Sony DVP-NS55P/S Single Disc DVD Player, Silver
Excellent so far!
A long time ago I bought my first progressive scan DVD player and it was a Sony. For all the hype about how great Sony is, I was a bit disappointed. Sometimes the video quality was brilliant, but a lot of times the picture was grainy. Worst still, there were occasional digital artifacts. Artifacts not present when watching the disc in interlaced format. Ultimately, I started to wonder why even bother watching progressive scan video if it provides more distracting problems that when watching interlaced video? The best example of this occurs when watching my Gladiator DVD. The Sony I used to have would show problems right from the beginning. The text of the prologue would start to flicker noticeably. And other moments in the film show other signs of artifacts, like the first major fight sequence in the colosseum (the Battle of Carthage) in which parts of the stadium would show strange digital spasms (honestly, that's the only way to describe it). Other DVDs that featured, say, window blinds or car front-grills demonstrated similar spasms. Maybe it was just a bad player, but I was not that impressed with progressive scan technology at that point. One thing the Sony did right was read damaged and warp discs. Sony's Precision Drive technology 2 technology is no joke. I even have a DVD of The Mummy Returns that was transferred so badly, none...NONE of my other players I've had were able to read it. The disc is so bad, the players would still say \\"no disc\\" on the display. Yet the Sony Precision Drive 2 read the Mummy Returns perfectly!  Anyway, I got so frustrated, I ended up buying a Panasonic DVD-S35 and it's progressive scan worked just fine...surviving the Gladiator test with flying colors. After enjoying my Panasonic for a few years, I felt it was time to look for an upgrade. I've been reading about these HDMI DVD players, but unfortuately my Toshiba 42-inch widescreen doesn't support that kind of technology, so I decided to find anything that would provide me with slightly more improved picture and (especially) audio quality. As fine as Panasonic's picture quality is, the audio could be better.  I honestly wasn't really looking for another Sony, considering the problems I've had with them in the past (I haven't even mentioned the pre-progressive scan DVD Sony I had that kept freezing up...no doubt the reason why they created their Precision Drive technology). Yet I saw this Sony DVP-NS55P and started to become intrigued. First, they created Precision Drive 3!!! Now, I'm not sure what was wrong with PD2, but if they can improve upon THAT, I'm impressed. But there was reason to believe they may have improved on their progressive scan quality with Precision Cinema Progressive technology, which is supposed to use pixels instead of scan lines to detect movement. I'm not sure EXACTLY what that means but it looks great! Now my old Sony may have had the same technology but either they have improved on that technology (and technology is always improving) or I just had a bad player. It's probably a little bit of both.  All I know is the image from the NS55P is gorgeous! Not only did it pass my Gladiator test, but I don't actually notice the same grainy quality. One thing that drives me crazy is which \\"picture mode\\" (normal, Dynamic 1, Dynamic 2, Cinema 1 or Cinema 2) to use when watching a film.  The manual recommends \\"one of the Cinema\\" settings...which makes one wonder why they didn't set one of those as their default. Ultimately, I've chosen Cinema 2 and I'm going to keep it that way. Cinema 2 seems to deliver a satisfying, richly textured picture.  One aspect of Sony I've never had a problem with is their audio quality. It's always been top-notch, whether playing Dolby Digital, DTS or your average CD.  I WAS a bit surprised to discover no optical digital cable output to connect with my 5.1 receiver...especially since I HAD NO coaxial digital audio cable. So, anxious to use my new DVD player, I had to run out to buy a coax cable! Thiswas a bit annoying as I now have a perfectly good optical cable seeking employment. My question is why? Why did Sony exclude the option of optical digital output when a lot of experts believe it to be superior in sound quality than coax? Apparently, it doesn't matter. Truth is, the sound coming from the Sony and the coaxial cable is the best I've heard through my surround sound system so far!  Since I've only recently bought this player, I cannot yet attest to it's durability. I can, however, say that it's great to have an affordable Sony DVD player that actually delivers exceptional progressive scan video to go along with their amazing Precision Drive technology and first-rate audio.