10 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Convenient access to 400 discs. SACD and HDMI are a problem for me...
Date of Review: Jul 8, 2006
The Bottom Line: Overall, a fairly good player. Build quality is OK, not great. Sony really need to put much more effort into improving this product.
I recently purchased the Sony DVP-CX995V to replace our older DVP-CX985V. For us, the main differences between the two were the reasons for upgrading to the newer model; digital HDMI video output with upscaling of DVD movies to high-definition, the new version of Sony's Disc Explorer, and 192kHz/24-bit audio D/A converter (the same specification as the DVP-CX777ES model) for SACD playback.
The new Disc Explorer is faster, mainly because it does not display the jacket cover pictures for each disc in the main menu as did the previous versions. Other than that the two players are fairly similar.
Video and digital audio quality is very good (I'm using an HDMI-DVI cable for the video and a high quality DH Labs D-75 coaxial cable for the digital audio). The player also plays back JPEG pictures and MP3 audio (burnt onto CD-R discs in this case). MP3 audio is output as 44.1 kHz PCM. The DVP-CX995V does not have any external control ports (such as Sony Control S or Control A1II).
A few general points to note about previous and current Sony DVD/SACD changers:
- SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) playback is analog output only.
- DVD-audio discs cannot be played.
This model, like most others, cannot play the second side of a dual-sided DVD disc (the only model which did this was the now discontinued DVP-CX875P).
Also, like our Sony DVP-NC685V, it does not play All Region PAL DVDs.
The majority of DVD video discs do not have title information (which is displayed in the Disc Explorer menu). For this you will have to type in the information by attaching a keyboard to the player. This can be tedious if you have a large number of DVD movies, but it works very well. I have never experienced loosing the title information which I have entered.
All of the SACD discs we own already have title information on the disc. For discs which do contain title information, the text cannot be edited.
Actually, out of the four Sony DVD magachangers we have owned, I by far preferred the design of the DVP-CX875P to the other models.
There are two problems I am experiencing with the DVP-CX995V:
- SACD playback.
For reasons unknown, I experience random audio dropouts when listening to SACDs. I have over 30 titles, all of which are brand new, with no scratches/dust/fingerprints. The DVP-CX995V is installed on an isolation platform (using four isolation bearings for vibration dampening), is supplied with clean power (as is all of the other AV equipment), and is connected to my preamplifier using two high quality DH Labs analog interconnect cables with locking RCA connectors. I have tried cleaning the lens of the DVP-CX995V several times, but I still get random audio dropouts regardless of which SACD title I play...
I have never experienced any problems with digital audio from the player.
Also, I can't get SACD surround sound, as the analog inputs on my preamplifier are two channel (stereo) only. (5.1 surround output needs six inputs).
I really wish Sony would get their act together and make digital output standard for all SACD playback. Currently a few of the ES receivers have iLink inputs for digital SACD playback, and only a few ES models of single disc players have iLink output. Having to use analog audio connections between components is far from ideal, and vastly limits the potential of this audio format.
- HDMI upscaling.
The HDMI upscaling on my DVP-CX995V does not work, period.
The reason why ? Because it is connected to a Sony high definition screen (PFM-42X1/B) using HDMI output from the player into a DVI input on the display. The player recognizes an HDMI connection, but will only output 640p. Even the Disk Explorer menu is displayed as 4:3 on a 16:9 screen (automatically switching between 16:9 and 4:3 for DVD movie playback does work).
Calling Sony support didn't provide a solution.
The thing that really worries me is that Sony are moving towards HDMI output on all of their consumer video products, and it is highly likely that they won't work with DVI either.
** Update ** We recently replaced our Sony SAT-T60 Tivo DVR with a DirecTV HR20 HD DVR, and it outputs 480i/480p/720p/1080i to the Sony PFM-42X1/B via HDMI with no problems.....
