I've seen a couple posts out there on this unit, but one is pretty much all about where to buy it, who has it in stock and how much is it. A new start for an owner's thread might be nice.

I've had my unit only for two days now. My first mega changer. Always used a single disc player, since they had awesome features, loads of power and played anything you threw at it. Seeing this unit was progressive scan and could play all that I needed it to, I went for it.

A few things that don't make much sense. No data backup. Usually electronics that you input data in have some kind of battery backup. You can spend literally hours entering your data in and then if the power goes out in your house it's all gone. It would have been nice if Sony included a small internal battery backup.

This thing wants to load a disc no matter what. If you don't want to load a disc and you are just browsing through the navigator, the unit still has to load a disc. It would have been nice if there was an option to manual load and not always want to start playing a disc.

The time it takes to search and load a disc is not an issue at all. I've seen people complain about this, but as impatient as I am, it does not bother me one bit.

Using component video cables now going directly into my receiver. May try HDMI out, but I doubt it will look any better. At least that's what I think. Does it give a better picture using the HDMI cable?

Michael

I am certainly hoping for a cleaner picture via HDMI. The component output compared to other players I have owned has more edge-enhancement/ringing, and is a little "noisier".

I left more thoughts over in the other thread....

Andrew

I am thinking about purchasing the DVP-CX995v. I purchased the 880 last year and returned it due to the explore was too slow. I loaded 150 disk and it took forever to find one.
The reviews said the 995v was faster. I have been waiting for some one to post info to find out if it is faster.

Thanks

Louis

I have heard it's faster then the older Sony mega changer. That's why a lot of people have been waiting for this one. This is my first mega changer and find the loading times aren't bad at all. After hitting PLAY off of the navigation screen the disc will start playing about 10-15 seconds. Not too bad really...not a problem for me at all and I'm a very impatient person.


I am thinking about purchasing the DVP-CX995v. I purchased the 880 last year and returned it due to the explore was too slow. I loaded 150 disk and it took forever to find one.
The reviews said the 995v was faster. I have been waiting for some one to post info to find out if it is faster.

Thanks

Louis

A few things that don't make much sense. No data backup. Usually electronics that you input data in have some kind of battery backup. You can spend literally hours entering your data in and then if the power goes out in your house it's all gone. It would have been nice if Sony included a small internal battery backup.


I tested this aspect first thing. I loaded up a couple hundered DVDs into it and entered in the titles of the first couple disks. Before I entered more, I wanted to be sure I wouldn't lose them if the power went out.

I unplugged the unit for 10 seconds and my entered data was still saved.
I unplugged the unit for 30 minutes and my entered data was still saved.

Hopefully this means the data is being saved to flash memory or something that doesn't require constant power.


This thing wants to load a disc no matter what. If you don't want to load a disc and you are just browsing through the navigator, the unit still has to load a disc. It would have been nice if there was an option to manual load and not always want to start playing a disc.


I noticed this too. There is an "Auto Play" setting that I have set to "OFF" but it still does it.


The time it takes to search and load a disc is not an issue at all. I've seen people complain about this, but as impatient as I am, it does not bother me one bit.


I have no complaints about the speed either. It is about 100x faster then getting off the couch, walking to the shelves, finding the DVD I want, walking to the AV rack, and inserting a disk into my old player.

I plugged mine into the UPS backup with my projector.That should hopefully save my info. that I enter, if power is off for at least 15 minutes.

Vid53

I would like to hear some thoughts on the HDMI ouput also. I hace a unused DVI port on my Pioneer Elite 630 and have been thinking about trying out a mega changer. Video ouput would be more important to me than anything else.

Thanks

Jim

Can any one answer
How long does it take to scroll through Dvd's once the are all loaded?
Are you able to load all data using a PS2 key board
I have an older Cx355 cd mega changer will it link up

Hey Everyone,
Has anyone compared the HDMI output to Component?

Is it really worth buying the 995 over the 777es, just for the HDMI output??

I am not interested in the Disc Menu system, as I have the MX3000 and the DMX3000 software for disk control.



Appreciate any comments
Cheers
Steve

I bought one two days ago. Read my comments on that other thread. First, it plays DVD-RW very well. I make backups of my movies using a 4.7 gig disk and a compression program. About one in 8 fail to run properly by the Sony. But if I burn them to a DVD-RW, they work fine. My olde JVC DVD can read the compressed movies just fine.

I cannot get the Sony to read a DVD that has many MP3 songs on it. My older JVC DVD read them. I may try again with fewwer songs. It palys DIVX and CD mp3's fine.

The Load feature where it is supposed to read info on DVD's does not work well. It failed to read two store bought DVD movies. One it just read the cover, the other it totally missed. You can manually enter the data from the remote. I tried a keyboard, but it did not seem to work properly. Key strokes had a big lag or triple letters came out. I will test this again.

I hate this zoom. If you zoom a movie, the "zoom" icon stays on the screen. Anyone know if there is a button or something that removes the icon? Hitting display or clear drops the zoom back to 1 to 1.

I am not sure I am keeping this and Tweeter has a 30 day policy. BTW... I paid $339 at Tweeter.

The folder button on the remote does not seem to work. Folder works fine on the face of the Sony. Anyone else have trouble.

I agree...the data you enter does NOT erase when unplugged or power is interrupted. Very nice!

If you are scrolling through without images, it's very quick. Just a button push and the next screen appears. No waiting.

I entered all my data using a standard plain jane AT keyboard. It was a Dell. Some characters were doubled...but I finally got them all in.


Can any one answer
How long does it take to scroll through Dvd's once the are all loaded?
Are you able to load all data using a PS2 key board
I have an older Cx355 cd mega changer will it link up

But if you remove a disk the Sony loses the info. Does your Folder Button work on the remote?

Does your Folder Button work on the remote?

Did you try fiddling with the slider button on top? I think the manual says the folder button only works on the remote when the slider is set to "navigation".

Hey Everyone,
Has anyone compared the HDMI output to Component?

Is it really worth buying the 995 over the 777es, just for the HDMI output??

I am not interested in the Disc Menu system, as I have the MX3000 and the DMX3000 software for disk control.



Appreciate any comments
Cheers
Steve

Steve,

In my opinion the picture looks better over the HDMI output, when compared to the component output. I have a Sony 55WF655 TV. It just seems sharper via HDMI. YMMV...

As far as comparisons to the 777es...well the ES does give more tweaks...gamma adjustment & such. If you want those then your choice is clear. Personally, I just put the picture mode on "Cinema 1" and I'm happy...Maybe, I'll be bold and try Cinema 2, or even Dynamic 1....maybe later...

Oh, one other thing. I don't find the 995 to be slow. If anything I'd rather see my disks handled in a slow gentle manner... Plus, it's great to have my DVD collection in one place.

Do wish there was a way to directly go to a disk number. I'm used to the Sony CD Changer and I can enter a disk number a go right to it. I have not seen this feature on the 995. I'll check the manual (again) maybe I missed it...

Thanks NoPlasmaYet
I appreciate your comments on the HDMI and Components outputs,
and I think that the 777es is the way to go for Me,


Now all I need to do is find someone who has the 777 for a good price, and is Code Free, and Ships to Switzerland. :)



Cheers
Steve

Has anyone used the single-disc 975 and compared it with the 995 changer?

I'm interested in getting the PQ/SQ of the 975 with the convenience of a mega-changer.

Owners, under what circumstances does the 995 "forget" your disc info when you take it out? For example, if I take out a disc and put it right back in without doing anything else, is that enough to erase the info? How about if I leave the door open and the machine on, and return the disc an hour or a day later? How about if I pull out several from around the carousel and put them back without closing the door? My theory is that you may only lose info if you close the door and maybe also if you spin the carousel to pull another disc. Can anyone confirm? EDIT: It looks like you have to press eject once you've queued up the slot to get any disc out - so if the eject button wipes the slot memory, that sucks. /EDIT

I just pulled the trigger and ordered mine from B&H (very good price, btw). Hopefully I'll have it by the weekend and I can confirm this myself.

The remote that came with my 995 has no slider. Just a switch to go from TV to DVD. My remote is model #RM-ASP001. The Enter/Folder Button says Folder in Blue. Does it take a special "keypress" to get the blue Folder button to work?

As for forgetting title info. I did a few quick tests. If you just take the disk out and put it back, it will hold the inforamtion. But if you take it out and turn off the machine, it does a full rotation of all the slots before it shuts down and cancels info in empty slots.

It is not the door closing operation that maters. It's the process where the machine looks for DVD's in the slots that it deletes info in empty slots.

OK... call me an idiot. I did not see the third position before on the remote slider TV/DVD/Disk Explorer. It workd now.

I purchased three DVP-CX995V. I waited to purchase this model over the DVP CX777ES because of the HDMI and the other improvements. I was intending to purchase the Escient Fireball and connect all three to have a storage and access capacity of 1200 DVD's / CD's.

I found that Sony elected NOT to include a RS-232 port for this model and therefore there is no way to connect any sort of external controller or disc management component.

The Escient Fireball can build and store a database with title, genre, cover art and more and it will do it automatically and accurately with about 90% of the DVD's and CD's that are available commercially. The data for the other 10% of discs not recognized, can be manually added which helps update Escient's database to create an even higher percentage of available future data.

This is something Sony has not been able to accomplish even with the new improved Disc Explorer.

Unfortunately, I will be returning these three units and either purchase the DVP-CX777ES or wait until they add HDMI and improve the DVP CX777ES with Sony's next ES revision. The DVP-CX777ES currently has a RS-232 port.

It would be nice if someone came up with an RS-232 port add-on kit for the DVP-CX995V.

I bet Sony has an updated 777es in the works. They're most likely waiting on comments on the 995 , and what would be an easy upgrade . Let them know, as the no database scrolling ,while disc is playing , and supposed disc info loss if disc removed and player turned off , coupled with
no direct disc input keys have me scratching my head and waiting again. I hope they get the message and include it on the sucesssor to the 777es. Let Sony know what they did wrong ,and what should be corrected on the new XXXes !

What's the difference between the 985 and the 995 other than the HDMI output. I can get the 985 for 50 bucks less and can't use HDMI anyway.

I purchased three DVP-CX995V. I waited to purchase this model over the DVP CX777ES because of the HDMI and the other improvements. I was intending to purchase the Escient Fireball and connect all three to have a storage and access capacity of 1200 DVD's / CD's.

I found that Sony elected NOT to include a RS-232 port for this model and therefore there is no way to connect any sort of external controller or disc management component.

The Escient Fireball can build and store a database with title, genre, cover art and more and it will do it automatically and accurately with about 90% of the DVD's and CD's that are available commercially. The data for the other 10% of discs not recognized, can be manually added which helps update Escient's database to create an even higher percentage of available future data.

This is something Sony has not been able to accomplish even with the new improved Disc Explorer.

Unfortunately, I will be returning these three units and either purchase the DVP-CX777ES or wait until they add HDMI and improve the DVP CX777ES with Sony's next ES revision. The DVP-CX777ES currently has a RS-232 port.

It would be nice if someone came up with an RS-232 port add-on kit for the DVP-CX995V.

Bear in mind that the Escient Fireball only has component video (3 in, 1 out), so waiting for the 777 update with HDMI wouldn't do you much good. Recievers with HDMI switching are still in the thousands, and you still wouldn't have the convenience of funnelling all three changers through the fireball to one reciever input.

What's the difference between the 985 and the 995 other than the HDMI output. I can get the 985 for 50 bucks less and can't use HDMI anyway.

The 2 big improvements are HDMI and better navigation. The 985 interface is universally despised for being too limited and too slow to be usable. Early reports on the 995 are that the navigation is much quicker, with the only complaint being that your data erases when you eject a disc (a problem for the 985 as well). Plenty of under the hood improvements, I'm sure - early reports say the 995 mechanics are faster and quieter. I'd say the navigation is worth 50 bucks, easy.

You should be able to find the 985 for a better deal than 50 less.

For memory- the problem I had with my CD 400 changers was a power surge knocking out the memory of what I typed. (I have had the player unplugged for days without memory loss.)

What are people using for Video/ Audio and Monitor hook ups?

To be honest, my old 1st gen Sony over S-video to the DLP looked better, until I played with some settings, (now it may be a liitle better, but not striking)


I have a Sam HLR 5067 DLP, and an older Sony ES AVreciever.

Currently-
Video: DVD-Component-DLP
Audio: DVD- optical- HT Receiver

Some audio lag

Thoughts:

DVD-HDMI-DLP
DLP-Optical-Receiver--- Does the Audio go over the HDMI, and if I output the signal from the DLP to the reciever will it be more or less likely to have lip sync issues?

I upgraded my 985 to the 995. I have both componet video and HDMI connected to my TV.

The componet video is sending 720p and the HDMI is sending 1080.

The 720p picture is excellent....so much so that I can see no difference when switching to HDMI.

My question is this...should I really expect a big difference from a DVD source that wasn't recorded in HiDef to start with? Another way to put it..can you really make a silk purse from a sow's ear?

I know broadcast HiDef from HD Net is dramatically superior to HBO HiDef. But they film right from the start with HiDef cameras.

One thing I do like is that the 995 is very quiet. I almost cannot hear the disk tray and door when you eject a disk. The 995 does let you type info in the disk explorer and add a cover picture. But as yet, unless someone else knows how to do it, the disk explorer does not show the picture until you open a line in the explorer. I wish there was a way to just show the cover pictures and select a movie that way. I have a Printo 7000 and will probably do it that way.

Scrolling through the list on the disk explorer is OK, but not really that fast. I cannot compare it to the older 985. I am not sure how to speed through the list or manually input a disk number. I guess I better get out the manual.

Loading a new disk seems to take forever, but really about 30 seconds. As has already been stated, even with it set to off, it always loads a disk and starts playing when you first turn on the machine. But you cannot access the disk explorer list until that disk starts to play. You cannot shorten the process by pressing stop either. The 995 must go through the initial startup and read the default disk before the disk explorer can be opened.

You can access the disk explorer while a movie is playing.

480i over HDMI? Can anyone confirm? Also any control for video black vs. PC black?

The Home theater controller from Control4 will provide cover art and such for this unit with no rs232 connection. The HTC will control the changer with a macro command and you just assign dvd info according to slot number.

I believe DVD Lobby will output IR codes if you don't have a changer with RS-232, and it runs a great deal less than a Fireball system.

Honestly though, people need to first check to see if 232 is included before buying any unit if it is something that they desperately need.

I was told though that the new 777ES player, with HDMI output, should be available sometime this fall. It's hard to say though. Some of the ES line is making its way to places like UBid (Can get a DA1000 receiver for a great price), and Sony doesn't list them on their main web site anymore.

I upgraded my 985 to the 995. I have both componet video and HDMI connected to my TV.

The componet video is sending 720p and the HDMI is sending 1080.

The 720p picture is excellent....so much so that I can see no difference when switching to HDMI.

My question is this...should I really expect a big difference from a DVD source that wasn't recorded in HiDef to start with? Another way to put it..can you really make a silk purse from a sow's ear?

I know broadcast HiDef from HD Net is dramatically superior to HBO HiDef. But they film right from the start with HiDef cameras.

You cannot send 720p over component. Component is limited to 480p.

Most all DVD's are sourced from film. There are a few that start as HDCAM work, like the new star wars movies. You will also see some that say they are "master in high definition". The bottom, line, though, is DVD is not an HD format, and you are going to get standard def one way or another. Some standard def will look better than others, but its not HD, even when you upconvert it to 720p or 1080i.

The biggest difference you see between HDNET and HBO is that HDNET is shot in 30fps video, HBO shows movies that are sourced from 24FPS film. Video and film sources look very different. Not necessarily less resolution, depending on the quality of the source.

Scrolling through the list on the disk explorer is OK, but not really that fast. I cannot compare it to the older 985. I am not sure how to speed through the list or manually input a disk number. I guess I better get out the manual.


Can anyone confirm whether or not you can input a disk number? I'm considering one of these units, but if I can't use my HTPC+UIRT or a Pronto style remote to jump directly to a new disc, it becomes much less interesting to me.

Thanks.

How fast are the layer changes?

How fast are the layer changes?


I've yet to notice a layer change....

You can direct access a disk it's number by hitting diplay, enter, disk#, and display. I could not find it in the manual, (I assume it is there) but it works.

Or you can use the disk skip mode to navigate to a disk number then play it.

You can direct access a disk it's number by hitting diplay, enter, disk#, and display. I could not find it in the manual, (I assume it is there) but it works.

Or you can use the disk skip mode to navigate to a disk number then play it.

FBlack,

Thanks for the tip. One question I found that Display, enter, Disk# and then "enter" worked. I haven't found it in the manual, yet....

You cannot send 720p over component. Component is limited to 480p.
Andrew - you might want to clarify. 720p and 1080i can be sent over component, in general. However, the Sony 995 will not upscale DVDs to 720 or 1080 over component. You must use HDMI for that.

longshanksdvd - someone confirmed in the other thread that the 995 does not pass 480i over HDMI. This is interesting as their other upscaling player, the 975 does. (Albeit, the 975 is not a changer)

Andrew - you might want to clarify. 720p and 1080i can be sent over component, in general. However, the Sony 995 will not upscale DVDs to 720 or 1080 over component. You must use HDMI for that.

longshanksdvd - someone confirmed in the other thread that the 995 does not pass 480i over HDMI. This is interesting as their other upscaling player, the 975 does. (Albeit, the 975 is not a changer)


The 995 cannot send 720p over component. The 995 via component is limited to 480p.

That was my intended meaning. Of course component in general supports resolutions higher than 480p.

Bear in mind that the Escient Fireball only has component video (3 in, 1 out), so waiting for the 777 update with HDMI wouldn't do you much good. Recievers with HDMI switching are still in the thousands, and you still wouldn't have the convenience of funnelling all three changers through the fireball to one reciever input.


Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Maybe I'll have to wait until the Sony DVP-CX777ES and the Escient Fireball both are updated with HDMI. Maybe Escient is waiting for Sony or another manufacturer to provide a changer with HDMI before they update the Fireball. But, most likely, by the time all that happens, something else better will be available.

Currently, I believe Sony is the only manufacturer making 400 disc changers. It would be nice if Escient's parent company, D&M Holdings (Denon, Marantz & McIntosh), would also manufacture a 400 disc changer that would provide all the things that are missing and therefore provide more of a market for the Escient Fireball line of products.

Also, I recently purchased the Denon 4806 receiver with three HDMI inputs, but I was also trying to avoid occupying all three HDMI inputs with the three Sony DVP-CX995V changers. If the Escient Fireball had three HDMI inputs and one or more outputs, I figured I would only have to occupy one HDMI input on the Denon receiver, leaving the others for other components.

I've yet to notice a layer change....

With other players, did you notice layer changes with the discs that you have seen with the 995?

My unit has shipped from B&H, and if I'm lucky, I'll have it by the weekend. I'd like to compile some common questions to put together a FAQ of sorts when I post my review. It won't be overly technical, and pq judgments will be of the subjective good/bad and better/worse variety, but hopefully it will be helpful. So far I have:

Overview of the current sony megachangers - 995, 985, 777, differences among models
Navigation - is it any good? Speed, bottlenecks, ease of use
Data entry - ease of use, memory, erasure of data when ejecting
Autoplay issues
PQ - component vs. hdmi vs. my cheapo phillips single disc player
Layer changes

Anything else?

My unit has shipped from B&H, and if I'm lucky, I'll have it by the weekend. I'd like to compile some common questions to put together a FAQ of sorts when I post my review. It won't be overly technical, and pq judgments will be of the subjective good/bad and better/worse variety, but hopefully it will be helpful. So far I have:

Overview of the current sony megachangers - 995, 985, 777, differences among models
Navigation - is it any good? Speed, bottlenecks, ease of use
Data entry - ease of use, memory, erasure of data when ejecting
Autoplay issues
PQ - component vs. hdmi vs. my cheapo phillips single disc player
Layer changes

Anything else?

SQ for SACD would be nice too if you have a SACD handy. Also mention what kind, and length, of HDMI cable you are using. Thanks!

I've owned a Sony 400 Disc CD Megachanger for about 4 years now and it has worked flawless. I started researching the 400 Disc DVD megachanger about 4 months ago when I came across several articles noting the CX-995 so I decided to wait until it came out. I bought it last weekend at Tweeter for about $360 after taxes.

I am happy with the unit overall. It has the same footprint as my 400 disc CD player making me think that Sony has been using the same or similair loading mech that has been so reliable in my 400 disc CD changer. The compaints of the menu system that people had on earlier units seem to be resolved as I can page through or scroll through all my DVD titles with ease.

As many have noted, the auto title load function only recognizes about 20% of the DVD's you put in it (only DVD's manufactured with the information on them will automatically be titled). I spent at least 4-5 hours inputting most of the 300 or so DVD's I own with a $3.99 keyboard I bought at MicroCenter. Unlike my 400 disc CD changer (granted it is the first model they made), inputting titles is much easier and can all be done from the keyboard (you can title with the keyboard on my old CD changer but have to use the remote to 'enter' it which would ruin 'the flow' of inputing titles). I took advantage of the Artist field to input popular actors or the director if he was one of my more favorites. For the genre you can choose from a set of preset genres. Sony covers most but I wish you could combine genres like "Comedy/Romance" or "Fantasy/SciFi". You can not enter your own genre (at least I havent found out how, correct me if I'm wrong here.) After the titles are entered you can sort by disc number, Title, artist (in my case Director or Actor), or Genre.

I have connected the player to my Optoma H30 Home Theater Projector and have used both the interlaced and progressive output. Taking a cue from Home Theater Mag I used the rooftop scene in Gladiator to test out the deinterlacer. I've not got a super eye at seeing artifacts like some videophiles but I could tell very little difference between the two. Because I couldn't tell the difference I currently have the Optoma doing the deinterlacing at this time since that is how it was set last. If one of you pros can determine the Sony does a better job than the Optoma deinterlacing let me know!

Considering I am going from a lame Apex DVD player and XBOX to play DVD's, this is a big imrpovement in video quality. I do notice that sometimes the output is too good and I notice MPEG artifacts more now. I have calibrated the system using DVD Video Essentials to the best of my ability but I think this is actually a case of a better DVD player bring out 'details' that the Apex/XBOX was unable to. When I play a superbit DVD the Sony blows away my former players as I expected it would.

A few complaints:

The remote is setup so you have to toggle a switch to go between DVD explorer and normal DVD functions which really irked me. Fortunately I have a URC-9910 remote with JP1 and have programmed it to do everything I need without switching device modes.

Am I missing something or is the CX-995 lacking of a way to abort a 'loading/reading" disc after you have selected a disc? As I am learning the new remote layout I keep selecting a disc and loading it on accident then I have to wait 15-20 seconds before I can abort and get back to the explorer menu. There has to be a faster way to get back to the explorer menu when you do this?

Initially I thought it was very slow to load DVD's (15 seconds or so) however when I thought about how long it would take to manually do so I changed my mind. I also read many stating that is is faster than previous models. The Display says loading disc then reading disc during this process. It seems like it takes a long time to 'read disc' making me think that they are still actually in the process of loading the disc some of that time.

I wish there was a way to select how many letters of the title is displayed in the explorer. Since I have artist (director) displayed movies like Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had to be abbreviated in the list so I could see the entire name.

The abilityto change the titles of the discs that the player automatically loads would be nice. Two of my discs are bonus discs to movies but the title isnt labelled as 'bonus disc' and since it is automatically on there, I cant seem change it.

Conclusion:

I am notorious for scratching my discs and putting fingerprints on them. Ill take a disc out and lay it aside or stick it in the case of the DVD I am putting it then loose track of where my movies are. Even if the disc explorer was basically unusable this would be a good investment for me. Perhaps adding an ethernet or wireless net connection to automatically grab DVD titles would lure me to a new model but aside from the obvious (HD-DVD, BluRay and other future formats) I don't see why I won't be keeping this player for as long as I've kept my 400 disc CD changer.

-GK

I agree with a lot of what you said. I also do not like the fact that you cannot edit a name that the Sony finds during the Load operation. I also wish you could set it to turn on and not start palying. I have a Pronto 7000 and set it up to turn the 995 on then stop it at the right time.

Very excited. Getting one of these tomorrow from amazon.com.

My momitsu v880 just became a big korean-imported headache... it never really worked right. Slow menus, dead loader, replaced loader, sorta worked, faceplate read-out got garbled, Face of unit quit working only remote worked, had to hit remote on knee when hitting buttons to use it, loader only worked wrapped in plastic and duct tape. Sorta like my car stereo in high school, minus the neon.

Anyhow, i run a hitach 50v500 hdtv, I am new to this HDMI stuff. I hope it works ok. Got a dvi-hdmi cable coming in the mail too. I read up a bit on hdmi compliance but have not yet gotten the urge to move my tv around to see if it has the connection already. Seems there is a new cable standard every year or so.
I'll give my thoughts after it arrives.

/edit: Sunnyvale, California / December 9, 2002 — High-Definition Multimedia Interface™ (HDMI™) Founders Hitachi, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Royal Philips Electronics, Silicon Image, Sony Corporation, Thomson, and Toshiba Corporation today released the final 1.0 specification for HDMI, So i guess hitachi helped develop hdmi back in 2002 so i guess my tv is ok.

Thx for all the info Andrew. I would have responded sooner but I didn't realize that this thread went to 2 pages...duh!

As for not sending 720 over component outputs, I thought sure in "custom" setup there was a place to set that. I'm at work but I'll check when I get home.

Is it possible that my Sanyo is upconverting 480 to 720? At any rate, when using the component input, the Sanyo reports 720. Maybe its placebo but it sure looks good.

Thx again for the info re true Hi Def. I guess when blu-ray becomes the standard we'll really be able to take advantage of HDMI.

I stand corrected....just checked...only options under component is progressive or interlaced.

thx again sir

I took a couple of dics with me to test out the layer change of this player, Monster's Inc, which freezes at the layer change on my current player, and Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones, which has a long pause on my current player. The DVP-CX995V did not hang up with Monster's Inc and there was only a slight pause with either disc, very acceptable IMHO. My current player is a Pioneer 525 - old I know, bought back in 99 or 2000 timeframe, so I had been looking for a mega-changer. Last year's model, the 985 and 777ES I passed on last year because of the length of the pause at the layer change. I have the 995 on order with an authorized internet retailer :)

I plan on playing with it more this weekend, but here are my initial impressions:

- Very quiet - I'd almost like a little more clicking and whirring when it's switching discs so I know it's working :)

- PQ is good over component, haven't tested it yet with HDMI. I may not bother, since if it's at all a close call, I'll go with component anyway b/c of the easy receiver switching. I'd need an hdmi-dvi cable, and not sure I want to drop the cash on it if I'm unlikely to use it.

- I was starting to get irritated with the amount of itme it took to switch discs, but I won't be doing nearly as much switching among discs in real life. For loading a single disc, the delay is not bad at all. The disc autoload "feature" is also an annoyance, but the easiest way to minimise it is to avoid opening the door, and to not turn off the player.

- I am VERY annoyed at the inability to rename auto-recognized discs. For example: I wanted to file all my Lord of the Rings discs under "L", but the extended cut of Return of the King is recognized, and it's now permanently filed under "R" instead. Also, all four discs are named "Return of the King : Extended Ed." They are still kept in order by slot number, so I can find the correct discs, but it offends my sense of neatness and order.

- Another issue with the auto-recognition is that some movies are ALL CAPS and some are Normally Titled. Also, if a disc is auto-titled as "The Big Lebowski" for example, it's filed under "T". The all caps doesn't keep my from finding a movie, but the "The" issue is a real problem.

- One workaround for the auto-titling "feature" I am considering is just using the "Artist" field to name discs what I want and just sort by artist. It's a really half assed and time intensive solution, and it prevents me from using the artist field for other stuff like actor/director, but I'd rather have a good alphabetical list.

- Overall navigation speed is great. The pictures are now in the details view rather than the main list, so you get more titles on screen, and you don't have to wait for the pictures to load. Keyboard text entry is tedious for a lot of discs, but that should only be a one time thing, and not bad at all for one or two.

- I noticed a layer change in Sin City (the scene of Clive Owen holding a razor blade to Benicio del Toro's eye), but it was less pronounced than on other players.

- My old Top Gun dvd looks like crap on my plasma. Jittery credits, matted widescreen and grainy video - entirely the fault of the disc, but I thought I'd vent. I was holding off on getting the new remastered disc, but not anymore :)

- DVD-R playback is very good. The only DVD-Rs I have are bootlegs of the original non-special edition Star Wars laserdiscs, which have always played well on my computer, but never on a commercial player - they play flawlessly on the 995. Hooray for old school FX and 2-channel stereo!

-

Arrived. :cool: I just got done loading all 389 discs i have into it. I am running it through an auto load thing where I guess it tries to get info off of each disc automatically, probably just the disc name.

Very quiet compared to my old player. Would not be able to tell it was on if not for the blue disco ball and lights on the front of the player.
It is huge. About the same size as my computer on its side. No big suprise there.

Bought an hdmi-dvi cable that was 2.5 feet long. Wth was i thinking? I can't even use it for a belt if I wanted to. Component it is then. Not that I could get any better picture out of hdmi. It is just a DVD.

I should have gotten one of these a long time ago. I hate hauling out the 2 giant dvd caselogic books I have and flipping through them endlessly looking for a movie to watch. Hands swollen and bleeding from the endless flipping.. the hell with that! Now I can just sit on the couch and relax while I am unable to make up my mind.

Does anyone know if it is possible to have the Disc Explorer default to Folder A, Folder B, etc.?

If not, is there a discrete code for individual folders that can be programmed into my Harmony remote?


Thanks!

I just connected my hdmi cable, with the component cables still connected.

PQ looked better over Component!

I inserted a disk that has the THX optimzer (very poor man's callibration disc) and tweeked the settings for HDMI signal.

Now they both look OK.

I guess I still need to play with HDMI settings-
Picture mode- Standard - ( Make these adjustment on the TV ? DLP)

Resolution - Auto?

I got the HDMI cables to see if it would help the lip sync issue, I need to check this out more. the issue is very slight, and may be more source dependant.

I agree with a lot of what you said. I also do not like the fact that you cannot edit a name that the Sony finds during the Load operation. I also wish you could set it to turn on and not start palying. I have a Pronto 7000 and set it up to turn the 995 on then stop it at the right time.

Hi FBlack,

As long as you always stop the last DVD you are playing where it can resume playback from that given point the changer will never automatcally begin playing that disc again when it's powering down, then powered back up. In this senario when powering the changer back up that last disc is simply still cue'd up, but stopped at that resume point. This is all that I have been doing since day one with my 3 Sony DVP-CX985V changers. It's a full proof work around.

-Lowpro

Posted this in the Release Date thread also::

Anyone know if the 995 has the same MPEG decoder as sony's single disk DVP-NS975V?

Greetings,

I am considering adding this player to my setup. I currently have a Denon DVD 3910 which has excellent pic. quality via HDMI. I have a Sony HS51 front projector as well. I will use the 995 for the most part to hold my " non " reference DVD's and some music as well.

I downladed the owners manual and looked it over. According to the manual the Auto loading feature can be disabled via the Advanced menu. According to the manula this would/should prevent the player from auomatically loading a disc upon power up.

It also states that you can take a " snapshot " of a scene from a DVD by pressing a button on the remote, and use that as the Jacket picture for thoses discs that are not auto encoded with the disc data.

Has anyone tried either of these features?


Regards,

Greetings,

.... According to the manual the Auto loading feature can be disabled via the Advanced menu. According to the manula this would/should prevent the player from auomatically loading a disc upon power up.

...
Regards,

Yeah, they've made that claim about every one of their megachangers, but it doesn't work that way. If you go back and read all the posts, you'll notice that everyone said they tried to turn it off and it didn't work. :mad:

I've not got a super eye at seeing artifacts like some videophiles but I could tell very little difference between the two. Because I couldn't tell the difference I currently have the Optoma doing the deinterlacing at this time since that is how it was set last. If one of you pros can determine the Sony does a better job than the Optoma deinterlacing let me know!

-GK

I wanted to say that after a few days with the projector and more calibration and testing I can say I am pretty certain that the Optoma H3O projector does a better job deinterlacing than the Sony. If your device has a good deinterlacer you might want to let it do the deinterlacing instead of the Sony. Artifcats in the rooftop flyover scene in Gladiator (begining of chapter 12?) and in test patters using Digital DVD Essentials were more common when using the progressive output on the Sony.

As I stated before, I'm not a pro at this so if anyone disagrees let me know.

-GK

Greetings,

I downladed the owners manual and looked it over. According to the manual the Auto loading feature can be disabled via the Advanced menu. According to the manula this would/should prevent the player from auomatically loading a disc upon power up.

It also states that you can take a " snapshot " of a scene from a DVD by pressing a button on the remote, and use that as the Jacket picture for thoses discs that are not auto encoded with the disc data.

Has anyone tried either of these features?


Regards,

I agree with what others have stated, I haven't been able to get the 'autoload' to turn off.

The snapshot feature works fine for me except for titles that have their own encoded (you can not replace it). You can only snapshot from video in the movie, not the title (menu) screens. The snapshot is a pretty low color/resolution image, but it serves its purpose.

I own the 985 and ran the Faroudja tests through it and it passed most of them. I suspect these units have some Faroudja parts in them- someone on Agoraquest opened the 985 and 777ES and found the same.

I was also able to flash my 985's ROM to the 777's, giving me all the advanced tweaks and such. The navigation in the 985 is totally useless btw- I just use my Harmony remote.

Greetings,

I ordered the 995V this morning from my dealer, it should be here thursday. I will be connecting it via HDMI. I will post back with my impressions of usability, picture/sound quality and ergonomics.


Regards,

The navagation in my 995 seems pretty fast. The skip- and skip+ keys allow you to scroll pretty fast through the list. If you know a disk number, you can manually input it from the main screen. One thing I don't like about the skip keys is that when I see "+" sign I assumed it scrolled up through the numbers on the list. From low numbers to high numbers. It does not. It seems reversed. The skip+ key scrolls the list "up" towards the top of the screen ( and the lower numbers). The skip- scrolls the list down towards the bottom of the screen and the higher numbers.

No matter what you do the player always starts to play the DVD when you turn the power on. Its a real pain because you always have to wait before you can go directly to the FOLDER function or push any function. What I did was set up a macro when I power on, I let it go in to play mode and then I programed the macro to wait 15 seconds then go to the FOLDER button and by the time I switch over I have the folder open and waiting for me to pick a movie. I don't know what Sony was thinking when they programed it to play a DVD when you power up!!

Hope this helps anyone
Vid53

A less complicated, and full proof work around is available for the auto-play issue.

As long as you stop the last disc you are playing where it can resume playback from that given point that disc will not then begin playing automatically when powering down the changer, then powering it back up again. It will simply still be cue'd up, but stopped.

-Lowpro

A less complicated, and full proof work around is available for the auto-play issue.

As long as you stop the last disc you are playing where it can resume playback from that given point that disc will not then begin playing automatically when powering down the changer, then powering it back up again. It will simply still be cue'd up, but stopped.

-Lowpro

Greetings,

This seems like a resonabe work around. I would assume that when stopped, accessing the folders would not be a issue. I will try it out once I have the unit up and running.


Regards,

Low Pro. I tried it and it does not work. I started a movie. Pressed "stop" while it was playing. Powered off the Sony. Turned on the Sony and the movie started right up again. Am I doing something wrong. BTW.... it's not a big problem for me since I use a Pronto and just added a "stop" code about 15 seconds after the Sony starts. I have auto start turned off in the settings.

You must stop the DVD where it can resume from that given point. Hit stop only once. The screen will then tell you whether it can resume from that point or not.

-Lowpro

If you know a disk number, you can manually input it from the main screen.

Can you give more details on this? When you say "main screen" do you mean the physical front panel of the player or some screen shown on your TV?

I would love to be able to enter a disk number with my remote. If this is possible, please tell me how.

My solution is even lower tech - just leave the unit on. I am already in the habit of either stopping the disc or going to folder view when I'm finished so that the disc isn't spinning, then I just power down the reciever and tv and leave the dvd powered up. I'm sure I'm reducing the lifespan of the unit, but I've had plenty of other components always-on for long periods of time with no trouble.

Low Pro:

I tried it again. Still no go. I hit stop once. It says will disk resume at this point or hit stop again to start from the beginning. Then I just press off button on the remote. Hit Start again and the disk plays. Do you have the 995? Maybe it's different from other models.

Linux:

Here's how to manually enter a number, even if a disk is playing.
On the remote, hit display. Then hit enter. Then enter the numbers of the new disk. Then hit enter. Once the new disk starts, hit display twice to close the display overlay screen.

Low Pro:

I tried it again. Still no go. I hit stop once. It says will disk resume at this point or hit stop again to start from the beginning. Then I just press off button on the remote. Hit Start again and the disk plays. Do you have the 995? Maybe it's different from other models.

The changers I own are 985's, not the 995. This has worked as I've described for both the 985 and 777 models. I find it hard to believe it does not work for the 995 as well, but I hear what you are saying. Dang! :-(

I have my auto-play option set to off. Maybe you have yours set to on by mistake. Even though the off setting does not seem to work as one would think I'm sure the setting would still need to be set to off, otherwise a disc that has been stopped where it can resume playback will still be forced to play automatically on startup.

-Lowpro

Low Pro:

Maybe someone else can try your method and report back.

Well, try as I might I cannot get the 995 to work with my Optoma H77 over HDMI.

For every resolution tried the Optoma only sees a 480p signal and shows a blank screen. Yes, it is HDCP compliant. My other HDCP/DVI devices work perfectly with it.

I thought it might be a long cable problem, so I bought an expensive booster. No change whatsover.

Very dissapointed right now. Anyone else having problems with HDMI? The HDMI light never even comes on the player.....

I bought a 50 ft cable also and found that I would also lose the hdmi signal.I reached behind the player and pulled the plug and wiggled it and the HDMI light worked again.I switch between component and Hdmi to compare the picture. Right now it is working .I hope this isn't a Sony problem as the auto start.

Vid53

Yes, I was wrong when I said it deletes your data. It does save it! Yahoooo! Now, I don't have to worry losing hours of input data. Thanks for the confirmation!!

I tested this aspect first thing. I loaded up a couple hundered DVDs into it and entered in the titles of the first couple disks. Before I entered more, I wanted to be sure I wouldn't lose them if the power went out.

I unplugged the unit for 10 seconds and my entered data was still saved.
I unplugged the unit for 30 minutes and my entered data was still saved.

Hopefully this means the data is being saved to flash memory or something that doesn't require constant power.



I noticed this too. There is an "Auto Play" setting that I have set to "OFF" but it still does it.



I have no complaints about the speed either. It is about 100x faster then getting off the couch, walking to the shelves, finding the DVD I want, walking to the AV rack, and inserting a disk into my old player.

Tell me about it. I know watch more of my movies just because my lazy but doesn't have to get up and search through all my titles manually. All I do is turn on my DVD changer, switch my receiver to DVD mode and I'm done! Movies, here I come!


I should have gotten one of these a long time ago. I hate hauling out the 2 giant dvd caselogic books I have and flipping through them endlessly looking for a movie to watch. Hands swollen and bleeding from the endless flipping.. the hell with that! Now I can just sit on the couch and relax while I am unable to make up my mind.

I'm confused. I thought HDMI was just an easy way to have audio and video on one cable...not that it's going to be a better picture? Is there really a better picture quality when using an HDMI with a DVD? DVD is only 480 anyway...so how is using a HDMI cable make the picture quality look any better?


I just connected my hdmi cable, with the component cables still connected.

PQ looked better over Component!

I inserted a disk that has the THX optimzer (very poor man's callibration disc) and tweeked the settings for HDMI signal.

Now they both look OK.

I guess I still need to play with HDMI settings-
Picture mode- Standard - ( Make these adjustment on the TV ? DLP)

Resolution - Auto?

I got the HDMI cables to see if it would help the lip sync issue, I need to check this out more. the issue is very slight, and may be more source dependant.

Ok, there is an option AUTO-LOAD in the menu of this player. What does this option do?? Becuase the unit acts the same if it's on or off. I would really LOVE this thing NOT to load when it's powered on, since I always want to hit my folders first to see what I want to watch. This must be a bug...because the whole idea behind a megachanger is to be able to browse through titles and then pick one....specially when you turn on the unit this would be probably the highest probability of going to folder/browse mode, but Sony still insists on having it load a DVD even with AUTO-LOAD off?? If there's a firmware fix for this...please pass it on!

Other then that, I think the player works real nice. It's my first megachanger and I've always had high-quality single disc units, but just got tired of having DVD's all over the place. I have 180 DVD's now...so I have a little while to go for now. Picture quality is real nice, loading speeds are pretty good, ease of use is nice and it's pretty intuitive for a new person also. Since I have a very good programmable remote control, I've been using that instead of the native remote control. I use the MX-700 Universal Remote, which was probably one of the best purchases I've ever made! It's connected to my 52" Toshiba DLP TV and looks great. Slowly filling it up....



No matter what you do the player always starts to play the DVD when you turn the power on. Its a real pain because you always have to wait before you can go directly to the FOLDER function or push any function. What I did was set up a macro when I power on, I let it go in to play mode and then I programed the macro to wait 15 seconds then go to the FOLDER button and by the time I switch over I have the folder open and waiting for me to pick a movie. I don't know what Sony was thinking when they programed it to play a DVD when you power up!!

Hope this helps anyone
Vid53

Well, try as I might I cannot get the 995 to work with my Optoma H77 over HDMI.

For every resolution tried the Optoma only sees a 480p signal and shows a blank screen. Yes, it is HDCP compliant. My other HDCP/DVI devices work perfectly with it.

I thought it might be a long cable problem, so I bought an expensive booster. No change whatsover.

Very dissapointed right now. Anyone else having problems with HDMI? The HDMI light never even comes on the player.....

Greetings,

AB, is this the first HDMI equipped DVD player you have tried with the Optoma?


Regards,

I use the MX-700 Universal Remote, which was probably one of the best purchases I've ever made! ...

mdeligny,

I agree it's a great remote...

I have a B&K remote (re-badged MX 700) and I can't get it to learn all the commands from the Sony 995 Remote. I find it won't learn the number keys, play, pause and stop...

I'd be interested to know if you can program these into yours. I'm going to try programing another learning remote (with the Sony remote) and then tranfer that to the MX-700...Hope that works...

Well, try as I might I cannot get the 995 to work with my Optoma H77 over HDMI.

For every resolution tried the Optoma only sees a 480p signal and shows a blank screen. Yes, it is HDCP compliant. My other HDCP/DVI devices work perfectly with it.

I thought it might be a long cable problem, so I bought an expensive booster. No change whatsover.

Very dissapointed right now. Anyone else having problems with HDMI? The HDMI light never even comes on the player.....

From what I understand, the only time "HDMI" will light up on the player is if the player recognizes the display device or preamp as an HDCP compliant device. Maybe the length of the cable run is the issue, or maybe the version of HDMI on the projector. I believe the changer is using 1.1

I have an HDMI cable arriving today and the changer arrives tomorrow, hopefully HDMI will light up. I'm using a Toshiba 34HFX84.

By "Auto load" in the menu do you mean "Auto Play"? This is the feature that does not seem to work. Disks still auto play even when this is turned off. but I found that you can press the Folder button while the Sony starts loading a movie, or even during a movie, and the 995 will load up the navigation list.

And as for losing dats input to a disk on the navagator, if you remove a disk and the do some function with the 995 that spins the carousel (like turning off the Sony), you lose the stored data about the disk

Ok, there is an option AUTO-LOAD in the menu of this player. What does this option do?? Becuase the unit acts the same if it's on or off. I would really LOVE this thing NOT to load when it's powered on, since I always want to hit my folders first to see what I want to watch. This must be a bug...because the whole idea behind a megachanger is to be able to browse through titles and then pick one....specially when you turn on the unit this would be probably the highest probability of going to folder/browse mode, but Sony still insists on having it load a DVD even with AUTO-LOAD off?? If there's a firmware fix for this...please pass it on!

Other then that, I think the player works real nice. It's my first megachanger and I've always had high-quality single disc units, but just got tired of having DVD's all over the place. I have 180 DVD's now...so I have a little while to go for now. Picture quality is real nice, loading speeds are pretty good, ease of use is nice and it's pretty intuitive for a new person also. Since I have a very good programmable remote control, I've been using that instead of the native remote control. I use the MX-700 Universal Remote, which was probably one of the best purchases I've ever made! It's connected to my 52" Toshiba DLP TV and looks great. Slowly filling it up....

From the manual (p. 80): AUTO PLAY: Switches the Auto Play setting on or off. This function is useful when the player is connected to a timer (not supplied).
OFF: Switches this function off.
ON: Automatically starts playback when the player is turned on.

So it ought to work the way we want, and yet we have multiple confirmations that this setting does nothing. This "feature" was a problem on the 985 too, so it's nothing new, but still irritating. Has anyone called tried calling Sony? I may tonight just to see what the damn setting is supposed to do.

I am on the phone with Sony as I read this. Their first "rep" knows nothing and I am asking to be transfered to a more senior person. If you want to call Sony too, try 1-800-222-7669.

I am trying to get info on the auto play feature and why mp3's on a DVD will not play. Also, is there a way to edit info that the 995 automatically inputs about a disk after you press load on the navigator.

I am on the phone with Sony as I read this. Their first "rep" knows nothing and I am asking to be transfered to a more senior person. If you want to call Sony too, try 1-800-222-7669.

I am trying to get info on the auto play feature and why mp3's on a DVD will not play. Also, is there a way to edit info that the 995 automatically inputs about a disk after you press load on the navigator.

I doubt that there's a way to edit auto-recognized discs, but let us know if there is. I couldn't find anything in the manual on inability to edit auto-filed discs.

Sony support is no help. I finally got to secondary support in Florida. He said the auto play feature works and that my week old Sony needs to be shipped to Texas for repairs. I asked if he had a 995 to test he said no. I told him to send an e-mail or two to other support people to see if they have heard of this issue yet. He had not and it was not in their data base. That's why he said the 995 is broken. I told him to go find a retailer in Florida and test it. Imagine everyone sending their new 995's to Texas. Maybe they need to start getting more complaints.

He said the 995 will not play MP3's on DVD and there is no way to edit info loaded to the navigator foem a DVD.

Hello - great thread. Questions:

How do I link up two of these players? Easy?

Will the Harmony 880 remote learn everything there is to do with the sony 995 remote?

How about selecting by number?

Thanks to anyone who can help. About to make my purchases.

thanks,

Gary

One more question - anyone try playing a DVD "backup copy" from an original on DVD+R media? Also, I transfered some DVD material from my video camera to a DVD+R. Will these play?

thanks,

Gary

Hello - great thread. Questions:

How do I link up two of these players? Easy?

Will the Harmony 880 remote learn everything there is to do with the sony 995 remote?

How about selecting by number?

Thanks to anyone who can help. About to make my purchases.

thanks,

Gary

Can't link them up directly. Best you can do is rig up a HTPC with an IR blaster, but by then you're better off just getting the old 777. The navigation is very usable and more or less intuitive but it is not at all robust or scalable. If you want serious customization, you're looking at a much more expensive setup.

I don't have a Harmony, so I don't know - if it can learn individual buttons, then yes. There are a lot of buttons on the remote, but not too many essential "extra" buttons. Folder, sort, pgup, and pgdn are the only non-standard buttons I've been using a lot.

Select by number is available - it's either in this forum or the "Release Date" thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=549061 It's a long read, but the release date forum has a lot of your answers, as does the manual: http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/documents/specifications/DVPCX995V.pdf

Most recorded video DVDs seem to work well. Doesn't seem to recognize mp3 DVD's but that's more of a format issue than a media issue.

Good luck!

I suggest you read the two threads on the 995. Most of your questions have been asked and amswered.

RE: Why I tried HDMI vs Component

I was thinking that:

1). The PQ would be better since it stayed digital the whole time ( and could be sent at higher resolution)

2). Minor lip sync issues would disappear as the d/a a/d conversion was dropped.

So far, HDMI has done niether. I did tweak the TV for HDMI, and it might look slightly better ( Wishful thinking?) But Now the Cable looks over saturated.

Cheap HDMI cable?

DVD-HDMI- Sammy DLP
DVD/ Audio Fiber optic-Sony ES AVR ( Older unit w/o Component or HDMI for video)

Could DTS vs Dolby make a difference in lip sync?

When I buy a foreign DVD I use DVD-Decrytper to remove the region codes so I can play it in any of my players. My Pioneer, unmodified XBOX and Cyberhome play these fine but when I try them in my Sony 995 it says "Can Not Play Due To Area Restrictions". None of my players are modified for Region Free.

DVD Decrypter says the disc is set to Region "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8" and has "No RCE Protection".

Anyone else had this problem?

-GK

RE: Why I tried HDMI vs Component

I was thinking that:

1). The PQ would be better since it stayed digital the whole time ( and could be sent at higher resolution)

2). Minor lip sync issues would disappear as the d/a a/d conversion was dropped.

So far, HDMI has done niether. I did tweak the TV for HDMI, and it might look slightly better ( Wishful thinking?) But Now the Cable looks over saturated.

Cheap HDMI cable?

DVD-HDMI- Sammy DLP
DVD/ Audio Fiber optic-Sony ES AVR ( Older unit w/o Component or HDMI for video)

Could DTS vs Dolby make a difference in lip sync?

It could be that the scaler in your TV is about the same quality as the scaler in the 995. All DVD content is 480i, so it's going to get scaled up (or "upconverted" in marketingspeak) at some point - HDMI should work better in theory because it stays digital longer, but in practice, with good component cables and a good scaler in the tv, it can be hard to see an improvement with HDMI. The "How much is that scaler in the window" sticky at the top of the DVD forum has a good discussion of this.

Guru:

Try using AnyDVD by Slysoft. I use it with DVDShrink and Decrypter. They have a free two week trial.

Can't link them up directly. Best you can do is rig up a HTPC with an IR blaster, but by then you're better off just getting the old 777. The navigation is very usable and more or less intuitive but it is not at all robust or scalable. If you want serious customization, you're looking at a much more expensive setup.

Can I set the IR on each 995 to a different frequency so that my remote will allow me to play a DVD on 995(a) vs 995(b)? (Longshot)

I will be using a buffalo IR repeater system with emitters, but I fear that both 995's will turn on/off and react to the remote commands at the same time.

There has got to be a way to control multiple units separately.

Gary

Guru:

Try using AnyDVD by Slysoft. I use it with DVDShrink and Decrypter. They have a free two week trial.

Thanks. Things seem to be working fine now. Its always something stupid. I am so used to playing everything on my other DVD players that I forgot some of these DVD's are PAL. My other players have no problem playing PAL apparently.

-GK

Can I set the IR on each 995 to a different frequency so that my remote will allow me to play a DVD on 995(a) vs 995(b)? (Longshot)

I will be using a buffalo IR repeater system with emitters, but I fear that both 995's will turn on/off and react to the remote commands at the same time.

There has got to be a way to control multiple units separately.

Gary
Gary,

The remote has 3 different settings for multiple players. Page 16 of the manual shows how to change the settings.

That's good - then the trick would be to get the Harmony 880 remote (or whatever) to learn that and handle multiple 995's from one remote. Thank you for that information, I'll download the manual and read up on that.

gary

I'm confused. I thought HDMI was just an easy way to have audio and video on one cable...not that it's going to be a better picture? Is there really a better picture quality when using an HDMI with a DVD? DVD is only 480 anyway...so how is using a HDMI cable make the picture quality look any better?


Well in theory a DLP display should show the best picture with an all digital connection.. no analog conversions anywhere in the chain. That is what I am shooting for.


Greetings,

AB, is this the first HDMI equipped DVD player you have tried with the Optoma?


Regards,


Yes the is the first HDMI player I have ever tried with it. Was under the impression that HDMI and DVI were interchangeable formats. The Optoma even comes with a DVI/HDMI adapter.

Yes the is the first HDMI player I have ever tried with it. Was under the impression that HDMI and DVI were interchangeable formats. The Optoma even comes with a DVI/HDMI adapter.

Greetings,

They are interchangeable with video. How long of a cable run are you using? I am running my Denon 3910 and Scienthfic Atlanta 8300HD DVR with a 23 foot RAM Rev 2 HDMI cable and a Gefen 2x1 HDMI switch. No problem with my Sony HS51 front projector.

I will be adding the 995 to the mix...


Regards,

Greetings,

They are interchangeable with video. How long of a cable run are you using? I am running my Denon 3910 and Scienthfic Atlanta 8300HD DVR with a 23 foot RAM Rev 2 HDMI cable and a Gefen 2x1 HDMI switch. No problem with my Sony HS51 front projector.

I will be adding the 995 to the mix...


Regards,


I have experimented with a run as short as 12 feet.

I received the 995 yesterday and hooked it up via component and HDMI to HDMI cables to a Toshiba 34HFX84 tv. I turned on the 995 and the HDMI signal did not light up. :mad: I thought it might have something to do with the HDMI revision level of the TV, so I pulled the manual to try to find that but did not see it. I then remembered that the TV's input was on component so I switched the tv to HDMI and the handshake between the tv and 995 ocurred and lit up the HDMI. :) The HDMI cable I'm using is from Ram Electronics, the higher end Rev 2 version and is 10' long.

Do you notice a difference between component and HDMI

And What are your settings 480 p 720 1080?

Do you notice a difference between component and HDMI

And What are your settings 480 p 720 1080?

Heywood,

I'd like to give you my opinion on that. I have had the 995 for a couple of weeks now. I like it, it's quieter than my Sony CD changer (400 disks) and the navigation system is pretty good (after the learning curve is completed).

As far as HDMI vs. Component. If I run the component output a 408i, I do find that the HDMI looks a little better (sharper) to me. If I run the component output at 480p, then I find there's no difference. I did have to adjust the TV setting to get them to look a like. The brightness level is different between the two (at least on a Sony 55WF). The picture quality is quite good.

I didn't realize I had so many DVD's. I'm considering another 995. I think I'll wait and try this one a bit more first (plus the prices are dropping on 995...)

Do you notice a difference between component and HDMI

And What are your settings 480 p 720 1080?

I did watch a little bit of a movie with both component and HDMI but I cannot give a valid opinion at this time. The component input was calibrated with my old dvd player and I have not re-calibrated that input with the 995. It appeared to be less vibrant and darker compared to before but I know it just needs to be calibrated. The HDMI input #2 had not been used yet and needs to be calibrated, but was very bright and vibrant, so much so that it needs to be toned down.

I still need to play around with the settings on the 995 to see how they impact the picture as well. The settings I was using last night were 480P over component and 1080i over HDMI, that would be what the tv would scale it to.

I want to play around with the custom picture settings on the player and try to see if I notice a difference between the scaler in the 995 vs. the Toshiba.

A hint to those that are having trouble getting some "OOMPH" out of the picture. Factory settings have the sharpness turned off. After playing around with the "custom" picture settings in the menu, It still looked way soft. Found sharpness could not be adjusted in the custom menu. Turn sharpness on by following instructions on pg. 63 of instructions.
A big differance. Very nice pic now. I'll leave thorough impressions after I've run it, for a couple of days. Audio sounds great. -YMMV-

Greetings,

I received my 995 yesterday. I connected it via HDMI to my Sony HS51 projector via a Gefen HDMI switcher. The unit shares duties with my Denon DVD-3910 and a Scientific Atlanta HD8300 high def. DVR/cable box.

I had no problem getting the HDMI indicator to illuminate and a picture. Initial impressions of image quality prior to any adjustment was very good. I will calibrate and report back on that. I loaded up 30 discs ( 19 movies and 10 CD's ).

The auto load feature of course reared it's head. I did find that I was able to press Stop on the remote to stop the disc from loading ( even when the FBI warning was being displayed ). While the auto load should NOT happen once the feature has been disabled in the setup menu, it really is a very minor issue in my opinion ( especially since pressing stop on the remote remedies it ).

I used a keyboard to input disc information and of the discs I loaded only three had any information encoded and that was not complete info.

I was really annoyed that Sony chose to put a BIG white sticker on the face of the player. On top of that the sticker was not one that was not meant to be easily removed. I must have spent 45 minutes picking away at that thing until I had it down to the glue. After that a little rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball took care of that.

I don't find the time the unit takes to get a disc up on the screen after selection to be excessive. The unit is not what I would call quiet while it does so but that really is not an issue.

All in all I think that so far this was a worthy investment.


Regards,

thx for the tip cubsfan !! I should explore those menus more to see what other gems I can find.

I have manually entered a few screen shots for the navigator. Which are supposed to be used as backgrounds when you stop a DVD. It does not seem to work. Anyone have better luck?

Anyone had luck getting HDMI to work with a Samsung HLN series? I've tried everything imaginable, and the HDMI light never comes on. I know the cable I'm using is good, because it works fine with my Dish Network 942 STB. I called Sony support and the CSR told me that I was the first to report any such problem. Oddly, he didn't even bother to ask what model television I was using; seems that sort of information could be useful.

NotQuite Dead, my TV requires that it be powered on first before any external equipment. This is emphasized in the manual. Sounds dumb but easy to try. Works on my 995.

Not Quite Dead:

I assume you read the trouble shooting tips in the abck of the Sony Manual? Have you tried setting the audio to PCM in the Sony setup? Or using a digital audio cable?

NotQuite Dead, my TV requires that it be powered on first before any external equipment. This is emphasized in the manual. Sounds dumb but easy to try. Works on my 995.
Tried turning on 995 before TV and TV before 995. Neither works.

Not Quite Dead:

I assume you read the trouble shooting tips in the abck of the Sony Manual? Have you tried setting the audio to PCM in the Sony setup? Or using a digital audio cable?
I tried setting HDMI audio output to PCM, but I still get no HDMI connection.

I have manually entered a few screen shots for the navigator. Which are supposed to be used as backgrounds when you stop a DVD. It does not seem to work. Anyone have better luck?

Greetings,

I noticed this this morning as well. I notice that the ones that are loaded off of the disc by the player appear as the background in stop mode while the manual ones do not. I will play around with it later.

Regards,

As for the backgrounds, I found a note in the manual ( Page 79) that basically says the image must be on the disk for it to show up as a background. Too bad. What's the purpose of manually adding a "jacket cover" then. It does not show up on the front page of the navagator. Seems that Sony could easily have added this in their sofware.

One thing I have noticed with the 995. I didn't load 400 disks at once. I did it in steps, around 50 at a time. I kept the cases in the order I put the disks in so I could enter the information in later.

I have found that there have been a few times (after going through the loading process) that a few disks came up with a "?" next to the disk number.
These were disks that were loaded before and had the title entered. So they were recognized by the system in the previous load cycle.

You can't access the disk to re-enter the information. All you can do is have the system go through the load procedure again.

Well, I'm going to let Sony know this and see what they say. Sounds like a software bug....

I had a few of those too. As I recall, you just manually set the Sony to play that slot number. Then after a few minutes, just press stop and go to the Navigator. Then the ? turns to the Video Icon and you can enter the info.

Send it to Texas because it's broke? It's not broke. We all are experiecing the same results. I guess this is big corporate acting like idiots again. I'm hoping there will be a firmware fix for this soon. Thanks for the time. I'll also try to program some numbers on my MX-700 and report back.


Sony support is no help. I finally got to secondary support in Florida. He said the auto play feature works and that my week old Sony needs to be shipped to Texas for repairs. I asked if he had a 995 to test he said no. I told him to send an e-mail or two to other support people to see if they have heard of this issue yet. He had not and it was not in their data base. That's why he said the 995 is broken. I told him to go find a retailer in Florida and test it. Imagine everyone sending their new 995's to Texas. Maybe they need to start getting more complaints.

He said the 995 will not play MP3's on DVD and there is no way to edit info loaded to the navigator foem a DVD.

I have played and used DVD-R, DVD+R and even DL's with no problem. Make sure you clean the discs before you enter them into the unit. This player seems to be very sensitive to just about anything. My old Sony player would play a dirty disc no problem...not this one. Has to be REAL clean.


One more question - anyone try playing a DVD "backup copy" from an original on DVD+R media? Also, I transfered some DVD material from my video camera to a DVD+R. Will these play?

thanks,

Gary

I've had this happen to me a few times already. Let the system "load" whatever it could find...then one day it comes up with a "?" near a disc that already had information manually entered in by me. This had to be done over and now the disc loads ok. This happens rarely, but it does happen and is a pain in the neck. This is why I do this...I keep a list of my movies ONLINE so I can browse that way which includes DVD plots, actors, stuff like that. I've decided not to use the built in navigation because it's a little behind the times if you know what I mean. What Sony or any other company should do is throw an Ethernet connection on this thing, have it point to imdb.com or some where else there's a good database and then have a real navigation screen. That though, will be years and years before a company does that...since they have a hard time just making simple navigation now. Here's my DVD list I use now...instead of the built in Sony's.

www.photopiks.com/dvd


One thing I have noticed with the 995. I didn't load 400 disks at once. I did it in steps, around 50 at a time. I kept the cases in the order I put the disks in so I could enter the information in later.

I have found that there have been a few times (after going through the loading process) that a few disks came up with a "?" next to the disk number.
These were disks that were loaded before and had the title entered. So they were recognized by the system in the previous load cycle.

You can't access the disk to re-enter the information. All you can do is have the system go through the load procedure again.

Well, I'm going to let Sony know this and see what they say. Sounds like a software bug....

I have played and used DVD-R, DVD+R and even DL's with no problem. Make sure you clean the discs before you enter them into the unit. This player seems to be very sensitive to just about anything. My old Sony player would play a dirty disc no problem...not this one. Has to be REAL clean.

mdeligny,

I have one DVD that is really scratched up. It got got pretty beat up when it was stuck in a 5 disk DVD changer...It doesn't look like it should play, yet the 995 played it just fine...so I guess scratches don't bother it...

Doesn't it seem strange that scratches don't bother it, yet dirt does? Go Figure...

I am looking at getting a DVD changer and was recently pointed to the 777ES. It looks like the 995 is about half the price and almost the exact same features (missing a few calibration features and the RS-232 jack).

Is there something else I am missing? What would be the reason for getting the 777 over the 995? Are there other DVD changers out there that compete with the Sony product line? It looks (from this thread) like there are a few annoying bugs in the 995, but nothing that seems worthy of stopping my purchase.

Any comments/suggestions? If using component cables and digital audio, will I be disappointed with picture and audio quality compared a single disc progressive player like the Integra DPS 5.5?

Thanks for your help,
Shane

The Sony ES line usually has a few better componants and exterior color. I don;t think it's worth the extra money. I am very happy with my 995. The sound and picture quality are very good. But I have a high end Mits Diamond 73" TV and everyone who sees a DVD on it thinks the picture quality is great.

It also seems that one arguable downside to the Sony megachangers is the explorer interface.

If I am purchasing a new universal remote for my home theater, is there one that can replace the need for this functionality at all? It sounds like some people are using the Pronto and other remotes to do things such as store DVD cover art, organize the titles, etc. Am I correct in this assessment? What is a good path to take if I am getting a new remote, but don't want to spend $1000?

Here are some remotes that I have run across that might do the job:
Universal MX-3000
Philips Pronto (not sure which model)
Logitech Harmony 880?
Universal MX-700 or 800

I have read some reviews of these products in various threads and all over the internet. My biggest use for the remote would be to control the DVD changer. Would one be superior to the others? Is there another option that I am missing? Would I be better off setting up a HTPC and using something like Cinemar's DVDLobby and the Sony plugin? I think I would like to avoid setting up another PC just to control the DVDs, but I am sure there are other advantages to that route as well.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Shane

Also, what stands have people been using to hold their changers since they are over 21" deep?

I really like the Bello AT-2567, but it says the shelf depth is only 19 7/8" deep. Maybe it will work and I will just have to deal with the changer sticking out an inch and a half.

Frankly, the navagation is not that bad. I have a Pronto 7000 and with LowPro's help have been adding dvd covers to it for one button operation. But the Sony navagation is fine too. It does take a while to load in the data. I had to hand type in about 300 titles. Once in, you can sort by name, genre, number and set up files. With the skip+ key ( which acts like a page down key) you can scroll through the whole list in about 60 seconds. Plus the Sony remote has been redesigned for the 995. I tested the old remote at Tweeter and it had a "tricky" joystick type button that was a pain to mess with. Now this remote has seperate buttons for up down right left and enter.

As for buying a special remote just for this changer, I would not pay $500 plus for one to do that. Wait until you get the 995 and use it for a while before you run out and buy a special remote. Unless you also intend to use it for other reasons.

boozcruz33

I use the Home Theatre Master MX 700. More capacity than you'd ever need. All programming is done on the computer. Easy to learn. Macros, pauses, etc

Check it out at Remote Control Central.

BoozCruz ; If your looking to clean up the remote mess on the cheap, then the Harmony 659 will do the job for less than $100. I have one coming in .There are plenty of reviews on remotecentral.com to form a good opinion. There are plenty of other remotes that will do the same job. Your pocket and needs, dictate. I'll leave some comments on this set-up later this week.

I also own the MX-700 remote and it's a very versatile and powerful remote control. It's learning capabilities and macro functions are awesome. Using the supplied software it's all setup with your computer. It's amazing how quickly you can setup this remote with having a complete home theathre system. I've used other remotes...even some of the LCD screen remotes and just find this type more useful. I like buttons...programmable buttons they are of course. An all screen or LCD type remote isn't my style since when I'm laying back in my chair channel surfing a little bit found it very difficult to use a screen Pronto or one of the Sonys. All my opinion of course...

boozcruz33

I use the Home Theatre Master MX 700. More capacity than you'd ever need. All programming is done on the computer. Easy to learn. Macros, pauses, etc

Check it out at Remote Control Central.

Also, what stands have people been using to hold their changers since they are over 21" deep?

I really like the Bello AT-2567, but it says the shelf depth is only 19 7/8" deep. Maybe it will work and I will just have to deal with the changer sticking out an inch and a half.

I'm using a Bello AVS-4212:
http://www.bello.com/index.php?partition=show_product&prod_id=116&categ_id=40

If you put the 995 on the left, the component cables and the read mechanism clear the back column, but the digital audio cable does not. The front of the unit sticks out about an inch or two past the front legs.

Greetings,


I use a Sanus systems Euro series 6 shelf rack. The shelves are 19 inches deep. The 995 fits nicely with no problem. Most of the unit is less than 21 inches in the rear. The motor housing is the only portion that sticks out farther. If you have a rack that is open in the back you will have no trouble.


Regards,

Does anyone know any way to use the remote control to access a disc by number? I strictly bought this unit so that I could use macros and pretty pictures to make this so my son who can't read can find discs and won't get his hands all over them.

Now it looks like if you can't read, and can't go through 40 steps, you can't get to a disc!

Which, makes it complete garbage as far as I can tell. Yes, it is fast, yes, I can set it up to list everything alphabetically. But, I can't go to disc 36 directly so my son can sing along with Big Bird?

You have GOT to be kidding me!?!?

What mega changer can do that oh so basic function if this one can't... and is anyone looking to buy a brand new 995 for cheap?

Does anyone know any way to use the remote control to access a disc by number? I strictly bought this unit so that I could use macros and pretty pictures to make this so my son who can't read can find discs and won't get his hands all over them.

Now it looks like if you can't read, and can't go through 40 steps, you can't get to a disc!

Which, makes it complete garbage as far as I can tell. Yes, it is fast, yes, I can set it up to list everything alphabetically. But, I can't go to disc 36 directly so my son can sing along with Big Bird?

You have GOT to be kidding me!?!?

What mega changer can do that oh so basic function if this one can't... and is anyone looking to buy a brand new 995 for cheap?

Try Display, Enter, 36, Enter - that should get Big Bird to sing, then Display, Display - to clear the menu

I might be interested in another 995 if you still want to sell... mcgee37064@yahoo.com

Are you using a universal remote to display jacket covers for the discs in the player? If so, which remote are you using?

What about any "cheap" activity based remote to control all your devices, including Sony 995 (that you would probably buy anyway)? Does anyone know which activity based remotes (based on experience) allow to set up one activity to play the same disk all the time?

gary

Try Display, Enter, 36, Enter - that should get Big Bird to sing, then Display, Display - to clear the menu

I might be interested in another 995 if you still want to sell... mcgee37064@yahoo.com

Are you using a universal remote to display jacket covers for the discs in the player? If so, which remote are you using?
THANK YOU!!!

After reading the manual for 30 minutes at 2:00AM I just got sick of trying to figure it out on my own and figured that someone here had the knowledge I needed. Sorry I can't add to your collection of DVD changers. ;)

Your help is greatly appreciated and makes me feel better about my purchase.

Control is not an issue at all - I am using Crestron and while I currently have a 10" CT-3500 panel, I will likely use a 12" TPS-5000 panel for control. Lots of memory and very pretty graphics.

Thanks again!

~P~

While I don't own the 995 I do own the 985. I select my discs by macro only using the TSU7000. If like the 985, the only proper macro for you to use is below.

Stop
Display
Enter
Numerical entry (slot number)
Enter
Display

If a disc is not playing there is only one display menu to advance out of. The only time there are two display menus to advance out of is if a disc is actively playing when entering the display menu. As such, the only macro which will ensure you exit the display menu cleanly at the end (irrespective of whether a disc is actively playing at the time or not) is the one above.

-Lowpro

Tired everything and can't get the HDMI on the 995 to light up/pass a signal.

Bypassed the Gefen switcher; instead of using my 30 foot DVI cable through the ceiling strung a 15 foot directly, and still nothing.

The porjector worked with with my old Samsung upscaling projector (w/o mod) so I know the projector is HDCP compliant.

Any ideas out there?

Is it the HDMI to DVI (using a HDMI/DVI cable tthat came with my HD TIVO)?

Is it the cable length?

garykagan ; I left a comment prior to yours ,on the Harmony 659 being available for less than $100.
Spend some time at remotecentral.com to familiarize yourself. There are plenty of others that will do the job too.

Now as for the Harmony 659; I really like it , and soon I will have it set up exactly the way I want it. So far it operates everything very well right off the bat. You just need to spend some time on the Harmony site setting everything up. It controls the 995 well , with the basic functions. As soon as I work out the custom screens/buttons , to my liking,I'll leave more input. So far , it's a damn steal for the money. Good feel and backlighting. Lot's of hardbuttons and the set-up was easy. I really didn't like the Sony remote. Very poorly done and not much thought went into it. Sony should be way better, but then they have their own line of custom remotes they're trying to sell .

Will it play PAL discs (over HDMI)?

I think sony has a problem with their HDMI input.It seems quite a few people are having a problem with there HDMI outlet If I happen to bump the cable it doesn't work until I jiggle it.


Vid53

How many posts are regarding using the HDMI cable over the component? Many of them and I believe from what people have said is there is no difference. Also, if you do use the HDMI cable, where is the option in the setup to change the output type? Does that some how automatically appear when HDMI is hooked up?

Anyway...I'm still liking my 995. Not loving it. Yea, I love the fact I can house all my DVD's in one unit (for now), but don't love the annoying un-wanted disc loads....I guess with such a large company from Sony you need to take the bad with the good.


Tired everything and can't get the HDMI on the 995 to light up/pass a signal.

Bypassed the Gefen switcher; instead of using my 30 foot DVI cable through the ceiling strung a 15 foot directly, and still nothing.

The porjector worked with with my old Samsung upscaling projector (w/o mod) so I know the projector is HDCP compliant.

Any ideas out there?

Is it the HDMI to DVI (using a HDMI/DVI cable tthat came with my HD TIVO)?

Is it the cable length?

Greetings,

I have my 995 connected to my Sony HS51 projector using a 23' RAM Rev 2 HDMI cable and have no problems.

There is an option in the Screen setup menu to adjust the HDMI output's resolution ( page 78 of the manual ). The default setting is Auto which works just fine as it senses the rez. on your display and sets the output accordingly.

Regards,

I too called Sony (1-800-222-7669) and spoke with a rep "Norbert" who, after 20 minutes of trying to get the autostart to disabled, did some research and came back and said the individual DVD or CD if encoded to autostart will override the 995's autostart setting.

Can that be possible? It does not sound believable to me.

Doesn't every DVD autostart? I had a guy named Kenny. He was very defensive. I said I heard that the older 985 had similar problems. He essentially called me an idiot and said the 995 works perfectly. I told him to test it himself and he said they had no 995 available. I told him to just go to a local retailer to see for himself. Eventually Sony will figure it out if they get lots of complaints.

Tired everything and can't get the HDMI on the 995 to light up/pass a signal.

Bypassed the Gefen switcher; instead of using my 30 foot DVI cable through the ceiling strung a 15 foot directly, and still nothing.

The projector worked with with my old Samsung upscaling projector (w/o mod) so I know the projector is HDCP compliant.

Any ideas out there?

Is it the HDMI to DVI (using a HDMI/DVI cable tthat came with my HD TIVO)?

Is it the cable length?

Moved the machine closer to take cable length out of the question and then changed cables, and still no HDMI light.

Has anuone been successful wit a HDMI to DVI connection?

Has anuone been successful wit a HDMI to DVI connection?

I have my CX995V connected using the HDMI - DVI cable that was sent I believe with my HR10-250 and no problems. My tv has a DVI connection but no HDMI.

Doesn't every DVD autostart? I had a guy named Kenny. He was very defensive. I said I heard that the older 985 had similar problems. He essentially called me an idiot and said the 995 works perfectly. I told him to test it himself and he said they had no 995 available. I told him to just go to a local retailer to see for himself. Eventually Sony will figure it out if they get lots of complaints.
Here is the auto response I got from Sony regarding the auto play being broken.

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Support.

Sony Electronics has not announced any updates available for the product. If there is such a product in the works, it has not been revealed to us. Updates as they become available would be found by visiting the Sony online support URL based on the model. If you have other questions we can only recommend contacting the Customer Service group at 800-222-7669 for further assistance.

Thank You,

Your Sony Email Response Team
CV1D
Bennie


Please join me in hounding Sony until they correct this issue.

Moved the machine closer to take cable length out of the question and then changed cables, and still no HDMI light.

Has anuone been successful wit a HDMI to DVI connection?


Same problem here with Optoma H77.

It seems that the HDMI implementation on the 995 is iffy.

Anyone compare this to the Zenith DVB318 for 1080i quality via HDMI ?

Also, anyone having problems connecting this one to a Infocus 4805 in 1080i mode ?

Pacidman, How does the PQ compare to your Denon DVDP?

Pacidman, How does the PQ compare to your Denon DVDP?


Greetings,

The Denon's image quality is cleaner than the Sony's ( via HDMI, I have not tried any other video connection ). However I want to state that this difference is not what I would call night and day.

I am using my setup with a front projector and a 92" image. Subtle differences can be obvious. I would say that somone who was not very fussy would probably not see any difference at all.


Regards,

Placidman, I just ordered the HS51 that will be upgrading my current 12HT, so I was also looking at getting the newer DVD with the HDMI connections in order to take advantage of the Sony HDMI connection. Right now I have a 2 yr old top of the line Sony ES player (cost 1k 2yrs ago). I was looking at the 975 sony or the Panasonic s97 BUT it seems the new 995 changer has all of the specs as the Sony 975 single player. So for almost the same $ I can get the Changer. Am I missing something here? I always wanted a 400 disc player BUT never thought on the low cost changer, the PQ would be that good compared to other models.

I thing my high end Sony ES players even though thr components will still be a better picture, it should for the money I paid BUT the 400 changer if the PQ is close will be a great addition to the system.

Your thoughts?

I have had no problems with the HDMI out. The moment I hooked it up to my Tosh HM95, the HDMI light went on and I was able to watch it on the TV. I did change the settings to 720p, 1080i looked too jagged and had alot of aliasing. I have a wierd setup, I use a HDMI to DVI cable and then a DVI to HDMI adaptor with no problems. Wierdest things is that I still get audio, some how over the DVI I can transmit audio! I thought DVI couldn't, but I have to mute my TV to prevent an echo. Too bad Sony didn't fix the autoplay or didn't include a way to prevent audio over HDMI. I had to set my TV to play analog audio over HDMI only, don't know if that will prevent an echo.

PQ is sharp for most DVDs. I found that the original SW movies looked sharper than the Spiderman II Superbit. I've never had an upconverting player, so I can't tell the difference, but when I saw the movie, the American President, I had to watch it in a 4:3 window letterboxed to prevent horrible artifacts. Doesn't bother me too much. Menu is a big improvement no complaints about it. Just need to get a concise answer on direct disc play-

Display, Enter, Disc Number, Enter ????

I tried a similar combination, but couldn't get it right. One final question, could you install a RSC control port easily or would you need to do alot work to get one installed (software, firmware, different boards, etc.)

The Display, enter, Disk #, Enter, display, display, works. Be sure the remote switch is set correctly. Plus, I believe a disk must be playing.

Does this model (CX995V) work with main lobby/dvd lobby as well or is it the ES 777 ? Does the CX995 connect to the net to retrieve disc data for display and navigation?

I thought dvd lobby required an rs-232 connection to control the dvd player. If that's the case, only the 777 applies; the 995v doesn't have that connection. Supposedly Sony will be announcing the 777 successor soon with HDMI upscaling and rs-232

I thought dvd lobby required an rs-232 connection to control the dvd player. If that's the case, only the 777 applies; the 995v doesn't have that connection. Supposedly Sony will be announcing the 777 successor soon with HDMI upscaling and rs-232

I was told the 777 succssor would be available around Oct.

Has anybody been able to compare the PQ of the Cx995 to the single unit 975 or to the Panny s97. I just ordered the HS51 and want to take advantage of the HDMI input, so I was just ready to buy the single unit Panny or the 975 sony and saw this thread. For only $50 to $100 more I could get this unit and have the same PQ?

Placidman, I just ordered the HS51 that will be upgrading my current 12HT, so I was also looking at getting the newer DVD with the HDMI connections in order to take advantage of the Sony HDMI connection. Right now I have a 2 yr old top of the line Sony ES player (cost 1k 2yrs ago). I was looking at the 975 sony or the Panasonic s97 BUT it seems the new 995 changer has all of the specs as the Sony 975 single player. So for almost the same $ I can get the Changer. Am I missing something here? I always wanted a 400 disc player BUT never thought on the low cost changer, the PQ would be that good compared to other models.

I thing my high end Sony ES players even though thr components will still be a better picture, it should for the money I paid BUT the 400 changer if the PQ is close will be a great addition to the system.

Your thoughts?

Greetings,


I would say that you will be more than satisfied with the pic. quality of the 995. Regarding the comparison to the 975, I have not seen it. I would have to think that it uses the same design. Bottom line is that I would say that you have nothing to lose in pairing the 995 with the HS51.

Best of luck !





Regards,

The Display, enter, Disk #, Enter, display, display, works. Be sure the remote switch is set correctly. Plus, I believe a disk must be playing.


Greetings,


Actually, the unit can be in stop mode as well.


Regards,

Has anybody been able to compare the PQ of the Cx995 to the single unit 975 or to the Panny s97. I just ordered the HS51 and want to take advantage of the HDMI input, so I was just ready to buy the single unit Panny or the 975 sony and saw this thread. For only $50 to $100 more I could get this unit and have the same PQ?

BMELVIN,

I have a Panny S77 and the CX995. The picture quality is comparable. I know, I found that hard to believe but it's true. You would really have to pick to notice the difference...Plus it's hard to beat the convenience of a changer....

One thing I did find. With the movie "Days of Thunder" the Panny (via HDMI) shows it wide screen (bars on top & bottom). Same movie in CX995 (via component) I get a letter boxed version. I have not tried switching the Panny-to-component and the 995 to HDMI, but I'm curious why that happens...

I do wonder if the scaler in the 995 is the same one the is used in Sony's TV's. The Wega's have an excellent scaler...

When comparing the PQ of the 2 players, the s77 and the changer where you comparing using both HDMI as the outputs? I plan to also use my 2.5 yr old top of the Sony ES player with the components and hook up the changer with the HDMI input.

BMELVIN,


One thing I did find. With the movie "Days of Thunder" the Panny (via HDMI) shows it wide screen (bars on top & bottom). Same movie in CX995 (via component) I get a letter boxed version. I have not tried switching the Panny-to-component and the 995 to HDMI, but I'm curious why that happens...

...

Greetings,

NPY, from what you describe, there seems to be no difference. A letterboxed film and a widescreen film can both have black bars above and below the image. Can you claify?


Regards,

When comparing the PQ of the 2 players, the s77 and the changer where you comparing using both HDMI as the outputs? I plan to also use my 2.5 yr old top of the Sony ES player with the components and hook up the changer with the HDMI input.

I compared the picture quality of the 995 in component & HDMI. If the 995 is in 480P mode - the HDMI & Component look the same (in the 480i mode, HDMI looks a bit sharper).

One thing I have noticed, over the component output the folder displays (on the TV) in the "normal" screen mode, when in HDMI it displays as "full". I prefer the full mode (it's bigger, easier to see from across the room). Now I can hit the TV's wide button and adjust the screen to "Full" (when going over component, but I like when it's automatic). Again, this is just nit-picking...it's a real small issue...

I have found that the S77 looks better (to me) using HDMI and letting the Panny scale to 720P, instead of using the component output.

So it made sense to use the Sony via component & the Panny via HDMI. Plus, this way I can let my preamp switch the component signals (this will be used when I get my second 995.) Where did all those disks come from?

I have been pleasantly surprised with the Sony's picture quality. It doesn't have all the bells & whistles of the S77, but I find I set both units on "Cinema 1" and sit back and enjoy. So I can do without all those extras...

Really, there just isn't a big difference in picture quality. It could be that my Sony 55WF is only capable of giving so much of a picture and no more...That's ok with me, because I'm enjoying this setup tremendously...

Hope this helps...

So on the Sony 995 changer you can use the HDMI and set up the changer thru 480i and not 480p, then this changer will transfer 480i signals thru HDMI. Since my only plan is to use the HDMI output, component switcher all full. This set up even though you arent using it, gives you the best picture on the Sony changer?

Greetings,

NPY, from what you describe, there seems to be no difference. A letterboxed film and a widescreen film can both have black bars above and below the image. Can you claify?


Regards,

Placidman,

The 77S HDMI version fills the entire width of the screen (bars on top & bottom). The Sony component version gives me bars on top, bottom and the sides. I tried changing the TV's picture modes (normal, wide, zoom, etc) and I always wide up with the bars on four sides...That puzzles me...

So on the Sony 995 changer you can use the HDMI and set up the changer thru 480i and not 480p, then this changer will transfer 480i signals thru HDMI. Since my only plan is to use the HDMI output, component switcher all full. This set up even though you arent using it, gives you the best picture on the Sony changer?

Bmelvin,

I get the best picture if I use 480P with component, at least it equals the HDMI output (which was set on "auto"). I think you'll be just fine with the HDMI output, the scaler in the 995 seems to be quite good.

I didn't try to send 480i through the HDMI cable, but I can give it a shot...

Well, I looked at the options for HDMI output. 480P, 720P, 1080i and auto. There isn't one for 480i.

OK, thanks I ordered the HS51 and 995 changer today, now I need help with the cables. I will have 2 devices with HDMI outpuuts but my Outlaw 990 preamp only has DVI inputs/outputs 2/1. Is it better to go with the HDMI or DVI cables and get the adapters for the difference? I have heard that for longer runs that HDMI cable is better thatn DVI. I need 30 ft to go from my Outlaw to my projector. Will the flip flop from DVI to HDMI and visce versa degrade the signal like other video sources. Or do I have to go the expensive route and go with high dollare HDMI switcher and not use the Outlaw;s DVI internal switcher. I want these cables ready when the projector arrrives. I hate not to use the DVI switcher, BUT I dont want to lose any PQ with the adapters? ANybody thoughts

NPY ; Did you adjust the settings in the menu of the 995 ? There is an option for the bars.

I was told the 777 succssor would be available around Oct.

Is it 100% guaranteed that a 777 successor with both DVI and RS-232 support will come out? Or is it just rumor? Perhaps someone could point me to a press release please?

Thanks!

Placidman,

The 77S HDMI version fills the entire width of the screen (bars on top & bottom). The Sony component version gives me bars on top, bottom and the sides. I tried changing the TV's picture modes (normal, wide, zoom, etc) and I always wide up with the bars on four sides...That puzzles me...

Greetings,

NPY, the problem is that you have the 4:3 output setting in the video display menu set to " normal ". It should be set to " Full ". The Normal setting places black bars on the sides of the image with 4:3 and letterboxed video. This is handy when you can't adjust the aspect ratio on your display. In my case I use this feature only when viewing 4:3 discs at 720p. The reason being is that my projector does not allow aspect ratio adjustment of 720/1080i sourced material. This setting allows 4:3 material to be viewed without being stretched.

Changing the setting from Normal to Full should take care of the problem.


Regards,

I have mine set to "normal" not "full". The Sony then puts out the folder and menu items in 4:3 ( which I don't really like) but if I play a 4:3 DVD with it set to full, my Mits displays it very stretched and distorted. My Mits will not allow me to correct that distorted (stretched) image using it's own controls. So I just watch 4:3 DVD's with bars on the side. That's an example when I would like to zoom up the picture to eliminate the side bars, but the Sony zoom mode leaves a little icon on the screen. My Mits will not allow me to zoom it with it's controls either.

OK, thanks I ordered the HS51 and 995 changer today, now I need help with the cables. I will have 2 devices with HDMI outpuuts but my Outlaw 990 preamp only has DVI inputs/outputs 2/1. Is it better to go with the HDMI or DVI cables and get the adapters for the difference? I have heard that for longer runs that HDMI cable is better thatn DVI. I need 30 ft to go from my Outlaw to my projector. Will the flip flop from DVI to HDMI and visce versa degrade the signal like other video sources. Or do I have to go the expensive route and go with high dollare HDMI switcher and not use the Outlaw;s DVI internal switcher. I want these cables ready when the projector arrrives. I hate not to use the DVI switcher, BUT I dont want to lose any PQ with the adapters? ANybody thoughts
Personally, I'd go with HDMI cables and adapters. It might be a bit more expensive, but if you ever upgrade your receiver, its most likely to have HDMI connectors and then all you have to do is remove the adpaters rather than buy and run new cables. You shouldn't see any signal degredation using the adapters and most good quality cables should be ok with 30 ft. I bought my HDMI cables and adapters from Monoprice (www.monoprice.com) and have been very happy with their quality, price and service.

Since the Sony only has title names, I don't even use their navigation anymore but throw everything online in a list where it can be viewed my anyone who's over my house wanting to pick out a movie. Keeping the DVD player's list up-to-date is not a big task, it's very easy...but just seeing movie title names isn't enough for my crowd of people. They want some more information and I kind of like the way it's all setup now. Since I always have my wireless laptop in my living room on my coffee table, this has been a great and easy setup for me to use. I just use a catalog type program, output the info to HTML and view it. The Index# of the HTML is the same slot# in the player. Works quite well. Check it out if you are even interested.

www.photopiks.com/dvd


Frankly, the navagation is not that bad. I have a Pronto 7000 and with LowPro's help have been adding dvd covers to it for one button operation. But the Sony navagation is fine too. It does take a while to load in the data. I had to hand type in about 300 titles. Once in, you can sort by name, genre, number and set up files. With the skip+ key ( which acts like a page down key) you can scroll through the whole list in about 60 seconds. Plus the Sony remote has been redesigned for the 995. I tested the old remote at Tweeter and it had a "tricky" joystick type button that was a pain to mess with. Now this remote has seperate buttons for up down right left and enter.

As for buying a special remote just for this changer, I would not pay $500 plus for one to do that. Wait until you get the 995 and use it for a while before you run out and buy a special remote. Unless you also intend to use it for other reasons.

Sony, being made of so many little companies works VERY slow to even just get a simple auto-load feature fixed. My guess is it will never be "fixed" but only changed in another model. Sony is done with this model and they've already spent all their R&D budget money on it...why spend anymore. Yea, it's a pain...like I wanna have it load as soon as I turn it on...but what can a small paying customer do? Go on a Sony strike? Hahahaha....I wish.


Doesn't every DVD autostart? I had a guy named Kenny. He was very defensive. I said I heard that the older 985 had similar problems. He essentially called me an idiot and said the 995 works perfectly. I told him to test it himself and he said they had no 995 available. I told him to just go to a local retailer to see for himself. Eventually Sony will figure it out if they get lots of complaints.

What is their "online support URL"????? I'll post some thing....but a large company is hard to move. Now, if it was a small mom-pop company some thing like that would have been addressed and taken care of already.

Here is the auto response I got from Sony regarding the auto play being broken.

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Support.

Sony Electronics has not announced any updates available for the product. If there is such a product in the works, it has not been revealed to us. Updates as they become available would be found by visiting the Sony online support URL based on the model. If you have other questions we can only recommend contacting the Customer Service group at 800-222-7669 for further assistance.

Thank You,

Your Sony Email Response Team
CV1D
Bennie


Please join me in hounding Sony until they correct this issue.

I also own the MX-700 remote and it's a very versatile and powerful remote control. It's learning capabilities and macro functions are awesome. Using the supplied software it's all setup with your computer. It's amazing how quickly you can setup this remote with having a complete home theathre system. I've used other remotes...even some of the LCD screen remotes and just find this type more useful. I like buttons...programmable buttons they are of course. An all screen or LCD type remote isn't my style since when I'm laying back in my chair channel surfing a little bit found it very difficult to use a screen Pronto or one of the Sonys. All my opinion of course...

I agree with having real buttons but I didn't have the money for an expensive remote. I found the One for All URC9910 RF remote, which can be found for $29 on ebay or $49 at Best Buy/Fry's or on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000069K8O/002-7952104-7803255?v=glance) , was easily able to handle my 995. I used the JP1 port to program it using my computer and it works great. Someone had already made a codeset for the 985 which making it that much easier.

For those of you looking for a very inexpensive Universal RF remote that can be programmed to control just about any device (up to 8) using a computer, I highly encourage looking at this remote.

Keep in mind that this remote is not sold as a 'computer programmable' remote, but it can easily be done with the purchase of a $10 cable and some free software. This site tells you exactly how: About JP1 Remotes (http://www.hifi-remote.com/forums/)

OK, thanks I ordered the HS51 and 995 changer today, now I need help with the cables. I will have 2 devices with HDMI outpuuts but my Outlaw 990 preamp only has DVI inputs/outputs 2/1. Is it better to go with the HDMI or DVI cables and get the adapters for the difference? I have heard that for longer runs that HDMI cable is better thatn DVI. I need 30 ft to go from my Outlaw to my projector. Will the flip flop from DVI to HDMI and visce versa degrade the signal like other video sources. Or do I have to go the expensive route and go with high dollare HDMI switcher and not use the Outlaw;s DVI internal switcher. I want these cables ready when the projector arrrives. I hate not to use the DVI switcher, BUT I dont want to lose any PQ with the adapters? ANybody thoughts


Greetings,

BMelvin, I would also recommend going with the HDMI switcher and DVI/HDMI adaptors. This will hopefully ensure that you don't end of with HDCP handshake issues between the Outlaw and the projector or the 995 and the Outlaw. I have the 995 and the HS51 along with a Gefen 2X1 HDMI switcher and no compatibility problems.

I would agree as well that HDMI seems to be the way things are leaning and should you upgrade, it should simplify matters.

Best of luck !


Regards,

I've noticed another problem that I wondered if others were experiencing.

This unit claims to be able to resume up to 40 movies from the spot you left from. I have tested this over and over (and yes I have it turned on in the setup menu) and when I leave a disc and go back to it, it starts the movie from the beginning again.

None of my discs are factory, all are the of the DVD Decryptor/DVD Shrink variety. Would this effect this? I wouldn't see why as it will resume the disc as long as I don't change to another disc.

Also, I've removed some discs without using the eject button and came back later and put the discs back in and I didn't lose any title info. Maybe the loss only happens if you use the eject button? (that button hardly lifts the disc a millimeter anyway so what good is it?)

I've noticed another problem that I wondered if others were experiencing.

This unit claims to be able to resume up to 40 movies from the spot you left from. I have tested this over and over (and yes I have it turned on in the setup menu) and when I leave a disc and go back to it, it starts the movie from the beginning again.

None of my discs are factory, all are the of the DVD Decryptor/DVD Shrink variety. Would this effect this? I wouldn't see why as it will resume the disc as long as I don't change to another disc.

Also, I've removed some discs without using the eject button and came back later and put the discs back in and I didn't lose any title info. Maybe the loss only happens if you use the eject button? (that button hardly lifts the disc a millimeter anyway so what good is it?)

I haven't tested the eject issue extensively, but that is my experience as well. I think it depends on whether you shut the door or queue up another movie while it's empty. I will know better after I take my first trip and pull out and replace several discs.

The mere ejecting or removing a disk does not cause the Sony to lose info about that disk. If you take it out and let the Sony carousel "spin", you lose the info.

Yes, now that I think about it, I think you are right. I remember the carousel spinning and not losing information but looking back I think I was "dialing" other numbers to remove other discs and not actually closing the door and letting it spin up.

Can anyone confirm if this will play PAL discs? I know it is region 1 only.

I would like to put vacation pictures on a cd or dvd and play them back as a slideshow. Can anyone verify if this player can be used for this?

I make VCD's and DVD slide shows using ProShow Gold and a few other programs and they play fine on the Sony.

I previously posted in this thread a suggestion to get around the auto-play issue with the 995, if like the 985 and 777. Well tonight I was able to try this myself on a 995 and confirmed as others have that it does not work.

With my 985's I can stop a DVD where it can resume playback from that given point, power down the changer, power it back up again, and that disc does not start playing automatically. It is simply still cued up, but stopped at that resume point. Well the 995 in this scenario forces that disc to start playing automatically from the resume point when the changer powers up! So not only did Sony not fix the auto-play issue with the 995, they made it worse by taking away the one reasonable and full proof work around. I love my 985's. They have performed beautifully since day one. The 480p component output delivers a wonderful picture. Until HD DVD becomes a reality and 400-disc DVD changers are available to go along with the format, I will stick with the 985. My 3rd changer only has 11 slots left. :-( I'd just assume continue stopping a given DVD where it can resume playback, so that DVD does not start playing automatically on startup. As such, my 4th DVD changer will also be a 985. Come on Sony. Get a clue already!

(For anyone interested in a DVD Lobby inspired solution using only the ProntoProNG TSU7000 my configuration file can be downloaded here (http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-prontong/thread.cgi?3189,7#133).)

-Lowpro

I just purchased the 995 from BB. I have a Infocus 4805 as my display device. My other source is the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD cable box which is configured to output 1080i ... and I manually swap HDMI between the two.

I entered the setup on the 995 changer and set it for 1920x1080i output resolution via HDMI ... also set it for 16X9 Tv size.

PROBLEM !!! I can only output 480p signal to my projector !!! no matter what settings I choose on the 995 (720p, 1080i) ... the projector always sees a 480p signal ... and the 16x9 movie material appears as 4x3.

I even choose AUTO ... but the output is still only 480p !! What gives ?

The projector has no problems receiving 1080i from my cable box.

PLEASE HELP !

Max

Greetings,

Max, this sounds like an HDCP handshake issue between the Infocus and the 995. Have you tried starting with the 995 turned off, powering up the projector, setting it to the DVI input, and then powering up the 995?

Sometime that will work to get the two to link up.


Regards,

So in spite of all the quirks of the 995, do you all give it a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down? The only possible drawback for me right now is video quality. I think it may be a slight downgrade from my Denon DVM-1815.

Greetings,

Max, this sounds like an HDCP handshake issue between the Infocus and the 995. Have you tried starting with the 995 turned off, powering up the projector, setting it to the DVI input, and then powering up the 995?

Sometime that will work to get the two to link up.


Regards,


Yes, I tried that ... remember, I do receive a video signal ... except its always 480p.

Thanks.

Max

Yes, I tried that ... remember, I do receive a video signal ... except its always 480p.

Thanks.

Max


Greetings,


Max, yes I was aware of that. With some HDCP devices, the result of handshake incompatibility is simply a 480p output only. There of course are cases where there is no picture at all. Best of luck.

Regards,

So in spite of all the quirks of the 995, do you all give it a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down? The only possible drawback for me right now is video quality. I think it may be a slight downgrade from my Denon DVM-1815.

Greetings,

Robert, I would give it a thumbs up. I have a Denon 3910 in my system in addition to the 995. The 995 while not on par with the 3910 is certainly not left in the dust ( via HDMI ). Component may be another matter entirely.


Regards,

Hey Everyone,
Has anyone compared the HDMI output to Component?

Is it really worth buying the 995 over the 777es, just for the HDMI output??

I am not interested in the Disc Menu system, as I have the MX3000 and the DMX3000 software for disk control.



Appreciate any comments
Cheers
Steve

Hi Steve,

I have the MX3000 with editor software but what exactly is DMX3000 software that you are using for disk control?

Hi Steve,

I have the MX3000 with editor software but what exactly is DMX3000 software that you are using for disk control?

It's this

http://www.triplebsoftware.com/DMX-3000/index.htm

But you will also need to get setup with DVD Profiler as well for the DMX-3000 software to work.

http://www.intervocative.com/Products.aspx

Thanks Johnla, You are spot on.

I have mine nearly completed, with all 700 DVD's installed into Two 777ES changers,
My Wife loves it.


Cheers
Steve

Is there any way to jump..... AKA "page down" the movie title list.

Yes. There is a skip+ and skip-. It's pretty fast.

Ok ... no matter what I do ... I cannot get the player to send out 1080i to my Infocus 4805 projector. The HDMI LED is lit up on the unit ... but it sends out 480p. I even configured the menu to send out 720p ... but it only sends out 480p.

HELP !!!

Max

Problem - The DVP-CX995V 400-disc changer from Sony only outputs 480p via a HDMI->DVI cable to my projector. Regardless of what I set the HDMI output to be in the Settings menu (1080i, 720p etc.) ... the player outputs 480p. i.e. it does not upconvert. The HDMI LED is lit up ... so its not an HDCP issue.

I called Sony Tier 2 support. Thank my luck stars ... the technician was very familiar with the unit. He said that its supposed to output 1080i if the HDMI light is on. He believe this is going to be a firmware issue and will call me back within 48 hours.

Just a FYI to all.

Max

Problem - The DVP-CX995V 400-disc changer from Sony only outputs 480p via a HDMI->DVI cable to my projector. Regardless of what I set the HDMI output to be in the Settings menu (1080i, 720p etc.) ... the player outputs 480p. i.e. it does not upconvert. The HDMI LED is lit up ... so its not an HDCP issue.

I called Sony Tier 2 support. Thank my luck stars ... the technician was very familiar with the unit. He said that its supposed to output 1080i if the HDMI light is on. He believe this is going to be a firmware issue and will call me back within 48 hours.

Just a FYI to all.

Max
Max,

Could you please also ask if they are aware of the "Autoplay - Off" bug and if it will be fixed? I've called, e-mailed, and tried online support, but nobody at Sony knows or will acknowledge the problem.

Thanks in advance!

When I called Sony level two they would not believe me either about the auto play feature. "kenny" was no help at all.

You guys are only fooling yourself if you think Sony is going to do something about the way the "auto play" works. This is the way their DVD megachangers have been built for years, and people have been complaining about it for just as long. So if Sony has not done anything about it by now, it's very unlikely they will do anything to the current models, and even less likely that there would be any type of field fix for ones that are already sold. Simply put, Sony does not consider the way it currently works to be "a operating bug", even though you may think otherwise.

Can anyone confirm if this will play PAL discs? I know it is region 1 only.
I haven't been able to get my one PAL disc to play.

Is it 100% guaranteed that a 777 successor with both DVI and RS-232 support will come out? Or is it just rumor? Perhaps someone could point me to a press release please?

At CEDIA, I asked one of their reps about an ES version of the 995 changer. I was told that there won't be such a product. The future of ES will be to bring Blu-Ray to market, to differentiate ES from their standard line of products. He was quite adamant that there would be very little (if any) additional product added to the ES DVD line that wasn't Blu-Ray.

jj

Thanks Jeff. That's good to know.

Anyone not happy with the picture quality of this unit? I think it's inferior to my old SONY 725P in terms of pic quality with certain movies. For example - Spiderman 2 looked VERY grainy.

I have it set up via HDMI, resolution set to auto using a 3m cable (some $40 cable I bought locally) to my Panny 50LC14. I've calibrated it using Avia. I haven't tried a A/B test with a 480i via component cables yet...

Could it be the cable?

I am very happy with the picture. So is everyone who has watched a DVD on my setup. I used Video Essentials. The 995 also has a number of modes and adjustments you can make including sharpness, black level etc. Try some of these too.

Greetings,

I also think that the picture quality of the 995 via HDMI ( set to 720p ) is very decent. I also have a Denon DVD-3910 in my system, and the difference is certainly not night and day.


Regards,

I am very happy with the picture. So is everyone who has watched a DVD on my setup. I used Video Essentials. The 995 also has a number of modes and adjustments you can make including sharpness, black level etc. Try some of these too.

Do those adjustments work on the HDMI port, or only on the component output?

Here's are tidbits of info I have collected over the years:

I own the old Sony 200 DVD jukebox and the original 400 jukebox.

RS232 - I use DVDProfiler to track my movie collection (which works perfectly). I then use a program called Movies! to control my 200 jukebox. It imports data from DVD Profiler and then allows me to pick movies and play them from my PC (very cool interface with a real home theater look). It has to use a RS232 port for direct control (which my 200 has) or you can buy the IR adapter (which I have not tried). My 400 jukebox does not have the RS232 - which really bugs me. I wanted to buy the ES, but it was too much at the time. Now I have to consider the replacement for the 777 (RS232 and HDMI - $$$) or the new 995 (no RS232, but HDMI $$).

Autoplay - The autoplay feature drives me nuts!! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Remote Control - I have used several remotes from $20 to $1,000. The ProntoPro did a decent job with the Sony, but the programming time was crazy. I had a super custom setup with DVD pictures and everything. The new Harmony 880 rocks for a $250 remote. It is an unpublished feature, but it controls the Sony 985 like magic. You can import a .CVF file from DVD Profiler or manually enter the titles into the proramming website (all 400) and then update the remote. Now, when you are in the "Play DVD" activity and press the "Media" key, it will show you alpha ranges [A-F, G-K, etc.], when you pick a range it will show you all movie titles in that range, then you push the button next to the title and it sends the correct sequence to the player. Works EVERY time!

That's all I have time for now...

That sucks. I hate when tech support people come across always in a bad mood and their only goal is to make you feel like an idiot.

Doesn't every DVD autostart? I had a guy named Kenny. He was very defensive. I said I heard that the older 985 had similar problems. He essentially called me an idiot and said the 995 works perfectly. I told him to test it himself and he said they had no 995 available. I told him to just go to a local retailer to see for himself. Eventually Sony will figure it out if they get lots of complaints.

I ordered the OPPO Player which should arrive tomorrow, and now I plan on sending it back and getting the 995 instead. What do you think guys, should the Oopo stay or go?

Does anyone know if the transparent circular rings around the big knobs on the front panel lights up blue or not? Also the picture using HDMI is slightly worse than my cheap Toshiba SD-4980 upconverting DVD player through HDMI both at 1080i. It seems the Toshiba has a better upscaler and also gives more accurate colors and a sharper picture. Oh and the black level function doesn't affect HDMI at all. The 995 only cost me $325 so I'm not really complaining much.

The new Harmony 880 rocks for a $250 remote. It is an unpublished feature, but it controls the Sony 985 like magic. You can import a .CVF file from DVD Profiler or manually enter the titles into the proramming website (all 400) and then update the remote. Now, when you are in the "Play DVD" activity and press the "Media" key, it will show you alpha ranges [A-F, G-K, etc.], when you pick a range it will show you all movie titles in that range, then you push the button next to the title and it sends the correct sequence to the player. Works EVERY time!



I'd like to learn more about this remote and the procedure you used to load the movies to the remote, is there a website or forum you used to set the remote up?

Those two big rings around the knobs do not light at all.

I have looked at all the materials I could find and there is nothing about the bass management of the unit other than saying that it has it.

Can you set the crossover? All I saw in the manual was that you could set the speakers to large or small. The manual doesn't even have the words "crossover" or "bass management" in it.

If I hook up this player to my receiver over the analog cables so I can listen to SACD can I change the crossover settings or am I stuck with whatever random number that Sony decided would sound best in my setup? If so, what choices for crossover do I have?

I don't think you can change the cross over settings. But many DVD players don't allow it. I have a JVC with DVD-Audio and it won't allow cross over adjustments either.

Does anybody know what the default crossover is?

Does anybody know what the default crossover is?


Greetings,

I am not sure it indicates the crossover setting. Iwould guess that it is 80 Hz though. That seems to be the standard crossover default on most players.

I will check on this when I get home and post back.


Regards,

Greetings,

I checked and there is no indication as to what the corssover setting is. As I stated I believe it to be 80 hz.


Regards,

I know that SACD will only be output over the analog outputs on the player but is it possible to hook up a digital connection for everything else (DVD, CD) and only output SACD over the analog.

Or is this how it does it automatically?

I know that SACD will only be output over the analog outputs on the player but is it possible to hook up a digital connection for everything else (DVD, CD) and only output SACD over the analog.

Or is this how it does it automatically?

Greetings,

That will work just fine. SACD will only be output over the analog connections, whereas DVD and CD can be output over either digital or analog.


Regards,

Many DVD-Audio and SACD disks have several audio tracks. My Denon, which automatically detects the audio, is occasionally confused and plays those disks at dolby. I have to manually set it to correctly play the analog audio.

I purchased three DVP-CX995V. I waited to purchase this model over the DVP CX777ES because of the HDMI and the other improvements. I was intending to purchase the Escient Fireball (http://www.escient.com/products/dvdm300.html) or Elan Via! dvdj (http://www.elanhomesystems.com/product/music/viadvdj/viadvdj.asp) and connect all three to have a storage and access capacity of 1200 DVD's / CD's.


I found that Sony elected NOT to include a RS-232 port for this model and therefore there is no way to connect any sort of external controller or disc management component.

The Escient Fireball can build and store a database with title, genre, cover art and more and it will do it automatically and accurately with about 90% of the DVD's and CD's that are available commercially. The data for the other 10% of discs not recognized, can be manually added which helps update Escient's database to create an even higher percentage of available future data.

This is something Sony has not been able to accomplish even with the new improved Disc Explorer.

Unfortunately, I will be returning these three units and either purchase the DVP-CX777ES or wait until they add HDMI and improve the DVP CX777ES with Sony's next ES revision. The DVP-CX777ES currently has a RS-232 port.

It would be nice if someone came up with an RS-232 port add-on kit for the DVP-CX995V.


New Information for RS-232 Modification


I received the following e-mail from JVB Digital, which has been creating quality modifications for various Laser and DVD players for years now, and they seem to be willing to investigate the possibility of modifying the Sony DVP-CX995V disc changer with an RS-232 connection. Maybe if enough people expressed interest in an RS-232 connection being added to their Sony DVP-CX995V, JVB Digital could make it happen. Here is their contact information:

digital@jvb.nl and www.jvbdigital.com

Currently. JVB Digital offers an SMPTE259M serial digital interface (SDI) for the Sony DVP-CX995V.

http://www.jvbdigital.com/jvb.asp?c...title&title=269


Quote: JVB Digital
Hi,

We are currently working on a modification for the player. RS-232 is normally
not something we support, but since the player lacks one we'll investigate
it (low priority though). The codefree modification should be available
within 2 to 4 weeks.

Thank you for your interest,


JVB Digital
Dearborn, MI 48124
USA

FOR ALL YOUR CODEFREE DVD & SDI MODIFICATIONS





Why don't you just purchase either the 777ES or the new upcoming model?

RS232 standard

The 777ES has the RS-232 port, but it doesn't have HDMI or up-scaling and the 777ES has bugs that the DVP-CX995V has fixed. Also, it doesn't appear that Sony will update the 777ES with HDMI, up-scaling and fix it's bugs.

All the DVP-CX995V needs is the addition of the RS-232 port to be an improved equal of the 777ES with the exception of some picture fine tuning adjustments.

Adding the RS-232 will enable the use of an external controller like the Escient Fireball or Elan Via! dvdj which will create the ability to daisy-chain three or four changers (1200-1600 discs) and add more accurate and reliable automatic title management capability through the internet.



According to a Sony rep, the ES line will be primarily for Blu-Ray players. As of now, there are not mentions of an upconvert DVD player.


I have heard the same thing.






Quote:
Originally Posted by AML
If a player (say the denon 3910) already has DVi and HDMi what would the benefit of having SDI be exactly?
As far as i can see SDi does the same job as HDMi or DVi. Only difference is no HDCP. Yes, there is no HDCP is the main difference. Other than that I believe it depends on the implementation of HDMI or DVI in the source player.

SDI takes the digital data straight from the MPEG decoder (YCbCr 4:2:2, no analogue conversion , no copy protection) & typically passes that information as 480i/576i via a single 75ohm cable to a deinterlacer/scaler where these tasks are carried out (still in digital domain) before outputting directly to the display.

You are avoiding D/A & A/D conversions with the artifacts, loss of quality that MAY occur or be exaggerated by these conversions.

With DVI I believe players tend to be RGB 4:4:4 where as SDI is YCbCr 4:2:2. This means SDI is taking the info exactly as it is stored on the DVD not performing colour space conversions with the possible assosciated artifacts.
DVI shouldn't allow output of 480/576i either, only 480/576p. this means that deinterlacing is taking place in the source player as opposed to your external scaler/deinterlacer.

HDMI specs will allow output of 480/576i (but not all source players do it.) Arcam Dv29 does. If your particular player doesn't allow "i" output then again you can't use external scalers (possibly) superior deinterlacing, only it's scaling abilities.

That is my understanding of all this , of course I could be wrong.

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but my friend has this unit and has DVI on his tv only.
If he gets a HDMI to DVI cable for the video connection, can he use the digital out from the player to his reciever? Will it output audio through this connection simultaniously?

^Same question

Well, I have had my 995 for a little over a month (yes, it's past the store's exchange policy).

I have been liking it, so I bought another one (where did all those disks come from?).

Anyway. The first unit has developed some problems. Before I was quite pleased about how quiet the mechanism was. Now, It makes a loud (heard across the room ) "snap pop" sound when disks are changed (it's when the disk is placed or removed from the play position). Just doesn't sound good at all...

Also, when I turned the unit on today and went to the folder...All 400 disks (yes, that's all of them) had only question marks (?) where the disk info should be...I'm not too happy right now. I have a Sony CD changer (400 disk) that has worked fine for years...

Oh well, it's time to call Sony....

la916 --

Would just adding an rs-232 port really help? I mean, just because a port is added, does that mean it would support all the two-way rs-232 commands that 777ES does? Or would it maybe have it's own set of commands?

My Sony TA-E9000ES was extremely similar to the Sony str-da777ES receiver, and both included included an rs-232c port. HOWEVER although they had almost the exact same feature set, and even used the same IR commands, the TA-E's rs-232c port could not accept the 777ES' rs-232 commands.

So for an rs-232c upgrade for the 995V to be viable, it would have to be fully compatible with the CX777ES' protocol.

la916 --

Would just adding an rs-232 port really help? I mean, just because a port is added, does that mean it would support all the two-way rs-232 commands that 777ES does? Or would it maybe have it's own set of commands?

My Sony TA-E9000ES was extremely similar to the Sony str-da777ES receiver, and both included included an rs-232c port. HOWEVER although they had almost the exact same feature set, and even used the same IR commands, the TA-E's rs-232c port could not accept the 777ES' rs-232 commands.

So for an rs-232c upgrade for the 995V to be viable, it would have to be fully compatible with the CX777ES' protocol.

I believe JVB would use the CX777ES as a reference for their upgrade. JVB has worked with the CX777ES and also provides a few upgrades for it.

I believe JVB would use the CX777ES as a reference for their upgrade. JVB has worked with the CX777ES and also provides a few upgrades for it.
There is no guarantee that the 995 would be able to work with RS232, it takes a lot more than just adding a RS232 connector to the device. And if the circuitry within the 995 don't have support for it, then it probably can't be done unless you swap parts/circuit boards from a 777ES into it. Don't forget, they only told you they may look into the possibility of maybe doing of it. Plus if you look at the cost of their other mods, if it can be done, then it likely is not going to be cheap.

There is no guarantee that the 995 would be able to work with RS232, it takes a lot more than just adding a RS232 connector to the device. And if the circuitry within the 995 don't have support for it, then it probably can't be done unless you swap parts/circuit boards from a 777ES into it. Don't forget, they only told you they may look into the possibility of maybe doing of it. Plus if you look at the cost of their other mods, if it can be done, then it likely is not going to be cheap.

Yes, you are correct at this point, there are no guarantees until they research and possibly build and test this modification. I am sure it is possible to add this funtionality to the DVP-CX995V, but I am not sure if it will be a simple modification or will entail a complete re-engineering that would cost more than anyone would be willing to pay. Well, at least JVB is willing to consider the possibility of adding this capability. If an RS-232C port for the DVP-CX995V becomes reality, it will open the door for several options that will improve the overall disc management capabilities.

According to the thread below on the Agoraquest.com site, this guy modded his 4 985s to 777, adding a rs-232c port, with above average soldering skills and less than $10 in parts.

http://www.agoraquest.com/viewtopic.php?topic=18909&forum=50 (it's about halfway down the page, username "surgeon")

After upgrading the 985's firmware with the 777's, it worked exactly as a 777, even being recognized by the Escient as a 777. It may very well be the same for the 995 as well.

I've been reading this forum for about 4 months now and I can honestly say that my intelligence in A/V has increased. Just wanted to say that and thank everyone for all the wonderful questions and answers.

Now, I have a question.

This is the setup that I plan on getting here in the very near future:

Sanyo Z2 projector
Sony DVP-CX995V DVD player
Yamaha RX-V657 receiver
Aperion Audio 5.1 surround speakers
XBox (currently own and hope to upgrade to Xbox360)

My question has to deal with upconverting and where to hook everything up.

From my understanding the Z2 has an upconverting chip, the Sony has one also, and the Yamaha can upconvert to component.

I read through the entire Sony DVP-CX995V thread but still have questions.

Should I use a DVI/HDMI cable from the Sony to the projector or should I run component from the Sony to the reciever and then component from the receiver to the projector.?

I plan on running the Xbox(360) straight to the receiver and have the receiver send it to the projector.

I have included a diagram to help with the visualization.

After upgrading the 985's firmware with the 777's, it worked exactly as a 777, even being recognized by the Escient as a 777. It may very well be the same for the 995 as well.

I really don't think you would want to use the 777's firmware on a 995, as you probably would lose the use of HDMI in the process if it did work.

I've been reading this forum for about 4 months now and I can honestly say that my intelligence in A/V has increased. Just wanted to say that and thank everyone for all the wonderful questions and answers.

Now, I have a question.

This is the setup that I plan on getting here in the very near future:

Sanyo Z2 projector
Sony DVP-CX995V DVD player
Yamaha RX-V657 receiver
Aperion Audio 5.1 surround speakers
XBox (currently own and hope to upgrade to Xbox360)

My question has to deal with upconverting and where to hook everything up.

From my understanding the Z2 has an upconverting chip, the Sony has one also, and the Yamaha can upconvert to component.

I read through the entire Sony DVP-CX995V thread but still have questions.

Should I use a DVI/HDMI cable from the Sony to the projector or should I run component from the Sony to the reciever and then component from the receiver to the projector.?

I plan on running the Xbox(360) straight to the receiver and have the receiver send it to the projector.

I have included a diagram to help with the visualization.

Your receiver just acts like a switchbox and like all switchboxes, it will decrease your signal quality no matter how high the bandwidth is on the switchbox. This is because you are routing analog component signals. The best route is to hook your component outputs directly to the projector if the pj has enough inputs. I don't know how good the scaler is on your pj vs the Sony DVD player, but you should try both component and HDMI to see which gives you a better picture. You should then use whichever connection gives you a better picture. As for Xbox you should hook it directly to the pj.

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but my friend has this unit and has DVI on his tv only.
If he gets a HDMI to DVI cable for the video connection, can he use the digital out from the player to his reciever? Will it output audio through this connection simultaniously?

Actually the convertor cable will only work if his tv's DVI input is HDCP compliant. If it's not HDCP then he won't get picture. As for sound, he could always use the coaxial or optical output from the DVD player to his receiver. If he wants sound to his tv then he'll need to use standard RCAs if his tv doesn't have coaxial/optical inputs.

I am looking at getting a DVD changer and was recently pointed to the 777ES. It looks like the 995 is about half the price and almost the exact same features (missing a few calibration features and the RS-232 jack).

Is there something else I am missing? What would be the reason for getting the 777 over the 995? Are there other DVD changers out there that compete with the Sony product line? It looks (from this thread) like there are a few annoying bugs in the 995, but nothing that seems worthy of stopping my purchase.

Any comments/suggestions? If using component cables and digital audio, will I be disappointed with picture and audio quality compared a single disc progressive player like the Integra DPS 5.5?

Thanks for your help,
Shane


The Direct Disc command in the RS232 protocol is the main difference with the 777ES. This command alone will alleviate most all the problems expressed in this thread. With the RS232 connected to a computer and a third party navigation system like DVD Lobby there is no issue with autostart/autoplay and no navigation or cover art issues. The only drawback is a slow layer change that is easily forgotten once you get used to it.

Don’t expect Sony to do anything about the outstanding issues, they never have in the past, and they never listen to the complaints of the customers, they truly don’t care. They will put out another generation of players with the same problems over and over again. The only way out is to use the ES model with a third party solution that will do what Sony obviously cant. BTW you do not need a dedicated computer to connect up to the RS232 and control the player, I use my computer for all my music and DVD selection and can still surf the web with no problems. Get a Viewsonic Airpanel, do the RDP hack and you will have true networking capabilities. My Airpanel is always set to Main Lobby and available to select Music or Movies and does not interfere with the server at all.

In summery, the RS232 is all the difference in the world, I would never buy a changer without some kind of outboard control port

New Information for RS-232 Modification


I received the following e-mail from JVB Digital, which has been creating quality modifications for various Laser and DVD players for years now, and they seem to be willing to investigate the possibility of modifying the Sony DVP-CX995V disc changer with an RS-232 connection. Maybe if enough people expressed interest in an RS-232 connection being added to their Sony DVP-CX995V, JVB Digital could make it happen. Here is their contact information:

digital@jvb.nl and www.jvbdigital.com

Currently. JVB Digital offers an SMPTE259M serial digital interface (SDI) for the Sony DVP-CX995V.

http://www.jvbdigital.com/jvb.asp?c...title&title=269


Quote: JVB Digital
Hi,

We are currently working on a modification for the player. RS-232 is normally
not something we support, but since the player lacks one we'll investigate
it (low priority though). The codefree modification should be available
within 2 to 4 weeks.

Thank you for your interest,


JVB Digital
Dearborn, MI 48124
USA



FOR ALL YOUR CODEFREE DVD & SDI MODIFICATIONS



Quote:
Originally Posted by AML
If a player (say the denon 3910) already has DVI and HDMI what would the benefit of having SDI be exactly?
As far as I can see SDI does the same job as HDMI or DVI Only difference is no HDCP. Yes, there is no HDCP is the main difference. Other than that I believe it depends on the implementation of HDMI or DVI in the source player.

SDI takes the digital data straight from the MPEG decoder (YCbCr 4:2:2, no analogue conversion , no copy protection) & typically passes that information as 480i/576i via a single 75ohm cable to a deinterlacer/scaler where these tasks are carried out (still in digital domain) before outputting directly to the display.

You are avoiding D/A & A/D conversions with the artifacts, loss of quality that MAY occur or be exaggerated by these conversions.

With DVI I believe players tend to be RGB 4:4:4 where as SDI is YCbCr 4:2:2. This means SDI is taking the info exactly as it is stored on the DVD not performing colour space conversions with the possible assosciated artifacts.
DVI shouldn't allow output of 480/576i either, only 480/576p. this means that deinterlacing is taking place in the source player as opposed to your external scaler/deinterlacer.

HDMI specs will allow output of 480/576i (but not all source players do it.) Arcam Dv29 does. If your particular player doesn't allow "i" output then again you can't use external scalers (possibly) superior deinterlacing, only it's scaling abilities.

That is my understanding of all this , of course I could be wrong.



Why don't you just purchase either the 777ES or the new upcoming model?

RS232 standard

The 777ES has the RS-232 port, but it doesn't have HDMI or up-scaling and the 777ES has bugs in the Disc Explorer firmware that the DVP-CX995V has fixed. Also, it doesn't appear that Sony will update the 777ES with HDMI, up-scaling or fix it's bugs.

All the DVP-CX995V needs is the addition of the RS-232 port to be an improved equal of the 777ES with the exception of some picture fine tuning adjustments.

Adding the RS-232 will enable the use of an external media management controller like the Escient Fireball (http://www.escient.com/products/index.html) or Elan Via! dvdj (http://www.elanhomesystems.com/product/music/) which will create the ability to daisy-chain three or four changers (1200-1600 discs) and provide faster, more detailed, accurate and reliable automatic title management capability through the internet.



According to a Sony rep, the ES line will be primarily for Blu-Ray players. As of now, there are not mentions of an upconvert DVD player.


I have heard the same thing.




la916 --

Would just adding an rs-232 port really help? I mean, just because a port is added, does that mean it would support all the two-way rs-232 commands that 777ES does? Or would it maybe have it's own set of commands?

My Sony TA-E9000ES was extremely similar to the Sony str-da777ES receiver, and both included included an rs-232c port. HOWEVER although they had almost the exact same feature set, and even used the same IR commands, the TA-E's rs-232c port could not accept the 777ES' rs-232 commands.

So for an rs-232c upgrade for the 995V to be viable, it would have to be fully compatible with the CX777ES' protocol.

I believe JVB would use the CX777ES as a reference for their upgrade. JVB has worked with the CX777ES and also provides a few upgrades for it.

There is no guarantee that the 995 would be able to work with RS232, it takes a lot more than just adding a RS232 connector to the device. And if the circuitry within the 995 don't have support for it, then it probably can't be done unless you swap parts/circuit boards from a 777ES into it. Don't forget, they only told you they may look into the possibility of maybe doing of it. Plus if you look at the cost of their other mods, if it can be done, then it likely is not going to be cheap.

Yes, you are correct at this point, there are no guarantees until they research and possibly build and test this modification. I am sure it is possible to add this funtionality to the DVP-CX995V, but I am not sure if it will be a simple modification or will entail a complete re-engineering that would cost more than anyone would be willing to pay. Well, at least JVB is willing to consider the possibility of adding this capability. If an RS-232C port for the DVP-CX995V becomes reality, it will open the door for several options that will improve the overall disc management capabilities.


According to the thread below on the Agoraquest.com site, this guy modded his 4 985s to 777, adding a rs-232c port, with above average soldering skills and less than $10 in parts.

http://www.agoraquest.com/viewtopic.php?topic=18909&forum=50 (it's about halfway down the page, username "surgeon")

After upgrading the 985's firmware with the 777's, it worked exactly as a 777, even being recognized by the Escient as a 777. It may very well be the same for the 995 as well.


On 2005-02-14 22:00, Surgeon wrote:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 2005-02-13 09:31, indecision wrote:
Surgeon,

Where can I find out more about modding a 985 to accept RS-232 commands? I searched here and at AVS forum but did not come up with anything.

Did you actually add the port to your unit?

Thanks,
Davis

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


If/when I find the time I may publish more info (ie: a step-by-step guide) on how to do this. Basically it involves 4 basic procedures, which can best be determined by obtaining copies of the technical service manuals for both the 985 and the 777 and doing a *lot* of comparisions between the two units. The 985 conversion steps involved are:

1) Removal of the "pull-up" resistors for the RS-232 inputs from the left-front panel board and connecting instead to the feed lines.

2) Building a small RS-232 to 3-volt interface (exactly as found on the 777's serial board) consisting of a Maxim MAX323 chip & caps.

3) Upgrading the 985's firmware to the 777's (modified version as in step #4 below).

4) "Moding" the firmware so it ignores the model desigination resistors and sees the unit as a 777.

The entire conversion requires less than $10.00 in parts but does require above-average soldering skills in acomplishing step #1. If you haven't worked with smc boards in the past, this isn't the place to start...

Once converted, even a Escient would connect to and operate the 985 exactly like it was a 777.

As stated previously, I've "upgraded" all 4 of my 985 units in this fashion...

-Surgeon-


Thanks for that infornmation kevinp8192. It provides hope that an RS-232C port modification may be accomplished. Also quoted below, thanks to robtwilk for providing some additional insight into the usefulness of a RS-232C port.


Here's are tidbits of info I have collected over the years:

I own the old Sony 200 DVD jukebox and the original 400 jukebox.

RS232 - I use DVD Profiler (http://www.intervocative.com/) to track my movie collection (which works perfectly). I then use a program called Movies! to control my 200 disc jukebox. It imports data from DVDProfiler and then allows me to pick movies and play them from my PC (very cool interface with a real home theater look). It has to use a RS232 port for direct control (which my 200 has) or you can buy the IR adapter (which I have not tried). My 400 jukebox does not have the RS232 - which really bugs me. I wanted to buy the ES, but it was too much at the time. Now I have to consider the replacement for the 777 (RS232 and HDMI - $$$) or the new 995 (no RS232, but HDMI $$).

Autoplay - The autoplay feature drives me nuts!! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Remote Control - I have used several remotes from $20 to $1,000. The ProntoPro did a decent job with the Sony, but the programming time was crazy. I had a super custom setup with DVD pictures and everything. The new Harmony 880 rocks for a $250 remote. It is an unpublished feature, but it controls the Sony 985 like magic. You can import a .CVF file from DVD Profiler or manually enter the titles into the proramming website (all 400) and then update the remote. Now, when you are in the "Play DVD" activity and press the "Media" key, it will show you alpha ranges [A-F, G-K, etc.], when you pick a range it will show you all movie titles in that range, then you push the button next to the title and it sends the correct sequence to the player. Works EVERY time!

That's all I have time for now...

The Direct Disc command in the RS232 protocol is the main difference with the 777ES. This command alone will alleviate most all the problems expressed in this thread. With the RS232 connected to a computer and a third party navigation system like DVD Lobby (http://www.cinemaronline.com/dvdlobbypro.html) there is no issue with autostart/autoplay and no navigation or cover art issues. The only drawback is a slow layer change that is easily forgotten once you get used to it.

Don’t expect Sony to do anything about the outstanding issues, they never have in the past, and they never listen to the complaints of the customers, they truly don’t care. They will put out another generation of players with the same problems over and over again. The only way out is to use the ES model with a third party solution that will do what Sony obviously cant. BTW you do not need a dedicated computer to connect up to the RS232 and control the player, I use my computer for all my music and DVD selection and can still surf the web with no problems. Get a Viewsonic Airpanel, do the RDP hack and you will have true networking capabilities. My Airpanel is always set to Main Lobby and available to select Music or Movies and does not interfere with the server at all.

In summery, the RS232 is all the difference in the world, I would never buy a changer without some kind of outboard control port

Kingdaddy,

Thanks for the input. I will continue to pursue the third party RS-232C port development with JVB. Hopefully, others that like the options an RS-232C port can offer, will also e-mail JVB and let them know their interest.

FYI:

I was at Circuit City today and they had this player for $349 and then there was a $50 mail-in rebate so the final price was $299.

Too bad I'm not ready to buy this yet. :o

Kingdaddy,

Thanks for the input. I will continue to pursue the third party RS-232C port development with JVB. Hopefully, others that like the options an RS-232C port can offer, will also e-mail JVB and let them know their interest.


It likely would be better to just buy a 777ES, because it will probably be cheaper in the long run if you are planning to go with multiple changers. You can easily find the 777ES for about $550, vs the $300+ for the 995 and whatever the mod price would be, and my guess is that it would be possibly be as much as the SDI mod is. Plus the 777ES has a 5 year warranty. And if you are going with the plan of setting up multiple changers and really want the HDMI conversion, considering what the mod may cost. You could probably buy a outboard scaler like the new DVDO iScan VP30 and 2-3 of the 777ES's, and still end up spending less than modding 2 or 3 995's to try and do the same thing.

FYI:

I was at Circuit City today and they had this player for $349 and then there was a $50 mail-in rebate so the final price was $299.

Too bad I'm not ready to buy this yet. :o

That's the DVP-CX985V, not the 995.

That's the DVP-CX985V, not the 995.

The 985 was open box 10 ft to the left.

They had the price tag under the 995. Maybe they messed up but the 995 was clearly the player that was marked as I described.

Well my first 995 will be going back to Sony for service. Besides the popping noise (when a disk is cued up) and the memory loss (400 question marks instead of titles) the unit now can't remember where it left off on a given disk. It now starts at the beginning of each disk. The memory function used to work...but no more...

I did speak to Sony's Tech service. That was a complete waste of time. I knew more about the unit then the Tech did..that ridiculous, when is Sony going to give these people proper training?

I did mention the auto-play function and the inability to shut it off. The tech said it should be turned off in the menu options..I tried to explain I did that, but then I just gave up...

One thing I don't understand. He wants me to send the unit back to Texas. Gee, a week in UPS's hands won't that help matters a whole lot? Yet there is Sony's "Eastern Service Facility" located in New Jersey...Why can't they handle the repair?

I don't know where you bought your 995, but I would head back to the store and demand a new one. I spoke to tech support too once about the auto play mode. He said my unit was faulty and I should send it to Texas too. I am in California. What a crock. No walk in repair service any more I guess.

I don't know where you bought your 995, but I would head back to the store and demand a new one. I spoke to tech support too once about the auto play mode. He said my unit was faulty and I should send it to Texas too. I am in California. What a crock. No walk in repair service any more I guess.

It's past the 30 day return policy, so I'm stuck...Sony service isn't what it used to be.

It's past the 30 day return policy, so I'm stuck...Sony service isn't what it used to be.


Greetings,

NPY, sorry to hear about this. Keep us in the loop regarding the progress and outcome.


Regards,

Question...

Just talked to Sony. For repair or exchange it takes them 10 working days. Why the repair time & exchange time is the same I just don't understand...

Anyway, it will take a week to get there and a week to come back...so I'm looking at a month. That in itself is horrible service...

My question is: "Should I have mine repaired or get a refurbished unit"

Pros ? Cons?

Let me know what you all think....