Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DVP-NS705 Silver DVD Player

When looking for my first DVD player I wanted one which did everything and a quality brand name to match, and I wasn't disappointed with the Sony NS705, it will play anything including SA-CD's,mp3's except VCD's.

The machine is quiet and sleek, on screen menus guide you through all the set-up procedures - I haven't had to refer to the manual once and even my non-technical flat mate has got to grips with it!

The only extra you will need is good quality SCART lead to connect to your TV for the best quality picture.

It plays mp3 cd's with no problems and will handle sub-directories as well.

The only slight issue is that there is a slight pause when you are watching a DVD and it changes between layers on the disc.

Overall very happy with both the sound and the picture, I now just need that silver plasma screen to complete my setup!

I bought the DVP-NS705 in December 2002 as a Christmas present to myself and the rest of my family because we had recently bought a Sony 32ins flat/widescreen 100Hz TV and I thought I might as well get a decent DVD to go underneath it.

When I switched it on, I was surprised with how easy the quick set-up was for those who want to play with it as soon as they get it out of the box. However, I read-up on all of the different features in the manual to ensure that I was not disappointed with a waste of £200. To ensure that you get the best picture, it uses a 'digital video enhancer' to make the picture appear clear and crisp by enhancing the outlines and images. And it really works.

For some strange reason, Sony have incorporated a 'Block Noise Reduction (BNR)' function to alter the picture quality. Block noise is a sort of mosaic pattern similar to pixelation, which appears on the screen. There are three number settings plus an off setting for this function (three being the most effective) and I just keep mine on three for an obvious reason- the best picture.

This DVD player has a 27MHz/10 bit video D/A converter and a 192 KHz/24 bit audio D/A converter. Because the sound is handled by one converter and the video by another, sound and video are improved significantly. Another feature is that it compensates for the problem of not resuming DVD's from the point you left off last by...guess...re-starting the DVD's from the point you left off last for up to 40 discs. This is useful because it means that you do not have to write down the chapter and time at which you stopped and ejected the disc.

I do not have surround sound speakers and I can see the attraction. I have never experienced them and am not particularly interested. The DVD player has a built-in Dolby 5.1 and DTS (Digital Theatre Sound) decoders for surround sound for linkage to speakers and a digital (optical) output for linkage to a receiver.

As the other reviewer said, there is a slight delay between the transferrence between reading of layer one and two but this is a characteristic of DVD players. Perhaps, in the future this will be alleviated, but it is only for about a second.

I am overall very pleased with this DVD player.

The reason I purchased thid DVD player wasn't for the picture quality (though it is good) or its ease of use (it's very user friendly). It was for the SACD playback. This was the cheapest SACD player I could find and it works great. Of course you need a 5.1 amplifier with 5.1 sound input and 5 surround speakers but the effect is wonderous.
Music now sounds fuller, richer and more vibrant due to SACD. This is reason alone to buy this DVD player. You really can not knock it at all, and for its price it can't be beat.
If you are looking for a reasonably priced DVD player with a good picture playback and fabulous sound, this is where you should start. Highly recommended.

Well, what can I say? This DVD player has everything and nothing was too good for it. The picture quality is fantastic, I watched the Perfect Storm as soon as I got the DVD player and the detail in the water is near perfect as I could see every ripple, I've watched the Perfect Storm on my PS2 DVD player many times and that isn't a touch on this, nearly everything was out of focus on the PS2. The colours are as good as it gets as well with the bright yellow jackets being, bright yellow! What next, well the sound modes are beyond perfection with the enhanced surround being my favourite, it simply takes Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and makes everything that notch better (although in the instruction book it says that enhanced surround is better used with Pro Logic which is true but it is also excellent with DD 5.1) and the other sound modes are mouthwatering as well, we have Virtual rear shift, Virtual multi rear and Virtual multi Dimension which are all good but better at loud volumes. I haven't tried the SACD bit of it yet, thats why I came here today but all I can say about the other features in a nutshell is they are fantastic and the DVD player should cost twice the price. If you're looking for a DVD player in this price range, buy this one as you will never regret it.

This player is awesome! I already had an Onkyo dv-s555 DVD player and was astonished with this Sony. I bought it mainly to initiate myself in the Super Audio CD stuff. It has an image and sound quality comparable to the Onkyo, but with much more by half the price the Onkyo player had coasted me. Everything is excellent except, perhaps, the Dolby Digital decoder which comes with it. Nevertheless, I classify that last feature as very good.
Highly recommended!