Hello All,
I bought my very first Nextbase player on christmas day 2006 based on all the positive reviews for the NB656. I was originally eyeing the Phillips DVD players but none of the Phillips Players have an Optical out.
Unfortunately, as I found out after setting this player up, the Optical out of this player DOES NOT pass DTS signals. I've had my Skyworth 3250 for several years now and this player also doesn't have a built-in DTS decoder. But the Skyworth passes out the correct digital signal through the Optical output including DTS signals.
Furthermore, the NB 656 only passes out NORMAL Dolby Digital 5.1 signal through the Optical out. Even if you have a Dolby Digital EX 6.1 disc (i.e LOTR extended box sets), the sound from the optical out will only be normal Dolby Digital 5.1. I know this because my Yamaha receiver displays what kind of signal is passed on to it and which speaker is receiving signal input from the optical connection. In the case of NB656, all my Dolby Digital EX DVDs only came out at Dolby Digital 5.1
The bottom line is that the optical/coaxial connection of the NB656 isn't working the way it should. So those who are particular with this type of setup should veer away from this player to save a lot of time and effort.
I also noticed that the power button was misaligned and i was a bit disapointed with the LED display having only 4 characters. But hey, i could have lived with that.
Sad to say, I had this unit replaced the very next day. (wow. Last christmas i gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away.)
Sad to say also that this waslmy first and will be my last Nextbase dvd player.
But I really think that for 3,995, this is an expensive player. I replaced this with the Pioneer 393 and added only 295 pesos. Sad to say again that the Pioneer outperformed the Nextbase player in terms of sound, video quality, DVD compatibility (nb565 had trouble reading some hard to read discs), and even the look of the unit itself including the LED display.
