Absolute viewing pleasure (Sony DVP NS355/S)

Member Name: johnnyho

Product:	Sony DVP NS355/S
Date:	01/05/05 (747 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Top brand, Plays nearly everything that is shiny and round, Great value

Disadvantages: No SCART cablr included

I bought this Sony DVD player from amazon.co.uk as a multi-region player, but I think if purchased from the high street, it will be a standard region 2 player. The player is very cheap, especially when considering it is a Sony. I have had one DVD player before, but as that didn't allow me to playback some copied DVD's, I thought it was time for a new one.

The player arrived in a standard box. Included was the player itself, a remote control with batteries, an instruction manual and some standard phono cables. The player was so easy to set up - litterally just plug it in, connect some cables to your TV (although I am using a SCART lead which is not supplied - and I strongly recommend that anyone do the same) and thats it. You're ready to go. When the player is first plugged in, there is some simple setup procedure - such as telling the player what type of TV you have (widescreen or standard) and some other minor things such as language of the menu. Once this has been done, then you can just put a disc in, and it will start playing.

The picture quality, is very good. I was not expecting it to be absolutely first class as it is a 'budget' player. I am using a RGB signal from it, and if your TV is compatible, I also recommend you do this as the picture quality you will get is much better. The player is very easy to use, and so is the remote. The remote also allows you to control a few things on your TV, such as standby and volume. You can use this even if the TV you are using is not Sony, and it tells you how to set this up in the manual.

The outputs are your normal phono ones, a SCART socket and coaxial out for digital audio. There is no optical output which I think is more widely used.

The appearance of the player is very attractive. It is a nice silver finish, although I think it is available in black, but is much harder to find. The unit is very slim, about half of what my VCR is, but has the same width as the VCR so it does fit in nicely. It also has a nice glossy black on the front of the disc tray, which matches to blackness of the screnn on the unit.

Playing DVD's is easy - you have got good control over it, such as information of current time on the disc, chapter, title etc. You can also skip to a specific time, which I also think is very handy.

The player does not just play DVD videos, it also has the ability to play VCD's and SVCD's, and plays them in quite good quality (considering the quality of VCD's and SVCD's is not too good). It can also play mp3 and JPEG discs, which you can just burn as a data disc on your computer, and can view your photos or fit a lot of music onto a CD. However, using the unit as a CD player or a mp3 disc player is not brilliant, but is adequate, but will never be as good as a standalone CD player.

As I bought this as multi-region, I can play discs from all over the world. I have not currently tried a region 1 discs (Americas), but have tried a few region 3 discs (Asia Pacific) and they have played flawlessly. I have also tried NTSC discs, and they also work fine (although you must check that your TV is compatible). The player also manages to play DVD's which I have burnt on my computer that have not been finalised (although it does take a long time to start playing - about a minute of spinning the disc or so) but I didn't expect these to work at all!

Overall, a very good DVD player with a top brand which you can trust. It will play anything you throw at it (including your own DVD's which can be burnt on any format (+R(W), -R(W) except for DVD-RAM). Why spend similar money on something else with an unknown brand when you can get this. One thing I don't like is that it didn't come with a SCART cable, and maybe the possibility to play DivX files, but I think that is asking too much for this price.

Summary: