I've owned this player a good couple months now and have been very pleased with its performance. Very user friendly GUI and the machine operates easily. Discs load quickly and the transport is dead quiet. The picture quality is excellent be it composite (good), component (better) or HDMI (best). What's even better is the sound quality of CD's and SACD's thanks to four, 2 channel Burr-Brown dacs. It has a nice array of features, such as Audio Direct Mode, SACD Bass Management, SACD On Screen Text, Display Dimmer and an above average set of picture controls. These allow the user to really fine tune the image for optimal picture quality. Furthermore, it does a fantastic job up-converting Standard Definition DVD's to High Definition 1080P. It's also compatible with DVD-A, mp3, wma, divx and jpeg discs as well. The remote, although it's not back lit and lacks an eject button is still very user friendly, ergonomical and makes functional navigation a snap. The users guide is well laid out... Read more

I bought this Yamaha to replace a nice upscaling DVD player from Toshiba which my son broke. I chose this Yamaha for both its upscaling reputation and its SACD support. Feature and performance-wise, I have been very happy with the product.

As a DVD player, the S1800 supports DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD-Audio well, in addition to DVD-Video. For DVD-Video, upscaling to 1080p appears to work really well, even though this is a model from 2007 (hence the big discount offered by Amazon.com). I have played a variety of DVDs from Pixar animations to old Disney classics to recent action titles and so on, and all look really nice on my Sharp 1080p LCD TV.

One good thing about the DVD player is it's quite fast, at least compared to most other DVD players. From loading a DVD to recalling the menu, there's no trying the user's patience with blank screens. Another good feature is, as with other upscaling players, by default all 4:3 DVDs is displayed stretch on a 16:9... Read more

This past fall I've "auditioned" six different upscaling DVD players (including the Oppo DV-980H, DV-981HD and Pioneer Elite DV-49AV). This is absolutely the best one and a definite keeper:

1. Very hefty, solid construction (as opposed to the thin, cheapish material of most new players).
2. Quiet disc transport
3. Intuitive remote
4. Excellent audio quality - easily matches or beats the Oppos or Pioneer Elite
5. Beautiful image quality

When I first got it I felt the color was a bit washed out, but after calibrating the player with a color meter (Brightness, Contrast, Color, Hue) the picture is flat gorgeous. Its easily better than the Oppo DV-981HD and Pioneer Elite DV-49AV and matches the Oppo DV-980H. While its not Blu-Ray quality (of course), its still so satisfying that I don't feel deprived or like I'm missing anything when I'm watching an standard DVD. The upscaling quality is so much better than my Blu-Ray player that I'll never use... Read more