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

This is a good product, but being that i am a old school Sony product user the one feature that i really miss on their new dvd/cd players is RANDOM PLAY MODE come on, would it have cost Sony a whole lot of money to include this feature on this latest dvd/cd players 5 dics models instead i had to buy the 300 Mega Storage model to get this feature, but what about those of us who still like the 5 disc carousel model with random play? have we been kicked to the curb.? I mean come on a player without random play is like Popcorn without the butter something is missing badly missing. So if you guys at Sony read this please put this back in your players O'RANDOM PLAY WHERE FORTH ART THOU?

Ted

OK.

First, I bought this from CCity, not Amazon. Didn't feel like waiting for it to be shipped.

Second, I got this primarily for the upconversion, but I wanted to have a changer as well, due to my increased interest in box sets (now that the prices aren't insane like they used to be, especially the Star Trek series). Even if this doesn't work out, I've got:

- 360 DVD drive
- 360 HD-DVD drive (which I could attach to my laptop and then output to the TV via my docking station)
- Personal Laptop DVD drive
- Work laptop DVD drive
- Media Server DVD drive
- PS3 Blu-ray player/DVD drive
- PS2 DVD drive

As you can see, I'll always be able to play DVDs ;)

So anyway, I'm going to review the critical areas I was most interested in. That way, if one or more is the reason you're even here, it hopefully will be of value for you as you make your assessment. So you know, for reference, I used my Star Trek: Deep Space Nine box set as my movie to measure by. I'm sure I could have used something more "fair" - like Back To The Future or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - but I wanted to watch it anyway, so why not?

-Upconversion/Video Quality-

This DVD changer purports to upconvert to 720p or 1080i. You need to know two things when attempting to use this feature. First, you MUST use the HDMI connection in order to upconvert commercial DVDs. Component will clean a little bit, but not much. Mine is hooked up through HDMI, passed through my STR-DG910 upconverting receiver. After viewing the picture, I can say that it's not much improved over what my PS3 can do on a regular day. The color depth is a little better and dark areas seem more pronounced, but other than that, it's not that impressive. I give it credit for one thing - black levels. They're excellent on this player. For movies where it's all outdoors or primarily "whitish" movies like Day After Tomorrow, you probably won't see that much in the quality.

The other thing you need to know about upconversion: the player will default to 1080i. For some, this isn't an issue, but it's a little known fact that some TVs just don't like 1080i and look much, much better in 720p. 1080p is NOT supported.

*** EDIT: Be careful. The menu will show you 1920x1080i, which should be true 1080i, but if you're using the HDMI cable, progressive can't be disabled, making you think it's going to 1080p. This is misleading, since 1080i is not a progressive format; it's interlaced.

- Changer -

Some people just want a DVD changer and don't really care too much about snazzy features, so this area is for you. I'm not new to carousel-type changers; I used to have a 3-disc CD changer when I was a kid that I went and bought with a Robinsons-May credit card (which I never did pay off, and I ended up pawning the changer...stupid move, they never make them like that anymore). For those who are new, the changer has a large tray with a large round tray, containing 5 smaller CD trays, number 1 through 5. You place DVDs in each smaller tray, and then can switch DVDs at will using the "Disc Skip" button, either on the machine or the remote. You can also use the "Exchange" button to swap discs that aren't in play while you're playing one of the discs.

There's one problem with this approach, and it's a personal nitpick of mine: you can't just press the number corresponding to the tray and jump to that disc, at least not that I can see and I've tried.

- Audio -

There are two things I can say here, which I won't yet. First, let me break down that I don't care about music at all for this player. My entire music collection is electronic, playable through Media Center PC or my 360, with no dead air between, so I can't speak to that side of the feature of this device. What I can do, is speak to the DVD audio. Dolby Digital (up to 5.1) and DTS are both supported through coaxial digital, optical digital, and HDMI. 7.1 is supported (which is rather stupid, since no DVD is encoded for true 7.1, but you can "fake" it with some receivers using ProLogic IIx), but only through HDMI. If none of what I just said means anything to you, just know that the audio quality IS good, but for the two things I'm about to tell you.

First, the unit is configured from the factory with the assumption that you're NOT using an audio receiver, or that your receiver is low-end. See, most receivers have the built-in ability to decode the majority of quality audio signals: DTS, Dolby Digital, etc. Newer TVs also have this ability, at least name brand ones. So it's really odd that this player makes the default assumption that you don't have the sufficient hardware; to me, it seems silly to have a lowbrow TV and/or no or low quality receiver, yet spend money on an HDMI upconverting DVD changer. Anyway, if you want the true quality, you must go into the menu and turn all of the advanced stuff on. I'd rather have it default to assuming I've got the whole world, then let me downgrade as I need to, but whatever.

That said (the second thing), the audio quality when set correctly IS excellent. No complaints whatsoever here - it's just the principle that you have to force the machine to output the sound correctly.

- Build Quality -

I really have no complaints here. The machine seems to be very well built, even the CD tray itself. It doesn't rattle or anything and it's very quiet when shifting discs. You'll want to make sure that your entertainment unit has sufficient room on all four sides; it's not super huge on the left and right, but it's a perfect square and it's pretty long in the front-to-back; it's even slightly too big for my unit and mine is an open glass unit!


I'm not going to waste your time explaining the remote. It's a remote, it's not complicated or anything. I'm also not going to tell you that this is the greatest DVD player I've used, because it isn't. Nor will I completely bash the poor thing. I just want you to know the facts: It's not great. It's functional. If you're looking for a simple changer that happens to support HDMI upconversion, and assuming you've got the hardware for it, you'll be happy with the output, but make sure you're not running in expecting an equivalent experience to HD-DVD or Blu-ray.

P.S. - if anyone figures out how to free this lil sucker from its region prison, please do let me know. It's the only thing it's missing...I really need to watch Moonwalker DVD...

Installed as a CD player in a yacht and works great. Excellent sound quality. Player must have a buffer because there is no "skipping" while underway.

This truly remarkable player will bring out a wonderful picture on your HDTV from your DVD collection. This is an economical way to enjoy your movies/programs while you wait out the battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (remember the Beta-VHS wars?). You don't want to be on the losing side of that fight, and the best way to exploit the terrific picture on your HDTV is this Sony player. It does what it says it will, and at our house at least, it's given a lot more pleasure from our disk collection. An added surprise to me was how great the picture looks even from DVDs recorded on our DVD recorder (DVD-R disks on a different brand recorder). I highly recommend this player!

I have had this unit for just about two months now. Video is fine from the DVDs. I am not quite the A/V connoisseur as some reviewers are - I'm significantly less discriminating. But it looks as good to me as any I have seen. I don't generally use it for anything else - just watching DVDs, though it does claim to play a lot of other types of disk. The things that I dislike about this DVD player are as follows:

1) The unit is extremely slow. Powering on, and especially when starting any DVD. It says "loading..." for much longer than any other DVD player I have used. Perhaps this is required in a unit that plays very high quality, but to me it is just annoying. Some DVDs take 30 seconds or more just to load and show anything at all. Too long in my opinion!

2) Another reviewer mentioned how difficult it is to see the numbers of the slots when the tray is open - and that's an understatement! Maybe it is these "old eyes" of mine, but where my entertainment center is there is no direct light shining down, and I can't tell what number is next to the slots in the tray without shining a pocket flashlight on it. No exaggeration - that is the truth! Also each slot number is between two slots and I have mistaken which slot I used on more than one occasion.

3) The remote control is terrible. I mean really bad! Thin and light, I will give it credit for at least having all the necessary buttons in logical places in the remote. (The Panasonic HT-830 I just trashed had the absolute worst layout for a remote I have ever seen. NO Open/close Tray button on top, but instead it was listed in the middle of its 100+ buttons and required a SHIFT press!). The Sony remote for this player for some reason requires that I press every button twice. Changed batteries 3 times and I am only 7 feet away, but it literally takes two presses for each button. Also it is not universal - can't control any other device.

While this is certainly a good player as far as the "neat" features it has - especially being able to swap out DVDs with the tray open WHILE you are watching another DVD - that's a killer feature that I love called Exchange! But the not-so-great remote and the excruciatingly SLOW loading times costs it 2 stars, and give this player a grand total of 3 stars.

For the price, though, it is a good deal.