Sony DVPNS900V opinions/reviews? (1 Viewer)

[Matt Broeska]

hey everyone. in a month or two i'll be purchasing my first progressive scan dvd player. i know there are countless threads on "which one should i buy" and i was about to start one of my own, but rather than do that, i'd like to get some opinions on the sony dvpns900v since it doesn't seem to get much "press" here.

i've tried searching for reviews on this player, but i can't really find anything. does anyone here have this player? could you post your thoughts on it?

my main concerns are if it has the chroma bug/how bad is it, and how is it's sacd playback? in a few weeks i'm sure i'll be able to find some time to test it out, but i'd like some advanced opinions if possible.

thanks in advance.

 

[Nicholas A. Gallegos]

I'm looking into possibly getting this player myself, even though I don't have an HDTV set yet. I like the fact that it has multichannel SACD playback, progressive scan, and DD/DTS decoders all in one package. Plus ES-quality construction to boot.

I played with one at a local B&M, but at $1,000 retail, the price is a bit prohibitive for me at the time.

 

[EricK]

I, too, was gonna get one of these...but

1-There have not been any reviews of this player

2-No one seems to own one (at least not on HTF or AVS)

3-No one knows what video chipset it uses (i.e. for chroma bug, etc.)

4-No one knows about its SACD performance

This is like a big MYSTERY player! LOL. Looks like one of us will have to get one and report back on its performance.

I saw this player last april at Home Entertainment 2001 and it looked great. But I wa not able to pick brains about it's specs.

Good luck if you buy one!

Eric.

 

[KeithH]

Matt,

My feeling is that the 'NS900V is not getting much attention because of the price ($1000 in brick-and-mortar stores), coupled with the fact that the Panasonic DVD-RP91 is considered to be an excellent player for a lot less. The 'RP91 seems to have taken this site by storm. It has a bug or two, which have been discussed on this site, but it is considered to be a winner overall. Many say it is simply the best progressive-scan player out there right now. It offers DVD-Audio to boot, though I prefer SACD.

Nicholas,

Not to get mired in semantics, but while I feel the 'NS900V is built well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it is built like Sony's current ES components. It's solid, but is a step below Sony's ES SACD players in terms of build quality. My local Tweeter has the DVP-S9000ES and 'NS900V, and a comparison of the two players makes the 'NS900V look flimsy. Sony's ES SACD players are built very well. Still, the 'NS900V is a definite step up from Sony's cheaper DVD players.

 

[JayJ]

I've not seen a lot written on that particular model here, either, although several folks have submitted reviews to:
www.audioreview.com
Note that some of the reviews are for the European version of the 900, which differs slightly from the American version. The reviews are mostly positive.
I am also interested in this machine and, like others, have been wary of spending $1,000 for it.
I found one retailer, however, Video Direct Distributors (www.videodirect.com), who quoted me a price that came in under $700 (including shipping). I've asked elsewhere on this forum for any feedback on Video Direct since I've not ordered from them before, though they seem legit (full USA warranty, they've been around for several years, etc.). I've not gotten any replies as of yet.

 

[JayJ]

I've not seen a lot written on that particular model here, either, although several folks have submitted reviews to:
www.audioreview.com
Note that some of the reviews are for the European version of the 900, which differs slightly from the American version. The reviews are mostly positive.
I am also interested in this machine and, like others, have been wary of spending $1,000 for it.
I found one retailer, however, Video Direct Distributors (www.videodirect.com), who quoted me a price that came in under $700 (including shipping). I've asked elsewhere on this forum for any feedback on Video Direct since I've not ordered from them before, though they seem legit (full USA warranty, they've been around for several years, etc.). I've not gotten any replies as of yet.

 

[John Giddens]

I've got the 900V and I love it. It certainly didn't cost me $1000. I haggled a local high end A/V store down to $779.00 back in November. I've posted a reply to a thread about it since I got it, I guess it was skipped over.

my main concerns are if it has the chroma bug/how bad is it, and how is it's sacd playback?

I can't tell you about the chroma bug, I haven't noticed it, and I'm not going to look for it, I'd prefer to stay in the ignorance is bliss category. I can say I've watched Toy Story 2 many times with full enjoyment. I'm not saying it doesn't have the chroma bug with the above comment though.
Now the SACD playback is something to behold, especially the Roger Water's In the Flesh SACD. The 900V has bass management, and I found it needed to be tweaked with an SPL meter out of the box, to balance all the speakers. Once I got the speakers balanced, my SVS's really brought out the superior SACD sound.
Here's some links to my previous replys about this player.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=32580
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=30217
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=27679
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=28008
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=27603

 

[JayJ]

Just placed my order for the DVP-NS900V from Video Direct Distributors (www.video-direct.com).
It's currently out of stock but their new shipment is in next week. Total price came to $688, including shipping...

 

[Matt Broeska]

thanks for the replies, guys. i'm still leaning towards the marantz dv6200. it's much cheaper ($500-600 cdn) and it's video performance is amazing. of course, that's not going to stop me from at least looking at the sony... and with the money saved, it wouldn't take much longer to get a standalone sacd player.

 

[Matt Broeska]

i got a chance to demo the dvpns900v this weekend. here're my thoughts. i'm going to put this in relation to what i know. i own the non-progressive toshiba 2109 and i've demo'd the progressive scan marantz dv6200. i've got my own little tests when i demo this stuff so here're my thoughts.

looks and feel: i, personally, think this is a beautiful player. boxy, but not in a stupid way. it's got the "right" height. it's not thin and cheap looking like my tosh, but not overly bulky. the transport was really smooth and quiet, but unfortuneatly kinda cheap (flimsy-ish) to the touch.

menu navigation: i use t2:ue for menu testing. my tosh is moderately slow and the marantz dv6200 is lightning fast. the sony was surprisingly slower than my tosh. after each animated sequence is done when making a selection, it took the player a good second or 2 before the menu options were highlighted again.

layer changes: i used jurassic park for this test. i hate the layer change at the beginning of chapter 8 (or is it 9?). i give this player a fail on that one. i know different companies handle layer changes differently depending on how the disc was mastered, but the sony paused for a good second and a half before moving on. my tosh is pretty good at about half that time. the marantz on the other hand does something different that i'm not quite sure i can explain. it's like it knows that it's going to pause, so it skips ahead. not a lot though. only a few frames it would seem. it doesn't give you the feeling you've missed something, but it does have a different feel than other layer changes i've seen.

chroma bug: argh! it's there! at first i didn't notice it, so i asked the guy at the sony store how everything was hooked up. the main hd set was hooked up with component cables in progresive mode, while the other 4 were hooked up via s-video. at first testing, i didn't see the bug on the toy story 2 logo 'cause i didn't know how all the sets were hooked up. once i knew that the sets were hooked up differently, i could side-by-side compare and look for the dreaded bug. i'd like to say that while i could see it, i have no previous experience with the chroma bug and i can't judge how severe it was. i'd also like to add that the marantz dv6200 does not exhibit the chroma bug.

that was the extent of my testing. they didn't have the remote (!) so i didn't delve into the sony's menu system but from what i've read, i'd be interested to play with the individual picture adjustments. to me, that's a great feature.

i also didn't test out it's audio capabilities. it does play burned cds but not mp3s.

on the whole, though, at an msrp of $1499 cdn (i've checked around and i'm sure i can get it for less than $1300), this player isn't for me. while a great player to look at, at slightly more than half it's price ($800-900 cdn), the marantz is the better player in my opinion.

 

[KeithH]

Matt, based on your observations and your relative comfort with the Marantz player, it seems like you would be wise to buy the Marantz unit to handle DVD playback, and as you said earlier in this thread, save a bit more money to get a Sony audio-only SACD player (preferably an ES model).