Sony DVD is the one for me (Sony DVP NS355/S)

Member Name: susancarter

Product:	Sony DVP NS355/S
Date:	20/02/06 (328 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Does everything I want it to do.

Disadvantages: Not a recorder. No SCART lead.

Introduction
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I’d delayed getting a DVD player for as long as possible because I thought the price would come down as they became more popular. In addition, the increasing popularity of DVDs meant that videos were really cheap so I made the most of the cheap videos. Unfortunately, with the rise of DVDs, it became much harder to get hold of videos so I finally decided that maybe it was worth getting one. As we were getting married, we decided it made sense to put it on our wedding list rather than buy it ourselves. I therefore cannot comment on the price as I do not know how much it was.

For those of you who don’t yet have a DVD player, there are many advantages of DVDs over videos (other than that they are easier to come by). Firstly, they improved sound and image quality (I guess similar to the difference between audio CDs and audio cassettes). Usually a DVD will have a starting menu where you can select different features. The basic features common to all in my experience are play the film/movie and “scene selection”. Scene selection is a bit like track selection on an audio CD. In addition, it is common to have a choice of languages dubbed and/or as subtitles. Some say they include sign language for the deaf although I don’t know enough sign language to know how good this is. Often DVDs will include the trailer used at cinemas or deleted scenes. Sometimes there will be other features done especially for the DVD such as a mini documentary about the film, director’s commentary, games etc. My favourite features are deleted scenes and director’s commentaries.

The Package
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Along with the DVD player, the box contains:
- Remote control
- 2 AA batteries (for remote)
- Audio-Video cable
- Instruction Manual
- Guarantee information

It was very useful that there were batteries included as it saved the usual search to find some but was disappointed by the lack of a SCART lead.

Size
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The DVD player measures approximately 42 x 4 x 24 cm (width x height x depth). It is the same with as some of our other audio-visual equipment and is presumably standard. I think it is fairly compact and it fits nicely into the cabinet under the TV.

Remote Control Features
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All of the controls are on the remote control with a small selection duplicated on the DVD player itself so I mostly operate the DVD player via the remote. The only time I use the buttons on the player is when I am putting a disc in or out and therefore it is easier to press the open/close button on the player.

Main Features
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- Playing discs: There are various formats of disc you can play. These are DVDs, VCDs, audio CDs, and appropriately formatted data CDs.

- Playing DVDs: you can play; pause; stop; resume play where left off.even if it’s been switched off; fast forward; skip scenes; and use all the features provided by a DVD.

- Playing VCDs: we have not used this feature. From the instruction manual, it sounds like it is fairly simple but varies depending on how the VCD has been set up.

- Playing audio CDs: this works in pretty much the same way as most standard CD players. We’ve connected it to some speakers and found we got much better sound quality than from my stereo (and if I can tell then it must be significant!) There is a “repeat playback” feature (which also works on DVDs) where you can select a small portion of a CD (or DVD) to be played in a loop. The instruction manual says that this could be useful for learning song lyrics.

- Playing data CDs: the DVD player can read MP3s and JPEGs on a data CD although they must be arranged in a particular format. The mp3 function is quite useful but when I think if you have a computer you might just as well use that to look at your photos (although it may well be our TV rather than the DVD player which determined the picture quality). The format needed for these CDs is defined by an international standard (ISO9660 if you’re interested) so I presume that if you use some kind of programme to write your CDs it would automatically be in the correct format. You can also play “Kodak Picture CDs” format.

- Parental control: having no children, we have had no need for this feature but it allows you to set age restrictions on particular DVDs. This can either block the disc completely or skip certain scenes. It is password controlled so you can override it when you want to watch it.


General DVD Playing
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General DVD playing is extremely simple. When you insert the DVD, it usually starts straight away. Depending on the DVD it either starts playing the DVD or goes to the DVD’s menu. Using the arrow buttons, you can select the feature you want (e.g. “play movie”) and just press “enter”.

Instruction Manual
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The instruction manual is quite complex. I used it to work out how to connect it up and see what features it had but for actual operation, I just stuck a DVD in and hey presto it worked! Most features are fairly intuitive if you have used computers, videos and CD players. After you’ve had it for a while, it is worth having a look through the manual to see if there are any extra features that you might find useful (such as the “repeat playback” feature I mentioned earlier) but on the whole, once you have set it up (which for us was just the physical connecting to TV and speakers) you don’t really need the instructions.

Ease of Use
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As I have said, it is incredibly simple to use. You just “insert and play”.

Accessories
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You will probably want to buy a SCART lead to connect your DVD player to the TV. Other than that, it’s just a case of connecting to your TV and any speakers you already have. It’s possible you may need extra cables for connecting to speakers but as we bought a SCART lead, we used the audio-video cable to connect to an amp which was already connected to speakers.

Negatives
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The only negatives I have been able to think of is that if you switch the DVD player off, it doesn't automatically retract the disc tray so you must retract it (by pressing the "eject" button) first. However, as this is common to many computer CD/DVD drives, I don't think it is a serious problem. Also, there is no SCART lead but they are not that difficult or expensive to buy. Other than that, it is excellent.

Conclusion
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Although I can’t comment on the price, I would say that this DVD player is pretty good. It is reliable and does everything I can imagine wanting to do with the exception of recording DVDs. For anyone looking for a DVD *player* (and not recorder), I would certainly recommend it.

Summary: It's great.

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