Sony DVP-NC85H/S HDMI/CD Progressive Scan 5-Disc DVD Changer, Silver
The last DVD player you will ever own...
I have been into DVDs for about six years now, so I have spent a LOT of time watching them.  I started out on an old full frame tv and now have a 30\\" widescreen HDTV (1080i resolution).  I plugged this player in with an HDMI cable (available here on Amazon far more cheaply than in your local store).  So that's my perspective, now onto the review...    This player is the first multi-disk changer I am aware of capable of HDMI upconversion.  At least at this price.  I can also confirm that it is capable of playing vcds, which is often a hit or miss proposition since the format is so uncommon in the US.    As someone who watches a lot of tv shows on dvd and multidisk editions of movies, being able to load multiple disks at once is desireable for obvious reasons.  I did find the interface for changing disks to be somewhat confusing at first, but once you figure it out you can change disks fairly quickly.  But be advised that all the extra disks make this player fairly large.  Much larger even than my first dvd player, let alone the miniature ones they make today.    The HDMI upconversion is the real holy grail here.  Most people who own HDTVs do not actually subscribe to HD channels.  I do subscribe to the HD pack and premium movie channels through my cable service, so I know what 'HD' tv shows and movies are supposed to look like.      And here's the verdict:  This player makes DVDs look just as good as HD broadcasts.  Maybe a bigger tv than I have can tell some difference, but for comparison purposes I decided to take the most digitally packed movie I could think of (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) and watched the pod-racing scene.  I know, bear with me for a minute.  This scene has thousands of small moving objects in the audience and lots of detail all around.  The picture looked beautiful.  It was as good as I have ever seen pod racing look, and as good as anything I've scene on an HD movie channel.    How does HDMI upconversion compare to the new 'High Def' dvd formats?  Well, consider this...The next generation dvd players offer two advantages over current gen dvd players: 1) HDMI upconversion to a higher resolution and 2) Higher disk capacity for larger files.  Now consider that every movie you have ever seen has already been fit onto just one or two current gen DVDs just fine.  Once you 'upconvert' those DVDs to the higher resolution of this player (1080i or 720p), then you will get a picture that's basically the same thing as the next gen players.  The next gen players will be able to support 1080p resolution, but there are very few televisions on the market right now to use with it.  Most HDTVs, except for a handful of the most expensive models, only support 1080i or 720p.      So for now, there really just isn't anything better on the market than this player. And for the current generation of players, I don't expect there ever will be anything better.      *UPDATE*  SA-CD users take note:  Amazon has a misleading statement in the title.  This is NOT an SA-CD player.  Apparently a number of people are buying this player primarily to play SA-CDs.  So be warned that Amazon's title is just plain wrong.  I haven't found any other errors in the title or product description, but there is no SA-CD capability of any kind.    On that note, another music related issue is that when playing music cds it only shuffles tracks on one disk...not all five, as some might expect.