has a built-in Dolby Digital Decoder, headphone jack with a volume control and center channel equalizer/dialogue enhancer.

As its lesser sibling (S360), Sony S560D has an impressive array of inputs: 2 S-Video outputs, 2 composite video and 2 analog audio outs, component video out, digital coaxial and optical outs (Dolby Digital and DTS compatible). S560D adds a front headphone jack with a volume control and a Dolby Digital 5.1 channel analog output.

The S560D player plays DVD-Video, CD-Audio and Video CD, has the Center Channel Equalizer that allows you to boost the center channel sound level to be able to hear the dialogues better, supports DVD-Text and CD-Text. Frame-by-frame, SmoothScan and SmoothSlow (three speeds for high-speed and two speeds for low-speed search in both directions) allow you to study your favorite movie fragments, S560D also has a bit-rate indicator.

The front panel has a jog/shuttle control. The S560D is very slim and lightweight (just 6 lbs. 3 oz - 2.8 kg) – it weights the same as S360. Both the player and the remote look very nice. The remote control allows you to control different brands of TVs and receivers.


You can control menus from the front panel, so there is no need to use your remote every time you have to do something. Small annoyance – the remote has a “Power” button that is located in the upper right corner, whereas majority of manufacturers place it on the left side (and make it red, not green as in this case). In addition, the remote could have backlit buttons.

Other features of the S560D include a repeat mode (disc, A-B), shuffle (random play) and you can also program the order in which the tracks will be played (even for DVDs). A standard for modern DVD players “resume” function is also present along with advanced parental control (can be set individually for 50 discs!), Digital Cinema Sound modes, Virtual Enhanced Surround Sound (simulates surround sound using just 2 speakers). But you would not buy a player with Dolby Digital decoder to use the VESS feature, right?

The player also has a screensaver (to preserve your TV screen) when idle, layer indicator (rare feature), supports standard DVD features (soundtrack select, menu language select (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese), subtitle select, 4:3 and 16:9 support (4:3 pan and scan, 4:3 letterbox, 16:9 widescreen), multiple camera angles, etc.). Unfortunately, there is no zoom mode.

If you use the built-in Dolby Digital decoder, you can control the delay between the channels and other parameters using the remote. I personally prefer to have the receiver/sound system to do the decoding – this way you have only 1 cable (digital optical or coaxial) going form the player instead of 6 in case you use the built-in DDD. But the difference in price between S360 and S560D is about $50, which gets you a Dolby Digital decoder, headphone jack and other goodies.

S560D produces impressive picture and sound. The picture does not loose detail even in dark areas. Even when connected through the composite out, the picture is great, but S-Video and component out improve the edge definition and contrast.

The player comes with an RCA-type composite video/analog audio cable, and an S-Video cable, which is a better way to connect the player to your TV.

You cannot go wrong with SONY DVP-S560D. Nice looks and excellent performance plus the great feature set make it a good buy.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic, RCA, Toshiba

Fast, great picture and features!!

Nothing yet.

Love this DVD player, I have a 32" SOny TV, this DVD matches great to the TV. Would recommend it to anyone!!!

Just bought this unit at the sony outlet - it was not refurbished like most of their stock but i was told it was new, whole shipment refused by the dealer because boxes were damaged. I picked out the least damaged box - it looked pretty normal. I don't know if it's because it's hooked up to an old tv with an rf modulator or if the player itself is defective, but some dvds play fine and some shake so bad the picture is all broken up. Also several dvds started out with a wide black horizontal band in the middle of the screen and the top of the picture underneath the band on the bottom of the screen and the bottom of the picture on top. wathced its a wonderdul life last night and it started out like that but then corrected itself and was fine. some dvds (the wizard of oz in particular) flips between color and black and white even in the intro warner brothers logo, and shakes. don't know if this unit is defective but unfortunately sony outlets dont give refunds and dont have any more players, so i am basically forced to take a new unit in for repairs or keep it the way it is. maybe i should return it for credit and get something else and a different brand of player?

Looks good, and good picture/sound initially when it worked

Terrible pausing/skipping/jumping between hapters
and pixelation

Hi,

I purchased the Sony DVP-S50D last year in September and
it worked quite well till about December or so. But in the
past 6 months, it has become nearly unusable with the
jumping between scenes, the pauses and freezes and the C13
errors, I'm almost ready to trash it and buy a new one BUT
NOT A SONY.

I have tried brand new DVDs as well as a few older ones,
and run into all the same problems. I have not had any
problems so far playing audio CDs but got the "No Disk"
messages a couple of times.

The movie usually starts out okay, but after playing it
for a while, it just becomes completely unusable. It is
properly ventilated so I don't expect heat to be the
problem and it should be quite clean as well.

Having purchased it nearly a year ago, I'm very afraid that
Sony/Circuit City will not entertain any complaints or
warranty maintenance requests.

I'm also thinking of purchasing the DiscCleaner mentioned
by Ken but was wondering if anyone else also tried it and
to what result... Has anyone contacted Sony directly
regarding this? I am planning to start by emailing them
about it and also take my player to Circuit City and have
them look at it.

I will greatly appreciate any suggestions on how to fix it.


Very Very Frustrated,


Alok.

none

Everything. This machine has been nothing but trouble.

I sure wish I had known about this website before purchasing my Sony DVD player. This machine has been nothing but trouble since I took it out of the box. From the beginning, the DVD would pause in the middle of a movie. I figured at first it must be the DVD's since the machine was new. Within a week, I would insert a DVD and get a NO DISK error and soon thereafter, the machine began to freeze and skip from chapter to chapter. I realized it was indeed the machine. I first contacted Sony's customer service line where I was on hold for an hour to be met with a rude unhelpful customer service guy. I decided to just deal with Good Guys where I purchased the machine. I have taken it in twice since I purchased the player at the end of Feb 2001. They have yet to fix the problem. Frankly, I think the machine is a piece of junk and can't be fixed. After two trips to the repair shop, it still continues to pause and jump from chapter to chapter. The only good thing to have come from the frequent trips to Good Guy's repair is the last time I was picking up the DVD player from the Good Guys two guys were shopping for a DVD player and I was able to correct the salesperson when he started pitching the Sony DVD player to the guys. They bought a Panasonic and if I had read these reviews I would have too.

I keep reading bad reviews for this unit, but mine has worked perfectly from day one. I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that I keep mine on "standby" mode and never shut it off. I read that this keeps the laser from getting condensation on it. I also read that if you had the unit off, then it takes up to 30 minutes to clear any condensation off the laser.

Maybe that is why this unit is so touchy?

I also have been cleaning it religiously!

Maybe this will help? It's worth a shot!

I'm still rating it a 5, because I think it is a great player and it's getting a bad rap...

Seemed to have a great picture and sound once I could get it to work.

VERY inconsistent and as a result in the shop.

I was amazed at the simularity of the reviews to my situation. I purchased this POS about 6-7 mos ago. It gave me problems with certain CD's and would stop after about an hour of use and start chapter skipping and pausing. Like many others I figured it was overheating so I moved it to a cooler place. But it didn't help. It actually worked worse. The most frustrating thing was that you would get to see half of the movie and then the thing would just fry. And if you dared open the door to try to clean the disk... Well you would never get the DVD player to take it again. I literally can remember it taking 4 hours to watch a "What Lies Beneath" because of the hour of fighting this damn thing. I Finally took it to the shop after I watched about 3/4 of "Traffic". I still haven't seen the whole movie. Yes, I'm no audiophile. I might not know DVD players but I know CRAP. And from what I can tell, this player is crap. I noticed something else from the reviews. The more favorable ones are the oldest. More unhappy ones recent. Attention 4 star types... Maybe your player just hasn't died...YET.

Similar Products Used:

First DVD

Picture quality (which is expected to be good)

Problems from the start - please read below

I purchase this unit 3 days ago, Sunday, due to the name of Sony and mostly good reviews here. I have to honestly say that this is the first Sony product thats let me down. I've watched, or tried to watch 3 DVD's, one each nite, and encounter the problems below:

DVD 1: No problem until half way thru, it paused on me. Not just a short pause, but basically stopped at that scene. I replayed several times, all paused at the same place. I finally had to FF to get over the bump. From that point for the next 15 minutes, the picture had blue/red squares, distortion or something. Then it was fine after that.

DVD 2, brand new What Lies Beneath from Best Buy Monday nite: when I loaded the DVD in, the error code "C1300" showed up. It means disc needs to be cleaned, on a brand new disc just open, give me a break. Also at the very beginning, the water scene froze on me again, just like the pause I've had, with picture distortion. After several trys, I got it working. It paused after scene 14. I tried to FF, start all over by jumping to scene 15, 16, or beyond, with no success. So I've watched half of a movie.

DVD 3, blockbuster rental: Able to start, but paused, and I had to again use FF to get over the bump. Also picture distortion as described as above.

I really don't think its the problems with the discs. Maybe I am just extremely unlucky. Or maybe I got a refurb, I don't know. However, I've read below that there were others that may have similar problems. It is very, very annoying, when a brand new Sony doesn't work. I expect to load a DVD and it will play without any problems. It is extremely frustrating to go thru this experience. The picture is very good, perhaps due to the fact I have component video on my 32" WEGA I bought last month from the same store (no problem there). But good picture is expected from DVD/WEGA combination. I wish I could give a 5 star as I am a Sony fan and have lots of Sony products, but I can't do that. It failed the purpose of a DVD player - to play DVD's. So today is the 3rd day I've had it and I will exchange tomorrow for a new one. I welcome your comments, I will keep you updated.

Sincerely,
Chris

Similar Products Used:

none

Great picture and sound...when it works.

Frequent repeated freezing and skipping.

I have received a few emails concerning my earlier review.
I would like to reiterate that the pausing problem I described earlier is NOT a single short pause. The video continually freezes for up for 10 to 60 seconds then plays for a few seconds then freezes again, etc. Sometimes after a pause the unit switches tracks. Sometimes the player locks up completely, failing to respond to the remote or the console. The player must then be restarted. This happens now with every DVD I own or rent. In two cases the disc was brand new. There is no way I can put up with this kind of nonsense. The same problem happened on not one but two of these Sony units (I exchanged the first one for another). The problem began, in both units, after only a few days of play.

Perhaps the two troublesome units I had were part of a bad batch or possibly Sony changed manufacturing techniques somewhere along the line.