Having owned a standard 'box shape' design of DVD player for a little over a year and a half now, I purchased Sony's newest model of Picot, the DVPPQ2. This was a buy made mainly because of the players rather fancy and compact style, most notably the sleek, rounded flip-top design, and the customisable lid design inserts, which immediately set it apart from most other players on the market. Though this is a unique idea at present, changing of the customisable front lid inserts is a little fiddly, using a catch release system inside the lid that can put you off changing the covers on a regular basis.
It was only when i came to unpack and set up the player though, that I realised beneath the glossy silver-and-grey shell there was also an excellent quality dvd player. The read time seemed to be noticeably faster than other players i had been used to, comparable with any other compact or traditional DVD player i had experience of. The player is not region-free when purchased, so excluding making specific modifications to the unit or remote, it is locked to the region it is purchased in (UK in this case), so DVDs from america, for example, will not play on the unit.
Setting up the Sony player should prove simple, even to a newcomer to the DVD market, the power supply is clearly marked and connects to a standard wall power outlet, and despite the numerous visual/audio inputs, the wires on the scart lead are colour coded. I did find however with my unit, that the scart lead supplied was not very durable, as the connectors to the television broke after a couple of months use, and did require the purchase of a specific replacement scart lead with the correct connectors to go back into the DVD player. There is also a headphone ouput included, for listening to the player privately, and an S-video output, if you wish to take full advantage of the TV virtual surround sound.
Both picture and sound quality are of a very high standard, both on portable and larger screen televisions, and despite the earlier mentioned problem i had with the original scart cable, the output of the player still gives a good value for money.
The player contains all the usual features found in a DVD player, fast forward, pause, slow motion, menu access, shuffle/replay scenes and time elapsed display. There are also some additional features, such as the subtitle and camera angle options, which can only be utilised if they have been included on the DVD disc currently playing. The TV volume control is also only compatible with certain TV sets, so unless you have a Sony television dont throw out the old remote! On the unit itself only play, stop and previous/next scene buttons are present, along with the power button, but remote control supplied with the unit is simple and easy to use, with only the necessary buttons, all nicely sized, so that no-one should be intimidated by the controls.
The price of the unit, as of writing this review, is typically in the region of £99.99 from many highstreet retail outlets, though this price varies online by as much as £20 pounds either way.
Overall, in my opinion, the Sony DVPPQ2 brings a fresh look and style to the compact DVD player market, offering ease of use, customisable style (some inserts supplied, other inserts can be created at the sony-picot official website), and a high quality of picture and sound. Full support of MP3, CD and CD-R/RW playback for music is also offered, as well as the standard DVD playback, helping to make the price a competitive one in todays market.
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