Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the SLV-D350P can deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. Other DVD functions include bookmarking, picture zoom, parental lock, and a screen saver.

The VCR section offers one-month, eight-event advance programming to commercial skip. Your camcorder or gaming console plugs right into the front panel for hassle-free connections. Its four-head design ensures smooth slow-motion play (forward and reverse) and clear still-frame images, and with hi-fi sound the unit records and plays back stereo audio tracks. Its 19-micron heads deliver the clearest possible picture when recording or viewing in EP (extended-play) mode.

Commercial skip makes it easier than ever to zip past commercials and unwanted "coming attractions," jumping forward 30 seconds for every press of the commercial-skip button.

Connections with combo units are often inconvenient, forcing you to use separate video hookups for each section (DVD, VCR), a problem for older TVs. This player has it figured out: a single RF or composite-video connection to a television will display either the DVD or the VCR signal, depending on which format you're viewing. If you want to view DVDs in S-video or in component-video (either interlaced or progressive-scan), you will need to use two inputs, as the device will not upconvert the signal from the VCR to either of those higher-resolution formats. Not to worry, though: any component- or S-video-equipped TV will offer sufficient inputs for both of the SLV-D350P's formats.

It's a different arrangement for audio: you can listen through a single set of stereo analog-audio cables for each component (one is supplied), or--if you want to enjoy DVDs in discrete 5.1-channel surround sound--you can send the DVD's audio to a compatible audio/video receiver and a multichannel speaker system through a digital-audio interconnect (either optical or coaxial, not supplied). The unit also comes with an RF cable that will transmit DVD/VHS audio and video to your TV, a multilingual onscreen display (English, Spanish, French), and a multibrand TV/DVD/VCR remote control.

What's in the Box
DVD/VCR combo, remote control, remote batteries (two AA), user's manual, stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable, coaxial video cable, and warranty information.