Sony DVP-S9000ES, Should I buy it for $1000?

Jay,
I have the Sony 9000 and got it when it first came out.
Now it would be really easy for me to say go get one it is great and I would be saying what I honestly felt in saying it was great.
However....
As most every other DVD Player it has a few flaws. Yes even the exhalted RP 91 has flaws not matter what their owners seem to say. I still feel the 9000 is a great player and have no plans to do away with mine, I would not reccomend it for purchase right now. It has the Chroma Bug though much more mildly then many units. It also lacks the ability to scale non-anamorphic leterbox movies for widescreen.
So I bet you think I am going to tell you to get the RP 91?
Nope I can not in good faith tell anybody to buy a Panasonic afte their whole A110 A 310 problem (Yeah I know not everyone had problems with these units but enough people did) and the way they really ignored them when it should have been recalled. BTW I have heard of several people who had some of the same problems from the 110/310 models on newer units and even including the RP 91. (Watch the Panasonic owners without problems jump down my throat for that)
So what player do I reccomend? Good question.
If you do not need DVD-A then the JVC 65 is dirt cheap and you would not feel bad replacing it when a Good Solid High end model does come out. If you must have DVD-A well then the JVC 75 has that and MP 3 playback for about $250 and if you need to have a changer then the JVC 95 is like a 75 but holds 7 DVDs/CDs/DVD-as and should be found in the $300 range.
Max
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Well I think the best bang for the buck is the New JVC units which can be had in Black and has also cured many of the 723 quirks. As for the Picture on the JVC, it does not have the Chroma bug and it supposed to do a decent job of de-interlacing on most discs.
I hear Dennon and Onkyo both have new players coming out. The Onkyo is THX Ultra certified. It may be worth looking at. Yamaha seems to be getting ready or allready have released an RP 91 clone.
The Chroma Bug is a problem with many Mpeg chips that seems to become a little more visible on prog units. Basically it is a a problem with intense colors smearing a little bit. Depending on the player it can look awful or be hardly noticable. On the 9000 it is very minor while the Toshiba's seem to be really bad with it. It generall shows up in animation or intense reds and sometimes credits. On the 9000 it does not really bug me and I know that Mike K's 9000 does not have a bad problem it but it is there and if you look hard it will show up now and then.
Basically what it looks like is a blurring of a color and often results in fine horizontal lines through that color in the intense spots and a slightly smudgy appearance.It does not show up in most movies.
I personally am thinking of getting the JVC Changer because I want DVD-A but have been holding back in hopes that a Malata type region free player will come out with a DVD-A player. I really want to go multiregion.
In fact I bet that if I do get one of the JVC units in less then a month There will be a DVD-A able Multi-region player with all the top PS stuff.
Max
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Answer the following questions to yourself, to determine if the 9000ES is right for you:

• Are you interested in 2-channel-only SACD? The 9000ES is an excellent CD and SACD player, but it doesn't do multichannel SACD.
• Does the chroma bug bother you? The 9000ES has it, though it's minor.
• Do you need to play CD-R discs? The 9000ES won't play them reliably (though CD-RWs work fine)
• Do you want a player with a 5 year warranty, excellent build quality, and superb audio?
• Do you watch non-anamorphic letterboxed DVDs on a 16:9 TV, particularly one that doesn't allow aspect ratio selection for 480p? The 9000ES doesn't have scaling/zoom for these like the Panasonic and JVC players do.
• Are you hypnotized by the monolithic front panel and blue light?

If you want multichannel SACD and/or CD-R compatibility, check out the new Sony DVP-NS900V that's coming soon. It lists for $1000 and resembles a scaled back 9000ES. It's not a ES model though, so it probably doesn't have the top-notch build quality or 5-year warranty.
KJP

 

I still love my 9K...Had it since Dec. 2000.
- Chip
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If you don't want DVD-Audio for some reason than look to the new Sage/Faroudja de-interlacer chip progressive scan players coming out.
Get yourself a stand-alone, audio only multichannel Sony-ES SACD player (that doubles for CDs as well).
Dan
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Or wait for the Philips SACD 962, promising Sage/Far chips, and multi-channel SACD with bass management for around $1000 list. Jan 2002 release date.
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I would look for a player that has the Faroudja DCDi chipset. See DVD player Shootout #2 at: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...-2-8-2001.html

 

Just to clear up a couple things:
- The RP-91 has nothing to do with the A110/A310. And there is no reason to not buy one based on the problems of second generation DVD players.
- Panasonic, in many cases, have given SOME owners of defective A110/A310's, an RV65 as a replacement. There are, or were, past threads here on HTF with info that will help you be able to get one.
I do not own an RP-91, BTW.
Jeff

 

Jeff,
I know the RP 91 is not the A110/310 but you can learn about a company from the way they deal with customers.
Sure there might have been some people that got treated right and I suspect that they had to do much complaining to get treated right.
The A110/310 was so full of problems it was not funny and many people really got screwed on them but good.
Now I know of several incidents with A120's that had the bad laser problem and I have also seen several posts from people with RP 91s that got Dud units with laser problems as well. Maybe I am being hard on Panasonic but it seems that everytime I see the words laser pick up needed to be replaced it is about a Panasonic model. I have never seen this said about Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer or other units.
I don't know what is up with the RP 91 but everyone seems to ingore it's quirks as minor but it seems to have many of them. Reading through that RP 91 FAQ it seems there are problems with adjusting the centering, and that you lose the adjustment any time it loses power, but that is just a quirk. Oh and if you exit a menu system incorrectly it fowls up the colors but again that is just another cute quirk.
Yet I will see someone look at another player and bash the hell out of it if the menus come up a little slower then they are used to.
Sorry but as a former owner of an A310 that used to love to jump chapters at the layer change and eventually started having problem playing anything beyond the layer change I just don't have a lot of faith in Panasonic. A company that is so stupid they would actually respond to an E-mail question that someone here wrote in and telling them a time remaining function of the display is not possible on DVD, when most every other brand of player does have that.
Sorry I don't usually rant like that but I have gotten so sick of seeing all these people go on about the RP 91 like it is the player from the gods and so quickly forget about all the reliability problems that Panasonics have suffered.
Sorry if that sounded harsh but I needed to unload nothing personal.
Max
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[Edited last by MaxY on August 27, 2001 at 09:33 PM]