Sony DVP-CX985V Multi-disc DVD Player

I have been using a 300 disc Pioneer DV-F727 for the last 3 years. I love it! However, it is not progressive scan, and I am about to run out of space, so I was excited to see Sony come out with a 400 disc progressive scan model. My excitement diminished greatly once I tried to actually use it, though. I am disappointed that Sony did not do their research and testing of this unit before shipping. Of course, I am more disappointed that Pioneer hasn't come out with a progressive scan model.

Much of my review will encompass comparisons between the Pioneer and the Sony, since ultimately my experience with the Pioneer and satisfaction with their interface which ultimately led me to keep the non-progressive scan model and send this Sony model back.

First, let me say that the quality of the playback is nothing less than perfect. I cannot comment on the SACD, since that is not something I intend on using. The multitude of outputs is also a huge advantage over the Pioneer, as I output the video to a whole house distribution system so that I can watch DVD's anywhere in the house. (I use a One for All URC9910 RF remote which I will also review on Epinions shortly, this is an awesome remote for whole house DVD sharing). The Pioneer only outputs component video OR SVCD/RCA, where the Sony was component, and SVCD/RCA. Thus, I do not use component video on the Pioneer (it's not Progressive scan anyway, so I can't tell the difference)

Now, for the bad, and ultimately the reason I returned it. I'll start with the lesser ones and end with the nail in the coffin - Disc Explorer:
1) no single DVD slot - The Pioneer had this, which is very nice when putting rental DVD's in the unit. Instead, I would have to purchase a separate single play unit as another reviewer suggested, or place the rental in one of the other tiny slots (which also adds it to the Disc Explorer). It's a rental, why would I want to permanently add it to my collection? The Pioneer slot was wide and had a separate button to access that slot - very convenient.
2) Remote - I wouldn't use this remote anyway, since I use the universal RF remote, but my issue with the remote is the large # of buttons required to do simple things. Really all you need is arrow buttons and an enter key to do much of the sorting, disc selection, etc. I can do EVERYTHING I need to on the Pioneer with about 1/3 of the buttons that the Sony uses. Since my learning remote has limited capacity, this makes it unusable for me.
3) Size - well, it is 400 discs, but I'm irritated because I actually thought I was keeping this thing, and have already cut a huge hole in my entertainment center. The Pioneer fit just fine with no holes.
4) Auto-play - Every time I turn the unit on, it decides to play a disc (there was an option to turn this off, but apparently that doesn't work). Further, the Disc+ and Disc- buttons on the remote automatically load each disc with each button press, but when turning the knob on the unit, it does not (huh?). On the Pioneer, I press Disc+ to scroll through my collection and then only after pressing enter does it play it - much less wear and tear on the loading mechanism. Also, when doing this from another room, it's sometimes hard to tell what is going on the screen just freezes. The Pioneer gives a nice little spinning disc icon.
5) Memory - The Pioneer remembers play location for up to 5 DVD's, the Sony forgets play location as soon as the slot is changed. For example, let's say my wife is watching a movie, and half way through, decides she'll watch the rest at a later date, she saves her location and turns it off. Then maybe we watch a different movie that night. On the Pioneer, my wife could still pick up exactly where she left off on the other movie later in the week, or anytime until 4 other movies have "Last Memory" saved. The Sony - forget it, you have to start from the beginning and manually find the chapter.
6) Insane Disc management - This was the killer. If you have a unit that stores 400 discs, you would want it to make it manageable to find the disc you want. It only shows 5 discs at a time, and you cannot page down, you have to go one disc at a time. Terrible. The Pioneer shows more, has page down, and also has a very good way of sorting, you highlight the header, click enter, and it sorts by that header. The only oddity to the Pioneer is that it would only sort by the first character of the title, so if you entered Blazing Saddles, and later added Batman, Blazing Saddles would always show first. I can live with that over the ridiculous Sony interface. Okay, so I thought, maybe that wouldn't be so bad, if you could press and hold the down arrow and scroll through all the titles, but it only shows the disc # and not the title!! Only after you release the button and stop scrolling, does it catch up and show you the titles. The processor must be too slow to show you the title as it scrolls. The Pioneer works fine.

One other note - the Pioneer you can pull ALL the DVD's out, rearrange them in any order, place them back in the unit, and reload. Do that with the Sony, and everything manually entered gets deleted.

In summary, I tried to like it, I really did. I even cut the hole to make it fit in my entertainment center thinking I could live with the quirks. I did read all the great reviews on this site before purchasing, but thought I would give Sony the benefit of the doubt. Realistically, if it didn't constantly try to load the disc with every button press, would show the title as you disc+/-, and not load a disc at startup, I would have probably kept it for the progressive scan benefit. And, by the way, I do catalog all my DVD's using DVD Profiler, but I don't want to HAVE to rely on using that to play a DVD.

Sony - my message to you is, as another reviewer put it also, there is a lot of potential here. DVD's are cheap nowadays, people are buying them and presumably getting larger collections. Build a good interface, and market it right, and it will sell. Before you do that, buy the Pioneer and learn from them. My message to Pioneer is - add progressive scan to the F727, and I'll buy it!!!