I consider myself something of a video snob. I've got a $4500 tv for goodness sakes. I've got to say that I love this CD/DVD changer, primarily because the image / progressive scanning quality is excellent. I previously had a $400 Denon DVD changer with the Farjouda processor, which is what the high end DVD players use. The image was great, but the changer kept not loading DVDs correctly. I even sent it back in to the factory, etc ... they never could remedy the problem. But this isn't a Denon review ... I'm just trying to establish that I AM picky, and for me to give the Sony 5 stars is a big deal. I tested a number of scenes on the Sony and it looks beautiful. Sharp image, lots of adjustability (including black level adjustment which really helps if you have an LCD / DLP television) ... Sony has created a nice product.

I also love the feature where the player remembers where you stop a disc, even if you completely remove it from the player and stick it back in... Read more

The test for me was Star Wars Episode III. It looked terrible on 2 other DVD players I tried, but it looked fantastic on this one. Out of box, the picture was a little dark because it was set to Standard. I turned the black level on component and set the picture to Cinema 1, then it was outstanding on my Sony 46" Bravia. I also appreciate some the sound controls to control dynamic range. Used in combination with my receiver, I was able to hear dialog perfectly at a low level. I played several CDs and thought they sounded great. You may need to adjust the volume some, higher for DVD and lower for CD, but I think that is due to the audio recordings from the source. The only thing it seems to be missing is SACD, but I don't own any of those anyway.

BACKGROUND: I have a fairly high-end home theater (rich people might pooh-pooh this assessment, but I'm a value-oriented consumer), containing a Hitachi 42" plasma monitor (1080i), a Denon AV receiver, and an iPod dock. For changeable media, I wanted two DVD players, one a changer, and one a single disk unit. I get my high-definition signals off my local cable. All of these play out through a 5.1 array of Jamo speakers, five of which are identical and mounted in the walls. The chunky subwoofer pumps away in a corner. It's all controlled by a Universal Remote MX-850 which I've learned to program. Also, when I was buying the home theater rig, I insisted that all components have and accept the High Definition Multimedia Interface socket(s), which replace as many as six cables per device with one.

After a full year of operation, I am continually impressed with the quality of the picture and sound delivered by this installation. So when it came time to upgrade my old DVD... Read more