Sony DVP-CX995V
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"Respectable specs, but horrible implementation!" on by hanersky7
Pros: Great video up-conversion through HDMI
Cons: Disc Explore - Made and certified by idiots!
Summary: Let me start off by saying that I've been in the Hometheater business for many years and I’ve never been more frustrated and disappointed with a product such as this one. The R&D department must have been sleeping or simply didn’t care. I’ll give you some examples that will make you want to pull your hair out if you decide to purchase this unit.
Example 1: Unlike their Mega CD changers, you need to use the Disc Explore to painfully enter the titles in. (Around 8% was recognized by the player – Columbia Tri-Star titles obviously). What if I don’t want to use the slow and pathetic Disc Explore? What if I want to simply open the player up and as I insert each DVD into a slot, I want to enter the disc’s name via PS2 keyboard and then proceeds to the next! What is so hard about that? The Sony Mega changers can do that, why can’t the DVD changers do it?!
Example 2: I turned off the “Auto Play” feature. Of course it still plays ever time the player turns on. (Sony what is so hard to test these things out!) This is really annoying when you’re trying to search for a disc and the darn thing will not stop!
One last tid-bit before I wrap this simple review up. Sony claims that this plays CD’s and other media. - Dear Sony, If you know people are going to intermix their CDs and DVD collection, why didn’t you put a fast forward or rewind button on the deck itself! That option is only available on the remote! What if I want to press fast forward and I my remote is MIA?
I use an Excel spreadsheet and simply bypass the Disc Explore. The DVD changer itself performs very well in the video quality (HDMI), but the above faults simply push this player back to the Medieval Age. In a scale of ten, I would rate this product 3 out of 10!
Sony you need to fire your DVD Disc Explore R&D and testing department. I will make it my personal mission to tell all future buyers of this huge fault. -
"Very Nice Player But..." on by kimma
Pros: Large disc capacity, decent disc manager
Cons: CAN'T CHANGE CONTROL MODE!!!, can't daisy chain units
Summary: I just picked up 2 of these from J&R for $350 each. Awesome player, disc explorer works pretty good too (Can page down, sort by title / genre / album, etc.
Out of the 780 DVDs I put in these 2 units, it only automatically picked up titles of about 40 at most. The rest I had to manually type in with a ps2 keyboard that I attached (much faster than using the remote)
The one issue I see with this is that you cannot dasiy chain muliple units together.
The manual says you can switch command modes with remotes so that one remote doesn't control both units. I tried this by switching the setting in the battery compartment of the remote without any issues.
However you are supposed to be able change the command mode on the DVD player by powering off the unit then pressing and holding enter on the player + power. I can't get this to change on either player. If anyone had luck with this please let me know. -
"At $309.00 this was a great buy. Go get one!" on by sdragon13
Pros: More user friendly then the previous model. Now plays jpeg and slide shows. 4 set folders and 4 more that you can customize. Now has page up and down when searching.
Cons: The only drawback so far is that it still plays a disk when you turn it on.
Summary: This one blows away the previous model. Just make sure and read the manual as you are using the machine.
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"Very Good in storing the discs" on by yogesh
Pros: Removes Clutter
Cons: Takes long time to retrieve the disc
Summary: Sony has done a goood job in these Mega Changers. The price is right and if users want a fast selection, Hard Disk recorders are the only way to go. At present only upto 400GB storage on the Hard Disk recorders is available and that takes too much time to transfer to hard disk. For budget custraints, Sony Mega changer is way to go.
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"Another pathetic, broken DVD changer from Sony" on by DaveOCP
Pros: First DVD mega changer with HDMI up conversion
Cons: Everything else
Summary: Its absolutely pathetic that *this* is the best Sony could do. Its just as broken as the last one.
Pioneer's DV-F727 from 1999 is better than the CX985V, and it is still better than the CX995V in 2005. Sony should be embarrased at how terrible this product is.
The Pioneer does not automatically play a disc at start up whether you want it to or not. The Pioneer remembers ALL disc info when discs are moved to different slots or removed from the unit. The Pioneer allows you to view the disc menu while either a CD or DVD is playing. The Pioneer has direct disc access support, and also has proper FF\REV controls on the front panel. It does everything you could want a mega CD\DVD changer to do, with no horrible design faults.
The F727 and Elite DV-F07 were so good, in fact, that Onkyo, Integra, and Marantz put a different front panel on and rebadged the Pioneer units as their own models. No other company would be caught dead putting their name on this piece of junk.
The only problem with the Pioneers is they are six years old, and dont even have progressive scan capability, let alone HDMI HDTV upconversion. Even without all that, there's absolutely no way I'd trade my Elite DV-F07 for this.
Pioneer, please, please, PLEASE update the DV-F07 with all of the advanced features of the DV-59AVi. Its painfully obvious that Sony is totally incompetent when it comes to making mega changers.
