300 discs at once, nice large remote remote, beautiful picture / sound, EZ load slot, many outputs, flip

auto "feature", nice DVD changer but not a good CD changer

I read a lot of reviews on this site and others about this unit, but really wanted a DVD changer and for the price (about $100 - $150 more than a comparable non-changer model) I couldn't pass it up.

So, I've been using it about nightly since I got it about a month ago now, and I'll tell you the things I knew or heard going into the purchase, and the impression I have.

o it is hard to enter the disc names

Actually ... it is quite easy, just push edit, and you're off. My problem is that for some reason my keyboard didn't work, so I had to do it by hand. Even then, I had about 20 DVDs to do, and it took about 20 minutes. Oh, and it didn't load one name or jacket picture from my collection, but it does work (for CTHD and Vertical Limit so far).

o doesn't play CD-R

True ... but it says that on the box. There are ways around this, but I'm not a fan of copying copyrighted material, so I won't get into it.

o the disc navigation is slow

I must admit that I only have about 20 DVDs, but I haven't found it to be a problem. You must do an initial load to read all your discs and that takes time, but you only do it once. Selecting a DVD is really just as easy as pushing a folder and then selecting your title.

o poor build quality

I don't know why someone would say this. Sure, the unit is light for its size, but it holds 300 discs, it has to have a lot of empty space right?

o no name display on unit

This is a bad flaw, as you spend time to enter the names into the unit, but the names are only visible when the TV is on. What if you don't want your TV on and you only want to listen to a CD. It is nearly impossible to figure out what CD is in what slot, short of having a list on paper next to the unit. I only have about 10 CDs in it and I already forget. The problem is the name you have entered for the disc isn't displayed on the front of the unit, only put out to the TV.

o auto-play feature

Actually, this is the BIGGEST problem for the unit, and I have no idea why it is in there, but it must be for a reason.

To explain, most are wrong and it isn't an auto _play_. This can actually be turned on or off in a menu. What it does do is auto LOAD, and some (most) DVDs have an autoplay built in when a laser reads the disc for information, it goes to play it automatically (not a problem of the unit).

BUT, the auto-load is extremely frustrating. Here is how it works. You are watching a movie in your EZ load slot and you're done. You push stop twice to clear the memory, open the door, the disc unloads, and you take it out and power down the unit. You turn it back on, it goes to try and load the disc in the EZ slot (even though you took it out), it can't find it so it goes to load disc 1. It loads, the DVD has autoplay, and now you are stuck in FBI warning. Yes, this sucks really bad, and unexcusable. I'm still trying to get a straight answer from sony as to why it does this.

So, there is my response to all the bad things I have heard. On the positive side, it has great video output and great sound, about 10 outputs on the back of the unit for whatever you want.

I have only experienced three oddities since using it, that are certainly outside of its operation. First, as I mentioned, the keyboard didn't work (although I only tried one keyboard, it could be me). Second, two of the three times I have tried the flip feature the unit jams and turns off. Turn it back on and everything is fine. Third, it erased my disc one information once, even though I never removed it.

Would I reccommend this unit? I think I would, as I demand the best from my equipment and I'm rather satisfied. If you are in no hurry for a DVD changer, wait until the next incarnation, hopefully sony reads some of these message boards.

Similar Products Used:

other sony DVD (non-changer), panasonic CD changer

Good player specs

Not well thought out as a DVD Changer. Sony just stuck the single player interface in with a few additions.

Bottom line: this player is not ready for Prime Time. I information on Sony's web site about this changer impressed me so I took a shot. The price was certainly right. I have a whole house a/v set up so I thought it would be neat to be able to access my entire DVD collection from any TV in the house. I still like the idea, but after playing around with the 860 for a while, I'll have to wait. The changer is going back to the store.

First, I have three Sony CD Mega Changers which are a joy to use in my whole house a/v set up. I'm not going to whine about having to input DVD titles - although I was very disappointed and put off that the changer could only grab a DVD jacket picture from 2 of the 5 DVDs I tested. That was fatal to me. I can input the title,
but the automatic picture placement is key.

Many here have complained that the changer plays Disk 1 automatically at startup. This is very annoying, but there is a work around- don't turn the changer off. If the softward driving this changer were more intuitive and less complex this would not be a fatal flaw.

The final blow for this player is the build quality. Arguably, DVD changers are going to appeal to videophiles, gageteers, and people with whole house systems. Price is not always King with this group. They want a well built product, and will pay for it. Sony, however, went the other route, and cheapened the unit as much as possible. The unit feels and acts like it's ready to fall apart at any given moment. This is a very different than I get from my CD Megachangers.

Basically I think If you are single, the 860 won't impress your date; if you are married it will cause a divorce.

Similar Products Used:

Sony S7000

Hold 301 Discs, EZ Play

The unit itself

WHere do I begin....I brought this unit for my husband who is an electronic freak. His collection of DVD movies stands at 210.

He was so happy to get this unit. That is until he loaded the movies, all 210 and the Sony would only recognize 3...3 out of 210.

So he had to enter the information on each movie manually...tooks 1 1/2 hours to do.

Once he was done he sat down to watch Gladiator. The unit began to spin around, and around and around until it settled on disc one. (2 minute proccess) Then the stupid disc one began to play. He had to wait until it was past the FBI warning to stop the movie.

Well Gladiator was disc 191. He hit play and it began to spin left and right and left and right. Would stop a second and spin left and right as if looking to see where slot 191 was. After what seemed like an eternity it found slot 191 and began to play the movie.

Great sound and picture for the moment. Once the movie was done we decided to see Toy Story. Again the stupid thing was turning for such an excessive amount of time. Then it loaded Toy Story and to my surprise it jammed. Gladiator disc never came out and it loaded Toy Story into the unit. Could not pull it out.

I will never forget the look on my husband's face. We returned the unit...(Thank God I had a warranty) and brought a Harman Kardon DV5.

Needless to say I have never been so mad in my life. To spend good money and get a piece of sh*t like this is unbelievable.

My husband later showed me this website. I wished I would have known before. I will always look at this site before buying my husband a gift.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic, Yamaha

manyA/V ins/outs.Great sound/video. 300 +1 feature
plays both sides. cover art etc loads

takes a while to get to disc. Loads takes forever

Filled her up with 120 DVDs and the rest CDs. My old player (1st generation) would not pass the DTS bit stream whereas this passes all audio formats.
Considering I paid more than a couple hundreds less than everyone else, I can't complain. The EZ slot is great for rentals/new discs ... I was going to use my old player for that purpose but this one makes the old one go to the bedroom.
I keep jazz classical CDs which I don't like to shuffle play, like I do rock & pop cds.
Explorer menu takes a little getting use to but as someone said," it was designed for engineers and hey, that's me!

I think previous reviews would like it better now that most new DVDs load cover art and title right into the explorer.
For $329 and NO SHIPPING or TAX, it is wonderful!!
For $700 I would wait for the next model

Similar Products Used:

DVP 7000, CDP 270, CDP 200

Holds 300 CDs and/or DVD's, Good Picture Quality

Lousy GUI (disc explorer), autoplay, title limited to 12 characters,

What a joke this unit is. The worst GUI ever. Sony needs to go back to the drawing board. I have a 6 year old 100 disc Sony CD player with a better GUI. The disc explorer is awful. You have to see the names of the disc on the TV screen just to decide what to play since it does not show up on the unit itself. The name will show up on the unit once you start playing the disc you want and after hitting a button on the remote 3 or 4 times. Just shuffling thru 300 entries on the T.V. screen takes forever. The unit is good in picture quality, and okay in sound quality. I have had no problems with jamming.

I had ordered the Pioneer changer and liked the GUI alot better but it broke only after 2 days. It ate up my discs and gave out this horrible crackling, crunching, sound. Back to having my single disc unit until they come up with a more reliable CD/DVD changer.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer dvf727 300-disc changer

two sided play,a-1 picture and sound

horrible interface

A great unit in terms of quality of sound and picture.

Bizarre, but it seems that you can't enter names of dvd's UNLESS you select them, begin to play them, and then stop play. Otherwise, the player refuses to enter the "edit" mode.

Anyone else find this, when trying to enter disk names????

Similar Products Used:

dvdcx850, dvd 7000

compact size, picture quality and sound

Firmware

I would have to agree with the last reviewer , every time you turn this unit on it will auto play the last DVD played. Now this may not sound lake a major deal, but imagine every time you sit down to watch one of the 300 movies loaded into the unit or a movie rental and have to wait at least half a minute for the unit to first load the last DVD you watched, then before you can press stop pay the copy write protection warning, then unload the DVD, and then finally start to load the DVD you wanted to watch in the first place. Believe me this a horrible design feature, I could not imagine what Sony engineers could have been thinking of when they decided to go with this feature! Not only is it a pain, but also consider the wear & tear of the product.

Also, the manual makes reference to the fact that you can loose all your titles from memory if the unit is not properly shut off, YES, believe it or not, if you don't shut this baby off correctly you will have to spend hours again retyping all your DVD titles back into the unit. And you will need to type almost every DVD title, my old Proscan DVD player picked up all the titles off my DVDs but for some reason this Sony does not recognize most of the DVD titles(out of my 60 DVD collections it only recognized 2).

Another problem I'm having is with CD-Rs, this player does not support CD-Recordables, I thought all the new CD & DVD players can handle CD-Rs?

Although this is a nice looking unit and is well priced ($495 delivered) it is not worth all the frustration that comes with it's asinine operation. Stay away from this lemon!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

sony 200 cd mega changer, proscan DVD player

Size, capacity

Auto-play, Build Quality

Sony DXP-CX860 Good Idea, Poor Execution

Purchased the unit three weeks ago and I think I have it all sorted out. I have to say from the start that I am very disappointed with this product. I have had, and continue to have a number of Sony products in my home, and until now I’ve been happy with their features, workmanship and overall value.

My ever-growing DVD library was the driving force behind my decision to purchase a DVD changer. I want to store all the DVD’s in a single location to free up shelf space. I also like the idea of being able to play a DVD without having to handle it. I currently have the Sony DVP-S7000 reference DVD player. I was extremely happy with the S7000 and assumed the CX860 would have similar picture and Sound quality. The CX860 also has the added feature of being able to ‘flip’ a DVD that has source on both sides. These features lead me to choose the CX860.

After bringing the unit home and unwrapping it, I was immediately impressed with the style and size. It looks very handsome alongside my other A/V gear and its low profile has an excellent Wife-Acceptance-Factor. I am very impressed at Sony’s ability to put a 301 changer into such a small package. Build quality seems a bit off. It may just be that I’m used to the sturdy feel of my S7000, but the CX860 appears a little light and flimsy.

Picture quality was acceptable, not quite up to that of my S7000, but still good. I haven’t played any CD’s on this unit.

The single failing ‘feature’ of this unit is one I find absolutely unacceptable. When powered ‘on’ the CX860 automatically loads a disc in the changer and begins play. To make matters worse, the player won’t accept ‘STOP’ until the DVD’s copy-write warning is displayed for the preprogrammed duration (Usually 30 to 40 seconds). The Disc-explorer is the ONLY way to search (and I use that term very loosely here) for discs. The disc-explorer will not activate as long as a disc is loaded in the player. So here is what happens. 1) Turn unit 'on', A disc is immediately loaded and play begins. 2) Press 'disc-explorer' button, but it won't work while the disc is spinning up to speed. 3) I wait for disc to start playing, and wait and wait. 4) Disc finally starts playing now I can press disc-explorer button. 5) Changer un-loads disc and does not display list of discs in changer until disc is completely unloaded. 6) Disc-explorer now viewable on TV, but there is no search feature. If you want to play disc in slot # 299 and your currently at slot 150, you have to push 'next-disc' or 'prev-disc' 150 times until you find the disc you want to play. The disc-explorer is very slow when it scrolls, slow enough to be unusable. The functionality of this thing is unbelievably bad. Why in the world did Sony think this thing should auto-play at power on. I can't think of a single instance when this is useful. Not only that, but all the useless loading and unloading of discs has got to wear down the mechanical drive parts. It was faster for me to pick a DVD off the shelf, remove it from the case, turn 'on' my S7000, open the tray, put the disc in, and play it.

The Unit also has some other quirks; The CX860 has two playing options, Single Disc which means the player stops play after the current disc completes, and ‘All’ which means the player will load the next disc in the changer and play it when the current disc completes. The unit defaults to ‘All’ every time it is powered-on. Why it won’t keep the last selected play-option is beyond me.

Setup on the unit is rather complex. A couple of minutes per DVD are required to enter the title, genre, and file.

The CX860 has a front panel display that is capable of displaying the disc title, but it defaults to ‘time’ every time a new disc is rotated in front of the drive slot. So suppose you want to play a CD and you don’t want to turn on the TV to find it. You would have to ‘turn on the CX860, wait for auto-play to load a disc. If it’s a DVD, you have to wait for the copy protection warning to complete (30 to 40 seconds). Press stop, then rotate the knob to the next disc, and press the ‘name/time’ button to see the title of the next disc. If the next disc is not the one desired, you must rotate the knob one position, press the ‘name/time’ button again to view the title, etc…. until you find the CD you want to play. This could take hours. If Sony let the front panel display remain in ‘title mode’ it would be simple to just turn the knob until the desired disc is found. Oh, one more complaint. If at any point you ‘pause’ for a couple of seconds while doing this search. The changer will go into ‘auto-play’ mode again and load and play the wrong disc. Heaven forbid your wife asks you to help her get the popcorn dish off the top shelf while your searching for a CD/DVD.

I believe all my complaints can be solved with software. I suspect Sony loaded the CX860 with the same firmware used in their single tray units where auto-play is a convenient feature. I don’t see how this unit could have been market tested. I would think anyone with more then a single DVD would find the auto-play ‘feature’ annoying at best.

I called the Sony hotline to make sure I just wasn’t operating the unit incorrectly. The technician was friendly and courteous, but confirmed that all my ‘problems’ were actually ‘features’ and (this is a direct quote) “That’s just the way it works”.

In conclusion, I am returning this unit to the retailer. I will purchase the Pioneer 301-DVD changer. I currently have a pioneer Elite 301-CD changer and have been very pleased with its capabilities. I would not recommend the DVP-CX860 to anyone.

Build quality, capacity to handle and store 300Discs,compact , good picture quality
for

cost

I am quite impressed by this dvd player and am proud of having it as part of my music system. I cant seem to take my eyes off the unit, the build quality is really awesome. I am surprised about so many negative opinions on this board.. dont believe any of them.. go and see for it yourself. I am keeping this beauty for a long time to come. For something that can store 300 discs, this unit is slender and compact
it has everything you need in a dvd player. Some posters complain about it being slow, c'mon guys.. try carrying 200pounds on your back and see how fast you can walk
The very fact that this unit needs to index, carry and play 300 disks in any order is impressive even though it takes a few more seconds of your time.. few seconds? does that bother you? It doesnt bother me. Besides EZ play slot is fast.. as fast as any of the single disk players in the market

Excellent sound and video

REALLY stupid disc management system

I had a 200 disc Sony that stayed in the house I sold (no place to store it while living in a rental to build, and the new owner wanted the entire movie/sound system that I had installed in custom cabinet) so I thought I was ahead when I went to buy a replacement with 301 disc capacity and ability to play DVD's as well as CD's

I was wrong

The sound and picture are excellent, but the STUPID disc management system is the worst design I have ever seen

I don't know what else there is on the market, but I now wish I had not been influenced by my past satisfaction with the Sony 200 CD player into thinking this model would both be as good AND as easy to use