sony_bdp-cx960_400_disc_bluray_disc_dvd_megachanger_black
By so-cal “so-cal”
Overall, I love it! Below are a few things I found while installing the unit:
My current entertainment center could not accommodate the changer due to its extremely large size. The width of the unit is pretty standard for a component; however, the height is 9.5 inches and almost 22 inches deep. My entertainment center does not have adjustable shelving, therefore the changer will not fit, and I will have to purchase a new shelving unit (bummer, but not a show stopper).
Once connected to my HDTV and surround receiver, the unit was very easy to set up via the onscreen guide. Initial set up was pretty quick, loading discs was not.
Okay, on loading my collection of 283 discs, the player began “Loading Disc Information” from Gracenote via the Internet. ***YOU MUST CONNECT THIS UNIT TO THE INTERNET*** or you will be forced to manually type the information into the player. I bring this up as I previously stated that I loaded 283 discs, and all but 12 could not be found on Gracenote. Why is this important? Well, you must type it in manually…… via the remote!! Prior models of this changer had a computer keyboard input for this, however, this one does not. Not a huge deal if it’s only a few titles (it was like sending a text message a few years ago before QWERTY keyboards appeared on phones, for the letter “c” you have to hit the number 2 key three times, etc.) Actually, for 12 titles it was painful.
The player connected via the Internet to Gracenote for disc information. This process is time consuming so be patient. The “Loading Disc Information” portion for 283 discs took roughly 2 hours and 45 minutes. Once complete the changer will initially alphabetize your collection and place all the discs that it could not find at the top of each folder (e.g., Photo, Music or Video, etc.) This is where you have to type in the disc information.
Gracenote, hum, not so sure about this. Sort of strange results as I have both a DVD and Blu-ray version of a few movies and they are cataloged differently on the player. One example is “Young Frankenstein” one version is placed under “comedy” and the other under “horror”. Also, it appears random, however, Gracenote found the movie “Airplane” which is roughly 29 years old, but could not find or have record of “The Wizard of Oz” on Blu-ray. Also, on boxed sets, it found some but not all of the collection (e.g., “Family Guy” it found disc 1, 2 and 4, leaving disc 3 to be manually entered???)
On BD-Live, pretty cool. You will need a USB thumb drive of at least 1 GB. And, the drive slot is on the back of the unit. So I would recommend that you place the drive in first before you place this unit into a cabinet and connect all the cables, as once you get going and then decide you need it, it’s a bit cumbersome getting to the back of this unit (especially since it will be loaded with up to 400 discs, etc.)
On the rental slot, start loading your collection in slot number 2 as the “quick” rental slot is reserved for slot number 1. If you don’t plan on using this, which I don’t, then begin loading with slot 1. Actually, you can start loading disc wherever you want, just thought I would point that out.
Lastly, many of your DVD’s will be located under multiple folders (e.g., Photo’s and Video’s) as the disc may contain JPEG images, which will qualify them as photo’s, etc.
Well, I have only had the player now for roughly 27 hours and love it thus far. I will update this review if I experience any strange behavior or if something dramatically changes my opinion.
UPDATE 11/14/2009:
One month later, I still love it! There are reader comments and responses (below under comments) however, I thought I should make note that the player performed well with a power outage (I intentionally unplugged the unit to perform this test). This is extremely important if you have ever owned a prior Sony Megachanger as those units would not retain any data beyond at 6-8 hour period without electricity (I have personal experience regarding this and it was extremely painful.) This is a solid unit so far, and I promise to update this review and related comments should anything change. Stay tuned folks.
UPDATE 12/15/2009
Sony released a software update to the player today, December 15, 2009. I went from version 15.1.010 to version 15.4.013. The download and update was pretty smooth, and completed within 8 minutes. The screen on the unit will flash “Version Up 0/9″, where there are 9 updates to be performed, etc. The system took the longest at 7/9 at roughly 4 minutes, however, when competed, you should see “Finished” on the box and it will then turn off. I have no details of this update as of yet. The system found two DVD’s as NOT recognized (strange as they were there before), however, Gracenote found them and all is good. Best regards.
UPDATE 02/02/2010
Powered on the unit this evening and noticed I had 7 “unknown” discs (in various slots). Since I have not added any new discs in over a month, I was a bit concerned. Not sure what the problem/issue was, however, upon pressing the “load” button on the unit, the missing titles were restored from Gracenote. One positive note, the unit only scans the unknown discs to load, it does not attempt to reload the entire library. This is not a “show-stopper” for me, I still love this player!
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