The picture quality of Sony DVPNS725P is better then SONY DVP-NS425P in 480i & 480p mode. No distortion or blurring is found even w/o the progressive scan, just a little gritty. Once you turn on progression scan the picture clears up. Sony DVPNS725P has only a 10% difference in sharpness/clarity/color/hue/contrast between 480p progressive scan & 480i non-progressive scan mode. However, I believe that the unit's 12 Bit Video DAC with 108Mhz processor, regardless of 480i to 480p mode is why you see such little difference. The vertical lines simply double using the same picture quality in 480i mode improving video clarity overall.

Equipment:
TV: Sony Grand WEGA 42" KF42WE610
Video Monster 3 Cable: 1-Meter Coax Cable, 1 Meter Monster Video 3 component Cable

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING!
Component/Coax wires do affect the quality of your home video experience. The best DVD player connected to the best Plasma/LCD/DLP/LCOS TV will have negative effects on... Read more

While this player looks good physically, has a nice remote, and some nice features like the DVD jacket display during stop mode - I found it has terrible 3:2 pulldown for film mode. I checked it using several movies: Monsters Inc. (which looked incredible), but films like Forrest Gump, Sweet Home Alabama, The Matrix, and Fellowship of the Ring looked so bad compared to my Toshiba SD-4700, I had to take the Sony back. The picture looked overprocessed with noticeable artifacts to the point I couldn't even watch it. Especially tried the lobby scene in the Matrix - all the marble made a dizzying effect of inaccuracies on the screen. I really liked the player overall, and the video mode looked great, but film mode was just too bad to bear. I'm going to try the Toshiba SD-3900 next, which should be comparable to my 4700. Wouldn't recommend this for a serious home theater lover.

Stay away from this horrible offering from Sony. I purchased this based on the performance of my older sony dvd player (which is still working like a charm),but their quality has come way down. I once belonged to the cult of followers that outfitted their entire home theater components with Sony, but after my last a/v receiver and this dvd player, I have been set free.

This unit dazzled me at first with its high contrast picture and vibrant detail. Within days of constant use(mp3 playback, music dvds, movies, and tv shows on dvd), the image became highly grainy and noisy. Flesh tones took on a disturbing painted look and no matter what I did to my 42" rear projection Sony TV as far as adjustments, I could not get it to look right. DVD layer changes led to 2-3sec jumps ahead cutting out parts of the movie. Inexcusable! DVDs from my home collection of over 200(all in pristine condition) started to show problems with skipping, freezing, block artifacts, etc. Theses same... Read more