Sony DVPNS325B DVD Player
An excellent entry level DVD player
After comparing the Sony NS325B to a lot of different brands and their features, such as the Panasonic S25K, I found it less generous on features, but just as reliable on multiple format decoding, and more stable on quality and longivety.<br /> It's very attractive with it's slim casing, and even though they are small at first notice, all major function buttons are ready to use manually on the from panel display. It's nice to see that they use a minimal of text, signage, etc on the front of the player, so it looks a lot nicer! The remote is a dull grey, but all the functions are easy to use-small buttons though!  <br />The 'Precision Drive 2' helps compensate any skips or disc errors, if there are any, while watching movies. Also, it has an 'optical output' that will really magnify digital quality sound with a 5.1 setup. Even if you are currently using analog, sound still sounds unbeleivable. Great sound decoding job there Sony! <br />Component video is also an option for a much more direct feed, which give my movies the best image! Other goodies, such as block noise reduction, and 24-bit digital processing for amazing decoding, bring out colours and outlines of images amazingly. We threw in 'The Abyss' to see just how smooth and rich the 'blues' were since half of the footage is shot underwater. The blue colouring had next to no bleed at all, and the richness of the colours didn't get smudgey. <br />Get this! We even switched/used only two main channel speakers (left, right) instead of the whole package for a few minutes, and even turned the reciever to a simple two stereo channel function (non surround), and the DVD player's decoding still did an amazing, crisp job as Ed Harris snuck behind Michael Biehn quietly in 'The Abyss'. You could hear the water drops and chains so lifelike. I honestly closed my eyes and smiled, listening to the amazing clarity. Even without the surround enhancement, I could still feel an openness of sound! Way to go Sony!<br />The only thing it doesn't have that would have been better, since we're getting a projector, is 'progressive scan'. Still, this is only our first player, and even without progressive scan, it still looks great. The Panasonic S25K is a great player as well. It's missing S-Video, which I find a shocker,  but has component video output (whew). Also, there is no optical output for audio. But then again, Panasonic does equip it's baby with 'JPEG' and 'progressive scan' capability. <br />For the comfort, I'd rather have my player read the majority of formats, but have a couple less toys. And with a 'Precision Drive 2' onboard, watch out skips and scratches-you probably won't get to screw up our movie watching.