New Sony upscaling DVD player on the way

[markelliott]

A new model which is the successor to the DVP-NS76H has been released in the US. The player is known as the DVP-NS77H, though this may differ when it becomes available in the UK, as the 76H is actually known as the 75H in America. The unit features 1080p upscaling and is available in both black and silver. Finally a black Sony!!

Looking at the style of the unit, it looks remarkably similar to the 2005 model (DVP-NS52P). Looks very smart as well.

DVP-NS77H:

DVP-NS52P:

[hardeep]

The UK version is called the DVP-NS78H. My local Sony centre claims it will be released next week at £90. Amazon have it listed at £75 with a delivery time of 1-2 months - can't find it anywhere else.

There's a fairly detailed thread on the 77H at AVSForum and the manual is here

[markelliott]

Originally Posted by hardeep

The UK version is called the DVP-NS78H. My local Sony centre claims it will be released next week at £90. Amazon have it listed at £75 with a delivery time of 1-2 months - can't find it anywhere else.

There's a fairly detailed thread on the 77H at AVSForum and the manual is here

Cheers for the update.

I have already been keeping a close eye on that thread over on AVS Forum. The reports look very promising.

[J80FAB]

That US instruction manual is a bit confusing

As with the US DVP-NS75H there seems to be no DivX playback on this newer model.

The European DVP-NS76H had DivX, so I assume that the 78H will also have DivX. Surely it would be odd if it did not ?

Not sure what to do now ! Have an Amazon 10% off voucher which ends this evening. Was going to go for the Samsung 870, now not sure if to place an order for the new Sony NS78H instead

EDIT : Guess this might answer my question :

http://www.sony-asia.com/product/dvp...ite=hp_en_AP_i

says DivX playback.

[markelliott]

Originally Posted by J80FAB

That US instruction manual is a bit confusing

As with the US DVP-NS75H there seems to be no DivX playback on this newer model.

The European DVP-NS76H had DivX, so I assume that the 78H will also have DivX. Surely it would be odd if it did not ?

Not sure what to do now ! Have an Amazon 10% off voucher which ends this evening. Was going to go for the Samsung 870, now not sure if to place an order for the new Sony NS78H instead

EDIT : Guess this might answer my question :

http://www.sony-asia.com/product/dvp...ite=hp_en_AP_i

says DivX playback.

Without a doubt, the DVP-NS78H will play DivX.

If you're in a rush to buy a new player, I would definitely recommend the Samsung DVD-HD870. I own this player, and it is superb.

[J80FAB]

Yep on the picture (not the one above !) of the NS78H there is a DivX symbol.

I wonder if the 78 is going to be as troublesome as the 76 with displaying some DivX/AVI files correctly Or perhaps the issue has been addressed this time round & rectified.

Not in a great rush but all the looking around & failed attempts of getting a DVD player makes your head hurt ! Would be nice to have a player to hook-up to the home cinema system which doesn't have one !!!

I've placed an order with Amazon for the NS78 as I couldn't make my mind up between that & the HD870 & wanted to take advantage of the 10% discount before midnight !!!

As it's a new player for £67 inc. free delivery doesn't seem that bad a price. Just curious as to when it will turn up

[caz1979]

Ok my head hurts now. I was looking at the Panny 5980 but now having seen that Sony are producing a black player I'm back to square one.

I know it's probably too soon to ask but what are the chances that this player can be hacked to multi-region? My spec list for a player was:

Preferably Sony
Black
HDMI output
Multi-region
Quiet
Cheap-ish

Having seen the Panny, the USB connection gave the X-factor to trump the Samsung HD870.

I have 3 weeks to get a player for a birthday pressie. Help!!!

[hardeep]

Originally Posted by caz1979

I know it's probably too soon to ask but what are the chances that this player can be hacked to multi-region?

Checking I noticed that the new HXD870/970 uses the same hack as the older 860 and DVP-NS76H

So almost certainly the player will be hackable via the same programmable handset method that is used for other Sony DVP-NS players and RDR-HXD recorders.

[J80FAB]

Originally Posted by caz1979

Ok my head hurts now. I was looking at the Panny 5980 but now having seen that Sony are producing a black player I'm back to square one.

Having seen the Panny, the USB connection gave the X-factor to trump the Samsung HD870.

It certainly does look like your head hurts because from what you have said you've just rolled 3 DVD players into 1 - Panasonic DVDS53, Philips 5980 & Pioneer DV400/600AV !!!

I just took a stab in the dark & went for the Sony NS78H as it's a newer model & comes in black. Need a DVD player for the home cinema amp but will only be connecting via Scart for the time being.

I did try out the NS76H before which drove me a bit nuts as there was no auto-sensing via Scart to change to the AV channel on the TV automatically & when Scart was set to output RGB it never did when you turned the machine on. Only pressing buttons on the remote or 'play' would switch on the RGB signal

If it's the same with the NS78H I don't really care as I've had enough trying to find a DVD player, and whatever you go for there's bound to be some sort of niggling issue

[caz1979]

Lol my bad - it was a Philips. Told you my head was turned!!

I haven't even looked at the Pioneer and to be honest I probably won't as it will confuse me too much.

The Philips certainly looks tempting with having a USB connection, being black, hackable to multi-region and having hdmi. The only thing that puts me off is the make as I was hoping to get a Sony to match the Bravia TV.

Ignoring all other makes and models then ... Philips 5980 or the Sony NS78H?

[J80FAB]

Well this model has a Sony Bravia Theatre Sync control via HDMI (see p.19 of the above link to US manual).

It may therefore be worth the while buying the Sony if it is to be hooked up to a Bravia TV set.

With the Philips 5980 it depends if you are really going to use the USB facility

One thing I can say about the previous Sony NS76H is that it played a Flash Player video clip which I saved from YouTube, converted to a video clip (must have been AVI format) & stuck onto a CD-RW disc.

Having played the same CD-RW on players with the Vadis 888 chip (not sure what the Philips 5980 has) the above clip did not want to play properly as if it was corrupt.

One thing which you have to watch out for which was present on the NS76H and will probably be on the NS78H is that you can play discs with mixed content but with limitations.

If you have JPEG, MP3 & DivX/AVI on the same disc then the JPEG & MP3 files won't play, or it's the other way round.

The Phililps 5980 doesn't have such a limitation.

[caz1979]

I'm afraid I'm not that advanced! I tend to just watch avi's on the PC and only use the DVD player for store bought DVDs and not any home movie type things

I'll try to get the Sony arranged then but I'm wary of buying from some website seeing how they like to charge extra carriage to Northern Ireland (e.g. mrmdvd.com wanted £25 minimum postage!). If anyone has bought one from Amazon could they please let me know what the delivery date was otherwise I may have to buy locally to get it on time.

Thanks in advance.

[J80FAB]

The order status for mine from Amazon is showing delivery estimate: 30 Aug 2007 - 2 Oct 2007

But this could be much earlier as I've seen this sort of thing on Amazon before where they say 1 - 2 months & then when you look a few days later they have have them in stock !

I think the general consensus is that if there is something wrong with your purchase & your order has come directly from Amazon then there is a straight forward no-hassle returns procedure.

I've only ordered from Amazon once before & that was some speaker cable. The order was fulfilled by Amazon & came well packaged, and it was free delivery because the total was over £15.

I also prefer to buy in-store if you can find it cheap, but seeing that the DVP-NS78H was £67 with free delivery from Amazon I bought it from there.

[hardeep]

Well I got one today from my local Sony Centre and to be honest my thoughts are a bit mixed. (Bear in mind I already own a DVP-NS76H so my comments will often compare the two.)

Firstly the player's GUI and remote are the same as the 76H which is no bad thing. Playback is no different in terms of quality etc. compared to the 76H. 1080p makes no discernable difference on my PX70, (but I did have an eye test today so maybe I'll see something when I get my new prescription ) But overall more than happy with what I'm viewing.

Bad points: less connectivity - whereas the 76H had an optical and coxial digital output the 78H has only the coaxial. The player is also missing some user picture quality adjustments - BNR and MNR. (Almost certainly they are employed but just not adjustable by the user unlike the 76H.)

Multiregion hack: the player uses the same remote hack as the 76H. I did mine using a OneForAll remote from Argos.
Overall I'd have to say it's not as good the 76H - mainly due to lack of optical output and removal of user settings.

As an aside: the player has Bravia Theatre Sync so I tried using this feature with my Panasonic PX70 (Viera Link) and Samsung LE37R8 (Anynet+)

The Samsung was OK - pressing the play button on the TV remote switched the DVD on and changed the TV to the correct channel. Turning the TV off than also switched off the player. Unfortunately Anynet+ didn't allow any other control like pause, FF etc. (However the remote is programmable.)

The PX70 was poor. It recognised that there was a HDMI-CEC device present but said I had to use the devices remote! Reading the manual this seems a deliberate decision by Panasonic - basically Veira link will only work with Panasonic's own equipment. There seems little point in Panasonic using an industry standard then chosing to be incompatible with the rest of the industry.

Finally not all HDMI leads will work. My freeby SkyHD HDMI lead didn't support HDMI-CEC and neither was one of my QED leads - so check the leads compatibility.

[jamesaevans]

Originally Posted by hardeep

Well I got one today from my local Sony Centre and to be honest my thoughts are a bit mixed. (Bear in mind I already own a DVP-NS76H so my comments will often compare the two.)

Firstly the player's GUI and remote are the same as the 76H which is no bad thing. Playback is no different in terms of quality etc. compared to the 76H. 1080p makes no discernable difference on my PX70, (but I did have an eye test today so maybe I'll see something when I get my new prescription ) But overall more than happy with what I'm viewing.

Bad points: less connectivity - whereas the 76H had an optical and coxial digital output the 78H has only the coaxial. The player is also missing some user picture quality adjustments - BNR and MNR. (Almost certainly they are employed but just not adjustable by the user unlike the 76H.)

Multiregion hack: the player uses the same remote hack as the 76H. I did mine using a OneForAll remote from Argos.
Overall I'd have to say it's not as good the 76H - mainly due to lack of optical output and removal of user settings.

As an aside: the player has Bravia Theatre Sync so I tried using this feature with my Panasonic PX70 (Viera Link) and Samsung LE37R8 (Anynet+)

The Samsung was OK - pressing the play button on the TV remote switched the DVD on and changed the TV to the correct channel. Turning the TV off than also switched off the player. Unfortunately Anynet+ didn't allow any other control like pause, FF etc. (However the remote is programmable.)

The PX70 was poor. It recognised that there was a HDMI-CEC device present but said I had to use the devices remote! Reading the manual this seems a deliberate decision by Panasonic - basically Veira link will only work with Panasonic's own equipment. There seems little point in Panasonic using an industry standard then chosing to be incompatible with the rest of the industry.

Finally not all HDMI leads will work. My freeby SkyHD HDMI lead didn't support HDMI-CEC and neither was one of my QED leads - so check the leads compatibility.

Hi hardeep, thank you for posting you commets. Can I ask you how the dimensions of the 78H compares to the 76H. I think I read somewhere that it was a bit smaller?

If so this would be ideal as I need to position my dvd player on a narrow shelf in my bedroom. There should be just enough room for the 76H, but if the 78H is a couple of cm narrower (front to back) then this would help.