Sony DVD player becomes VCD playe. Review on Sony DVP NS530

I purchased a Sony DVD player - NS 530 in Aug 2003 at a Sony World outlet in Bangalore for Rs. 11990.

I selected Sony, even though its price was on the higher side, because of the brand name and the quality. In the past also, I always wanted to purchase Sony, but never bought because of this price factor. This DVD player was my first Sony purchase.

As expected, the picture and sound quality were too good. But for only for the first year. After the one year warranty period was over, it started giving problems. Sometimes it would not identify the CD's, DVD's etc. It used to display ''cannot play the disc''.

After few weeks, it fully stopped playing DVD's and gave the message 'cannot play the disc'. It played other formats - VCD, audio CD, mp3 etc.

I took it for service at a Sony authorised Service Centre, RMS technologies, Bangalore. They took 5 days to analyse the problem and informed me that the optical unit is defective and needs replacement. And that the optical unit would cost Rs. 4300 Plus Service charges of Rs.825, it would totally cost around Rs. 5125.

These days a DVD player itself is available for Rs. 4000 and even Sony's DVD player is available for Rs. 6000. I was shocked by these Sony's service charges. I took back my DVD player without replacing the optical unit by paying Rs.200.

I am very much disappointed with this as I never expected this behaviour from a Sony Product within 15 months of purchase. Now I am watching VCD's and hearing audio CD's in my DVD player.

I will never ever buy a Sony's product hereafter.