Sony DVP-NS50P/B Single DVD Player, Black

• Precision Cinema Progressive Technology
• 12 Bit Video DAC with 108Mhz processing
• Precision Drive 3 System compensates for flaws in DVD Discs
• 192 kHz 24 Bit DAC
• DVD-RW (Video Mode/VR Mode w/CPRM)/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD+R/ + R Dual Layer Playback1

I very reluctantly bought this DVD player because I have a five-year-old Toshiba that has worked like a champ. But alas, it's already an antique; it will not play the recordable DVDs that I burn on my computer. Having read the good reviews of this model on amazon.com (if you're looking for reviews, see the silver color for this model number), and noting the low price, I decided to try it. On a Thursday at 5:30 I ordered it from amazon.com using one-day shipping through amazon.com Prime, and by 4:00 PM on Friday, I was watching all kinds of DVDs: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW. (No DVD+R yet, but I'm sure it will spin those too.) It also works well with photo CDs. Not only that, commercial DVDs look clearer and sharper than on my previous player. I have been impressed enough to buy another as a gift. In sum, splendid performance for about 1/4 the price of the DVD player from 2000.

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DECEMBER 10, 2005: I have only had this item for about three weeks or so. I am hoping that it "holds up" over time, unlike a lot of other DVD players on the market that apparently fail so quickly they are practically disposable in nature.

The "pros" on this item (so far) are:

* sleek, slim, uncluttered look of the unit

* comes in either black or silver, so you can match it up to your other devices.

* easy set up. There's a electrical plug, trip-RCA jacks and an S-video jack. Hook-up is a snap. Hardware-wise, the device, then, is really uncluttered.

* seems to be a good deal for the price.

The "cons" (so far) are:

* as said elsewhere by other reviewers... it IS slow. Slow to boot a disc. Slow to re-start a disc that has been stopped. Just slow.

* the display readout on the front of the box. It scrolls words like "welcome," "open" "close" and "no text." The firmware engineer was apparently out to lunch on this one. There's not even a clock display. It will display the time the DVD has played, thank goodness.

*the on-screen menu is pretty lame. Must have been the same engineer. The menu choices are only displayed as cryptic graphics, and the choices for each graphic are brief and uninformative (as in "on, off, auto" or similar types of statements). You will absolutely have to work through the manual to figure it out. And you won't find a lot of useful functionality after you do. It is a pretty bare-bones box.

* The remote control could use a good bit of improvement. The text is large enough to read ... but the buttons barely protrude from the face. You have to grasp this thing firmly, get your finger right on the button and apply a good bit of pressure to score. And a lot of the buttons can't be pushed while the thing is sitting on the coffee table ... the back of the device is beveled at the top, so if you press on the buttons near the top -common usage buttons like TV on/off, box on/off and open/close -while it is sitting on a level surface, the thing just flips up in the air. And the range is horrid. It can't handle getting its signal over the edge of my coffee table three feet away from the box. You've got to pick it up and aim it directly at the device if you want the box to respond. There's no facilitation for using the remote at night (no glow in the dark, backlighting, light-through, etc.) AND the remote came in silver. Who at Sony thought that I would want a silver remote if I bought a black box? Was molding cases for the remote in two different colors too big a challenge for them ... or did it just make it easier for Sony to manage its inventory?

* The box has already told me "no disc" incorrectly a couple of times. Jogging it opened and closed resolved the issue. Either the tray is not designed to align the disc 100% when inserted ... or this is an indication the device is going to have read problems down the road. Time will tell.

Still, IF it is quality, IF it is durable, then it's worth what I paid for it.

UPDATE: September, 2006. After owning one for almost a year ... and buying two more this summer ... I can still recommend this unit. Every once in a great while, it gets confused enough so that I have to unplug it from the wall to "reboot it." It has tracked flawlessly on almost every DVD ... just a freeze here and there on some heavily used Netflix rentals. I do not see any evidence of dual-layer freezing. This SKU is out of production, but the current SKU (Sony DVPNS55P) doesn't look much different and so it is probably just as reliable.

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I have enjoyed this player so far with the one big exception of the remote control: the eject/close button is mushy and odd enough to make me wonder if I got a defective remote. Does anyone else have this trouble? I have to press and press it to get the thing to work.

Last night, for the first time, a video stopped in mid-play. I tried everything and finally had to unplug the player! I have always been able to work my way around this situation, using the remote (I couldn't even turn the machine off manually!!!).

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Needed a DVD player that would play +R media. This DVD player plays all types. Good picture quality with all the features I needed.

Once taken out of the box the DVD player took only minutes to setup and get running. It's worked absolutely perfectly every time and we're very happy with it.