Sony DVP-NS775V DVD/CD/SACD Player
Very versatile player for a good price
I bought this player at the very end of 2004 after they introduced DVPNS975, so the price was much much cheaper. As compared to DVPNS975, this player has exactly the same function, same look and same remote control except for this one (DVPNS775) does not have video upscaling via HDMI only(i.e., converting 480 by artificially adding lines to 720p or 1080i). <br /> <br />1. So far, I have watched about 30 DVDs (many of them were rented from Netflix), it didn't freeze anything yet. So I suppose my particular box is okay. The problem reported by other reviewer *might* just be caused by some flaws in manufacturing.  <br /> <br />2. The most impressive thing about this player is its functionality that it plays DVD, VCD, CD, MPEG as well as SACD. Actually, this player's price is lower than single SACD player. <br />The only catch is that SACD audio signal is only output from the 5.1 multichannel output and not from the digital audio output. This is logical and no other alternative since currently no receivers I know can decode SACD bit streams.  <br /> <br />3. On the DVD playing mode, it has all the convenienct buttons you would expect, changing the audio setup, angle, slow, fast, frame by frame viewing, zoom,  video equalizer (standard, dynamic1, dynamic2, cinema1, cinema2, memory or user defined), picture ore scene navigation to look for particular part in the program.  <br /> <br />4. Connection to HDTV is easy. You can choose the TV type, wide screen, standard, aspect ratio, black level for compoent video output, etc. <br /> <br />For people who are interested in video upscaling DVD players (such as DVPNS975), in my partial opinion, I am not completely sure how much that will help the quality because of the following reasons. <br /> <br />1. DVD video is SDTV format and it only contains 480 lines of vidoe information. <br />2. Video upscaing uses algorithms to double lines based on the information on adjacent lines. <br />3. Many HDTV can double the lines from (analogue) information itself. <br />4. My HD-DVR (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000) does digital video upscaing on 480 signals to (720P or 1080i). I compared the upscaled 1080/720 signal shown on my TV with the 480i/p signal shown on my TV on movies (HBO), the quality has no clear difference that I can tell. <br /> <br />I personally would wait for HD-DVD, Blue-ray or something like China's EVD to be introduced later this year or next year.