Philips DVD963SA DVD Player

Backstory: I love movies so, of course, I love watching DVDs. I have gone through several players in the past, including Panasonic's A110,A120 and A320; JVC's 723 and Toshiba's 3109, not to mention one or two I've probably forgotten about. Not that there's anything majorly wrong with these machines, mind you - I've just gotten upgradeitis. This time, I was seeking an SACD/DVD-Video player.

What does it look like: The 963 is a sturdy, sleek player, with a simple, aluminum front and a metal body. The front offers a bright LCD screen, a couple of lights (upsampling on/off) and an illuminated button (sound mode, to turn off any video features while playing music). The back includes the usual inputs/outputs, including digital optical/coaxial outputs for sending a signal to a reciever, the 5.1 analog outputs (to send pre-decoded Dolby Digital/DTS info to the receiever and for SACD playback via receiver). Progressive Scan switch also is in back.



Features:


* SACD Playback with optional (bypass or on) bass management.

* Black level adjustment ("Normal", "Below Black", "Black Shift")

* Color adjustment (Personal, Natural, Rich, Soft)

* Adjustable Chroma Delay, Gamma, Sharpness.

* CD Upsampling to 192kHz - 24 bit or 96/24.

* "Digital Crystal Clear" (the following is quoted from the Philips Website) "DCC is an intelligent combination of precise picture settings which automatically delivers optimal contrast, color enhancement and sharpness."

* 13-bit/108mhz video processing. Faroudja video chip; DCDI (Directional Correlation Deinterlacing) video processing.

* CD, CD-R + CD-RW Compatible (according to the Philips website)

*24-bit/192kHz audio DAC.

* Disc Resume - If you stop a DVD and turn off the player, next time you come back, the player somehow remembers where you left off and starts from there.

* NTSC/PAL playback. Apparently, the player plays both NTSC and PAL and there is a region free hack available. However, I haven't tried it, so I can't confirm it.

Image Quality: I have a respectable Panasonic 32-inch that is not progressive, nor expensive. However, it does present fine quality images, and has with previous players. However, nothing prepared me for what to expect from the image quality with this player. Played through component video, the level of detail in the image during DVD playback was extraordinary, with very fine detail present into the backgrounds, especially on "reference quality" DVDs ("Star Wars: Episode II", "Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition", etc.) There's also a smoothness and definition to the image that's delightful and three-dimensional at times; no jagged edges - just pure, crisp images with rich colors. I've seen many players in action, but I've honestly never seen DVD picture quality on an everyday, average television look this good. Sound quality in terms of both movies and music remained stellar, with excellent clarity, strong dynamic range and no concerns. However, this is likely more an issue with my sound system (in terms of movies; SACD processing is handled by the player, which does superbly with it) than with the player.

Ah, but nothing's perfect. There are issues within.

* Multi-angle icon stays on during multi-angle material. There are some DVDs where the user can select multiple angles to watch the action. A little icon tells you you can do so. This icon usually turns off after a minute. Here...well, it doesn't. This means that a small icon will be on throughout in multi-angle heavy material like "Clerks: The Animated Series". Philips has said that this is apparently a "design" issue and won't be changed (uh, ok.)

* Touchy. The player will occasionally - rarely, but once-in-a-while - seem to have trouble reading an otherwise fine disc. Usually, this seems to come after several hours of watching movies - the player does seem to get a little warm after a while. There's been a couple of times when it didn't read a disc properly (no audio.), then read it perfectly after taking the disc out and putting it back in again. Some have complained about lip-sych issues, but I have seen none. Some have complained about the machine being somewhat noisy during playback, but I haven't found this either. I did notice that the Philips website claims that JPG images copied to CD-R/RW can be played back - this doesn't seem to be the case, as the player spit out the CD like it was week-old leftovers.

* The remote is average; important buttons are backlit, but it's missing functions like "drawer open" (you have to click the button on the front). Fast forwarding is okay; it's either 4x or 32x and it's tough to accurately stop on exactly what you want.

* The menu navigation takes some getting used to, but is smooth once you get going. The display offers quite a bit of information, including audio/video/total bit-rate, time/remaining time and all current settings.

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Overall:

This player is recommended, but with reservations. I saw non-progressive image quality that was not only an improvement upon the image quality I saw with prior players, but a leap above prior players' image quality. On my display and set-up, I see image quality that's good enough to overlook the player's flaws. However, your mileage may vary, depending on whether or not progressive scan (I don't have a progressive display) issues and what TV and what hook-up (component/S_Video or composite) you use. SACD and CD playback are excellent, and the upsampling feature is a big plus.

Overall, this seems like a player for those who want SACD/DVD-V playback and want something more advanced than the lower-end Sony SACD players, but don't want to spend the kind of bucks to get the Sony-ES line or one of the Universal (DVD-A/SACD/DVD-V) players like the Onkyo 800, Pioneer 47 or the Denon 2900.