Sony DVPNS75H Single Disc Upscaling DVD Player
Buy this DVD player!
Reasonably priced DVD player with excellent video and audio quality. It plays all the discs I threw at it, including the DVD-Rs I burnt on my Mac. I tested this player with my best DVDs - Spider-man 2 (Superbit), Lawrence of Arabia (Superbit) and Ben-Hur. The picture and sound quality blew me away. I could see details like the wrinkles on the actors' faces and stray hair on their foreheads. Unbelievable! Outdoor scenes had rich color and excellent clarity. This DVD player is an excellent choice until the HiDef DVD format wars end.  <br /> <br />I am stepping up from a 2 yr old Sony NC665P DVD player connected to a 51\\" Hitachi rear-projection HDTV. The improvement in picture quality is significant through both the HDMI and Component video connections. When I switch between the HDMI and Component connections I see a slight difference in picture quality - the HDMI picture is sharper, with more detail, while the Component picture is softer. In any case, you will see a significant improvement in picture quality if your current DVD player is more than 2 years old. The only quirk I noticed is that some discs take up to 30 seconds to load.  <br /> <br />You will see the greatest improvement in picture quality from this up-convert DVD player if you have a CRT-based rear projection HDTV or an older Plasma/LCD. You will not see any improvement in picture quality if you connect this DVD player to one of the newer, top-of-the-line HDTVs. These TVs contain better up-convert circuitry than you would find in any DVD player in this price-range. They do a much better job of up-converting the incoming signal to pseudo-HiDef than this DVD player. This is why some reviewers with older TVs rate this product highly, while those with newer TVs do not see any improvement in picture quality. As other reviewers have noted, you need to change the settings on this DVD player to get the most out of it. The default settings do not make the most of this player's capability. Read the manual and change the settings. It is worth the effort. <br /> <br />One word of caution: Do not waste your money on the outrageously priced HDMI cables from companies like Monster. There is absolutely no reason to pay more for the cable than you did for the DVD player itself! Since HDMI passes a purely digital signal any cable that gets the signal to the TV will produce the same quality picture. There is no basis in reality for Monster's claim that their exotic cables yield a better picture than any other quality cable. I bought a $10 HDMI cable on the internet and it performs as well my friend's $140 Monster cable. Save your money and buy your wife some nice gifts. She just might forgive you for spending all that money on home theater gear!