The Sony BDP-S360 Review Thread

[connect42]

Originally Posted by DaveXX

Hi connect42, I am new to this forum but I like what I see so far. I just got S360 a few days ago myself and I am a very happy with this unit. To activate the HD formats to A/V receiver. Go to the audio setting/BD audio setting click on DIRECT and your good to go.

Thanks. I did that and it worked perfectly.

Has anybody else experienced that green flicker on the Sony main menu screen?
It seems to happen every few seconds. It doesn't seem to happen during disc playback.

[SquidPuppet]

Does this player have slow motion AND/OR frame-by-frame advance?

Thanks

[arthursiew]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Does this player have slow motion AND/OR frame-by-frame advance?

Thanks

I'm not sure, as I have already packed the player to China. Some people said that the features dont exist, but some say the opposite.

[djc11369]

I've had my S360 for close to a month now and it's been a really good player. Saw V had a freeze glitch toward the end of the movie, it was a Blockbuster rental and although I couldn't see anything on the disc I can't really say for sure. I programmed the eject button on my Harmony 880 and it works perfectly, I used the S350 to set it up. As far as slow motion, if you put it in pause and press the fast forward button it advances frame by frame and if held plays in slow motion. As far as the resume feature, the book should say no matter what blu-ray disc you put in you will not be able to resume from where you left off. At least that's my experience thus far. I put in a flash drive that I had laying around and it recognized it just fine. I read somewhere of complaints of the recessed usb port for this but I'm not sure why. The recess is big and I'm not sure what usb drive, ancient or otherwise, wouldn't fit. I'll probably never use the live features anyways but it's there if I decide to experiment some day.

[c22600]

Originally Posted by arthursiew

This player does decode DTS True HD and Master Audio. This is not the 350, but the 360.

Just received my 360 & I am very happy with it. A couple of questions though regarding the decoding of DTS Master Audio etc.

1) How do you make the 360 decode the DTS Master and pass the decoded signal to the AVR?
2) How do you turn off the on-board decoging and have the AVR do the decoding?

I do not see the options available in the audio setup menus. The only thing that comes close is the MIX / DIRECT option.

In DIRECT playing Rambo 4, the OSD from the Sony displays DTS Master Audio 3/4.1 and the Denon 3808 displays DTS Master Audio 7.1. This seems ok to me and the Denon is doing the decoding.

In MIX playing Rambo 4, the OSD from the Sony displays Dolby Digital 3/2.1 and the Denon 3808 displays Multi Channel In. This seems to me that the Sony is doing the decoding but not in DTS Master Audio.

I cannot find any references to this in the manual. Does anyone know?

[c22600]

Originally Posted by djc11369

Actually you have it backwards. In Direct the player is passing the undecoded signal to your receiver for decoding and is why you can see what the signal is on your receiver. In mix the signal is already decoded hence why your receiver doesn't know what is other than multi channel. Hope this helps.

Tks for the response and this is basically what I had said, same as you. DIRECT is bitstreaming raw data to the AVR for processing, hence the AVR displays it correctly.

If this is correct for the MIX mode then the 360 is not properly decoding all the channels of the DTS MAster Audio track as it only displays the output as 5.1 (speaker icons on the AVR display). Rambo 4 has a 7.1 audio.

Still does't seem right.

[djc11369]

My bad, I read it again and did a forehead smack. You're hooked up via HDMI I presume? I see there are additional setting if you're using the optical or coaxial but I'm sure you would have already gone there if that were the case.

[c22600]

Originally Posted by djc11369

My bad, I read it again and did a forehead smack. You're hooked up via HDMI I presume? I see there are additional setting if you're using the optical or coaxial but I'm sure you would have already gone there if that were the case.

No worries, appreciate the input.

Yes, using HDMI. I don't have an issue with the 360 and it appears to be doing what I want in DIRECT mode. I am more curious about the stated on-board decoding as typically you would use 5.1 or 7.1 analoge out (BDP 550) to an AVR that does not have the hi-def audio decoding built in.

I keep seeing references to the 360 having the hi-def decoders and the 350 doesn't. My brother has the 350 and as far as we can tell, the 2 machines are pretty much identical in the audio department.

I would ring Sony here in Australia but the 360 hasn't been released here yet, mine is a US model as I want a region A machine as well.

Definitions from the manual:
MIX - Outputs the audio obtained by mixing the interactive audio and secondary audio to the primary audio.

DIRECT - Outputs the primary audio only.

By definition, this option does not switch between bitstream and on-board decoding.

[Hillstones]

Load times are very fast compared to first generation Blu Ray players. Remember, those took almost two minutes to load a Blu Ray disc. I don't care about an eject button on the remote. I would think most have their player inside an audio rack entertainment center with a door, so having an eject button on the remote wouldn't be used anyway.

The 350 and 360 do not have built-in audio decoders. However, they are capable of sending out the hi-def audio bitstreams through HDMI so a receiver can decode the signal. The 360 now does DTS-MA, the 350 did not.

When a player has a built-in decoder, like the S550, the player decodes the audio and outputs the signal through a Multi-Channel Analog Audio Output. The new S560 is dropping that feature and will no longer have the Multi-Channel Analog Audio Output. However, it will have a built-in Wi-Fi chipset to make connecting to Wi-Fi networks easier than the S550. The S360 did not get the Wi-Fi to keep costs low.

So far, BD-Live is a useless feature. I have yet to discover a Blu Ray title that had any BD Live content worth looking at. However, having my S550 connected to my Wireless network (through an Apple AirPort Express Base Station) makes downloading and installing updates a breeze.

I think the S360 is a great new model and with prices dropping, they will be more attractive to consumers. The new S560 is due out this summer, and will also have a $50 price drop like the S360.

[c22600]

Originally Posted by Hillstones

Load times are very fast compared to first generation Blu Ray players. Remember, those took almost two minutes to load a Blu Ray disc. I don't care about an eject button on the remote. I would think most have their player inside an audio rack entertainment center with a door, so having an eject button on the remote wouldn't be used anyway.

The 350 and 360 do not have built-in audio decoders. However, they are capable of sending out the hi-def audio bitstreams through HDMI so a receiver can decode the signal. The 360 now does DTS-MA, the 350 did not.

When a player has a built-in decoder, like the S550, the player decodes the audio and outputs the signal through a Multi-Channel Analog Audio Output. The new S560 is dropping that feature and will no longer have the Multi-Channel Analog Audio Output. However, it will have a built-in Wi-Fi chipset to make connecting to Wi-Fi networks easier than the S550. The S360 did not get the Wi-Fi to keep costs low.

So far, BD-Live is a useless feature. I have yet to discover a Blu Ray title that had any BD Live content worth looking at. However, having my S550 connected to my Wireless network (through an Apple AirPort Express Base Station) makes downloading and installing updates a breeze.

I think the S360 is a great new model and with prices dropping, they will be more attractive to consumers. The new S560 is due out this summer, and will also have a $50 price drop like the S360.

Tks for the clarification on the HD decoding, just as I thought although, the 350 does bitstream DTS-MA, I have seen it do so, well seen the Denon 3808 display this on the front panel, same as the 360.

[djc11369]

I think Hillstones is partially right on the decoding. If you check the specs it says that it decodes TrueHD but for DTS HD it says it outputs bitstream and doesn't mention decoding. This is going by the specs listed for the player at Sonystyle, I can't figure out from the operating instructions what it does...very confusing.

[c22600]

Originally Posted by djc11369

I think Hillstones is partially right on the decoding. If you check the specs it says that it decodes TrueHD but for DTS HD it says it outputs bitstream and doesn't mention decoding. This is going by the specs listed for the player at Sonystyle, I can't figure out from the operating instructions what it does...very confusing.

Yeah your right guys, bitstream only but that's ok, let the Denon earn it's keep.... Thanks guys for shedding some light on this, has helped....

[JoshKelhoffer]

Watched Quantum of Solace and Dark Knight on it, no problem. But my Indiana Jones disc froze up about halfway through. It then jumps ahead two minutes. It does this at about 58 minutes in.

It did that on the Phillips player I had at exactly the same spot, so maybe it's the disc. The disc itself doesn't have a scratch, and of course, I've cleaned what little dust there was off of it.

It doesn't seem to do it on my PS3.

So was there any playback issues for Indiana Jones IV when it came out? Or are these players more sensitive to tiny specs of dust than the PS3 is?

[robertc88]

Originally Posted by JoshKelhoffer

Watched Quantum of Solace and Dark Knight on it, no problem. But my Indiana Jones disc froze up about halfway through. It then jumps ahead two minutes. It does this at about 58 minutes in.

It did that on the Phillips player I had at exactly the same spot, so maybe it's the disc. The disc itself doesn't have a scratch, and of course, I've cleaned what little dust there was off of it.

It doesn't seem to do it on my PS3.

So was there any playback issues for Indiana Jones IV when it came out? Or are these players more sensitive to tiny specs of dust than the PS3 is?

I'll check later today as I'll have some time to try the IJ BD which I haven't gotten to since I got this player.

[robertc88]

No problem whatsoever with Indiana Jones on my player as I tried it last night. I'd have to say it is a bad disc then.

[Cortiz]

If I recalled correctly, there were actually some issues with Indy when it was first released and I think it was the movie itself, not the players.

[Blu-Moon]

I like the new 360, just wish Sony had seen fit to retain the logo from their other Blu-ray players. Our BDP-S350 has a small raised Blu-ray "badge" on the load door, while the 360 we just got has what appears to be a silk-screened Blu-ray logo on the front panel facing.

Since I will occasionally run a soft cloth wipe over these two players to keep them dust-free, my hope is that the BDP-S360's cheaper-looking Blu-ray logo won't wear off over time.

[hoju3508]

From the picture, it looks black instead of blue. Is this correct?

[septim]

I'm kind of confused. What do you mean by impressive PQ and AQ? As compared to what? Blu Ray playback should be identical unless the player applies post processing.

[djc11369]

Okay, my first problem with this although not a real big deal. I tried the BD Live on the Underworld Rise of the Lycans and it keeps telling me to check the internet connection. I go out to the player menu and everything is fine with the internet connection. Not sure if it's a movie or player issue. Anyone else try this on this movie with success? Like I said it's not a big deal as I don't see this being something I'll do ever in the long term. I just thought I'd check it out to see what was there.