Disc Capacity. EZ slot for quick in and out of a disc.

Hope you have a great memory to remember where you put all your discs! This unit can't do what a $200 CD changer can.

I purchased this product to be able to store the bulk of my CD collection, and to play DVD's all while conserving space. My TV stand has only 3 shelves for components (A/V receiver, VCR, and this DVP-CX860) so combining a CD jukebox and DVD player seemed to be a good idea at the time.

I consulted friends and family members who had Sony jukeboxes, and they had great things to say about them, it only seemed logical that a unit with a MSRP of $600 would be able to at least perform the funtions of it's $200-$300 "little brothers", but that's where they got me!

As has been written by others below, this unit cannot play CD-R's. I have a $30 portable CD player that can play CD-R's and RW's! Seems odd this unit can't, but that wasn't as bad as finding out that there is no way to scan the names of your discs while one is playing. You must go to the disc-explorer on your TV, which stops play of the current disc, and slowly trudge your way through the disc titles 'til you find the one you want.

The jog shuttle on the front of the unit does not give the next disc text as other Sony CD changers do. This unit only next disc number, so remember where you put all 300 discs! Once you select the disc you have to hit the Text/Time button a couple times to call up the disc text you entered, or the "CD text" for the 2 dozen recordings out there that have it. The unit only shows Artist and CD title, no song titles which all the new CD only changers will do.

I was also disappointed to find that there was no way to get to the Artist line while entering the disc info. Discs with CD text will utilize this line, but it doesn't show up on the display window. My brother has the new 400 disc CD only changer, and he told me he could not only enter the title of the CD, but the Artist too. So you wouldn't have all those funny looking abrvatns(abbreviations) you have to invent to name your disc in 16 characters.

I will say that once you figure out where the CD you want to hear is, it plays well enough. And the picture quality of a DVD is similar to what I've seen from other Sony DVD players. But this is the problem! You should get what you pay for, and when you have a $500 unit that can't do what a $200 CD changer can do, and is about as good and a $200 DVD player, you shouldn't be out the extra $100 by combining the two! With all the parts common to both, you should save money going to a combined unit, or if you pay more, you get more! More options, better features, better quality! The Sony DVP-CX860 does not deliver on any of these.

I would not recomend this unit to anyone! I don't have enough DVD's to experience what some others have with the autoplay, but that would keep me from wanting to store DVD's in the unit. I would rather have a 300 CD changer, and a single DVD player and save myself the headaches this thing causes, and about $100.

Good picture, disc flip, style and size.

Noise, constant jamming and autoplay when turned on.

I had to send my Sony DVPCX-850 off for warranty repair and
decided to try the new entry from Sony. After unpacking and
setting the unit up, I commenced to load aproximately 175
DVD's in the unit. That was my first mistake! After hitting
load disc button (it then loads each disc and reads it for
title information and disc type) it went through 3 discs
and then jammed and shut off. After opening the motorized
door and removing the offending disc and replacing it in the
unit, I went through the process again. To my surprise it
jammed again! There seems to be no pattern to which disc it
jams on. Sony knows there is a problem with jamming because
they enclosed an additional paper with the instructions
that instructed you to clean the edges of the disc with a
pencil eraser to remove the "glue" on the outer edges of the
disc to avoid jamming. Calls to Sony service proved no use.
Crutchfield is getting the unit back. At least my 850 did
not jam! They both have the lousy Disc Explorer, what a
joke. The picture and sound were quite good, typical of
Sony players. I cannot endorse this unit.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVPCX-850, Pioneer DV-F727

Smaller that than the previous model and a higher capcity

Totally useless user interface

Having used the 850 before, I knew the user interface was going to be unusuable. However, this wasn't going to be a problem to me as I have a Philips Pronto programmed with the disc titles programmed in.

The flip feature seems to work ok, the times I've played with it, and although, I've not had any discs jam yet (touch wood), I have had a couple of miss loads already. These were corrected, by just selecting which disc to play again on the Pronto.

In summary, a pretty nice player, as long as you have a decent way of controlling, that doesn't involve using the Sony user interface.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVP-CX850D

Extremely small footprint for the capacity.
Good video/audio playback capability.
Good Sony-Compatible remote (works w/ TVs & Tuners)

Tray that holds discs from bottom only.
Evil Autorun on startup.
Non-intuitive interface.

Having bought this unit not too long ago, I wanted to give any "new" users a few hints and feedback.

1) The autorun bites, get used to it. It's worth putting up with for the money. Waiting ~10 seconds and hitting stop will take care of it.

2) If you have more than 5 DVDs, invest in a cheap keyboard that uses less than 120mA of current. (Hint: Most desktops keyboards need more than this.) Bought one that uses 50mA at Fry's for $20.

3) Take the time to read the manual thoughly. Failing to do so will bite you fairly early. Its not quite as easy as punching in the DVD number to select the one you want.

4) Get a high-end remote that will let you use macros to control the beast. I've got a Pronto TSU-2000 that they'll have to pry from my cold, dead fingers. Taking the time to program macros for the sometimes annoying key sequences will be time well invested.

5) Don't expect progressive scan quality from this unit and you won't be disappointed. The niche market for this unit is simple; they want people who are tired of swapping DVDs everytime they want to play one. Short of the the high-end progressive scan players (which may currently cost as much as this unit), I'll stack it up against any other single-DVD player for sound/picture quality.

6) If minor issues will have you climbing the walls, don't buy this unit. Some of the minor issues are unsolvable, if you can't live with 'em, get another player.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba Single DVD, Pioneer & Panasonic multi-changers

Ample disc storage, Title search, Disc Flip, Low profile design, EZ play, Keybord entry

Auto-play, Primative Disc Explorer, Catagory selection needs more selections, Titling, Jacket display (I know, not all sony' fault),Operators manual (hey, I read technical manuals for a living, this was not an easy read!)

2 units purchased. The first (May 2001, from Etronics.com) was for my brother & his wife, the second one for myself (July 2001, from J & R Music). Being the owner of 3 Sony cd megachangers (CDP-CX250/300 & 450, the 250 has since been sold to upgrade to the 450 and the 300 & 450 are linked for continuous play), a megachanger for my cd's was a no brainer! This is the first unit for my brother (graduating from a single play cd player without a remote, annoying for me when I come to visit, so, he had a host of questions, prompting me to try one for myself (& not leave him hanging, it also gave me a chance to ditch my JVC player, which is sitting in the closet). His is connected to a Sony STR-DE875 reciever & Bose Accoutamas 6 system. Mine is connected to a Onkyo TX-DS787 reciever w/PSB Alpha AV & Subsonic 5 sub system, Dish Network satelitte system, (2 recievers), Pioneer CLD-D606 Laser Disc player, JVC HR-S5900u S-VHS deck, Samsung VHS deck & Plateau MX-AV shelving. His monitor is a RCA w/s-video in, mine is a Sony 27" w/s-video in. He has just under 100 dvd's loaded, I have over 250 dvd's (What am I going to do when ST/TNG box sets are due???) Of the 2 of us (both Gemini's) I am the electronics guy, he's an artist/administrator. Storage was my main concern. Neither one of us are ready for progressive scan just yet. Without looking at previous reviews here first, this could have been a nightmare purchase. Thanks all for the "beta testing" (door opening clearence, master power off button, etc). Picture quality is sharp, audio is clear, clean & deep! Basically, if you accept this unit for what it was meant to do, instead of "what you want it to do", your life could be easier. This is a complicated unit, and you have to be ready to read the manual completely to enjoy it's features.I have advised my brother of this site & the complaints & reviews of his unit, as well of the complicated mechinism involved. he is willing to take his chances. As long as this unit does what I want it to do, I will enjoy it.

Similar Products Used:

JVC XV-501

Very good performance, smaller than other Mega changers and a well thought out jack panle.

They are all right! On screen graphics and user interface are stupid.

Read these reviews! If I had before I bought my Denon I would have saved alot of time. It was every bit as bad as the reviews had said. The reviews on the Sony are also true.
If you think this will help you catalog your disc for easy access, keep looking. However if you need a place to store your music and movies and a player that will do an outstanding job at play back, then this may be for you. A keyboard will help but if you have a couple hundred discs to store, plan an afternoon to do it in! Sony had the chance to break new ground, by building a smart catalog system for easy access of your movies and music. They failed. They did get the performance part right. As for the build ? I think it is good and as one reviewer stated it does look good. It has it's bugs but so did my first mega changer, my second one is going on it's 4th year of trouble free operation. As for not playing cd-r's, this was NOT an accident. Sony has it's own agenda and knows they can force it on the public. I can play them on my mega changer and will stay clear of future sony products.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DVD player and Sony mega cd player.

Holds many DVDs! Jog shuttle. Fits standard audio/video cabinet space. Easy Play slot.

Cumbersome menu. To add one DVD, system scans every DVD already loaded. Only 16 characters for title. Few DVDs have thumbnails.

While many reviewers report many problems with this Sony 300+1 DVD/CD changer, my unit (DVP-CX860/B) works exactly as advertised. It has not jammed even once after loading over 50 DVDs and adding several new ones. (Even the "flip" mechanism worked both times I have tried it!) The picture is what one would expect from a DVD player although no better than the RCA unit it replaced. (I bought the Sony because I got tired of having to remove and replace DVDs, necessary even with a five-disc changer. Those DVD "jewel" boxes are a pain!) In my view, the Sony unit has three shortcomings, two of which make the Disc Explorer menu cumbersome. Five titles are displayed at one time but, unlike DirecTV or digital cable menus, one cannot scan down in groups of five, but must scan down one at a time. You can scan faster by holding down the scan button, but you lose all title information in the process. Upon power up, the unit insists on starting the last DVD played when it should go directly to the Disc Explorer menu. Last, and perhaps least, every time a new DVD is loaded, the system "reads" every DVD that is already loaded. Fortunately, this process does not alter manually entered thumbnail/title info for already loaded discs, but it makes adding new DVDs a much longer process than seems necessary. Two cosmetic problems are the 16 character limit for manual title entry and the fact that most DVDs do not have thumbnails or title info available for the unit to read. Some Sony/Columbia, Warner Bros, and MGM releases have thumbnails/titles. (Independence Day has a thumbnail on the "supplemental" disc but not on the movie disc--go figure!) Thumbnails for older Sony/Columbia releases are provided on a Video CD, however, the quality of the thumbnails on the Video CD is much degraded/distorted when compared to the thumbnails on DVDs or even the "generic" thumbnails built into the Sony DVD player.

Similar Products Used:

RCA RC5910P Five-Disc DVD/CD Changer

A good player if you have a good amount of DVDs and CDs. Sound and Video Quality

See Below..

Read the other reviews, the navigation of dics is pretty poor. Also a very annoying autoplay when you first turn it on.

All the above can be rectified. Buy a Phillps Pronto remote!!! (No, I don't work for Phillips and I'm no a paid endorser)

I programed all of the CDs and DVDs along with track info. ( I have no life) into the remote. I never ever use the Disc
"non" Explorer. Can be a bit of a hassle to update the remote everytime I get a new CD or DVD but, I'll live with it. Other than that, the unit has performed with no problems. I would recommend that you buy a extended service plan with it. Way too many moving parts in there, that are just waiting to break.

300 DVD capacity, GUI access to DVD's, picture and sound quality

Auto plays a disc when you turn it on

OK, so I've only had this for a few days. I certainly haven't found any reason to pan this like a bunch of other folks have. Should I have any problems with it in the future, I'll come back and give another report.

I bought this over the rival Pioneer unit, since it is much smaller, it was on sale for more than a hundred bucks less, and the store happened to have this one in stock. Since then, I have learned that the Pioneer won't output both composite and component video at the same time, which would be a real killer for me, as I send composite to one TV, and component to another.

I like the small design -- the Pioneer and the other "rebadged" units (Onkyo / Marantz) are HUGE monsters. As for build quality, this seems to have the same feel as any of the other big changers I have had my hands on. True, they're just not as "solid" as the little players that don't have a huge cavern inside for hundreds of discs. I don't believe the build quality is "inferior" in any way, and I was very pleased to see that it was made in Japan, as opposed to China or elsewhere.

Setup was quite easy -- I used a keyboard, and whizzed right through it. Some folks here have faulted it for not recognizing many DVD's, but I believe that's a fault on the side of "DVD's without any info," rather than any inadequacy in the changer. I have it about half-filled, and it found titles for perhaps 10 DVD's, and pictures for about half of those.

I find the GUI menu to work very well. As for speed, you can really bog it down if you set a "genre" for each DVD, which adds a picture for each DVD -- the pictures really slow the menu down. Without many pictures, you can whiz through it. Also, filing DVD's in one of the four folders available also helps you jump right to the DVD's you want to browse through.

Getting from one DVD to another didn't take long at all. With the menu sitting on Disc 1, I inputted the number 300, and it took maybe 10 seconds or so to start playing disc 300. I have the "/B" model -- maybe that's faster than the older model or something. I have =zero= complaints about getting from one DVD to another.

The sound and video qualities are fine. The features are OK, but a "zoom" function would be nice. As, of course, would be the ability to play CDR audio CD's. I tried, and it certainly wouldn't play my CDR's. But, then again, I'm not interested in CD playback on this -- the reason I got this was to have an on-screen menu of my DVD's, and this does that superbly.

I have been considerably happier with using my Sony RM-VL900 learning universal remote control rather than the one that came with the unit -- for one thing, it lets you hold down the "up" or "down" key while you're browsing through the GUI menu of DVD's, which lets you whip through the menu quite quickly, whereas the unit's own remote only lets you step through the DVD's one at a time. And, I've kept the menu "lean and mean" by avoiding the use of "genres," and I divided up my collection to make full use of the four "folders" to file them into. I would say that it rarely takes me more than a minute to navigate to the DVD I want to play, and have it playing -- I sure won't complain about that!

So, we'll just have to see how the reliability goes with this. From what I've read about the Pioneer, they're having far more problems with it than we here are having with the Sony. Otherwise, this is doing EXACTLY what I want and expect it to do. Well, maybe except for that "autoplay," but that is a very minor inconvenience. I've got one "music" DVD that goes right to the main menu without the "FBI screen," and I put that in the Disc 1 slot. Again, this isn't something I have any reason to really complain about, either.

I hope that puts things in a little perspective for you!

Similar Products Used:

Apex AD-600A, Toshiba SD-4205 5-DVD changer

It protects your investment - Great for DVD collectors, especially if you have kids!

Autoload - remote ergonomics

After frustrating years of getting bad tapes from Blockbuster, and with the tapes I bought getting eaten by VCRs or dismantled by children, I decided that I would begin collecting DVDs. They don't wear out - the picture and sound quality is great - they are reasonably priced across the board (unlike some of the $80 tapes you HAVE to rent) - DVD sounded like a great solution to my problems.

Well, I got a reality check. A kid can destroy a DVD more easily than a tape. Also, the Pioneer player I had wouldn't let you resume a movie from where you stopped it (like you can with a tape). So, prior to my purchase of the Sony unit, what I would is the following: 1. put in a DVD for myself 2. Pause the unit when the kids needed something. 3. The unit would shut off because it was paused to long 4. spend 5 minutes trying to figure out where the movie left off. 5. Give up when the kids wanted to watch something themselves. So, basically, I had $2000 worth of dvd's that either were getting scratched because the were going in and ut of the single player tray so often, or were not getting watched.

I figured this sony unit would solve a bunch of these problems, and I got lucky. It did.

This unit is not a technological marvel of engineering. Don't expect it to feel like a BMW under your fingers. It's not. Its a basic unit that solves a very basic problem - "I have a lot of DVDs and I want to watch them and I want them to last a long time and I don't want to get my lazy butt out the chair when I decide I want to watch some part of my expensive DVD collection."

It does that job to a T for me (side bonus - my 7 year old can use the unit himself, which means I don't have to be loading either tapes or dvds for him or his brother). Given that, let's get into all the things that will annoy you if you appreciate finely engineered products.

1. The autoplay - read the other posts below. Its a pia, but not as much of a PIA as getting out of the chair to load the DVD, or wiping little chocolate finger prints off a dvd.
2. The remote jog dial is nice, but button placement of the volume is bad. Its next to the disc advance. On more than one occasion I've fat fingered volume control, and changed the movie.
3. Keyboard or remote entered disc names are shorter than the ones read off the DVD direct. It only could read the info off 20 of the 100 dvds I loaded into it, which meant I had some typing to do. My keyboard worked find, even if it took a little while to figure out that one can completey set up the dvd directory without ever touching the remote)
4. On some DVDs, it can read a little icon for the DVD into the DVD directory. THe more icons you have the slower the directory navigation gets. I'm glad most of my dvd's don't have icons.

Those are probably my biggest gripes about the unit. Sound and Picture ? I have no idea - I'm not much of an audiophile/videophile. Looks and sounds good to me.

They way I look at it - it $500 of insurance to protect what could grow to be a $6000 investment (300 dvds @ 20 each). That make it a great at unit for dvd collectors.

PS. Don't depend on this unit to hold your CDs. If you have 20 DVDs and 200 CDs, get a regular CD jukebox and a regular dvd player. There just doesn't seem to be the focus in the design of the unit on playing and managing music.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV114