Sony DVP-NS725P DVD Player

Sony has set the standard for many consumer audio/visual electronics. Then it was the same for DVDs. At $129, I picked up the NS725P for it's progressive scan capability, and the ability to play DVD+ and - R/Ws. MP3 playback was a nice touch, but seemed like an afterthought, but more on that a bit later.

First off all, the mirrored finish of the front panel display and disc loading tray looks awesome, with the nice thing and wide stance. It looks like it belongs right at home with other high end audio/visual electronics that you may hve in your home theater system. The rear includes the usual low-budget connections with the exception of the optical digital output - it's actually there! Most people will not miss the built-in Dolby Digital 5.1 decoders on most high end DVD players because a simple coaxial or optical digital cable will serve up the digial signal into your Dolby Digital recevier (which should have the decoder). That said, other outputs are composite video, S-Video, component video outputs, and Left/Right RCA outputs.

It is very straight forward to set up, as once you turn on the unit for the first time, it goes into a Quick Setup mode to ask for the basics. You can then change anything you want by going into the Custom Setup.

Progressive mode is selectable on the front of the unit, and being able to change it on the fly is very convient. The standard play, pause, and stop is there, too. Skip/scan, power, and eject - all there. Only thing missing is navigation. Most cheap DVD players will not have this on the front, but I was hoping there would be more to this from a Sony.

The remote is litered with buttons, and is not as intuitively placed as most controls. The prev/next buttons are not anywhere close to the Play, Pause, and Stop buttons. The scan buttons (ff/rew) are actually seperate buttons rather than the same ones as the prev/next buttons. On most DVD players, you hold the prev/next buttons down for the scan functions. The only thing that is intuitive is the navigation butons with the Enter button in the center. The remote includes a nice simple "universal" TV remote. Of course, it is by default set for Sony TVs, and you can set it for other brands, too. I have a Sharp, and it worked flawlessly. It is not for changing channels, but for conveinence. For example: you can turn on and off the TV and change the volume with the remove, but not channels. This is still good because you do NOT want to search for your TV's remote during a movie just to change the volume! Nice touch - it doesn't need to be a full head-on univesal remote. Just with enough features to make it convienent, but not overwhelming. Plus, if you have a TV that supports the TV/Video button on the remote, it will change from TV to Video inputs as well. Unfortunately, my Sharp TV does not, so I still have to hunt for it's remote to switch to video so I can watch a DVD. :(

There are other features that I feel are kind of gimicky. Features such as several pre-defined "picture modes" that changes the brightness, contrast, and colors for certain kinds of movies. Preselection includes Dynamic 1, 2, Movie, TV, etc. Akin to those "Movie" and "Sports" mode on Sony (and maybe other) TVs. There are also virtual surround sound mode, such as TV Wide, TV Standard, etc. It allows your TV's standard speakers to create virtual rear and/or surround speakers. The effects are unbareable! Besides, if you are seriously wanting surround sound, you should pick up a Dolby Digital 5.1 reciever and some REAL surround speakers!

Now, for the picture... when I first set it up, I thought there was something wrong with my DVD+RW recording (the first DVD I popped in to test). Then I shoved in the Matrix, and found the same problem. It just didn't look right! I didn't know what it was until the screen went blank (during one of the Matrix's opening scene). It was too bright! Black was gray! So I thought it was the TV and checked the setting. Nope. Everything is fine.

I finally checked out in the settings of the DVD player and found that a setting called "Black Level" was turned On by default. Although this is suppose to set the black levels automatically (according to the manual), by turning it off, I was able to play my DVDs and have true black again. It looked awesome!

Things were great, right? Well, the next day, I wanted to play Matrix Reloaded (just got it!), and I found the same problem. "Can't be!" I thought... and I checked the settings again. Sure thing, the Black Level was still in the "Off" position. However, when I went to check, I notice the screen went darker. Shrugging it off, I decided to play my Reloaded movie again. HA! It was back to normal! So I had a hunch.... I turned off the system, and turned it back on to watch the movie. It was too bright again!

So it seems that the Black Level setting (even though it says it's off) is not sticking.

Why this is I don't know, but rest assured I will be returning this for a Toshiba SD4900 (as this is the only Sony unit at Best Buy in my budget, and the only DVD player THAT ADVERTISES ALL DVD +/- R/Ws compatibility). I just hope that the Toshiba I was looking at will play the same DVDs that this Sony does, even though they did not advertise it. The Toshiba did, however, say it will play DVD-RW (I think...will check again).

Conclusion? Everything works fine on this Sony DVD player, except the black levels. I am not about to set my TV to accomidate this player, since my other video sources such as VCR, cable, is spitting out the right amount of black level.