Video Asylum

Posted by savet06 on January 01, 2004 at 20:09:48

In Reply to: Sony DVD NC 555ES posted by Prokofief on December 23, 2003 at 19:00:05:

I recently picked up this unit through an on-line dealer, and have been satisfied thus far. My first impression was that it made things a bit too bright and sharp for my taste (am running with a 3 year old soon-to-be-traded up Sony 835, definitive tech BP2006tls with complimentary center and surrounds). I did some reading and found that sometimes digital equipment of late needs some break in time, and this is proving to be true of this unit. After about 20 hours of break in so far the bass has opened back up again, and the mid-range voices are starting to mellow. I am not able to comment on the progressive scan feature, but the interlaced picture blows my old toshiba away. The video off function makes a noticeable difference in the cd quality by taking away a lot of the harsh noise created by excess circuit noise (at least to my novice ears). (You should take my review with a grain of salt as I am relatively new to the high end field, although long time listener and lover of music). Unit functions well, set up and directions in the manual are easy to follow if you are familiar with HT set-up. Compared to my old sony cd player, and toshiba DVD, new unit is very quiet. I had heard some Sony players a few years ago, and they were audible from about ten feet away! Good WAF on looks and 5 disc changer/exchange function. SACD can take or leave. Mine came with a Bob Dylan SACD with some live tracks that sounded decent to me, but I have very limited exposure to his stuff. Remote is well laid out, but odd functions like volume control for the tv, but not the reciever, power on/off for tv, and player, but again not for receiver. I guess I find it hard to believe that someone buying this player would not have a receiver, and only use it with a television for DVD's (or universal remote to negate these functions further). One other negative about the remote is the rotating ball used for cursor direction in the center of the rotating dial used to FF or RW. Just awkward to use, I feel. I would describe it further, but a universal remote will wisk away any of these problems handily.
Hope this helps,
Mike