Sony DVP-NS70H HDMI Single Disc DVD Player
Not what I was hoping for...
I really had high hopes for this one.  But alas, I have exactly the same video problem that others have reported.  There's a one inch bar at the top of the picture and a half inch at the bottom.  This happens any time I'm using HDMI and running at 720P or 1080i resolution.  This is definitely not the fault of my 42\\" Panasonic plasma, as it doesn't do it when receiving 1080i up-converted signals from my HD TIVO.  No picture info is lost.. rather the picture is slightly squashed (height-wise).  Everything looks just great in 480P mode over HDMI though. <br /> <br />But if I'm running 480P, why spend the extra $80 for the up-converting?  Well, when I tried the component outputs at 480P, the picture was noticeably worse.  Heck, the picture didn't seem much different that the $29 CyberHome backup player I was using before.  There were a lot of dancing pixels ('mosquitos') in certain areas of the picture.  So now, I'm not sure if I should keep this just for the HDMI output (at 480P), or try to find a cheaper unit that does a better job with component outputs.  I'm really not sure what to do. <br /> <br />The only other negative I can think of is that it seems to take quite a while to read a disc when first inserted (sometimes a good 45 seconds!).   <br /> <br />Like most Sony remotes, the remote control is well laid out and easy to operate.  The Player has lots of unexpected features that are nice, but probably wouldn't sway my buying decision (slide show effects, a lockable eject function so kids can't mess with it, etc.). <br /> <br />So in summary, I recommend buying this from a place with a liberal return policy.  If you can get it to work with your monitor w/out the black bars on top/bottom, this would be a great unit. <br />