Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DVP-NC85H/B HDMI/CD Progressive Scan 5-Disc DVD Changer, Black

This was my 4th Sony 5 disk player. If worked fine until I got LOCKED and the tray would not eject. Nothing on the Sony web site or suggested solutions from other sites would unlock the tray. My 10 year old Sony electronics still work fine but everything of theirs I have purchased recently has become worthless within months.

I bought this as part of a home theater system. I'm not an audiophile and don't watch TV, just a movie or two each week. I like the 5 disc carousel because it allows me to play about a week's worth of Christmas music from MP3s burned to discs. My old CD carousel won't do MP3s.

The remote didn't work out of the box. Many functions are only available on the remote, so this isn't exactly a minor problem. I sent it back immediately.

In return for my brand new DVD player, Sony sent me a "factory refurbished" unit...no other options. Now I first got a "factory refurbished" something back in the 1970s. That one was obviously broken before it was packaged for resale. I have NEVER had a "factory refurbished" unit that worked properly, and this DVD player was no exception.

The used one they sent me worked about as badly as the new one. My ancient Panasonic was working fine, so I just hooked up the Sony to play said MP3s at Christmas. I eventually learned that the Panasonic does not like DVD-Rs very well, so I sent the Sony back for repair a second time. It came in two weeks ago. Absolutely no difference.

I called Sony and they said they would send me a shipping label (it had cost me over $40 so far to ship a unit that is retailing today for $110). A week later I called Sony and the guy said he would e-mail the shipping label "right now." I called back the next day, was put on hold, and then disconnected. When I finally got through, I would not let the guy off the phone until the label hit my e-mail inbox.

I will wait for the unit to be returned (Sony's turnaround is quite good) and see if it works. I won't bother with it any more if it doesn't -- just not worth it. But I will certainly never buy another Sony product.

Oh, by the way: the "universal remote" that came with the home theater system? It's defective, too. Operates the tuner/amp but cannot be programmed to operate anything else.

Video and stereo sound is great from this unit. No complaints there. BUT if you are looking for a SACD player this is not it.

This player does NOT play SACDs as they are intended to be played. It plays them techincally as a simple two-channel CD. However, almost all regular CD/DVD players will play SACD in this manner and they do not mislead the consumer by advertising it plays SACDs.

Unfortunately, this unit does not access the information from the HD layer of the SACD which is what includes the 5 channel sound mix. So yes this is a great system that I would recommend if you want it for movie watching and/or stereo CD listening (and even without SACD playability it is a good value as priced now). BUT do not get this expecting to play your new collection of SACD in multi channel format as they were intended to be listened to. The manual only mention of SACDs is that it explicitly states that the unit does not play the HD layer of Super Audio CDs. No where on the unit, box nor manual does it present the SACD-compatible logo. Shame on Sony for their marketing (sonystyle has the same listing as Amazon). I have contacted Amazon to change the technical specs and title of unit.

I currently have an older model Sony DVD 5-Disc changer and decided to upgrade to this newer model because I recently upgraded my whole theater system to HD. I too have a Sony Bravia 46" and upgrading my Sony changer was the last item I needed to do. Now I'm all HDTV and Sony keeps doing it right time after time. The simple HDMI connections make it easy to enjoy all HD components. Only thing you need is an HD Hub which has come in very handy. All my components now work thru a remote hub into one HDMI input on my TV. No quality loss at all going through a hub and the Sony 5-Disc changer was the one component I was missing to complete my system.

Because they are under $150 it's a must buy. You may not be able to watch all 5 DVD's in one sitting as one person complained but if you and the wife sit down to watch something and get disturbed then you can go back but you can also put in your own DVD that she may not like and watch on your own.

So buy the multi-disc player, load it up with your 5 favorite and play them at your own leisure. It's an excellent player... buy it now!

Have only used it a few times, but appears to play DVDs, CDs and MP3 music (recorded to compact disc) okay. Took the place of a failed 5 disc CD player and a single disc DVD player. It does what I wanted, so I'm happy.