Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DVP-NS305 Silver DVD Player

Not having owned a DVD before I can't objectively compare this model others, but I can say that I was more than impressed with what I got for my hard earned ££££'s.
Installation was beyond simple. Connect the scart lead from the back of the player to the TV, (not supplied, but I bought gold coated one for £15.00 from a high street store) plug it into the mains, then turn the telly on to AV channel.
Job Done! I was playing DVD's in under 5 mins.

The picture quality is fabulous, really crisp, sumptuous, saturated colours, and deep rich blacks. You can also alter the contrast/definition ratio to suit the movie you are watching.
Audio (including music Cd's) sounds fantastic, even just through my basic Nicam TV speakers, without the real deal surround sound set up.

Doubtless there are more sophisticated models "bells & whistles" models out there if you want to spend a bit more, but I can't imagine getting any more quality performance than this for [the price]. Am much chuffed with my purchase.

Having bought a £300+ DVD player 2 1/2 yrs ago I was slightly sceptical about what this one would deliver in terms of quality.
I primarily bought this DVD because I required a newer drive to play CDRs etc.
It does more than a good job! The compressed MP3 playback is top notch and the VCD quality is awesome, this player is ideal for someone who is not looking to put hundreds of surround speakers in their front room and just watch films, the sound through normal speakers is good enough and with 5 picture settings there is plenty of choice. I challenge anybody to find a better DVD player at this price, which I may add is the cheapest I have found anywhere.

This is now my second dvd player after the Sony 315 which I loved. But boy oh boy, what a difference!!!
The picture quality is superb - even with the most darkest of pictures there's no faulting this player. There are a number of included picture modes on the player that makes a difference to what you're watching. There's also the BNR function but it makes little difference I've found to the overall picture quality.
The sound from this player is also superb - from stereo soundtracks to Dolby Digital to DTS, again the quality is superior to other players of this range. Sounds that were previously soft or unheard suddenly break through.
Setting the player up takes a matter of minutes and the onscreen display is simple and informative. It plays CDR so my home made discs play without a problem and it also benefits from the ability to play MP3 files (previously neglected by Sony)
CD-Text and DVD-Text are also avaliable (will display the name of an audio album in the display if cd-text is recorded)
And this player is so super slim!!!
I cannot praise it enough and I hope that my views will persuade others to try this excellent Sony player

I bought this player to view DVDs via the RGB output, and in this capacity it is excellent value for money, providing a great picture. The audio quality from the DVDs is also excellent when used without any of the extra processing switched in. (Mine is fed straight into a normal stero Hi-Fi rather than a full AV sound system.) The sound is noticeably degraded with any of the 'TVS' functions, which try to mimic surround sound, switched in. The picture enhancement features on the other hand are more useful, and boost aspects of the picture such as colour richness and contrast to allow you to compensate for the film's basic appearance. Beware however that this player does not have a zoom facility. The product review on the Amazon website might be considered misleading in this respect since it describes two of the picture modes with the term '2x'. This certainly gave me the impression that a 2x zoom was included in 2 of the picture modes. It is odd that Sony do not have zoom facilities on their players. I find this facility useful to increase picture size on widescreen (2.35:1) films given that I do not have a widescreen television.
Playback of audio CDs produces acceptable results. However, even compared with a 10 year old CD player, the sound is not quite as clear or 'transparent', so HI-FI buffs beware!
Being the baby of the range, the features have been deliberately limited so for example, there is limited scope for the remote to control the TV, no numeric keypad, no S-video connection and no optical digital sound connection. For £25 more the NS405 offers these features which may be important to some.
In summary, the best features of this player are its DVD video and DVD audio performance, plus its very neat styling. For those who are on a tight budget but want Sony Picture quality and the Sony name, it is a good buy.

This is my first DVD player so I've not much to base it on except normal TV channels and video. So far my experience with the Sony is very positive, it was easy to set up and the picture and sound are at least as good as I expected DVD to be. I originally connected the video using the RCA connector but found that one DVD played only in BW and all of them had some fine lines interfering with the picture. I then purchased a premium quality Euro Scart connector and the picture has since been perfect. There are so far no other negatives experienced with the player. My set up is an aging Panasonic 21 inch 4:3 telly with AV and Euro Scart inputs, a Kenwood 3050 Dolby Digital 5.1 receiver and 5 Eltax speakers. No subwoofer yet. The picture is as perfect as my present sophistication can tell and the sound very clear with great spaciousness and feeling of position when in Dolby 5.1 mode. The biggest disappointment has been the lack of Dolby 5.1 encoding on most of the first few DVD's I've watched. When you buy the bottom of the range you start to find out what you are missing with the main advantages of the 405 being that it remembers the stop place for several DVD's, it has optical audio out and SVideo out connections and the remote can also be used for most tellies. As I've now got 6 remote controllers in my living room, this would be handy. It plays CD's with almost the same quality as my Phillips CD player but the sound is a little harsher for the drums. I've had no problems playing MP3's either. All in all I'm totally satisfied although I do wish it was black to match every other audio and visual components in my room...