Is a 400 disc DVD player the best library? (1 Viewer)

[DustinT]

Hi Folks,

I don't have a huge DVD collection by any means. probably still under 300 discs. however, what I DO have, is a small house. In an effort to consolidate my wife and I have removed all the discs and put them in binders instead of pearl cases. This has been working fine... BUT I don't know that I like having big binders laying around either... I'm picky. so what.

Anyhow, we got to thinking that maybe we should get ourselves a multi disc dvd player for Christmas to add to the home theater setup (read: 400+ disc changer probably).

What do you think about this? For those who have experience, does the disc changer provide any kind of menu system? Or do you have to flip through each individual disk to find the one you want manually?

What is your favorite way to categorize your DVD's? I'm open to all suggestions...

Thanks,
Dustin

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Assuming the 400 disc mega changers are mechanically durable, that has to be the best and easiest way. Sony even has a new one with HDMI connection if you need that. I don't own one so I can't comment on reliability.

Chris

 

[Grant B]

I have a 400 and an older 300 and I find they make sense for smaller places.I keep the boxes in the back of the closet and keep track where they are with DVD profiler. I use it to print a report to glance at.
I also have 2 for my cd collection since the DVD changers are much slower then the CDs.

Advantages are : no stacks of cds
less messed up discs due to touching etc
easy to find if organized
feel free to email me if you have any questions
Grant

 

[Brian Osborne]

I had a 200 disc changer for a long time, we just outgrew it. I now use my PC and media center to arrange all our albums. I found this to be much easier that I thought. I've just burned all of our CDs onto the HDD of my computer and it organizes and labels them all for me. If you have the ability to do this, I strongly reccomend it. I listened to music both ways and I didn't hear any quality loss.
Both my computer and my CD changer have digital audio out.

 

[Grant B]

Just make sure you use the 'cd quality' and not a MP3 setting.
Takes much more room but mp3 quality sounds like crap on a good system

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I've owned the 400 disc sony DVD changer and it was great. I have a sony 300 disc CD changer that's going on 4 years old and even with daily use it keeps on trucking. The Sony DVD unit wasn't without its quirks for getting access to a DVD but it was still easier then getting of the couch

 

[Westly T]

I had a 200 Disk DVD and it was not bad, but technology changes fast. When it came time for Progressive scan I scrapped the changer idea and went with a quality single disk, all format player. I don't like a changer unless it can play and hold my entire collection (And all formats, CD, SACD, DVD-A, DVD-V). At this time I personally don't plan on another changer, I upgrade too often and like looking through my collection in the rack. For CD's I'm also going away from the changer with my new receiver and media server that streams it across my home network (No disks, music is stored on a hard drive).

 

[EdQ]

I just picked up the Sony 400 DVD changer for the same reasons. So far its working well. It will read most of the DVD titles and add them to the list. If not, I have a keyboard hooked up for easy input.

 

[John Titan]

I have a Pioneer 101 disc cd changer. It's about 5-6 years old and it has worked flawlessly. I've been thinking about the sony dvd changer as well. The only thing it lacks is dvd-audio playback which my next player has to have. If dvd-audio is not important I would say go for it. I own almost all the seasons of the star trek catalog which are about 100$ a season. It's always worried me that if one disc of a set was ruined I would have to shell out 100$ to replace it. So having them in a changer really appealed to me.

 

[joseph f]

I have a sony 300 disc DVD changer that I bought when these things first came out and am thinking hard about getting one of the new 400 disc dvd changers but need to research more if these can be chained together like the CD players and have been kind of waiting to see what happens with the HD thing.

I also have a sony 300 disc CD player daisy chained to a 400 disc cd player. This system works great for random play if you set it up right, there is absolutely no down time between songs, the other player is all ready to go when the first stops, then they just keep switching. I have another 300 disc cd player on the side. My wife thinks I am nuts, she may be right.

these changers rock in my opinion, I have never had one scratch a cd or a dvd that I am aware of and it gets rid of the fingerprints on the discs and the cd jackets which drive me nuts. I think they are a great way to go especially if storage is an issue. I understand that performance wise they might not be the best though.

 

[JackS]

I started out with a couple of single disk players then graduated to a couple of 5 disks players and now have the 400 disk player. I could never go back to anything less.

 

[Hank_P]

it would be nice to get their megachangers up to date. You can get the ES version with RS-232 port and no HDMI, and get the new CX version with no RS-232 and HDMI, and supposidly better GUI interface (newer/revised/quicker). You would think that the ES version would at least have HDMI.

 

[EdQ]

Which changer are you talking about? My Sony has HDMI

 

[Hank_P]

the sony CX777ES version does not have the HDMI... suppose to be a step up from the model you purchased (CX995).

 

[Grant B]

joseph f
I guess we are both nuts!
I looked into it and you can daisy chain the 400s together but not a 300 to a 400.
The 400s remote lets you change the IR so you can contral them seperately.
I keep old movies and TV show in the non-progressive scan 300 and the rest (and SACDs) in the 400.
Grant