Sony DVP-NS700H/S 1080p Upscaling DVD Player, Silver

We got this DVD player to replace a very very old DVD player.

Our requirements for the purchase:
1. Under $100
2. Improved quality over our old DVD player
3. No bright electricity-wasting lights on the unit when it is off.

Overall I have been pleased with this unit. It is super quiet, and the picture quality is good. We have it connected to an old TV, so we are not wanting/expecting real HD quality. One of the features I like is that the unit is completely dark when its off. No weird lights that stay on even when the unit is turned off...this is a major plus since the DVD player lives in the bedroom (we tried a Philips DVD player, and the light was so bright that it would keep me awake). The picture quality is very good, and the remote is easy to use (it even controls our old Sony TV, so we only have to have one remote). Also, I like that the top of the case is silver...doesn't show up the dust as much as a black case!

That being said, here are the minor drawbacks I have found:
1. The unit is a bit slow to load up the menu when you put a new DVD in. This isn't a big deal, but I'm not sure why it takes so long.
2. The remote is not backlit.

Not Blu-Ray definition ,by any means, but it adds some color and zing to standard DVDs upsampling to 1080p sized format.
I use it on Sony Bravia 120hz 1080p 46" HDTV. For the cheap price its fine. Until all DVDs transition to Blu-Ray
this is a nice little machine to view your DVDs. I can knit pick about little details of this player but why? Its under a $100. Played the Disney kids' DVD Brother Bear, the animation and color looked stunning.

I was a bit leary of buying the Sony DVP-NS700H/S since the product is so inexpensive. The dvd player is exceptional, it's picture clarity and sound makes my old Sony DVD players obsolete. I have a Sony Bravia 46" XBR4 LCD TV which complements the player. The minute I connected the dvd player to my TV it automatically set itself. My old dvds look great and my new dvds look phenomenal, almost like watching a Blu-Ray disc. The 1080P upscaling really makes the picture come alive.

I used to own an older version Sony DVD (don't remember model) which looked very similar to this one but had faster loading and better layout. This DVD player is too slow to load. Even if the DVD is loaded, once you push play button, it is too slow to come up. Another thing that disappointed me is that they took away the pause button which used to be conveniently located on the unit itself. Other than these two issues, everything else is fine.

I am very pleased with the features and picture produced by this DVD player. The picture is crisp and clear when attached to my Samsung 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV. There are plenty of setup features as well. It's a slightly wider player than most, so if compact size is important to you, you might want to look at a different brand or model. I would have given it 5 stars, but the remote is not user friendly. It is rather diffcult to access commonly used functions on the tiny little buttons used for skip, next, play and pause. Most controllers have large buttons for these commonly used functions. Overall however I am pleased with my purchase and would recommend the player as a good quality upscaling unit. I noticed a significant difference in picture quality with this unit over my standard DVD player (using the HDMI connectors).