Sony DVP-S330 Review

Overall Rating

None

A lot.

Hey A, the manager at Global Video was nice enough to give me a new Tank Girl and said for the life of him he didn't why the hell it wouldn't play on my and your Sony DVD player. Also told him about the "C: 13: 00" flashing. He popped it in the video player there and it worked fine. He was an experienced guy and was stumped. So I went online and ran a search on "C: 13: 00" and came upon this review of what I assume is our DVD player.
General Comments: Purchased this DVD player in Late November of '99. Started having problems reading discs just under a year later. Started getting C:13:00 errors and unit just shuts down. Since it was already out of warranty I disassembled it and cleaned the optics. While this seems to help it does not fix the problem. Sony definitely had a problem with their electronics here. From the reviews it didn't stop on this model either. We have always been pro-Sony but this one piece of "equipment" has changed our minds. Our next DVD player will not be a Sony and from what we have learned about Sony's poor engineering we may not buy anything from them again. VERY DISAPPOINTED!
Last year I bought a fancy big 19" computer monitor from Outpost.com (I love those guys). I received the monitor but noticed that the picture kept fading too dark and too light. Called Outpost and asked how I return this lemon of a thing. They told me I couldn't, that I was supposed to send it to Sony themselves. He also told me had I examined every inch of the Outpost.com website, I'd see the new page which states that it now takes no responsibility for any Sony products and will NOT replace any bad Sony stuff. Obviously had I seen that the red flags would have been waving brightly and I wouldn't have purchased a Sony monitor. So to fully convey how difficult it was get hold of an actual Sony rep via the phone or email would take up WAY too much space her. Let's just say it was near impossible. For me AND Nicole (who, with her professional demeanor, could get the President on the phone if she put her mind to it) to get hold of someone at Sony. But eventually Nic' got hold of a rep (I swear to god the girl hacked her way to a rep's phone!!). Yeh, they eventually sent me another monitor (much, much more red tape), but then there was the issue of having the bad one removed from my house. Went through all the same red tape to get hold of a rep and he sent me some form to fill out. After an additional two weeks, the bad computer was removed by a pick-up service. A few days later, I asked Nicole why Sony never was gangbusters about getting their first fancy 450.00 computer back, lemon or no lemon. Nic' said they probably charged my credit card for the second monitor until the first one was received. So now I'm paranoid and I went through all the BS again to confirm that I'm only being charged for ONE goddamn monitor. I never got hold of a human this time so I left a detailed message with my case number and all stating I want a confirmation that the old monitor was received and I wouldn't be billed for two. I just realized it's been quite a few months and I never got that confirmation. Guess I'll have to check my credit card records.
I've got more great news. This second new monitor fades too dark and too light as well. Not as intensely as the first one I bought last year.
So lets go back to early 2001 again. I bought a basic Sony DVD player which seems to work fine I guess. That is until a week or so ago when I pop in a copy of the charming film "Tank Girl". Oddly, it won't play and the code "C: 13: 00" is flashing on my screen. Won't play for the life of me. AND I can't get the disk out of the machine. After 10 minutes I realize if I shut off the DVD player manually and turn it back on, it'll come out. Grrrr... But oddly enough, it plays like a charm on my MAC computer. I'm immediately under the impression it's the Tank Girl disk that's the problem. So off to the video store I go to plead my case to the manager and tell him it's been a few weeks since I bought the disk and I don't have the receipt. He pops the disk in and it plays fine. I'm perplexed (and a tad embarrassed). He completely believes my story (maybe cuz I implored him to come to my house to view my player eat the Tank Girl disk with the flashing C: 13: 00) and gives me another Tank Girl DVD. Sadly, this new disk doesn't play either and I decide today to run a search online on (you guessed it) "C: 13: 00" . A few results pop up on Google and below is the one I found here at your fine site.
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General Comments:
Purchased this DVD player in Late November of '99. Started having problems reading discs just under a year later. Started getting C:13:00 errors and unit just shuts down. Since it was already out of warranty I disassembled it and cleaned the optics. While this seems to help it does not fix the problem. Sony definitely had a problem with their electronics here. From the reviews it didn't stop on this model either. We have always been pro-Sony but this one piece of "equipment" has changed our minds. Our next DVD player will not be a Sony and from what we have learned about Sony's poor engineering we may not buy anything from them again. VERY DISAPPOINTED!

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They were obviously refering to the DVD player I owned. But then again, maybe not. This could be a whole other Sony DVD doing the same damn stuff. Either way, it's too much of a coincidence that the only three major Sony products I've bought in the last 5 years are royal lemons.
Oh, one last thing. I took that Tank Girl DVD to a friend's house that also has a Sony DVD player (same model), and C: 13:00 popped up and refused to give up the disk until he shut down the player. He cursed me AND the player.

Unless you have money and time to burn, steer clear from anything Sony. I really, really mean it.

Members' Comments onLes Toil.'s Review

• haans29 on 14th Jul 2004

  I have the Sony DVP-735 which was the flagship model in 2000. About a year later it started getting the C:13:00 fault. The assembly was eventually replaced in 2003 for NZ$150. a couple of months later, the C:13:00 fault has returned. DONT BUY SONY DVD.

• chrischalk on 3rd Oct 2004

  I also have a Sony 735 and it either will not recognise the DVD or jump and skip if I can get it working. Was chipped by supplier so Sony are not interested. Interesting to hear that there is a common product failure.