Sony DAV-FR1 5-Disc Progressive Scan DVD Dream System

AMAZING SOUND QUALITY! FOR THIS PRICE IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER!! AND TO TOP IT OFF IT'S A SONY!!!

My dream system has needed two unrelated repairs in the tree years I have owned it. Niether has been under warentee. The last costing $300.

Pros:
-Easy set-up
-Great sound
-Comes with free ice cream.

Cons:
-The 5-disc changer is inconvenient. I don't even use it as a changer. You have to wait for the carrousel to spin inside, but there's no indication of when to insert the DVD.
-I hooked it up to my HDTV with component cables, but still had poor quality picture. This DVD Player may be great for regular TV's, but I don't recommend it for HDTV. If someone has this hooked up to an HD-ready TV with component cables and the picture is great, please let me know what I can do to get those results.
-Free ice cream melted before it arrived.


Ok, so the ice cream didn't come with the DVD player.
And, I ate the ice cream before I got home.

I first want to say, I love dealing with amazon, their customer service is excellent, and I have always loved Sony products. This surround system does not work well. The sound is absolutely great if you can get the main unit dvd player to function. I've had it hooked up for three weeks and have had several problems. First, the volume wouldn't increase or decrease, then the dvd player would freeze up and shut down automatically while playing a movie, now I have two discs in there and it won't eject them. Sony help says there is a malfunction in the unit and I now have to take it for repair to get my stuff out. I don't want another malfunctioning unit, I'm returning this as fast as I can. This Sony product is not worth the money or aggravation.

The Sony DAV FR1 looks and sounds great, but it does not exactly set the standard for cutting edge technology for home theatre systems.

It comes with the 5 speakers and 1 woofer and the 5 disc DVD player.

Speakers:

They are 100 watts each. Powerful.. very powerful. I have a huge living room and the speakers filled the room with sound. But there are 2 aspects which bother me, viz.

1) The surround speakers should have had a system by which they could be connected wirelessly. Panasonic makes a similar home theatre system, which has that wireless feature. Although, Panasonic sells the wireless system to connect the surround speakers seperately. Nevertheless, it is comforting to know that when you have a few extra dollars lying around, you can avail that system and get rid of the wires lying around on the carpet. You have no way of doing that with this Sony model.

2) Stands. In this day and age, we simply dont have the time or resources to go out and fit fixtures on to the wall for the surround speakers. And I dont want to spend a penny more (let alone $40 for the Sanus stands) for additional stands for the speakers. The lack of this feature is indeed very irritating. I dont understand why some thing which can be made so cheaply (the stands) cant be provided with a system which is so expensive.

The DVD Player :
The DVD player is old technology. PERIOD!

1) It has a dot illumination type display system, which ruins the otherwise sleek appearance of the system. But it is better than an LCD Display because you can make out the information being displayed while seated at a distance of a few feet.

2) The DVD Player boasts a 5 disc system, which is a major convinience, since you wont have to get up to change discs time and again. Some people have said it takes some time for the discs to load, etc... but I found the speed to be quite normal. Please remember, even in a $3000 worth laptop - it does take some time for the CD drawer to eject when you press the button. This system is no different, it is NOT slow.

3) The DVD player has 2 speeds for fast forward and rewind. That is a far cry from the 1,1.5,2,4,8,16,32 speed levels available even in my other $17.00 Desay DVD Player (The Desay is an individually lousy player - dont even think of buying it. And the manufacturer and Circuit city didnt honor the mail in rebate forms for it.) But that is not a major factor. Given the chapter forward/rewind feature, the 1X and 2X speeds are reasonably acceptable.

4) The DVD Player plays DVD videos, SACD (Super Audio CD's - I have no idea what they are) and a host of CD types, viz. CD-R, CD-RW, etc. I have no idea if this DVD player can play Divx or AVI or MPEG files. And normally DVD players dont. And this one doesnt seem to be an espcially new old technology. Besides that, it doesnt say on the manual that this can play DVD-RW or DVD-R/+R.

So if I am cribbing so much, why did I rate it 4 stars?

Simply because it looks and sounds great.

Set up was simple, the sound was AMAZING!!!!!!! I did not dare to increase the volume more than 50% of its capability for the fear of bothering my neighbors.

The DVD remote is great. I really like the feature wherein the most commonly used buttons are exposed, and the other ones hidden under a sliding cover. I also like the innovative battery placement system of this remote - it is to the front side, and to access it, you have to just slide the cover completely off the front.

This system also provides a host of other features like FM and AM playing capability, ability to accomodate a game system (X-box or Play station), an additional surround speaker system, a satellite feed, etc etc. It has component video out, S video out, and monitor out (yellow jacketed cable). So no matter what, you will be able to use the speakers with a host of other devices.

Bottom line, if you are concious about the amount of money you spend on a home theatre system, then this is an excellent buy. The brand name of Sony commands a lot of respect. People like seeing the name "Sony", and this was indeed a factor under consideration when I chose this system.

You will like the sound. If some one says this is not enough, he either needs to get his ears checked, or he has not connected the speakers properly.

A home theatre system is primarily for its woofer and speakers, the DVD player is just an additional contrivance. And I am totally satisfied with the DVD player too. I would think, spending $300 on this system is totally justified.

Thanks,
Kaushik.