Sony BDP-S7200 with DVDs

[cs2011]

Has anyone had any experience of using this player with DVDs ? It is on my shortlist, but I have just seen a review by Which? which was absolutely scathing about its performance whith DVDs. They said:

"We found watching DVDs was a disaster, as our panel described the picture as 'unwatchable' with a blocky picture, and poor colours and motion."

Bluray performance wasn't great either according to Which?

I would be using the player mainly for DVDs and CDs, hence this enquiry.

 

[bigboss]

I won't trust Which? for AV reviews.

Check What Hi Fi? review here.

All players perform the same when outputting blu ray 1080p pictures due to digital nature of the content, as long as the player isn't doing anything it shouldn't.

 

[cs2011]

All players perform the same when outputting blu ray 1080p pictures due to digital nature of the content, as long as the player isn't doing anything it shouldn't.

Yes, but but what they are criticising is the performance when playing (upscaling) DVDs, which is what I am most concerned with.

 

[abacus]

Has anyone had any experience of using this player with DVDs ? It is on my shortlist, but I have just seen a review by Which? which was absolutely scathing about its performance whith DVDs. They said:

"We found watching DVDs was a disaster, as our panel described the picture as 'unwatchable' with a blocky picture, and poor colours and motion."

Bluray performance wasn't great either according to Which?

I would be using the player mainly for DVDs and CDs, hence this enquiry.

Was it an HD TV or UHD (4K) TV they were testing it with, as this will make a big difference to the quality of upscaling. (To ask a standard Def (DVD) to be upscaled to UHD takes a lot of processing, and there is still some way to go before (All) manufactures have this sorted.

Bill

 

[cs2011]

Was it an HD TV or UHD (4K) TV they were testing it with, as this will make a big difference to the quality of upscaling.

They don't say explicitly, but in the opening 'What is it?' section, it says:

"Sony's flagship, feature-packed Blu-ray player for watching Blu-ray discs, 3D movies, up-scaling DVDs to high definition and Blu-rays to 4K (Ultra HD) resolution (four times Full-HD quality)"

 

[bigboss]

This is what What Hi Fi? review says:

"The Sony’s star shines brightest when it comes to sound quality: it’s entertaining, exciting and musical, impressing us when it comes to Blu-ray discs, DVDs and CDs.

Switch to the DVD of Lincoln and the Sony does a great job upscaling to 1080p resolution. Lincoln rides through the Petersburg battlefield, enjoying solid blacks and excellent insight in the shadows."

Read more at http://www.whathifi.com/sony/bdp-s7200/review#cYffwTupG323pUyY.99

 

[cs2011]

Strange that the two reviews are so radically different.

I've just seen a user review on Richer Sounds which highlights a much more fundamental problem when using the unit to play CDs: There is no track indication on the display, just total elapsed time, so you have no idea what track is playing (unless you switch the TV on to get the OSD). So it becomes pretty much useless as a stand-alone CD player.

 

[plastic penguin]

@ The OP: Why are you just concentrating on the Sony?

I currently use a Panny that BB kindly flagged up and the picture quality is superb. Prior to that I was smitten by a Pioneer - that had the edge over the Panny on picture but didn't have a dedicated phono inputs for connecting to a stereo amp.

What I'm saying is there are shedloads of different makes, all with varying degrees of reviews. Reviews aren't the be all... listen to a Sony and give us some feedback.

 

[abacus]

Was it an HD TV or UHD (4K) TV they were testing it with, as this will make a big difference to the quality of upscaling.

They don't say explicitly, but in the opening 'What is it?' section, it says:

"Sony's flagship, feature-packed Blu-ray player for watching Blu-ray discs, 3D movies, up-scaling DVDs to high definition and Blu-rays to 4K (Ultra HD) resolution (four times Full-HD quality)"

If the review does not say what they tested it with, and how it was connected and tested, (Just quoting from the Sony brochure is pointless) then the review is pretty much worthless, and should be ignored.

Bill

 

[cs2011]

@ The OP: Why are you just concentrating on the Sony?

I currently use a Panny that BB kindly flagged up and the picture quality is superb. Prior to that I was smitten by a Pioneer - that had the edge over the Panny on picture but didn't have a dedicated phono inputs for connecting to a stereo amp.

Happy to consider all makes up to about £150.

I have a Sony TV and ancient scart connected Sony DVD player, so a Sony BDP seemed a good place to start. Which? can usually be relied upon, because there is no conflict of interest (review result vs advertising revenue). They also recommend the Panasonic BD players, although it is not clear whether there would be the same display issue as the Sony when playing CDs.

The Pioneer BDP-450 is very good, but it has a very annoying interface quirk with CDs. When you put in a CD, you can't advance to a particular track until it is actually playing. Trivial but stupid.

Whatever I buy, it would probably never be used with BDs, only CDs and DVDs.

 

[bigboss]

Advertising and conflict of interest aren't the only factors in determining quality of reviews though. I've seen some atrocious Which? TV reviews where it's clear the reviewer has no idea about TV technology. I would suggest you demo yourself.

I can only see BDT700 having a display amongst Panasonic players. A lot of manufacturers have ditched the display.

 

[cs2011]

I can only see BDT700 having a display amongst Panasonic players. A lot of manufacturers have ditched the display.

The BDT360 and 460 have displays, although they appear to be elapsed time only.