Sony 5 DVD changer 615 or 655P? (1 Viewer)

[MarcusJT]

I want to buy a 5 DVD player from Sony, and both of these players are in my price range. The difference between the two is that the 655 is a progressive player.

I understand the differences between Progressive/Interlaced players. I just bought a TV last year that is not progressive so I will not be buying this DVD player assuming it will ever be used by a Progressive TV.

I want to know if anyone knows if the Progressive version offers any visual processing (image quality) benefits that I would be able to take advantage of. My TV is a 36 inch Wega that has the 16:9 mode.

The specs say that the 655P has 4X oversampling. Is that just for the processing of the progressive image, or does that also apply when it is in interlaced mode?

The price difference is only $50, but that's $50 I could spend on DVDs if there will be no noticable difference.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[Joel Vardy]

I just got delivery of my 655 this week. I'm pretty happy with it though I believe that my Toshiba 5109 was delivering slightly higher quality image. Though after some tweaking with the aid of my Avia disk I am fairly happy with it non-the-less. The features/price are outstanding though I must admit this does not answer your question regarding the price difference ($50) between the 615 and the 655. In my case I require the progressive scan feature (the main reason for aquiring the 5109) since I run it through a Mitsubishi WS55805 HDTV w/progressive inputs. I could live without it but the difference (at least run through the 5109 interlace vs. progressive signal processor) was striking.

I wish I could afford a higher end model but right now this suits my purpose quite well. The MP3 capabilities are the other reason I was very interested in moving up from the 5109. The other reason was that many of the latest titles broke up or froze on my Toshiba and so far the Sony runs beautifully.

The 655 has a progressive/interlace selectable setting where the unit choses the appropriate signal for the material being processed (film vs. other). I don't know if the 615 has that feature (I guess it wouldn't w/out the progressive signal option) but if you ever plan to upgrade your monitor this would be one less item to retrofit.

Hope that helps a bit.

Joel

 

[MarcusJT]

Thanks for the reply. I was able to find some other posts comparing just the DAC chips themselves. But, those also did not really have a definitive answer. Just the more bits is probably better, but not necessarily line. That's helpful.