Customer Reviews
Expensive Paperweight 
2006-02-22
For the first six months I had this it was great, but then it
started to freeze up and would flash "Standby" all night long.
For the price that I paid for this system, I expect it too last a
wee bit longer. This is the second Sony DVD player that I've had
that's broken down in under a year. The quality of Sony's DVD players has really deteriorated in the last few years, I wouldn't recommend buying a DVD player from Sony at all - and I certainly wouldn't recomend this one.
DAV FC9, caveat emptor 
2005-12-29
I had my "dream" system for less than two years when it seized up, flashing "Stand By" and it would not reset. I called Sony and went to a local/approved technician who still had to ship it back to the manufacturing plant. I have been without a DVD/CD system for 4 weeks now and do not have a commitment to get it back. The latest estimate is $300 to fix it, not covered by warranty. I should've stuck with RCA, my previous system was 15 years old and still functioning. Sony's dream is my nightmare. Do not buy it.
Sony DAV-FC9 2005-06-27
Yeah.. this thing stinks. I paid alot of money for it, and its doing exactly what Mike B says too. Thing freeze up all the time, and now when you try to turn it off, it blinks standby indefinately. I even went to bed, and woke up 8 hours later, and it still blinks. You have to unplug it and plug it back in to get it on. (JUNK!) Everytime I buy something from sony, I get burned. This is the 5th item now from Sony, that has failed on me before or in this case just after the warrany expired (UGH). Anyway, buy cheap stuff from walmart. Atleast when it breaks you only paid $50 for it.,, not $1500.
If you are happy with this system now... STANDBY !! 2005-05-06
I loved my system for the first couple of months,looks great,sounds great...After the honeymoon though the DVD's would start to freeze, then the carousel locked up completely, nothing in,nothing out !! Now when you turn it off it just flashes "STANDBY-STANDBY" until you UNPLUG and start over...just to use as surround sound...pathetic! I have a $30.00 Memorex DVD player hooked up to the Video 2 outlet just to play music and movies. To top it all off Sony's Customer Service is a nightmare.Read DEEPLY into other reviews on other websites about this specific unit as I'm not the only one with these problems. P.S Thank you Memorex !
Fantastic HTIB 
2004-04-27
This system is a fantastic HTIB (Home Theater In Box). The DVD player provides a very high quality picture (especially if you take advantage of the component outputs). It may take a while to change CD's when listening to music, but if you just burn an MP3 cd then you can listen to aboyut 250 songs on one CD anyway. The head unit is also sleek and attractive.
The surround sound is fantastic with this system. With each channel at 100w and an ACTIVE (this is important) 150w subwoofer I don't see how anyone could complain about the sound.
A third point about this system is its asthetics. It looks beautiful in any living room and the floor standing speakers look REALLY nice. Sure I suppose you're paying a bit for the Sony name and the looks, but if you can have those 2 things with great sound and functionality then why not spend a little more and never have any regrets. I know I won't.
DONT BUY SONY 2008-03-03
Sony dream systems will break down within a year. I had mine for about two years and it worked fine for the first year but then started to freeze up and flash standby and the only way to reset it was to unplug it. This would work for maybe a half an hour when the problem would start again. For the price it should have lasted longer. Shame on sony for not recalling the product when so many people are experiencing the same product defect. I will never buy anything from sony again.
Defect product line... do not buy .. 2008-01-22
How frustrating to see all these people having the same "standby" issue! I tried contacting Sony. Nothing. They send me a link to a repair center, but that's not what I'm looking for. I paid a lot of money and I think I should receive what I paid for...not something that breaks down in 2 years or less. Has anyone had any luck with Sony about this?
Terrible...... 2007-11-12
Terrible system. Mine actually worked for two years and then died. But their customer support is terrible and I'm looking at a $600 paperweight.......terrible.
Sony DAV-FC9 DVD is Junk 2007-03-30
I bought a Sony home theater with DAV-FC9 DVD player and it lasted less than 2 years. The other reviews indicate the same problem with the system dying at a very young age. I paid the Sony price to get a good system to go along with my Sony WEGA Plasma TV but it didn't work out that way. We used the DVD very little but now the Player is in total lock up. All we get is the "Standby" flashing for hours on end. All buttons are locked up and don't function. We Can't get DVDs in or out of the player. I am very disappointed with this Sony product, I expected better from them. If I am going to get "Junk", than I might as well buy "Junk" and save my money.
fell apart in three years 2007-03-13
I bought this unit in 2004, and it fell apart by Jan. 2007. I got the flashing standby problem disucssed a lot by others here, and I could not play any disc with this unit. It will not even take in any disc, and the only thing still works is sound/speakers. Called customer service, very unhelpful - they just sent me to local service shop. I am very disappointed for paying over $700 for a Sony system that only lasts three years.
