| Organize your disc library and enjoy quick access to 400 Blu-ray Disc movies, DVDs, and CDs with the Sony BDP-CX960 MegaChanger. A user-friendly interface makes it easy to find the movie, TV show or CD you’re looking for by sorting and grouping title, genre, cast and more. The BDP-CX960 also features stunning Full HD 1080p quality in Blu-ray Disc technology and DVD upscaling to near HD quality. |
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 Big improvement over the DVD version, but needs minor enhancements |
| Review Date: March 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Dean K. Gibson, Seattle, WA USA |
I previously owned the Sony DVP-CX995V 400-disc DVD changer, and it was so-so: If you wanted to use the unit's directory for selecting a DVD and then play it, you had to fiddle with a slide switch on the remote!!! Other user interface issues were just as archaic, and it missed getting the titles of many (about 65%) DVDs off the media (whereas my PC did just fine).
The new BDP-CX960 is a MAJOR improvement:
1. The on-screen menu is much more extensive and capable, although a bit confusing when you first turn it on. Getting to the "home" (directory) menu screen when playing a disc is instantaneous (unlike the DVP-CX995V).
2. The ability to retrieve DVD/Blu-ray disc data from the Internet is a big improvement, and it only missed for about 2% of the discs.
3. Applying a firmware update over the Internet was seamless (with the DVP-CX995V, you had to order or burn an update CD).
4. Finally, better options for controlling the aspect ratio. I know there are idiots in the universe that want every movie (no matter the aspect ratio) to fill the entire screen (no matter the distortion), but I'm not one of them.
5. The remote control is a LOT easier to use!
6. The claimed ability for the unit to control a compatible TV ("Bravia" ?) seems nice, but I don't have a Sony TV.
Minor criticisms & suggestions:
1. What's with the bright light that shines in the display when you play a Blu-ray disc? Is that to impress your friends??? I had to set the display to "dim" to make the "Blu-ray" light not be distracting in a dark room. Feature suggestion to Sony: Option to disable the !@#$% light. Sony, if you are going to go to the trouble of having a bright light, why not have it shine on the numbers in the carousel tray when the door is open (duh ...)?
2. Nit: Yes, I had a 1GB USB memory stick laying around, but how much money did that save Sony for extra memory?
3. What this unit REALLY NEEDS is an embedded web server (like virtually every other Internet-capable intelligent device on the planet) to provide a web interface over the Ethernet port for:
a. Controlling the device.
b. Keying in disc titles/genres/actors/etc. This would solve the keyboard interface issue without any additional hardware, and embedded web servers don't take much memory or computing power. You could also import images for the discs that don't have one (or the wrong one).
c. Saving & restoring disc titles/etc (preferably in XML format). Once my DVP-CX995V lost power, and the several dozen titles I had entered were gone (this was a MAJOR incentive to sell the DVP-CX995V). Granted, the Gracenote DB found virtually all of my current titles, but still ...
4. Nit: When playing music CDs, the remote's "TIME" button cycles between displaying on the TV the track time played, the track time left, the disc time played, and the disc time left. Ah, Sony, isn't there enough room on the TV screen for all four times???
5. Why oh why does this player (like the DVP-CX995V) think it has to load some disc (any disc) before it will respond to the remote control? Still, it's not as bad as the DVP-CX995V.
6. Nit: The unit displays (on its own display) the titles of music CDs when loaded, but not DVDs. Why??? This would be especially helpful if the title would be displayed as you rotated the carousel with the door open ...
Other comments:
1. This is a 1080p-capable HD device, primarily intended for HDMI output, although there is component output (won't send 1080p signals, though). Accordingly, there is no S-video output (although strangely enough, there is a composite video output).
2. Verizon's FiOS remote control worked with the DVP-CX995V, but has no compatible IR codes for the BDP-CX960, and the BDP-CX960 remote knew nothing about the Verizon FiOS STB or my Harman-Kardon receiver. Time to look at the Logitech remotes ...
3. Some reviewers (not here) have commented as to what's wrong with just having a well-organized bookshelf to hold your CDs/DVDs/BDs, instead of this unit? Answer: DISK HANDLING.
All in all, this is an excellent product for my purposes, and the nits are only how to make the product better (all but one of my suggestions could be solved in software). |
Lacking Many simple Features
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| Review Date: March 6, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Dane Wright, CA |
After owning two previous versions of Sony's multi-disc players I was very disappointed in this player. Sony seems to have left out some simple ease of use features that are offered in previous players. I thought you were supposed to improve features in newer models, not remove them. Here are the features I thought should have been included.
1. Ability to jump to a certain disc number. This system makes you thumb your way down a list to select a disc. This can be very annoying if you are heading to disc 350, since the menus do not roll over. This feature is on other Sony 400 disc players.
2. Ability to disable/enable Blu-Ray live for a single disc or on the fly if desired. The player setting for Blu live is ON/OFF for the system, it could have an "ask" feature also. The Playstation does.
3. Ability to load only unread discs. This player allows you to load (get info from gracenote) from one disc or ALL discs. There is no "unloaded discs" option. So if you add a group of discs you must load all discs in the entire player or each one added individually.
These features are simple to include and hopefully they add it to a future software release. If these simple time saving features were added it make my review go from 2 stars to 5. |
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November 22nd, 2009 | 
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