Decided to order the newly released Sony DVPNS76H DVD player at Good Guys. Asked them if they could order it in and next thing I know I get asked if I would buy it for $209 (retail $249), I said yes. Hopefully it will arrive later in the week and I will post impressions then.

Seems to be a popular, inexpensive player over here:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread....247&page=37


http://www.sony.com.au/homecinema/catalog/...tegoryId=22814#

Submariner don't take this personally, but despite this sub-forum being called "Reviews Of Products", posts like this one above continue to appear. I'm becoming a little annoyed over this. This is obvioulsy not a review. C'mon guys can we please stick to the forum subject.

I look forward to the real review.

Take it easy, no need to be annoyed. This is a preview, while I await delivery and I did point out I would give a review, when I received the unit. The Sony is a new release in Australia and I would have to have a pre-release unit to give a real review. Many professional sites and magazines have previews before their review. Unlike professiional reviews, any review done here is not done to receive any rewards, only to share information with others that have a similar interest. Do you realise that posts like this make people want to forget posting any review here and leave it to someone else, nothing personal.

BTW nice review:
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=39328

Happy Halloween :ph34r:

I believe this matter has been brought up recently and since that time I have adhered to the policy suggested.

I have just stumbled across this player on my search for a nice, cheap, progressive scan HDMI (upscaling really optional but nice) player.

Have you got yours yet? Anyone else got one, what price?

I'm seriously considering this one now after previously looking at the Samsung HD860, the Panasonic s97 (yeah, like I can find one anywhere), the Panasonic s52 and a couple of others.

If this performs as well as it would seem to, I'm in!

The Sony NS76H DVD player, initial impressions.

The Sony box has been opened by Sony Australia and taped up again.The tape is marked:
I thought, did they open it to set the player to region free? There is a Region 4 sticker covering the originally printed R2 on the cardboard box. Once the box was opened, I immediately noticed the power plug had been changed to an Australian 3-pin, see through, plug. The Earth pin on the plug was not connected. This is without doubt, a modified Region 2 Sony player.

The Sony NS76H DVD player comes with the standard 1 year warranty. I cannot see too many people opting for the 4 year warranty that costs another $145. With high definition players starting to appear on the market and the warranty costing as much as another brand new DVD player, it is hardly worth purchasing the 4 year warranty.

I better mention that the drive mechanism is slightly noisier than my old Sony 730p DVD player, when ejecting discs. During DVD playback, I did not notice any stand out noises. Compared to my 730p, the NS76H is slightly slower to read discs, probably because it can play more types of disc. Layer change is a lot faster, I have only noticed the briefest of pauses so far.

The remote looks trendy and at first I thought the the small buttons would be hard to operate with my large stubby fingers. I was wrong. The buttons have a nice feel to them and are quite responsive. The buttons on the Sony remote are well layed out and there is plenty of space between the buttons. Sony use the same remote codes and that meant I did not have to put new codes in my MX-500 learning remote.

It was a little worrying to read in the manual, under "Examples of discs that the player cannot play," that it could not play a DVD with a different region code. I put that down to it being the the region 2 manual and moved on. First disc I tried was a region 1 disc and it played it without a problem. It is region free out of the box. Sony might have modified the player to region free, when they changed the 240volt plug.

I have to admit that I am not familiar with the DivX format. The manual states that the resolution is restricted to 720 (width) x 576 (height)/2GB? I have read on another forum that there is no Xvid playback and that the Pioneer 696 is better at playing DivX.

There are many connection options, HDMI, SCART (up to RGB), component, s-video, composite, plus audio - stereo RCA, COAX digital and optical digital. Unfortunately I do not have the appropriate HDMI cable. My NEC plasma has a DVI connection with HDCP compliance. Looks like I will need to send away for a new cable. In the mean time I am using a Kordz component cable to the plasma and also the s-video to a nearby Metz Atlantis TV. I had a similar setup with my old Sony 730p. The Metz did not need any change to the colour or other settings, but the NEC plasma colours were too stong. I had to change the plasma colours from 26 to 18 (default is 36) to get a decent look to the display. For some reason the component colours are a lot stronger than the other video outputs. Not a big deal, as I think the picture quality looks better than my old Sony 730p DVD player. The new Sony is definitely sharper with less ringing around objects.

I wish I could get a black version of the player, shiny reflective silver makes the player stand out too much, especially among my other black components. Overall I like the player and it has been a good upgrade and well worth the $209.

My sony NS95 hdmi player had excellent pic through hdmi upconverted, but had the shifting problem. im guessing they fixed this?

Thankyou very much for the mini review, it's answered a question I had about the unit, which was whether it was region free here (the process for making it region free seems painful).

It's right up there now for me for purchasing.

I don't have the HDMI to DVI cable yet, so I cannot confirm or deny a shift problem. I have read through 46 pages of the dedicated Sony thread at AV forum UK and we have the same player as them, only modified. The forum consensus is that it is a solid DVD player. The picture was good with good sound with no judder, picture shift, lip sync or freezing-up, but do not buy if you want a good DivX player. From what I read, the Denon 1730 is the best DivX player, but some people report lip sync errors when playing DVDs with the Denon.

I'm assuming it didn't come with a HDMI cable in the box? (The Samsung HD860 does, which makes it a cheap option all things considered).

I just queried JB HiFi in Melbourne on the price they'd do it for and $200.

I'm seriously considering this thing, but would like to know if I'm going to really notice a difference with this running over HDMI to my 32" Teac LCD (At 720p I would imagine would be best) compare to my current Pioneer DV466 running 576i only.

If I'm not going to notice a marked difference, I should spend my money on something else... but if it's going to make DVD watching more pleasurable, I'm definitely wanting to jump into the upscaling ring.

Cannot really answer that, but you may find that no standard definition player will greatly improve the picture on an 80cm screen. There is a limit to standard definition and what it can do. On smaller screens it may be harder to see an improvement. The upscaler in your LCD screen could be better than the one in any upscaling player. Do you have any specific problems with your Pioneer? I bought the Sony as I wait for the High Definition formats to sort themselves out.

My issue with my Pioneer is that it only does NTSC progressive. So all I'm getting out of this is 576i. As such it's not even so much for the upscaling ability that I'm interested in this player but more

• Digital connections via HDMI
• At least 576p, with a view to seeing if 720p looks any better

That's about it really... my issue is that I notice a juddering or stepping or something on pans and the like (not 3:2 pulldown from NTSC material, but a little similar) and am assuming that it's to do with the tv not being great with interlaced material... but it is a guess really. As such this purchase may give me very little in overall benefit when it comes down to it, but I'm willing to give it a go!

More review info:

No HDMI cable is included. Only standard RCA AV cable included.

After further testing Xvid playback is supported.

I don't like the small buttons on the base of the remote, they don't always respond when pushed. The transport buttons are good.

I like the auto dimmer option for the front display. The display auto dims, and only brightens up when a remote button is pushed.

The extra options of slow and fast motion playback with sound is well implemented. 0.6 slowest, 1.0 normal and 1.4 fastest with 0.1 incremental changes. The Star Trek crew sounded like that had been smoking weed, when using slow motion, so layed back during an emergency with exploding consoles

There are jump buttons for a quick move forward or back while playing a video. Nice one button option for seeing a replay, if you miss some of the on screen action.

But does not support 16:9 playback of Xvid

I finally have my 3m Kordz HDMI to DVI cable. What an improvement! The HDMI output is noticeably better than component. Colours seem brighter and the picture looks crisper and it cleared up some minor artefacts in the Sony's component video. I can confirm that there is no picture shift with this player on my plasma.

Even though there is an option in the menu to adjust sound delay, I have not had a problem with lip sync. I am running the player at it's highest upscaling video setting to test it out.

As soon as HDMI is used, Progressive is permanently turned on. If you press the Progressive button, it will toggle between Auto Progressive and Video Progressive. There are a couple of annoying things about the HDMI on the Sony and that is the two LED lights that turn on and cannot be turned off. The ultra bright blue HDMI LED is the worst. The orange Progressive button LED is not as bad. I ended up grabbing a black permanent marker pen and carefully drawing over the LEDs, this dimmed them down.

Very nice upscaling playing for the price and I feel like I need to watch many more movies to test it out further The one drawback of this player, is the limited DivX support. It will do me until the High Definition players sort themselves out.

It's a huge difference isn't it? I was a little 'meh' about the player when I was just running component to it, thinking I'd wasted my money on something that was doing nothing more than my old Pioneer... but no, with HDMI it's a beautiful image, and the upscaling really does make things that much crisper. (yes, not HD quality any of you HD fanbois reading, just nicer than standard SD... alright? )


Have you tried dimming the display on the Sony? Does that dim the led too? I've not had issue with the brightness myself... but it's out of eye line for me when I'm watching anyway.

I have the auto dimmer option on, and it does dim the players lights, but the bright blue light stands out too much when watching with the room lights off. I have dimmed all the lights for all the parts of my home theatre. IMO there is no need for the blue LED light. I do not need a light to tell me the player is using HDMI. They might as well have different coloured lights for each display option - component, s-video, rgb, etc. IMO the light for HDMI has more to do with the Sony marketing department

The Sony website says NTSC progressive only, is this true, also what about divx at widescreen??? I'm considering this for my Sony KF-42E200A TV, also, does it playback 4:3 DVD's correctly thru HDMI, i.e. correct aspect ratio??

Thanks

I saw this too in regards to progressive, but my tv reports that it's providing 576p and 720p to it, so there's your proof there. DivX plays perfectly well widescreen, tis very nice to watch. As for 4:3 DVDs over HDMI, it's the same for any of the outputs, you have a choice. You can either leave it outputting it as it is on the disc, and so with a widescreen display you have to adjust it to show it 4:3, or you can tell the DVD player to do the reformatting for you.

The reformatting by the DVD player is handy if you can't be bothered buggering around with the tv display settings every time you put in a 4:3 dvd, but you do loose resolution, especially if it's something like the horrendous original Star Wars transfers that are 4:3 transfers of a letterboxed widescreen film. If you have the DVD player set to auto format, then it'll look correct, but in the case of the Star wars movie you can't zoom in to get it correctly fill the widescreen. You can only do that by leaving the DVD player to output the image as per normal and adjust via the tv.

But... yes, it has that ability.

What spoco2 said I have found the Sony has some problems with Xvid's 16:9 playback. Still a reasonable DivX player.

For those poor overseas people that do not have region free players, here are a couple of useful links (Aussies no need to look )
http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multire...ull/Sony500.asp
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/1000013633

I have run this dvd player on a 4:3 and 16:9 television. On the 4:3 television the aspect ratio is automatically aligned to the television. On the 16:9 display there is an aspect ratio button with the options 4:3, 16:9 or panorama and if i select 16:9 then the aspect ratio of divx playback is correct.

Any suggestions on where I can pick up one of these close to Melbourne CBD? HN are out of stock and JB don't have this model.

Otherwise I guess I'll go for the Philips 5965k from HN.

What button is that one on the remote? I am having big problems with widescreen DivX on my TV.

Have just ordered one of these units from JB for $190. Just wondering if anyone has had any trouble playing any disks yet, or will it play just about everything you can throw at it?

Select full in the DVD player menu, try the TV input menu, or zoom button, I have no trouble with any aspect ratio video, RTFM...

Its good to see that some people have had a perfect Sony experience with this DVD player.

Yesterday I returned my 2 month old unit to DJs as the unit had died after about 4 uses. None of the buttons on the unit would work and the unit would only turn on sometimes using the remote control.

I returned it to DJs as Sony wants to repair the unit (not replace it) and wanted me to drive to their Roseberry repair centre which is no where near where I live or work. Now I have a 4 week wait (suggested minimum) for the unit to be returned.

After spending well over $5000 in one transaction for a Sony TV and DVD I am not happy with DJ's or Sony's repair-only stance.

my parents got one of these
it seems good for dvd playing
but it only plays xvid files with the subtitles in .srt format
so if you play xvid/divx files, then the subtitle support is quite 'picky'

I've been wondering why the progressive light is still activated at 1080i. Does anyone know why this is? Could it be we are actually watching 1080p rather than 1080i?

Service manual:
http://rapidshare.com/files/19018752/DVPNS76H_.pdf

Bought one of these yesterday from JB Hifi Chatswood for $160. Great player - really didn't expect the upscaling to make such a huge difference. Have it connected via HDMI to a KDL46X2000.

Still can't fathom how cheap this thing is considering what it is capable of...

Submariner, I cannot download this file.
Can you tell me how to download it.

Herbernator.

When the site come up, there is a column which has the heading "Free" at the top and a button with "Free" at the bottom. Click the "Free" button and it will go to a page with a timer, wait for the timer to coundown to zero. You will then go to another page with download sites. Leave it on the default site, unless there are problems with the default site, don't change it. Type the letters/numbers into the "here:" box and then press the Return key and it will start downloading.

Service Menu:
Need to press them in sequence, not at the same time.
Probably not a good idea to check out all the options in the Service Menu, until you read the Service Manual and learn what the options do.

I bought one of the first Sonys to get to Australia. My version, using Service Menu is:
Model Name: DPX-2080_EC
IF-con: Ver. 1.001(9103)
Syscon: Ver. 1.020

4. on menu
Firmware Main: Ver. 1.020
Firmware Sub: 00.HL

Thanks, the trouble was my downloader was getting in the way. Once disabled, the file downloaded perfectly.

Herbernator.

Do you mind giving me a copy of the reciept? Try as I might I could only get the sales person to go down to $187

DSE Powerhouse Nth Paramatta, two days ago, walked in with copy of "poo's" post, salesman matched the price ($160) without hesitation and without even checking on his computer.

I went to DSE and HN and they wouldn't budge from their 'sale' price of 190. Took me 15min of talking and pleading and DSE went down $3.

Do you mind sending me a copy of the reciept?

The Secrets Bencmark tests for this player are in, it's listed as DVPNS75H as that's the American version. They gave it a score of 85 which is very good. They say it's the best progressive scan player they've tested from Sony regardless of price.

http:\\www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=133

Excellent to see that... I used that site when I was shopping around and was dissapointed to not see it in there. Great score and review.

The American version is different in that it does not have DivX playback (ha ha ) and is region locked.

So, we get the same superb quality plus DivX playback to boot... hurrah!

I have been very happy with my sony, it will do until the bluray hddvd war sorts iself out.

Hi guys,

I recently bought a Sony DVP-NS76H. I was initially very happy with it; it's quite a bit better than my $70 Sansui DVD player. However, after watching a few more movies (other than the animations like Ice Age, Over the Hedge, etc. with my kids), I'm thinking less and less of it. (I have a 50" LG plasma with NO inbuilt upscaling function.)

To date, the Sony just doesn't compare to my modded original xbox with XBMC (at least in terms of upscaling - it's certainly better for colour and clarity, as the xbox is only component). When watching dark scenes with faces and people moving around, there is a lot of striping of the skin - particularly around the edges of the face (hairline, nose, jawline). It seems to struggle to deliver a smooth transition of dark to light on skin. I don't know the technical terms for these symptoms, sorry. It's very like watching SD on the 50" HD plasma.

I've tried the same scenes with the xbox, and it's absolutely perfect, so it's not a TV setting.

I just watched '1492 - Conquest of Paradise', and it was, in fact, so bad that I'm beginning to wonder whether I've missed some basic setting like 'Turn Upscaling On'. Or perhaps I just got a faulty unit? It sounds crazy, I know... It's just that with some movies (I can't say "all" yet, 'cos I haven't tested enough) the Sony seems to be about the same quality as SD TV (which isn't good). It's nowhere near HD, and nowhere near the results delivered by the modded xbox. I'm very disappointed. I had expected the results to be better than SD.

It's also fairly ordinary with 'The Matrix' and 'Children of Men'. 'Terminator 2' seemed ok, but I only tested the opening scene.

NOTE: I've tried tweaking the Custom Picture Mode, BNR, MNR & Sharpness settings, but to no avail.

I know I said it's better than my Sansui, and I still think it is. But the Sansui was WORSE than watching SD TV.

Can anyone help? Is there a setting I'm missing? Do I have a faulty player? Or are some movies just harder to upscale? I'd love to show you the results I'm getting, but I don't know if I can do a screen capture, and it wouldn't show the fault to full effect anyway, as it's most evident when there's motion.

Cheers.

You very well may have a faulty unit, because neither i or others i know have experienced such problems. Infact it is very, very good, equivelent to players two or three times it's price. Have you turned on upscaling. You have to go into the set-up menu, but you can only do this in stop mode and not when a DVD is playing. You will see something that say's "HDMI resolution", then force it onto 1080i instead of auto or 576p or whatever it's on now. Try that and report back.

In a different thread about your TV,
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...mp;#entry628886

You have explained the exact same problems when watching other SD material on your TV, because you mention The Biggest Loser which as far as i know isn't even on DVD. And i see someone else has the same problem with there panel as you. So why are you blaming these faults on a perfect, top-notch DVD player when you know theres something wrong with your TV.

Yep, definitely set to 1080i (I've also tried 720p).



Definitely have similar symptoms when watching SD TV. However, as these problems don't occur when watching the same scenes with the modded xbox, it can't be the TV.

As to whether there's "something wrong" with my TV, to my knowledge, the symptoms I've described aren't uncommon on large screen plasmas when watching SD TV.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not TRYING to find fault with the Sony. It's just the fault is jumping out at me...

This problem has never been heard of before. So either you have a faulty player or a faulty TV. I have never seen any such problems like the ones described on my Panasonic plasmas.

Thanks again JimboTHX1138. Appreciate your time and help.

Can I just ask, do you have / watch any of the movies noted in my previous posts? (Not the animations...) If so, do you notice ANYTHING that you'd consider a flaw in the reproduction of the Sony? And you're watching on a big plasma, from memory, too aren't you? I ask, 'cos I could count on one hand the number of scenes in '1492...' that I didn't notice some pretty annoying problems. If you're getting squeaky clean reproduction, then surely there can't be that much difference... Surely that would indicate that either my particular Sony unit or my TV is the problem. (Given that everything looks great through the xbox, I can only assume that it's the unit.)

What about everyone else? (Sorry JimboTHX1138; it's not that I don't trust your opinion, I'd just like to hear the experiences of others too, especially if I'm gonna spend valuable time chasing an exchange / refund.)

I'll await your next answer, then consider my options re calling for an exchange.

Thanks again.

Cheers.

Hmmm, are you watching the LG using component cable with the Xbox and HDMI cable withe the Sony DVD player? If you are, it is possible the HDMI input on the LG is where the problem occurs and that would be a problem with the TV. Maybe try using the Sony with component cable, although IMO, HDMI looks a lot better than the component picture with the Sony.

BTW I use a 42" NEC plasma and don't have your problems.

I have said that i have not experienced any of the problems you mention with the Sony, out of the ones you specify i have seen The Matrix but i'm getting great PQ.
Have you read what other people think of the Sony starting from the beginning of this topic, or another review:
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=43951

I've giving you the link to the Secrets Benchmarks of this player before, where they run every test imaginable:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/sho...mp;articles=133

If you think it's the player then take it back and try the Oppo OPDV971H which has Faroudja which you were considering before, here is the Benchmarks for that player, it scored 96.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/sho...manufacturer=68

But IMO there is nothing wrong with the player and the end result will be the same because i think it's a fault with the TV as you have said before about poor PQ with other SD material, and someone else with your TV is experiencing the same thing.
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...mp;#entry628886

I think the Sony is great, it's a pity you haven't had the same experience.

Hi guys,

Thanks again for your help.



Any possibility you could do a screen capture of the introduction of the scene where Neo says, "I know Kung Fu."? I think this is chapter 15 (at least it is on my DVD). I'd love to have something objective to compare with. I'd love to see one of the closeup of his face as he's lying in the chair as the camera pans onto him from behind the monitor.



Yep, read all the reviews I could find.



I appreciate that. However, as the player obviously isn't perfect, there are always going to be some flaws. I'm experiencing some, but I don't know what to call them, how to measure them or how to illustrate them. So the benchmarks are interesting, but they don't really help me with my problem.



The problem discussed in that post is with SD TV. There's no upscaling going on there. The LG plasma obviously has a bit of trouble displaying SD picture that HASN'T been upscaled. Here, we're talking about similar symptoms AFTER upscaling through the Sony. What's more, those symptoms only occur with one of my two upscaling DVD players.

So here's my guess at what we're looking at here (in order of most likely to least likely):

1. The Sony doesn't do a 100% job on the upscaling, resulting in some SD-like signal getting through, and my plasma doesn't pick up the shortfall effectively. (Thus the similarity with the SD TV signal discussed in the thread above.) Whether this is a fault or just how the player is, I couldn't say.
2. The HDMI input on my plasma is dodgy. (As pointed out by Submariner, the xbox is outputting its perfectly upscaled pic through component.)
3. The HDMI cable is dodgy.

Problem is, it'll take me quite a while to identify which - if any - of the above is the case, 'cos it's so difficult to measure and record anything objectively.

I'll do a bit more research and report back. In the meantime, if anyone has anything else they'd like to add that might help me, I'd be very grateful.

Cheers.

I find it funny that no one else has experienced your problems with the Sony, but your still so sure the player is at fault. Seeing that someone else with your TV is experiencing the same with SD material, the problem is likely within your TV, maybe a dodgy HDMI input as described before. I don't have the time at the moment to do a screen capture for you but have told you that the picture is flawless. I think it would be better for you to post some screen captures to better illustrate the problems your having, seeing that you are having trouble describing it and so your problem can be better diagnosed.

It's not that I think the player is 'at fault'. It's more that I suspect the particular combination of the Sony and my LG plasma isn't a good one (so there's no real fault at all). Perhaps everyone else has a plasma that handles SD signal better than the LG, and therefore handle any of the player's shortfalls better. (Obviously the player isn't perfect or the benchmarks would have given it 100%.)



The problem that the other person was having was with SD TV, not upscaling of SD to HD. Therefore, no HDMI cable was involved.



I'd be more than happy to, but I don't think my TV has that functionality. At least, I haven't discovered it yet. Is there some standard way of doing it that I don't know about, or does there have to be an option in the menus somewhere?

Cheers.