Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips DVD963SA DVD / SACD Player

When I recieved my Philips 963SA SACD player, I was not immediately aware of its potential. Although I did not buy it to use as DVD player, I had to read through a complicated instruction book to find that it needed to be set up with a television in order to switch off many of the video functions and arrive at its purest output. Once I had successfully configured it as an audio only product, I was immediately surprised at its detailed, realistic reproduction of CD's, using its upsampling option. This sound far outstrips anything I've heard in my home, and my last CD player was a California Audio Labs product. As an SACD player, it's superb. I own several SACD's that I had formerly purchased in their CD format. The difference is incredible. Detail, smooth string sound, impact - all of these qualilities are apparent from the first hearing. I haven't used it as a multichannel player, so I can't evaluate it it that configuration. But I am enthusiastic about it in stereo. And things get better as the player ages, like a fine wine. Is it as good as $1,000 + machine? I don't know, but it's certainly worth what I paid for it.

This is a very good DVD player. But it has an additional feature which makes it very special: in addition to DVDs and regular CDs, it plays the new SACDs -- which are the finest sounding recordings currently available.

When conventional CDs became available they displaced LPs in the marketplace because of their small size and the fact that their sound did not degrade with the ticks and pops that even the best-maintained LPs eventually acquire. But, despite these advantages -- as well as significant improvements in CD sound over time with technological advances such as oversampling -- many connoisseurs maintained that CDs never achieved the warmth and high-frequency sweetness characteristic of top-grade audiophile LPs. Now that has changed. Super Audio CDs are superior in sound to the finest audiophile-quality LPs I've ever heard. Furthermore, even conventional CDs played on a SACD player sound better than they do on typical CD players. In fact, the best conventional CDs in my collection equal audiophile-quality LPs in sound when played on a SACD player and the new SACDs sound even better. If you're going to buy a DVD player, why not get one like which also plays both CDs and the new terrific-sounding SACDs? This unit is a bit pricey if all you want is to play DVDs. But it's quite reasonably priced if you want a superb SACD player for the best available sound.

My 963 broke one week after I bought it. Though the warranty that came with my DVD player includes 90-day free exchange I was told by Philips costumer service that the player has to be repaired only. Well, when I received the "repaired" player from the Philips Factory Repair Center I found out that progressive scan didn't work. (It worked before the player was mailed to repair center). When I plugged the player to power outlet and touched it aluminum surface it gave me a mild electric shock.
I figured that something went wrong at the repair center and that I wouldn't like to try to fix the player again.
My attempts to exchange the player under the warranty have failed. Philips representatives told me that the warranty has been changed.<

I purchased the Phillips DVD-963SA after the advent of SACD. This was one of the first affordable machines available. Through Amazon, it was here in days. I was pleasantly surprised with the audio qualities of the normal 2 channel CD format. It's the best sounding machine I've owned or heard, for that matter. I found someone Online that offers modifications to further 'improves' these units, so I was about to send it off to him, when it stopped functioning, period. It won't turn on or off or do anything. This is the second Phillips product, the other being a TV, that did exactly the same thing. I don't know what to say, except I'll weigh this information when I consider any future Phillip's purchases. Great sound but poor quality construction?

I purposely waited a year to write this review to see if any of the issues mentioned previously arose. The unit I purchased was a demo, to boot, and had seen service for over a year before I came to own it. That said, the unit has performed flawlessly with the minor exception of an inherent unforgiveness for MP3 playback; which for me is a minor consideration. The picture matches well many more (and some obscenely) expensive units and the SACD (why I bought it)section is sublime; throw in the benefit of CD upscaling and I felt as though I had stolen it. Sure the unit has some idiosyncrasies, but when a unit does what this has done and at a real world price point, I am not above tailoring its many facets to my taste (or going to the trouble of figuring those facets out) before issuing a blanket condemnation of an entire company. It aspires to the High-End and coupled with the right components knocks anything within a thousand dollars out of the ring.