I totally agree with mvsiva. I purchased this model sometime back and after one year the unit started giving problems.
Sometimes it was unable to play even VCDs (forget DVDs). I got frustrated to read "CANNOT PLAY THIS DISC" on my TV screeen so I went to Sony service center. They repaired, charged high and gave me one month warranty. But after 2-3 months, the same started again. I don’t have a clue whether this model is a money pit or something else. But at least it is not a DVD player because it can play VCDs sometimes but not DVDs.
My suggestion is don’t go for this model or rather I should say don’t go for Sony DVD players. There are many other good brands out there which are cheap and better than Sony DVD players. For example - take Sony DivX players. Other brands are offering MPEG-4 playback capability with their DivX players but Sony DivX players play DivX only not Xvid or any other MPEG-4.