It was then I noticed it would stall, freeze, and then cut off periodically. At first it was so infrequent that I tried to attribute it to disc abnormalities and let it go.

Dealing with defective products is such an incredible hassle . . . expensive shipping, multiple calls and many, MANY minutes on tech support hold lines, pulling out entertainment centers and dealing with a mass of wires and dust in a small spaces, etc. Also, since the measly 90 day labor warranty (by far much more important than parts) had long passed, I knew Id likely be footing 90% of any repair bill at that point anyway, so I succumbed to the denial that the player was at fault.

I could only delude myself a few months longer as the problem got worse and worse, the player eventually freezing and shutting off 5-10 times during any viewing session longer than 20 minutes. Of course by this time, the parts warranty had also conveniently expired.

But since Ive dropped over $20,000 on professional Sony video equipment in recent years, I thought Sony customer service just MIGHT want to keep me happy, so I phoned them. I was wrong. I was met with absolute indifference, abruptness, and a refusal to consider the individual circumstances which made it a travesty of fairness for me to have to pay for the repair of this product, which cost well over $200 at the time I purchased it.

To make matters even comically worse, my sister was given the same player for Christmas of 2002, and hers started to exhibit similar problems late in 2003, also conveniently well after the labor warranty had expired and just as the parts warranty was expiring.

Two out of two identical products with the same defects in one family is hard to attribute to sheer bad luck. This was very likely a lemon product, an inherently defective player with an abnormally short useful life that Sony is refusing to stand behind, even for a loyal customer thats given them many thousands of dollars in business. Because of this unforgivable customer service breach, I will never buy another Sony consumer electronics product and will certainly try to avoid purchase of as many of their pro products as possible.

I advise others to STEAR CLEAR of this player and all those in direct succession to it, which is likely to be anything with a model number like NC6##.

With the lousy Audio features, I still use my portable hooked up to the stereo. And with the ugly Audio CD features, I still need my 5-disc CD. And I really see no reason for 5 slots of DVD so I pretty much wasted $80 by not going with the one disc model. If youre an MP3 fan, go run it at a store before you commit. You might find youre as irritated with the features as I was.