Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DVPCX995V 400-Disc DVD Mega Changer/Player

I was actually looking forward to be using this unit since my DVD collection grew to over 600 DVDs and figured keeping most of them (or all of them in 2 changers, thank god I bought just one to see how it works) will make it easier to have my collection organized and ready to be played at the touch of a button. Although I was concerned about the lack of a RS 232 interface (the pricier 777ES model has it) which would have allowed me control from my HTPC I figured I was going to use an IR repeater to do this. A definite advantage of this unit over the 777 ES is the HDMI output which helps eliminate some of the cable clutter in the back of my AV stand. Unfortunately, the implementation of the unit leaves a lot to be desired as the following things are agravately annoying:

1. HDMI output is limited to a TV only (or projector) which makes no sense for any respectable setup where an AV receiver is a must. It seems that Sony forgot to include HDCP repeaters on their list of supported devices;

2. The unit does not work as advertised since althouhgh it has a feature to disable auto-play, it will stubbornly resume playing the last disc you were playing before shutting it down; for a single player that's fine, for a 400 changer this is downright stupid;

3. There is no way to access a disc by number other than going through the Explorer interface which is slow and a very bad designed UI; scrolling through 400 titles to find the one you want to play is not fun;

4. Most of the DVDs will not be recognized and forget inputting the information yourself 'cause for no good reason that info will dissappear in the near future;

5. Startup times and changing discs seems like forever and loading and unloading discs produces a noticeable across the room sound;

6. SACD output is analog only;

7. The unit is massive, understandable somehow, still will not fit most AV stands out there, sticking out of an open AV stand.

I am returning mine, this is not an acceptable solution for a changer.

You have been warned!

I've been using this unit about a week. Thus far, I've found it an excellent value. I won't spend any time on the features, as you can read them here or elsewhere. I'll simply summarize my experiences to date.

Kudos:

1. 400 DVDs in one unit! This is an amazing number of media in one player. I don't foresee putting many audio CDs in it, as its real value is in holding a potential 3.6TB of video data (9GB Dual-Layer DVDs x 400). I think I have just under 400 DVDs, and we are now more renters than buyers, so this will work well for us.

2. Video quality at 480p component output. Excellent. Interestingly better than the HDMI output, IMO. This is probably due to the quality of processing occurring within the player itself.

3. HDMI - The idea however of porting all data, video AND audio over one pipe, and fully digital at that, is a big improvement over the standard minimum of 5 cables.

Gripes:

1. HDMI - initially I found it unreasonably sharp and displaying artifacts on my DLP set. Tweaking the video settings on the DLP solved most of this. This brings up a choice: do you allow the DVD to upscale, via the HDMI - or - allow the DLP to do so, via the component inputs? It depends on the quality of the upscaling electronics. It appears the DLP set has the winning hand in my setup. Thus HDMI, while nice, renders an inferior video experience to component output. Additionally, it should be noted that there is an output setting for HDMI that needs to be tweaked. My DLP set is 720p native and this is what I needed to set the HDMI out on the DVD player. 1080i is another option and it will work, but it causes my DLP to do unnecessary work, taking an upscaled 480p image and converting it to 1080i, before downscaling it to 720p. It seems logically superior to me to allow 1 upscale from 480p to 720p and be done with it.

2. Navigation is a little slow. It works, but it isn't up to the sorts of speeds that media mavens expect.

3. The remote control. A jog dial on the remote would be nice, as would backlighting of the buttons. The need to move a small switch between "DVD" and "Explorer" is somewhat irritating. These features should have their own buttons, not shared.

4. Odd size of the unit in the back. It takes a lot of work to squeeze 400 DVDs in one unit. I understand this. However, in order to accomplish this, it appears engineers placed some of the drive mechanism hanging out the rear left. I haven't attempted to place the unit in an entertainment center, but am almost certain that when I do, I'll have to notch out the back of the enclosure so that the Sony will fit. Be aware you may have to do likewise.

5. Adding jacket photos. Laborious process that could be enhanced by a more automated feature, perhaps auto-picking an image from the primary video stream.

6. Likewise slow manual process of cataloging the discs. While some discs auto-populate the data, in my experience this is only 1 disc in 10. I'd like to see a more intelligent algorithm that scans the disc for title and adds that. Then you can go back and add details if you wish. In most cases, I'd skip it. The title is enough.

All in all, a fine unit, particularly for the price ($300, free super saver shipping).

I appreciate all the reviews I read before I bought this product. Here is mine. I have only been using it for a couple weeks now, but I think it is a fine product. I have not experienced the problems others have posted. Yes, it is big - but 400 DVDs cannot violate the laws of physics! I guarantee you your DVDs will take up much less space in this unit than in the DVD rack. I'm not picky about the video/audio quality - component out looks great, so I'm not going to split hairs. It does take about 30 seconds to switch from one DVD to another - again, we're working with the laws of physics here! I suppose this can be made faster in the future, but it's still better than jumping up outta your compfortable seat to swap DVDs. Really, this is the only product like this available on the market right now. I know there are a couple others, but they are more expensive and this unit is fine for the money. Expect to connect a keyboard and do some typing - the unit tries to pick up the titles, but I guess most DVDs do not provide that info. It never lost the information for me yet. It does tend to be a bit complicated to figure out, but read the manual and you will be fine. I bought this unit because I realized that we would never watch any of our DVDs because we are too lazy to get up and pick out a DVD (DISH network DVRs have spoiled us). Having this unit is like having video on demand. I was skeptical at first, but I am happy with this unit. Also, I know there is a lot of complaints about the DVD resume upon power up. I kinda like the feature because I will watch a movie for a while, then hit the power button. The next time I sit down it will resume where I left off. I think the reason Sony did this is because the player is left holding the disc, and otherwise it would have to take 30 seconds to put the disc back, then another 30 seconds to pick it up again for those who want the resume feature. It's a no win situation for Sony, so they opted to leave the player holding the last disc until the operator orders the player to do something with it rather than make an assumption for him. You may want to plan on putting your discs in some sort of order up front, but I found the sort feature very helpful. You could just throw them in any old way and the sort feature will help you get to where you want to go - by title, or genre. I think it is a fine product.

I just got starting hooking up the Mega Changer so this is a preliminary review.

** Positives

I literally had DVD's and CD's scattered everywhere. I have one of those huge DVD racks. It was full and I even had DVD's stacked on top of that, plus hidden in my book shelves on top of books.

I would tend to grab a DVD to watch, and leave it out in the living room, go grab another, etc. Eventually I would have 5 or 6 stacking up in the living room until my fiance put them back into my rack. Sometimes I would even leave them outside of the case. Then I would misplace the case and have a bare DVD sitting around. You get the picture, I am lazy when it comes to instant gratification!!

I read the reviews before getting this device. I basically wanted to create a state of the art home theater at my house. I purchased a BenQ projector, ceiling mounted it. I built a 9' wide by 6' high screen. I purchased a Yamaha 7.1 HTR5860 receiver with a full 7.1 speaker setup. After going to the store and looking at this device which was retailing for $399.99 plus California Sales tax, I purchased it from Amazon for $319.00 with free shipping.

Before the device came, I ordered a digital optical cable for the connection to my Receiver, and I am using component connection through the reciever to the BenQ projector, with a seperate switching setup for RCA to a standard TV if for some reason the bulb blows out on the projector and I have to wait a few days for a new bulb.

Anyway getting to the Mega Changer. After reading the reviews, I created an Excel Spreadsheet and put each and every DVD, home made DVD, and CD into the spread sheet. This took many hours, however the upside is that I now have a catalog of all of my media. Heck, I found stuff that I forgot I had!!

The hookups to my media center were a snap. I am not running HDMI but the research I have done on the subject lead me to the conclusion that Component was just as good as HDMI. My projector takes 1080i and my receiver will upconvert S-Video and Composite to 1080i anyway so I do not need HDMI.

The video out of this unit is awesome. The sound running through the optical link through my Yamaha is mind blowing.

I purchased one of those DVD cleaning devices. I inspected each DVD and cleaned them when necessary before putting them into the changer. As I inserted each DVD into the changer, I wrote down the slot number. After doing 50 at a time, I would go back to the computer and update the spreadsheet with the slot number and then print out that revision of the spreadsheet and to the next 50. I am glad I did it this way because after a while I made a few mistakes on the slot numbers.

I now have all of my DVD's catagorized in my excel spreadsheet and printed out and put into the changer. (I am purchasing another changer because I have already run out of room.)

I literally have stacks of empty DVD cases piled up in my room right now. I am going to put them into boxes, and put them into the garage!!

It is awesome to be able to have my entire collection put into one device.

The benefit of being able to have your entire collection in one device, and not get lost, scratched, damaged, or broken, substantially outweighs having to wait a few extra seconds for the changer to load your DVD!!

A couple of the other positives I have seen is that you can put a parental lock on each and every DVD if you want. Now my children are all grown up and not living with me, but there are certain DVD's that I might now want my fiance to see if you know what I mean!! This device will allow you to put a passcode into the DVD's you do not want others to see.

Secondly, there is a lock for the front of the unit that cannot be disabled by powering the unit down. You must enter the right key sequence to unlock it so that it opens. This is another huge plus.

** Negatives

I am going to buy a battery back-up system because there is no way I am going to want to re-program this thing once it's programmed!! They should have put a simple battery in the device to retain the config in ram just like in your computer.

They should have put in a USB 2 port and provided a simple PC program to download and upload configs!! Kind of like the iPod!

My first impression is that this unit has so many bells and whistles that it is going to take a while to figure them all out.

If you are like me, you are going to want to know all of the in's and out's of the unit. I know I am not going to want my fiance messing with it!

I am going to use my X10 system to create macros on an X10 learning remote so that she can easily load up whatever DVD she wants with a couple of pushes of a button. This will take some time to program.

One of my big concerns is; what if someone breaks into my home and steals the thing? The cost of the device is nothing compared to the $8,000.00 worth of DVD's in it!!

I am probably going to create backups of all of my DVD's that are in the system just in case.

I am contemplating building a hidden and locked area to place these mega changers in just like you do in your car. I would then use an X10 IR repeater to bounce the remote signal to the hidden and locked area where the changer is located. It does not make sense to have something like this out in the open for burglars to rip off. It will be a top priority for me to get these devices hidden.

Anyway, I am just getting to learn this device. I am sorry for the long post. I will supplement this review if anything of significance comes up!

If you purchase this product, I recommend an extended warrantee. I have has mine for a year and a half and suddenly after starting to read a DVD it failed and tried to read each subsequent DVD in turn and failing with each until I powered it off. When I moved the DVDs to a second and older changer, Sony's 875P, they all played with no problem. The problem does not appear to be mechanical or due to dust/dirt but rather a failure in the electronics. Eighteen month to failure is very short considering Sony's reputation. Of course the warrantee is one year and the cost of the exchange program is almost as much as buying a new one.