Mixed bag of video
As far as video quality goes, the DVP-NS700P has something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. On the Jekyll side, there were very few interlaced artifacts visible during difficult pans in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and the details on the animated actors' faces were eye-poppingly clear. Also, this player, like other Sony players, offers silky-smooth forward and reverse scans and a clean picture when watching anamorphic discs in standard 4:3 mode.
Hyde soon surfaces, though. In interlaced mode, the picture became noticeably darker in our tests. You can easily use the Custom Picture mode to compensate, but it's still annoying. In progressive mode, there was visible noise that the deck's noise-reduction circuit failed to eliminate. In chapter two, as Aki's ship descends for a landing in Old New York, the streets below come alive with dancing pixels. Finally, evidence of the chroma upsampling error (where horizontal streaks appear in solid-colored onscreen objects) is visible as streaks across fields of color, such the red warning lights aboard the ship, appeared once or twice.
As noted, the competition is stiff in this class of players. The $299 (list price) DVP-NS700P is going up against decks such as and , both of which offer MP3 support, superior wide-screen video performance, and less-expensive price tags. On the other hand, the DVP-NS700P brings a more polished look and feel, as well as more custom options and a better picture when used with a 4:3 HD-ready set--such as Sony's own . If you own such a TV, the DVP-NS700P is a good choice. However, if you have a wide-screen set, there are better options.
What You'll Pay
- Set Price Alert
