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Sony has a lot of experience making DVD players, including the current "reference quality" DVP-S7700. For several years, they have been a market leader (probably the market leader) in the category of "CD mega changers" with their carousel-style 200-disc and (more recently) 300-disc CD changers. Now they have married the two, with the recently-introduced DVP-CX850D, a 200-disc DVD/CD changer. Unfortunately, this eagerly-anticipated "film library" is seriously compromised by a "brain dead" user interface that Sony calls "Disc Explorer 200".
Like the CD mega changers, the CX850D uses a carousel-style mechanism into which the discs are inserted vertically "on edge" (so that they form a doughnut shape when the changer is fully loaded). This ring of discs is visible through a transparent loading door that opens in the front panel. The discs are played (still in the vertical position) by a mechanism at the back left corner of the unit. The CX850D appears to use essentially the same carousel design as the existing 200-disc CD changers, but the carousel rotation is noticeably quieter.
What about two-sided DVDs? (Not counting ones with widescreen on one side and "full frame" on the other, since I assume most of us have one preference there.) Well, I only found three of them in my collection. Gone With The Wind and Amadeus are such great classics that I did not mind rushing right out and buying a second copy of each one, so that I could place the two sides in sequence in the changer. The third one was Stargate, which was recently re-issued in a one-sided Special Edition, and I picked that up when it was released.
• 10-bit 27 MHz video processing
• digital video noise reduction/video equalizer
• SmoothScan/SmoothSlow picture search/slow mo
• angle at once/bookmark/picture call/strobe playback
• dual focus optical pickup system
• 96 khz/24-bit audio processing with variable audio digital filter
• Dolby Digital 5.1-channel decoder with six analog outputs
• audio priority (5.1 auto-select)
• video bit-rate/audio level meter
• S-Link and Mega control
• 99-step play programming
• CD-Text and DVD-Text on-screen display
• Disc Explorer on-screen interface to 200-disc library
• universal-style remote control with jog/shuttle dial and glow-in-the-dark keys
The video and audio electronics in the unit are quite similar to those found in Sony's top-of-the-line DVP-S7700. That includes the 10-bit/27 MHz video DACs, the 96 kHz/24-bit audio DACs, the SmoothScan and SmoothSlow circuits, digital noise reduction and video equalizer, and component video outputs. In addition, the CX850D has a built-in 5.1-channel Dolby Digital decoder, which the S7700 does not. The S7700 has a Dual Discrete optical pickup (meaning that it has two separate lasers, one for CDs and one for DVDs). The CX850D, on the other hand, has a "newly developed" Dual Focus (single laser) optical pickup. The other "exclusives" to the S7700 are deluxe chassis and "build" features, such as an aluminum front panel, copper-plated chassis, and a glass epoxy circuit board for audio.
A more exact comparison is that the CX850D has the "same" electronics and build features as Sony's second-best single-disc DVD player, the DVP-S550D. That includes the superfluous Dolby Digital 5.1-channel decoder.
I say "superfluous" because the built-in 5.1-channel decoder is a questionable marketing and/or engineering decision, at best. To use this decoder, you must have a "digital ready" audio/video receiver or preamp -- one that has six discrete analog inputs intended for an outboard Dolby Digital or DTS decoder. You can't use the DVD player's built-in decoder directly with a six-channel power amp, because you would have no volume control or input switching. But if you use the player's built-in decoder with a "digital ready" receiver, you won't be able to have any 5.1-channel sources other than the DVD player. That's because the DVD player has no digital input jacks, for using its built-in decoder with any other sources. That means no second (single-disc) DVD player, no HDTV, no 5.1-channel movies on DirecTV, no AC-3 laser disc player. Not even if one of these units also has a built-in 5.1-channel decoder -- because a "digital ready" receiver typically has only one set of six analog inputs for an outboard decoder.
Besides, most folks who buy an over-$500 DVD player probably already have an audio/video receiver or preamp that has a Dolby Digital decoder, or else they have already bought an outboard 5.1-channel decoder (that has more than one digital input jack). So I wonder just where Sony thinks the market demand is for the built-in decoder "feature" on the CX850D?
Oh well, it does not appear to have increased the price of the new DVD changer by much.
• component video output x 1
• S-video output x 2
• composite video output x 2
• PCM/AC-3/dts optical and coaxial outputs
• analog audio output x 2
• Dolby Digital 6-channel analog audio output x 1
• S-link (Control-S)
• mega control (Control-A1)
• analog audio input (for downstream CD mega changer)
• 6-pin mini-DIN (for PC keyboard)
The CX850D has all the connectors you would expect from a high-end DVD player. It also has analog audio inputs and a "Mega Control" (Control-A1) port for "daisy-chaining" a downstream CD mega changer (which must be a Sony model, of course).
Connection of a downstream CD player has a couple of annoying limitations. For one thing, only analog audio from the downstream player is "passed through". It appears on the analog audio output from the CX850D, but not on the PCM digital optical and coaxial jacks. That means that if you want your high-end audio processor to handle the digital bitstream from the second player, you will have to run a separate digital cable from that player to your preamp/processor. Which requires another available digital input on the processor, and requires you to switch its input when you want to listen to the second player.
The other limitation is a bit more esoteric but potentially more disastrous for some. A Sony CD mega changer can be either a "master" or a "slave". The "Mega Control" (Control-A1) port enables bi-directional control and status messages to flow among as many as three Sony CD changers. When set up as "slaves", they can be controlled by a Sony CD changer "master" -- or by a third-party PC-based controller such as those available from Escient (the widely-used TuneBase) or Nirvis (the CDJ/Slink-e). But the CX850D can only operate as a "master", it cannot be controlled as a "slave" via its Control-A1 port. The only external control available for the CX850D is IR via the hand-held remote or the equivalent functions via the "Control-S" port. This provides no capability for an external controller to read and display disc titles and player status information.
I tested the CX850D on a high-end system with a Faroudja line-doubler, a Princeton Graphics 30" 16x9 HDTV monitor, and a Vidikron VPF40HD front projector. In this configuration, it was more-or-less equivalent to one of the new "progressive scan" DVD players. That's because the Faroudja uses expensive analog circuitry to convert an interlaced analog NTSC signal to a progressive "480p" signal. The new progressive DVD players do the same thing (at much less cost) by operating directly on the digital video data stream before it is converted to component analog signals.
The high quality of the CX850D was clearly evident in these tests. The video and two-channel analog audio output were practically indistinguishable from that produced by other high-end DVD players I have tested. The CX850D was able to correctly reproduce the "blacker than black" stripe in the PLUGE test on Video Essentials. The digital audio output was exactly what you would expect from any good DVD player (as it is really processed by the 5.1-channel decoder in your receiver or preamp or whatever). The output of the built-in Dolby Digital decoder was not tested, as my preamp (a Lexicon MC-1) does not have six analog inputs for an outboard decoder.
The CX850D is nicely-styled, with a black sheet-metal case and matching black plastic front panel. Because many of the controls are concealed inside a subpanel that pivots down along the bottom of the front panel, it's sleeker and less "busy looking" than the CD mega changers. But you'll need an extra-deep cabinet to hold this beast: at 19 1/4", it's about an inch deeper than the CD mega changers, which WERE the deepest Sony components we had ever seen. The height and width, while substantial, are about the same as its CD cousins.
The remote that comes with the CX850D is a variation of Sony's new "DVD Navigator" remote that comes with the S7700. The difference is that the CX850D's remote has a few more buttons for "folders" (part of the "Disc Explorer" multi-disc interface, discussed below). Also, the slide switch that selects between "TV" and "DVD" functions has a third position for "Disc Explorer". Most buttons work the same in "DVD" and "Disc Explorer" mode; but in the latter mode, a few buttons are redefined: AUDIO, ANGLE, SUBTITLE, and 1/ALL DISCS become FILE, SORT, EDIT, and LOAD. This makes for a very "busy" and somewhat confusing remote!
I found the remote's jog/shuttle wheel hard-to-use at first -- mainly because it is unconventional in its operation. I kept speeding up too much and way overshooting my target. That is because, unlike the traditional "shuttle" wheel, it does not revert to PLAY or PAUSE when you release it. Instead, you have to turn it back in the other direction, which steps it back down through the various speeds. I finally got the hang of it, and I can see that one could get to like it.
The real problem with the CX850D is the "Disc Explorer 200" graphical user interface (GUI) for selecting a disc from the 200-disc library. Sony had the right idea there, but they botched many important details.
"Disc Explorer 200" is clearly a "new improved" version of the GUI found on some models of Sony's CD mega changer line. Compared to the GUI on the Sony CDP-CX90ES, the GUI on the CX850D is better-looking: sharper, better use of color, even some graphical content. But that's where the improvement stops. Practically everything else about it is a regression.
Newer CDs (on the Sony label) have a feature called "CD-Text". This means that the disc title, artist, and the track (song) titles are recorded on the disc in a previously unused place that does not interfere with the music. Sony's mega changers can read this text and display it. (This seems like such an obvious feature nowadays, but it wasn't at all obvious when Sony and Philips were defining the CD standard twenty years ago.) Since older and non-Sony discs do not have self-identifying text, the Sony mega changers allow you to enter this information manually (by plugging a PC keyboard into a front-panel jack, or by using the remote if you really have a lot of time to waste).
I had assumed (naively and incorrectly) that DVDs, being a newer standard, would have all had self-identifying "DVD-Text" from the very "get-go". Not so! I loaded my entire DVD collection (82 discs) into the CX850D. This included such recent releases as Titanic, The Matrix, and The Mummy. Exactly five (5) of them had self-identifying disc titles, and they came up like this:
TIME BANDITS
The Adventures of Baro
LUC BESSON
Crimes of Passion
LA_STORY
There are several odd things about this list (besides the bias towards films by Terry Gilliam). Three of them are in all uppercase, two are in mixed case. One has an underbar (_) in place of a blank space. And one of them (LUC BESSON) isn't even a title at all -- it is the director's name (the film was La Femme Nikita). The inconsistency in "case" is not only visually unpleasant, it affects the "sort by title" function of the CX850D.
This would not be a problem if the CX850D would let you "fix up" the disc titles by using the PC keyboard. But it won't. If the title is read from the disc itself, "Disc Explorer" won't let you edit it. You can enter (and edit) titles only for discs that don't have one. In that case, you are limited to a maximum of 16 characters -- even though "Disc Explorer" displays longer titles if they come from the disc itself! As shown above, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is truncated to 22 characters in the "Disc Explorer" on-screen list, but it can be displayed in full by pressing the TIME/TEXT button on the remote while the disc is playing. Since "Disc Explorer" is not limited to 16-character titles internally, why limit user-entered titles?
It gets worse. The CD mega changers display 10 disc titles at a time; and when the disc is playing, that switches to a display of disc title, artist, and track title -- all of which can be entered manually if there is no CD-Text. You can even display a list of all the track (song) titles and select one to be played.
The CX850D displays only 5 disc titles per screen, with two text lines per title. This is because they needed the greater height of two text lines so they could display a little "thumbnail" graphic image for each disc, to the left of the two lines of text. The graphic is supposed to be the jacket cover-art for the disc. Somewhere I saw some Sony promotional material in which they claimed that "most" DVDs have this image already on the disc itself. I can't find it now. But I think they must have meant "In the future, most DVDs will have thumbnails." Only one of my 82 DVDs produced this image. That was Time Bandits, and the thumbnail was the "Criterion Collection" logo -- not the jacket cover.
After the disc title is assigned (automatically or manually) you can select a "genre" for the disc (such as "Action" or "Sci-fi"). When you do, a genre-specific default thumbnail graphic is assigned (if no image was found on the disc itself).
A flyer inserted in the CX850D packing carton says that if you fill out the registration and mail it in, Sony will send you a Video CD (not DVD) that contains thumbnail jacket pictures of all the DVD and CD releases from their own movie studio (Columbia/TriStar) and record label (Sony Music Entertainment). However, there is no documented interface for loading these images and assigning them to other discs. The only documented methods are: automatic self-images and genre assignment. This implies that there is probably an undocumented service menu that will let you load a thumbnail image (and who knows what else) from a disc other than the disc it describes.
Remember those two lines of text to the right of each thumbnail? Well, the first line displays the disc title. For CDs with CD-Text, the second line shows the artist (makes sense). But for CDs without CD-Text, and for all DVDs, the second line is blank -- and you can't edit it. Unlike the CD mega changers, the CX850D will not let you manually enter the artist "field" (which you could have used for director, cast, rating, or other useful information).
And the track titles? Forget them. The CX850D ignores the track titles even for CDs with CD-Text. There appears to be no way to display them, let alone enter and edit them. Admittedly, the CX850D will be used mainly for DVDs, not CDs -- and the "chapter titles" on movie discs, while amusing, are hardly as important as "song titles" on audio discs. But why remove a useful feature?
"Disc Explorer" lets you sort your collection three ways: by disc slot number, by title, or by genre. But if you sort by genre, it uses the slot number as the secondary sort field -- whereas sorting by title, within each genre, would have been much more appropriate!
There is a "workaround" for that by using "folders". "Disc Explorer" has seven logical folders that display different (and possibly overlapping) subsets of the entire 200-disc collection. Three of the folders (ALL, DVD, and CD) are "hard" -- meaning that you can't change their contents except by physically swapping discs in and out of the changer. The other four (A, B, C, and D) are "soft" -- meaning that you can copy any subset of discs into them, and you can even enter your own three-letter on-screen description of each such folder. Thus, if you copy all your "Action" movies into folder A, you can then sort that "pseudo-genre" folder by title. Each folder is sorted independently of the other folders, so the ALL folder could still be sorted by slot number or by genre.
The final insult in my long list of "brain dead" aspects of the "Disc Explorer" GUI: you can scroll the list of disc titles only one entry at a time, using the up and down "arrows" on the remote. The CD mega changers let you use the right and left "arrows" for the "page down" and "page up" functions -- that is, to scroll by 10 titles at a time (which would be 5 titles at a time if the CX850D supported this function, which it does not). However, you can use the numeric buttons to scroll directly to a specific slot number.
Sony originally announced the CX850D at an MSRP of $999 -- but before it actually shipped, they dropped it to $899. (In fact, Sony's Web site briefly showed the MSRP as $799, which is the currently advertised price at The Good Guys. Then it went back up to $899.) The "street price" will probably go even lower, at least after the initial novelty wears off. But even at $799, the CX850D is truly a bargain. As a DVD player, it's as good or better than many single-disc players that sold for $1000 or more a year ago. Add to that the fact that the CX850D is the only affordable DVD mega changer currently on the market (there is also a $5,000 DVD changer from Escient and a $15,000 DVD changer from Runco).
This is a great DVD player, and it's the only 200-disc DVD changer you can buy at an affordable price. The $799 "street price" is a terrific value for a player of this quality, even without the 200-disc changer. With the ability to serve as a 200-disc "film library", it's a steal -- and right now, it's "the only game in town". The "Disc Explorer" GUI needs a lot of work -- but if you want convenient access to your film collection, the CX850D sure beats keeping them in a closet (or even on nearby shelves).
Bill McCain a professional audio/video design & automation consultant, based in Palo Alto, California and can be reached via e-mail at wmccain@metaconnect.com .