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Sony HES-V1000: Review

Posted to Video Components 2009-02-18

The Sony HES-V1000 is Sony's latest home entertainment server featuring a 200-disc Blu-ray disc changer and a 500 GB hard drive. The Blu-ray player is compatible with DVDs/CDs, so there's room on this device to store your entire multimedia collection. The hard drive has storage space for up to 137 hours of video, 40,000 songs or 20,000 digital photos.

There's a built-in Blu-ray disc burner that can also burn DVDs, so you can burn your personal content for watching elsewhere or sharing with others. The unit features true HD 1080p output, and supports Dolby Digital and dts Digital audio output. You can stream music wirelessly to multiple rooms using DLNA-compliant clients, such as the Sony CPF-IX001 wireless PC audio system. The unit also features Sony's Emmy award winning Xross Media Bar for effortless navigation of on-screen menus.

Rating:

4.4 out of 5

Features

One would expect a lot of features in a media server, and Sony doesn't disappoint in this area. The V1000 can access an online database of DVD information and cover art and automatically catalog your DVD collection. In practice, only approximately 50% of titles will have information available, but thankfully Sony has made entering your own information relatively painless. Unlike their DVPCX995V 400 disc DVD changer you can enter title information by slot number. The V1000 also features a wealth of connectivity options. There are too many to list them all, but they include an infrared port, a card reader that supports 4 different card formats, an Ethernet port and a Memory Stick media slot.

Performance

Video and audio performance living up to the usual high-quality Sony standard. The HD 1080p output is excellent. The changer mechanism is glitch-free and the Blu-ray disc burner is quick and reliable. The only thing to complain about here is the slow loading time for Blu-Ray/DVD discs; the unit can take up to 35-40 seconds to load a title after the changer has selected it. This doesn't vary much from title to title either; its just slow.

Summary

The V1000 is a large unit, measuring 12-1/4 X 31-5/8 X 15-7/8, so you'll need to make sure you have room for it, but it packs a lot of features into that large box. The video and audio quality are worthy of an HD home entertainment system, and the slow disc loading problem is livable given the unit's other capabilities. If you're looking for a method to store and catalog your multimedia collection and you have a large budget, the V1000 is an excellent option.

Pros

200 disc Blu-ray/CD/DVD disc changer
500GB hard drive
True HD 1080p output
Built-in Blu-ray/DVD disc burner
Wealth of connectivity options

Cons

There are no cons for this product