user friendly. good picture and sound qualities. DTS, Digital...etc

CD-R incompatible.

I am quite satisfied with the DVD part of this product. i have read some of the other reviews and I have not experienced the lip sync thing. the only thing I am not very happy with is the inability to read CD-R's and MP3 contents. other than that, I find this product superior in quality.

It is a well made product and I have no problem with lip-sync. It matchs real well my Sony 46 TV and auto turn on of the TV and switchs the TV to video mode.

Overall, I am happy with it.

Sony produces pretty good Video product. I am not disappointed with the S550D.

Features, component video output, 5.1 audio outputs and digital audio outputs.

Owners manual not the clearest I've ever seen.

As my first DVD player I am modestly impressed. Although I have limited experience in this area I can see no obvious flaws and I am quite happy overall. Currently this player is hooked up to a traditional two-channel receiver and therefore not showing its true potential. In the near future I am planning to buy a Marantz SR-7000 and perhaps an up to date A/V receiver will allow me to better critique this unit.

Similar Products Used:

None.

Good remote, decent picture

Damn lip sync problem

The Sony is definitely impressive but it does have flaws. This was my first DVD player and I fell in love with DVD movies right away. Within my first month of owning it I started to notice the now infamous lip sync problem. Honestly I just found this site and these reviews and until now I thought the Audio problems were my fault and had even gone as far as to buy a new receiver. The lip sync problem comes and goes but is very annoying. I have also noticed that the dialogue in movies is always very low compared to the other sound which makes me turn the sound way up and I get blown away when the soundtrack kicks in. I have tried everything to fix this and now I would like to know if this is the DVD player's fault. I spent a lot of money on this because I bought it when it first came out and would hate to buy another now. Overall it has good video but the audio really seems to leave something to be desired.

Similar Products Used:

This was my first DVD player

Superb Picture, Great sound, ample and flexible set of
outputs, DD decoding

lip-sync. audio CD features such as A-B looping are on the
video menu and not the remote. Remote and front panel seem
to need "awakening" when neither is used for a prolonged
period of time (double pressing of buttons to get first
response)

I've owned this unit for about 8 months and I finally
experienced the lip-sync problem last night watching
American Pie. I did not experience it the first time I watched AP and haven't had enough time to watch it again
to see if it will occur again. I've rented about 50
movies and have not experienced it until now.

Otherwise this unit has performed excellently for me, and
has offered me the flexibility to simulate 5.1 with my
existing audio equipment. I have a the HK AVR25 ProLogic
receiver which I drive the fronts, center and sub from the
standard R/L audio outs from the S550, and an older 2
channel Pioneer receiver which I drive the rears from the
DD rear audio outs from the S550. I'm doing this retard
setup until I get around to getting a DD receiver.

Overall, I've been relatively pleased with the unit, but
I'm only giving it 4 stars since I didn't think the lip-sync
problem should've have showed up in a mid level unit.

DTS, Component Video, Optical Audio Output

Sony. Sony. Sony. Lip Sync problem. Slow to recognize disk. Audio Drop-Outs. Video Freeze, Skip.

I have the Sony DVP-S550D. I loved the picture and audio quality (digital optical audio, component video out).

I had used this unit for 11 months without any problem, then I began having the lip-sync problem. I contacted Sony and arranged to have the firmware upgraded which was done at no charge.

When I got the unit back (three weeks in the shop)it just shut itself off in the middle of a movie and would not come back on. I took it to the shop and they said (after 2 weeks of having the unit)they could not reproduce the problem. They said that they cleaned the laser and charged me $27.00 (It was now out of warranty).

I got it home and it did come on, but now it takes some time for it to load a disk when you put one into the unit. It also skips sections of the movie or freezes at times. It also drops-out the audio at times (this all happens on DVDs which I have watched in the past with no problem).

If not for the 11 months of trouble free use I would have rated this as low as possible, but because it did work fine, at first, I am giving it 2 stars.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 3109, Sony DVP-S530, Sony DVP-S7000

Based on personal experience, I strongly suggest you steer clear of the 550 (at least until Sony resolves some of its problems). I purchased it 3 days ago and returned it today for a full refund. Not only was the infamous lip sync flaw quite prominent during playback of certain dics, but the overall piture quality was very poor (soft and dull) in comparison to my Panasonic A110 (which, incidentally, is undergoing repair to correct sudair and layer skip problems). What's up with these players and all their flaws???? During the 3 days I had the 530, I used the various tweaks available through the display menu screen to sharpen the image, but other than minor brigthness changes, nothing improved it.

I have had the 550 for about 3 weeks and have watched many DVDs on it, as well as listened to several CDs. I have not had any of the problems described in the previous posting. In fact, I am very pleased with the performance of this unit and found it to be a worthwhile upgrade from the 500, which I had previously. I would suggest that the experience described in the previous posting represents a defective product and not an condition of all 550s.

I was very happy with this player until I could not get the picture as goo as the Panasonic A310. It does have excelant features using the onscreen menu. Noticed some Lip sync problems. But I may just have had a bad player.

I have owned three dvd players since february. 1 jvc 501, pan 120 and now the Sony 550 and by far the 550 wins hands down Why you ask? 55o has a better and bigger and friendlier user remote. The jog shuttle, once you get use to it, is a valuable feature. The on screen menu is user friendly with lots of bells and whistles. M ost important are the seperat contrast,color, brightness and sharpness controls and they take over where your tv does not.
The digital noise reduction seems to help in older movies. This feature is used on the flagship 7700 player. The LED display is readable from about 15 feet away. Great picture, easy to use S link capable, with other Sony components and I,ve not seen any lip sync problems .These are a few of the features that the other players don"t have. I have seen at least 10 movies on each of these players and again the Sony wins hands down!!