Sony

Great little system, the instructions are rather complex and seems to have lost a bit in translation, generaly a good little system. Only bad point is that you can not record SKY tv, or TNT if you are in France, if it could then would be superb

Neat

This DVD player has a neat, modern and slimline design, and delivers a good picture. I bought one for my parents and they seem to find it pretty easy to use.

A feature worth mentioning is the multi-disc resume: this remembers where you've stopped play on up to 6 discs, allowing them to be removed and re-started later - useful if several different people will be using the player. Also, the remote control can be set up, via a simple code, to operate a non-Sony TV, meaning that you can turn on the TV and adjust volume etc using the single DVD remote. Handy.

It's too early to comment on long-term reliability, but the build quality of the player and remote seem fine. A minor criticism is that disc-reading seems a little slower than my own old Toshiba player, but it's perfectly adequate. Overall, a nicely-specified, solid performer.

Flawed by one too many cut corners

Sony does not advertise the fact that this unit does not have SCART or S-video output. This means that the quality of the image is inferior to even the most basic of dedicated DVD players - the quality is little better than a Playstation. What a shame because otherwise this is excellent for the money - so don't waste yours, spend a little extra and get the DAV-S500, as I did, which is simply superb.

Sony, however, should be applauded for the inclusion of SACD. I am hoping the DAV series will sell truckloads so that the SACD format takes off and many more titles will become available. The quality compared to CD is astonishing, and music in full surround is a revelation.

Great System

Bought this a couple of weeks back. Sound and picture quality is excellent ; well worth the money. Now about the connectivity. I agree that it would have been nice to have an additional scart; But the one provided in the system is two way--I have verified this. You can use this both for input as well as output. I used the sound output from my set up box and could play back the TV sound through this system--and it really sounds great. The only issue I felt was, if I want to play a DVD, I would need to disconnect the scart from the set up box and connect it to the TV instead. That's where I felt an additional scart would have been great.

Otherwise excellent value for money..!

Digital 8 VCR

The web page was clear about the specification and Foto Koster, the supplier, provided quick confirmation of the order and quick delivery.
The VCR is now working well to transfer my old video 8 cassettes to DVD format. Although this will be a"long term" project.

One proviso.......

Great sound, great looks, but I had to send it back twice because it kept gliching on DVD playback - always towards the end of the film. Out of warranty now, and it happened again - stuck a bigger fan on and all is well.

Great player, easy to use and supports DivX

With so many programs available, legally, as downloadable DivX files nowadays it's great that this Sony player supports that file format and supports it well. I've had a Samsung DivX player and purchased this one for my folks. It's so much better than the Samsung model. Quick to load and also shows the full title of what you've added to the disc.Great player and great value.

Great system!

For the price, this is a great system. Really easy to set up and packed full of features. It also has good bass response - so much so that if you play back an audio CD loud, with dynamic bass turned on, the bass will make the CD skip it's so powerful! The package has run faultlessly for 18 months now. The built in tuner is really useful too. Good bang for the buck - I wholly recommend this system!

will play anything you ask it to

This is the best DVD player I have ever owned. I am a great fan of Sony products; a little dearer but you always get more than you paid for with Sony.

The Butcherer Of DivX

I bought this machine in order to have something to play my downloaded DivX movies on. The picture quality is very good at the price, and has some very usable presets to make compressed recordings appear sharper and more vibrant.

Only one problem. Whilst standard DVDs are fine, it butchers the picture when watching DivX recordings. This is most obvious on recordings of TV shows that have a logo in one of the corners, so that when viewed with this machine the logo is half cut off at the edge (whether left or right) of the picture. The same even applies to smallscreen (4:3 ratio) pictures, which again are cut at either side, and appear more square shaped than 4:3. I have compared this against the same movie played on a PC, and the problem is definitely with the Sony player, not the recordings.

So, for this reason alone, I cannot recommend this player.

Good but could have been much better

I decided to acquire a BD player that was able to decode HD Audio like Dolby True-HD. I therefore traded in my BDP S300 and exchanged it for the higher end model - the BDP S500.
Despite preferring HD DVD formatwise, I really wanted to be able to experience the best of all films in Hi Def and that meant going purple and getting both formats.

The drawbacks of the BDP S500 are primarily that it is a Profile 1.0 BD standalone player. Blu-ray is an incomplete format, rushed onto the market so as not to be left behind by HD DVD which is a completely finished Hi Def format.
There are two further Profiles that are forthcoming for Blu-ray players (there may even be a profile 3.0 but that remains unconfirmed):
Profile 1.1 sees the introduction of extras such as picture in picture etc that are available on HD DVD players but are not available on Blu-ray until very recently, with the introduction of a few players like the Panasonic DMP BDK30.
The other is Profile 2.0 which has not yet been introduced and at this time there are no signs of any players appearing enjoying that profile.
This profile features full internet connectivity via an ethernet connection, another function enjoyed on HD DVD players but completely missing on BD Players.
Obviously being Profile 1.0, the BDP S500 enjoys none of the features that will be available in Profiles 1.1 or 2.0 nor is it possible to upgrade this player to incorporate these features. As a result the arrival of Blu-ray discs that have these features will simply be a case of playing the film only for the BDP S500 and its fellow Profile 1.0 players.
- Another drawback to the BDP S500 is that it does not decode DTS-HD Master Audio. Therefore, any discs in that format will be decoded as normal DTS.
It is rumoured though that Sony are going to provide a firmware update which will allow DTS-HD Master to be decoded via this and other Blu-ray players. The sooner the better frankly.
- Like all BD machines, the BDP S500 is limited as to what CDs and DVDs it can play. Anything outside of a conventional CD or DVD eg a CD-R or DVD-R etc will not be able to play.
My last criticism of this BD player is the clunkiness of the Java menus and the time that they take to load, particularly when playing a 50GB Blu-ray disc chock full of extras eg Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
That said this loading time and overall Java interactivity has been helped though by Sony's recent firmware update 3.50 for the BDP S500 which I recently I applied to my player.

So what is good about the BDP S500?
- It decodes Dolby True-HD superbly, giving a deep and very rich sound indeed when played back via my Onkyo HDMI Amp. Films like Close Encounters and The Fifth Element are simply superb, sound is beautifully clear across all channels with no distortion whatsoever. Surround sound is amazing and is never intrusive.
- Despite not(yet)being able to play back DTS-HD Master, the BDP S500 can play back DTS-HD and conventional DTS sound. Both are superb and give an incredible audio experience.
Ditto for its ability to playback Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus.
- Visually the BDP S500 plays back a stunning 1080p Hi Def picture and this fantastic picture is really what the Hi Def experience is all about.
- Lastly the build of this machine is really good - it looks and feels well made, and I just love the the robotic front fascia that lifts up and down prior or after the disc tray opening and closing.

So there you have it, a mixed bag. I bought the player for its strengths and was fully aware of its aforementioned limitations. It has not disappointed me in my expectations of it but just be aware of the Profile 1.0 concerns and others that I have outlined. If like me, you can do without those features then go ahead and pick one up because this is a fine Hi Def player which will be even better if it gets its rumoured firmware update to be able to decode DTS-HD Master Audio.