Recommendations Sony/Panasonic DVD players

[hiflyact]

I'm hoping someone can give me suggestion on which player to get. I have a Sony NS300 now, that I want to upgrade. Reasons being, it won't play VCD's unless they are on a certain brand of cdrw media and that's only 650mb. Also, it won't play SVCD's unless they are on that certain brand of cdrw media with a vcd header trick performed on it. It's a pain honestly.

I've been very happy with Sony and Panasonic products. I was looking at the Sony 325 single player and the Sony 665 changer, Panasonic 65 changer..

I want it to be able to to play vcd's, svcd's, dvd+-r/rw would be nice for the future. Progressive scan isn't important to me now, I don't have an HDTV.

Anyone have any experiences with the above players I mentioned, any problems playing vcds, svcds, how about non-standard svcds that stray a little above the normal bitrate?

Thank You

[jbcandkc]

I have a Sony DVP-NC655P changer which is probable a cousin to the 665.

Mine plays VCD and SVCD (no header trick needed) fine and I have used several different media brands (R & RW) with no problems.

Plays -R and -RW fine (I don't have a + burner) and I have used several brands there too.

I have pretty much done standard bitrates so I can't help much for the hi rates for SVCD.

The 655 is progressive but my Mitsubishi is 1080i so I can't use the progressive feature.

Very pleased with this player. My old Sony couldn't play cd-r, only rw and couldn't play dvd-rw, only r and no svcd (unless using header trick).

jbcandkc

[irwincur]

I always find it amazing that people will limit themselves to a few brands (10%) of the options right off the bat. When looking for a new device, look for the best of all of the brands, not just the best of two.