The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet-
"Buy one and work around the shortcomings. It'll change your life." on by donsevers
Pros: $200 cheaper than Pioneer. Progressive scan. Plays DVD+Rs.
Cons: Interface sucks. Huge.
Summary: Thanks to the dire warnings in reviews like these, I purchased this item with low expectations. I chose a local retailer instead of an online one because I knew I might want to return it. Got a floor model for $345, so I was satisfied with the price.
One reviewer mentioned that he avoided the Disc Explorer entirely by typing up a list and accessing discs by disc number only. I took his advice, and after a cursory look at the Disc Explorer I haven't used it since. Sony screwed up here, but the rest of the player is great.
(It's inexplicable why Sony designed the Disc Explorer the way they did. It shows only 5 titles at a time, you can't page down and it doesn't load titles automatically from most discs. It's really terrible. ***, Sony?)
If the remote had a jog dial so I could dial up a disc number, I'd be in heaven. As it is, I use the
+/- keys or press "Folder", then type in the disc number, enter, enter. This works fine. I'm happy with the disc-loading speed.
What I'm most thrilled with is that it plays all my DVD+R home movies perfectly. Whew. Didn't know whether they'd play when I bought it. Having 20 years of my life on deck changes everything. I can go to my kids' birthdays, Christmas of any year or specific vacation memories in seconds. Without a player like this, most home video lies unwatched and even if you pop a tape in, you can't locate anything quickly. With everything transferred to DVD and loaded in a jukebox, I can finally really use my home movies. Same with my complete Monty Python and Seinfeld sets. If you want to put on The Argument Sketch or The Contest, you can go right to it. Oh, and children are incapable of putting DVDs back in their cases. Problem solved.
One nightmare I read about but didn't have was scratched discs. My player is fine in this regard.
My wife asked my why I bought it if it had so many annoying problems. Here's the deal:
1. This player costs $200 less than the Pioneer.
2. This player is progressive scan.
3. The Pioneer is much older.
4. It does what it's supposed to do.
I can't comment on the picture or audio quality since I'm not a videophile or audiophile anymore. I have the thing plugged directly into a 27" tv, not even stereo. But I'm sure if I get a plasma tv and hook it into a surround system it'll be awesome.
My wife is happy it plays CDs. She rarely listened to CDs before because it was too much trouble to find them and put them on the player. Now, she can just dial up (on the player) what she wants and press Play.
Buy one and work around the shortcomings. It'll change your life. -
"Another wonderful Sony product" on
Pros: Capacity... 400 disc is terrific. I know it seems huge, but with the dropping DVD prices libraries are growing. Storage for these movies becomes a nuisance. The picture quality and sound is terrific and the cost is very reasonable.
Cons: The menus, sadly there was no standard when movies were authored. Some movies automatically detect and have a recognized screen shot, many do not. It's horrible spending hours typing in the names of your movies(fortunately there's the ability to plug in
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"Not worthy of the Sony name" on by edenney
Pros: Holds 400 discs, plays several types of media, great audio & video
Cons: Only recognizes about 10-15% of DVDs, takes forever to input DVD titles because of design issues, painfully slow navigation, 16 character title limit is simply insufficient
Summary: As a DVD player the product is quite worthy. As a 400 disc DVD changer it seriously misses the mark. There are so many little things they did wrong when designing this unit it's hard to believe it made it past R&D much less QC. Because of the design flaws plan to spend hours inputting the DVD titles even for a fast typer with a computer keyboard attached. DVD player plays a title every time you close the door or turn it on. Can't stop it until it gets to the main menu typically because of the way most store bought DVDs are authored (FBI copyright blurb etc.). Also won't allow you to enter titles for DVDs written on DVD-Rs, only DVD+Rs. Bottom line: the product does what it claims, but it's very unpleasant to use and takes forever to input your collection. My 13 year old niece could have designed a better player from a feature standpoint.
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"Kids stop touching disks!" on
Pros: 400 DVDS/CDs in one place. Surprisingly easy to manipulate movies once you get the hang of it. No more DVD cases all over the house.
Cons: Not enough room to properly label CD's in menu which makes it hard to find the right disk. Same problem(although not as bad because your don't need room for artist and title) with movies. Not easy to throw a blockbuster DVD in for a quick showing. Locat
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"Sony Missed The Mark" on
Pros: 400 disk capacity
Cons: Navigator slow and does not allow full screen scrolling. Load function does not identify a majority of DVDs which means that you have to manually enter the disc information. Very poor. No computer interface.
DVP-CX985V 400 Disc Progressive DVD/SACD Player user reviews
Where to Buy
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