Sony DVP-NS315 DVD Player With CD-R, CD-RW and MP3 Playback
Written: Jul 11 '02 (Updated Jan 28 '03)
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Pros: Performance, features, looks, MP3 playback, VCD/XVCD and CD-R/W playback
Cons: Only 2 slow and 3 fast scan speeds, no WMA support
The Bottom Line: Overall, the NS315 is a good DVD player with nice looks and features as well as performance. For the same price, the Panasonic is ...
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| dkozin's Full Review: Sony DVP-NS315 DVD Player |
The Sony DVP-NS315 is a slim DVD player, which, as many other Sony products, looks cool. It is available in black or silver color and sells for the same amount of money as Panasonic RV32.
If you like Sony products just because of the four-letter logo attached to them, you will like this player. But for others, I know the possible better choice. In this review, I am going to compare this model with Panasonic RV32.
Controls and Connections
The front panel of the NS315 is slim and has buttons only for basic functions. The “Play” “button” is tall and can also be rotated to skip to the next or previous chapter/track. However, it is not a shuttle control and does not allow you control the scan speed. Which is lame – why waste money to manufacture such a useless gimmick? The RV32 has more buttons and also features a shuttle control that allows you change scan speed in both slow and fast scan modes.
The rear panel of the Sony has coaxial digital audio out, analog stereo audio out, composite, S-Video and a component video out. The Panasonic RV32 replaces coaxial out with an optical out and also has a separate subwoofer out. The power cord on this Sony is permanently attached to the device. RV32 has detachable cord, so if your dog decides to chew on it (thinking it is highly nutritious), you can replace it.
Putting more buttons on the front panel and more connectors on the rear panel costs more money. So we see that Sony should have saved some money (comparing to Panasonic) to spend on the internals (since the players cost the same), right?
Winner: Panasonic
Scan Speeds
The Sony player has 3 fast and 2 slow scan speeds in either direction. Panasonic has 5 and 5 respectively with fast scan of up to 200x and very fast operation. Guess who wins here.
Winner: Panasonic
MP3
The MP3 interface is very good and it shows file names. The player plays MP3 files, but not WMA (Panasonic RV32 plays both).
Winner: Panasonic
Picture Quality
The NS315 produces excellent picture quality with crisp image and good detail level. The video noise is absent and, if you use S-Video or a component video connection; there is no cross-luminance artifacts. The RV32 also features excellent picture quality.
Winner: draw
VCD and XVCD
The NS315 plays both Video CD at 352x240 and XVCD at 720x480. The player doesn’t play straight SVCD, but if you can use MPEG-2 encoding and then multiplex the resulting file as VCD.
Winner: draw
Features
The NS315 has all basic DVD features such as parental control, angle, subtitle and soundtrack select... It plays DVD-Video, Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW, Video CD discs as well as discs with MP3. The player’s “Resume” function allows the player start playback from the point where you stopped it even if the power is turned off, but, unlike Panasonic, which remembers the position for up to 5 discs, the position on the NS315 is lost if the disc is ejected.
The NS315 also has shuffle play, programmed playback, A-B repeat and “quick replay”. There are several modes of virtual surround sound and dynamic range control. In general, the features of NS315 and RV32 are quite evenly matched.
Winner: draw
Remote Control
The NS315 ships with the remote control that can control TV’s basic functions like power and TV/Video switching and has buttons that are laid out logically and have somewhat different size (unlike the remote that Panasonic uses).
Winner: Sony
Overall
Overall, the NS315 is a good DVD player with nice looks and features as well as performance. For the same price, the Panasonic RV32 is a better choice if you need WMA support and more fast and slow scan speeds and want to use an optical digital audio connection. If coaxial audio out is OK with you and you want a better remote control, the NS315 is worth a look.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 149
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dkozin
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I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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