Sony DVP-S7700 DVD Player
Is it possible to fall in love with a DVD player?
Is it possible to fall in love with a DVD player? If it is, then this is the one that will grab your heart. Let me say it plainly - the Sony DVP-S7700 is an awesome player. I've used several different models, but this is definitely my favorite of the bunch. And that's saying a lot, because I was extremely surprised when I was able to watch home video authored on DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD+RW discs.  Except for DVD-RW media, I use the S7700 as my reference player to check the quality of burned DVD's, which leads me to believe that if the S7700 can play the disk, then 99.9% of all second generation players will play the same disc too.  <br />Let's talk picture quality - I was really impressed. The image (via both S-Video and Component) was tremendous. Rich, vibrant colors and deep, detailed blacks. I saw no artifacting at all - the player just crunched right through even the toughest scenes. The hyperdrive scene of Lost In Space looked phenomenal. The whole sequence is white-washed with bright sunlight, yet no artifacting was visible, and plenty of detail was still apparent. On the other hand, the dark interiors of Star Trek: First Contact were nicely conveyed by the 7700, with a good range of contrast and plenty of shadow detail. The warm hues of The English Patient were beautiful in appearance, with lustrous golds, reds and browns rendered, and nicely accurate flesh-tones. As I've seen with DVD in general, the S-Video picture looked to have a slightly crisper, edgy quality to it, and very slightly more saturated color. The Component signal, on the other hand, was more film-like, and had more accurate color rendition - I definitely preferred it. <br />So how about the audio performance, you may be wondering? It's equally good. There are dual analog outputs, as well as a coaxial digital and an optical digital out (there are no on-board audio decoders). The player features the much-loved Sony Audio Priority selection feature, whereby the player automatically finds the 5.1 track on most DVDs (with the exception of some titles from Paramount, for example, where this feature has been software-disallowed on the disc itself). The 7700 also reads the proper flags on DTS-encoded DVDs, allowing you to output the sound data to an outboard DTS decoder. I saw no problems with audio sync whatsoever. <br />As for audio CDs, believe it or not, the 7700 performed as well as my stand-alone Sony CD player. The sound was rich and full, with little of the edgy quality that some DVD players add to CD audio. I was really surprised at this too. <br />The Sony DVP-S7700 is simply the best DVD player I've yet had the privilege to use.<br />kambizm@msn.com