Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DVPF21 DVD Player

The Sony DVP-F21 is a vertical wall-mountable DVD player. The most important features that separate it from other DVD players are stylish design, small size, ability to play discs in vertical position and slot loading mechanism.

The player is indeed stylish and compact, but you have to pay for it - it costs $100 more than the DVD players of "normal" design. Looks and vertical position aside, this is a DVD player with CD-R and CD-RW playback (with twin-laser pickup).

The player can be placed horizontally or vertically on the included stand. The DVD-Video and CD-Audio playback is supplemented by ability to play VideoCD (352x240 resolution MPEG-1 encoding).

The player features Sony's usual cool-sounding features like Precision Drive 2, Dynamic Tilt Compensation, Block Noise Reduction, SmoothScan and SmoothSlow. Although all this sounds cool, Panasonic RV31 produces slightly better picture quality without the use of cool names (and also plays MP3s) for [price]less.

The player (as virtually all other DVD players on the market) has virtual surround sound, parental control. The optical digital audio out can be connected to a Dolby Digital or DTS decoder.

The player can display DVD- and CD-Text information, has A-B repeat, programmed play, shuffle, instant replay function, resume. The angle select, subtitle- and language-select functions are also present.

The player only has 3 fast scan speeds and 2 slow scan speeds (Panasonic DVD players have 5 fast and 5 slow speeds). The F21 has a screen saver and you can also select a background for the stop mode.

The dynamic range can be compressed for the night listening.

Remote Control

The supplied remote control can control several brands of TVs in addition to this player.

Bottom Line

The F21 is a stylish compact overpriced DVD player. When I say "overpriced", I mean it is overpriced for the functionality you get. But if the style is worth the extra [price]for you, it is difficult to find a more stylish DVD player.

I just bought this for my boyfriend for Christmas. We hooked it up last night (in about 20 seconds), set it up on the wall (wow, how cool!), and pushed play. Easy to use, fantastic quality, but most of all... a gorgeous addition to our soundsystem!! Who needs a 10-disc storage for DVDs?? Maybe someone without a life who is going to watch 10 movies in a row... for us, the simplistic and sleek design with the fast and easy hook-up do the job... and then some! Thanks Sony!

I use it with the TV in the bedroom. It's perfect because of it's size and because it can be installed vertically. I have it standing on-end right next to the TV. Even better, the remote is programmable to operate different brands of televisions. Except for one thing... it operates everything else on my Panasonic television except the power function (?). As for features, it does more than I will ever need it to do.

I bought one for my wife last Christmas. This is a great DVD player. It is very compact, and I especially like the fact that it can be used in the horizontal OR vertical position. It comes with a stand for use in the vertical position... which is what we use. It fits nicely on the floor next to our TV stand. If you don't have shelf space for both a VCR and a DVD player, this is a perfect compromise. Also, the front loading "vacuum" feature is pretty neat. You just stick the disk partially into the slot in the front of the unit, and it automatically pulls it the rest of the way in. Ejecting a disk is as simple as pushing one button... No lids to lift or snapping disks into place. Hookups were pretty straight forward, and we have had no performance problems. It's nice the remote has a volume control. Another neat feature is that if you need to stop in the middle of a movie, it will automatically go back to where you left off next time you hit play... or you can flip back to the beginning in seconds. If you don't already own a DVD player, you will love the fact that there is nothing to rewind everytime you rent or watch a video. Only downfall I can think of is that the remote doesn't have a channel changer for the TV.

The Sony DVP-F21 features a sleek see-through lid and is one of the smallest players out there. Does just about anything that other DVD players do, except that it is not Nuon enchanced. This player also features cool virtual sound, and the picture quality is very good. It can be used horizontally and vertically just like its Playstation 2 cousin. Amongst its physically characteristics, it also has awesome technical capabilties. From slow motion at different speeds, to cool playback features, this dvd player has just about anything you need. If you want a cool, small, easy to use player, this is it. Plus, its cool color gives this player a cool image for just about any tv set. A very good buy!