Sony DVP S735D (Sony DVP NS 735)

Member Name: mambo123

Product:	Sony DVP NS 735
Date:	01/11/01 (1871 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Picture, Sound, Features

Disadvantages: Standard Remote

Having owned this player for just under a year now, I have decided to write a review that it truly deserves. I'll be honest, at the time of buying I knew very little about set top players. All I knew was that anything must be better than watching my small DVD collection on my tiny pc monitor, complete with poor lip sync and poor sound. I picked up a copy of DVD Review, flicked through the pages to the back and looked at the hardware. There in their listings was what I now come to believe to be my greatest home theatre purchase to date. I chose this particular player because it got a perfect score. A 10/10. I was impressed by its many features - 2 Scart, Svideo, DD5.1, DTS, Optical and Coaxial. Lets be honest, the user is spoilt for choice.

The Picture in my opinion perfect. It is just as good as any other "premium" (expensive) player I have seen. It uses "Smooth Scan", it's just a made up word from Sony, but I don't care, it does the job, and it does it well.

The Sound is also brilliant. It is crystal clear even without a big amp and speaker separates to enhance it. I have a poor TV; it pales in comparison to what most film buffs would recommend as a necessity to own. However this was already superior to the sound a picture quality that I got with my Pc. I have fully tested the DD5.1 and DTS capabilities and I am very impressed. Every little sound, even ambient, is very clear. And when necessary the sound punches out with enough force to make the neighbours complain. That last comment alone should make you want to run out and buy this player (well you would if you lived down my street :) ).

The player has the usual features that you'd expect, Search and Skip etc. What's more it has a picture memory for saving particular pictures, and also a useful Bookmark feature which lets you skip to a particular scene. I see these as gimmicks, but I am sure they would be useful to some people.
Lastly there is a "Jog" feature which allows the user to skip through scenes a frame at a time, this is great if you require to pick out something, or simply wish to watch a scene in slow motion.

The display menu is very easy to understand, and self explanatory really. The user can change various picture and sound modes to their requirements and look at other boring stuff.

Not only is this a great DVD player, it physically looks the part. It's sleek and has a stylish metallic look, let's just say I could not understand if someone turned round and gave anything other than praise towards its looks.

Now is time to talk about the remote. It is very bulky in size and to be fair the button layout is a little crowded. This makes it very hard to find the right button to press when the lights are out and the user wants to operate the player. I think this is a standard Sony remote so expect to be faced with the same problem with any Sony DVD player that you buy.
If you are really anal this can be easily changed. Also if you have many other remotes to which are needed to power other equipment it may be a good idea to buy a multi purpose remote. Simply program the hardware in and you're away. I would just like to reiterate that this is the only qualm that I have with this player. And lets be honest, it really is not that big a deal.

The player, like every other Sony is single region only out of the box. This player really needs to be multi region enabled, and this can only be done by use of a chip. To anyone who is getting their Sony chipped, I recommend that they buy an auto & manual job. This will allow the user to get round the evil workings of RCE. Simply by changing it to manual region, then selecting R1 you should avoid any problems.

The price tag may be high for some, but not a lot more can be done for double the price. Personally I think this player is a bargain, I would have no hesit
ation in recommending it to anybody else, and from experience, Sony have always provided me with the best build quality, so you should be enjoying DVDs on this machine for years to come.

Summary: