Very Nice

Pioneer and Sony make the only DVD jukeboxes available at this time. I've had a Sony DVP-CX985U for about a year and a Pioneer DV-F727 for about a month. This was a costly learning experience for me.

The Sony has a major problem: It don't read so good. Probably about 5% of the time it hangs and skips. While slightly less tolerant of burned at home, the reading problem also occurs on commercial discs. Condition of the disc doesn't seem to matter, it has done its trick with discs I purchased, unwrapped and loaded directly. The problem is repeatable, same discs at the same places.

No, the Sony is not in need of repair. I tried the problem discs in my three year old JVC XV-S45GD single disc player and it read them without error. Sent the jukebox to Sony Hawaii for repair. It still couldn't read. Sent it to the Texas exchange facility. They called back a few weeks later and said it was working to specification. I mentioned my JVC single disc had no problems so they did some more checking. Received a refurbished exchange a few weeks later. It, too, hangs and skips at the same places.

The Pioneer DV-F727 reads the problem discs without error. My JVCs play the Sony problem discs without error. Think we are talking a systemic problem in the Sony unit.

The above is why I suggest you make your first jukebox a Pioneer. If your first jukebox is the Sony, you will need to either be tolerant or have a single play for the ones it does not like. If you add storage later, consider the Sony as it costs less and stores more than would a second Pioneer. The Sony has no problems with CDs I've tried so you might use it for CDs and overflow DVDs.

DVDs are not HDTV quality output. The ones we get in North America are formatted to the 480 line standard. The Sony unit is capable of Progressive Scan (480p) output. The Pioneer is only Interlaced (480i).

I didn't wire this place for component video when I built it. For grins, I made a test before going to the work of discreetly running wires from the A/V hub to the TV. I hooked the JVC up to the EDTV plasma using component video. Frankly, my dear, there wasn't enough difference between Progressive component video and the interlaced RF (plain old TV coax) from my modulators to care.

Still, if you gotta have 480p, then the Sony is your only choice.

Other reviewers cover the user interface and features of these units. I have only DVDs loaded and find the Folder/File features both are so excited about generally useless. Neither brand is much good at figuring out what is in it. The contortions required to input the limited number of characters into the llists are way too much work. The idea is to watch movies, not input data. Scrolling through your loaded discs with a screen displaying 10 at a time is cumbersome for 300 or 400 slot jukes.

I think a computer is way smarter and easier to use for organizing than these things will ever be. A printed database of movies in a loose leaf notebook works nicely. And you don't need a remote control to read a notebook. Find a movie, select the disc and enjoy. Directly selecting a disc using the remote is cleaner on the Pioneer but can be done, with many more steps, on the Sony.

The Folder/File thing could be useful for CDs. My Sony CD jukebox has 8 Groups available and I do use Groups occasionally. The feature on the DVD units seem an attempt to provide a similar capability.

The Pioneer looks, feels and operates in a more refined manner than does the Sony. The Sony gets you more bang for your buck but has a reading disability. And there it is ...