Sony MDP-800 CD/Laserdisc Player Review

Sony’s MDP-800 player stands at the top of the company’s combination CD/laserdisc player lineup. As a deluxe model, it provides a very complete array of convenience functions, and the digital audio section features Sony’s advanced High Density Linear Converter (HDLC) 1-bit digital-to-analog (D/A) converters for superior audio performance. The converters are driven by a 45-bit, eight-times-oversampling digital filter.

To many, the automatic side changing for videodisc playback will be the MDP-800’s most important feature. But to me, most appealing was the player’s high-quality 8-bit digital frame-store, which enables it to perform a large assortment of video tricks with long-play CLV laserdiscs as well as short-play CAV discs. Those tricks include variable-speed bidirectional scan and freeze-frame, bidirectional frame-at-a-time playback (Step Play), a strobe effect (called Flash Motion), stop-motion with continued audio playback, and a digital picture store that can display a memorized frame even while you are playing a CD or another laserdisc. This last feature is especially interesting: Try freezing an overall shot of a symphony orchestra and then playing a symphonic CD, or use it for a kind of changeable video wallpaper or artwork display. The stored frame is lost when the player is turned off, however.

Digital processing is used in other video-enhancing ways. There’s a digital time-base corrector “for crisp picture verticals and smooth accurate color,” and a digital comb filter usefully reduces dot crawl and other chrominance/luminance interference artifacts when the player’s S-video outputs are used. Besides an enormous set of cueing, repeat, and programmed-playback features, the MDP-800 has a microphone input for sing-along (karaoke) playback—with adjustable echo, no less. One thing the MDP-800 does not have is an RF (antenna) output, so you must have a TV set with composite- or S-video inputs to view its video output (most sets have them these days). Otherwise, you have to feed the player’s video signal into a VCR and use the VCR’s RF modulator to supply the signal to your TV over Channel 3 or 4.

Besides two complete sets of stereo audio, composite-video, and S-video outputs, the MDP-800’s back panel also contains one optical digital-audio output connector, an attenuator switch for reducing audio distortion with karaoke playback, and a Control S input jack for remote control of the player by pointing the supplied remote at a (Sony) TV with a corresponding Control S output jack.

Lose that remote and you’ll lose access to most of the player’s features: The front-panel controls provide only the most basic cueing functions and laserdisc side change. It would have been nice to have had a jog/shuttle control on the front panel, as many other players do. The remote itself is not laid out as logically as it could be —related controls aren’t always close together—but there is some differentiation among the buttons by shape and size. Even the usually redundant and annoying jog/shuttle on/off button serves a useful function here: Pushing it switches the remote’s shuttle ring from bidirectional high-speed scan to bidirectional variable-speed playback (a fine distinction, to be sure). I would have preferred, however, that the inner jog dial, which controls frame-by-frame stepping, remained on and did not require pushing the on/off button to activate it.

The MDP-800's multitude of features is explained in an amazingly well-organized and seemingly complete manual (I may have missed a couple of features, there are so many of them). Although it is relatively easy to find a description of a specific control—an index is provided—this is one manual that will reward reading from beginning to end. In particular, don’t skip the explanation of the manual’s overall organization.

By and large, the MDP-800 did very well on the test bench. The measurements for analog soundtrack performance are only average, but the rest are all at least very good and some are excellent. Among the latter are those for audio frequency response and D/A converter linearity. Maximum output level was very slightly below the de facto 2-volt standard, which is okay since it means that the MDP-800 is unlikely ever to overload typical surround-sound decoder circuitry (it’s better in this case to be a tad too low than too high).

The video performance, though excellent all around, fell slightly short of the best we have measured in horizontal luminance resolution and bandwidth and in differential phase and gain. But you aren’t likely to notice these differences, even on direct comparison, when playing normal program material as opposed to test patterns. The player’s Picture Enhance function acted as a video mid-frequency control, boosting the signal around 2 MHz when in sharp mode and thereby providing a modest increase in picture sharpness without adding noise. As seems to be true of all laserdisc players, chroma (color) output was slightly low, but the automatic gain circuitry in your television set will bring it into the right ballpark. Any necessary fine-tuning can be accomplished with the set’s color control (something you will do as a matter of course if you correctly set up your monitor using a videodisc-recorded color-bar test pattern).

Although the results are not tabulated, we looked at the audio background noise spectrum when playing a mini-mum-noise dithered 16-bit signal (as opposed to the standard but less revealing all-zero test signal). The MDP-800 performed well, with no crosstalk of video sync signals and virtually no leakage of power-line harmonics (only one inaudible component on the right channel at 120 Hz, 109 dB below full output). The overall background noise level in this test was about 3 to 5 dB higher than the theoretical minimum, depending on frequency, which is very good, if not perfect, performance.

We also attempted, for the first time, to characterize playback performance when reproducing signals transferred from a 20-bit original format to a 16-bit CD by means of a noise-shifting system—in this case, Track 44 of the “Best of Chesky, Vol. 3” demo/test disc (Chesky JD111). Such systems are designed to alter the shape of the noise floor, reducing noise below the usual 16-bit minimum in the frequency range where the ear is most sensitive at the expense of increased noise at very high frequencies, where the ear is less sensitive. The MDP-800 delivered only about 5 dB lower noise out of a theoretically possible 20-dB or greater improvement (at 4 kHz) over its reproduction of standard 16-bit triangular PDF dither. That means that the potential benefits of lower background noise and distortion provided by such 20- to 16-bit conversion systems as Sony’s own Super Bit Mapping will only be partially fulfilled by the MDP-800. Another laserdisc player we had on hand provided approximately equal performance in this regard, but one relatively inexpensive carousel CD changer yielded a stunning 14-dB improvement under the same test conditions.

The results of this test—which is a very challenging one, since it requires a player to do several things to near perfection simultaneously—should be taken as provisional, pending the availability of a test signal specifically designed for it. They should also be considered pretty much irrelevant unless the recording being played actually contains signals that take full advantage of the noise-shaping technology. So far, we haven’t found any. Although I could clearly hear the difference in noise level between the MDP-800 and the CD changer when playing the Chesky test track at very boosted levels, I could not when playing the music provided on that disc at more reasonable volumes.

While not an absolutely stellar performer in every respect, the MDP-800 scores high in features, manual readability and organization, and overall audio/video performance. Having bought one, probably only the most critical user would ever find reason to replace it.

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