Last fall, I was on a flight with my friend (and publisher of this magazine), Terry Carroll, and I told him that an integrated receiver and DVD player would be a great product. Combining such a device with one of the many under $1,000 5.1 speaker packages available from companies such as Energy, Athena, Celestion, and Definitive Technology would result in a relatively low-cost, easy to use system.

It turns out Sony was thinking along these same lines, because they have come out with just such a product, the AVD-S5OES which retails for $800. Sony actually threw a few more goodies into the bargain, like the ability to play multi-channel SACDs, a progressive scan player, up-to-date digital signal processing (including Dolby Pro Logic II), an AM/FM tuner, digital audio out to hook up to an external system, both coax and Toslink digital audio ouputs, S-video/composite/analog inputs, and a digital 5-channel amplifier. Those wanting a 5-disc changer and a little more power can step up to the AVD-70ES for about $200 more. What really intrigued me about this all-in-one, Swiss-army knife of a product was that Sony positioned it in its up-market ES line, holding out the promise that it might actually sound good.

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Unique Features - The AVD-S5OES (Sony, can we try easier, perhaps more elegant, names?) is a cleanly elegant looking product with a silver finish, white letter LED display, and volume knob. Although it is the height of a DVD player, it looks quite a bit more serious with a 18.5" depth. Looking at the back makes the picture even brighter, with five 3-way speaker binding posts instead of spring clips, several auxiliary video/audio inputs, interlaced/progressive switch, and a subwoofer output.

Things get a bit dimmer when the included remote is examined. Designed to control a Sony television as well as the '50ES, it is just chock-a-block with buttons that look alike. I could live with that, but whoever designed the navigation/cursor key should be re-assigned immediately. It is probably the single most awfully designed ergonomic gaff I have seen on a remote control. The buttons are so small and difficult to operate even with my relatively slim fingers, that I would often activate a function I did not want to. The remote did make up a few points with its ability to be programmed to control a TV and cable/satellite receiver.

Installation/Setup/Ease of Use - I proceeded to hook up the '50ES to a Marantz P5020D plasma with BetterCables component and S-video cables, and to my B&W Nautilus 804/805/HTM2 speaker system with AudioQuest Gibraltar speaker cables. The setup menu is very straightforward. The hardest part is using the aforementioned navigation key to move through the menus, so it took a few tries to get it right.

Final Take - I began by watching DVDs with the '50ES. The picture quality in progressive scan was fairly good. This is not altogether surprising, as I would expect to find some of the same innards as in Sony's standalone players. The de-interlacing is acceptable, but since it is not one of the class-leading Faroudja or Silicon Image chipsets, poorly flagged material will have some artifacts. Unfortunately, the Sony has the chroma bug. That said, on most major film releases, the picture was fairly artifact-free, but did have more grain and was softer than my reference Krell DVD Standard (which should come as no surprise).
Those without high-definition TVs will find it a more than acceptable interlaced video output.

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