The Sony BDP-S1 Review Thread

[TimothyGCook]

Thank you!

[tomellmes]

im looking to import this to the UK, anyone know if that is possible and if i will need a converter for the mains??

[Greggles]

Yes on both counts. I bought mine from this guy on Ebay (he's actually selling it cheaper now). You will have to allow for import duty/ vat on top of this, but you may be lucky like me and HMC&E may miss it.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SONY-BDP-S1-Bl...QQcmdZViewItem

Alternatively, if you want a bit more security (limited warranty) try MovieTyme (a lot more expensive though):

http://www.movietyme.com/catalog/pro...ucts_id=32089&

Re: step down voltage converter, I have always used Tacima toroidal ones. These are very high quality, although they look a bit odd and (despite the name) are made in Ilford. They are actually unofficially recommended by Russ Andrews. Available through TLC Electrical:

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SC5328.html

[tomellmes]

thanks very much, can i mix uk and us equipment ( for example amp from uk etc and BD player from US???

[Greggles]

Yes, as you can see form my sigature, i do! just make sure you don't plug the BDP directly into the 240v mains!

[aas5]

I am debating whether I should be this or PS3? Did anyone buy PS3 and later regretted not going with a stand alone player?

[theknub]

i have a standalone and a ps3. while i don't regret buying the standalone, i would have been better served trying to wait it out a bit longer. who knew though that i'd find a ps3 so quick.

[Kierre]

I always intended to get both, the stand alone and the PS3. I have dedicated theater space, with many high end audio/videophile components. For me, gaming on a large projection screen is not an option for me... it kind of makes me ill.

[aas5]

thanks. I assume the quality is the same, so the issue is only the remote and how good the controls are? what else should I be thinking about? Both have HDMI?

Also, I think the standalone supports 7.1 audio set up. what about PS3?

[Jim L]

I just eBayed the PS3.

I think the PS3 is an impressive piece of equipment, but in terms of PQ the BDP-S1 is (to me) way better. I think the BDP-S1 has better contrast, color, resolution, depth, and black levels. The standalone also upconverts standard DVDs beautifully. DVD's look hideous on the PS3.

I'm beginning to enjoy the LPCM tracks on BD movies too, which I can't do with the PS3 because it doesn't have analog outs. (My receiver is not HDMI.) I was partially interested in the PS3 because of SACD playback, but still without the analog outs I can't enjoy that. I'm not willing to dump a perfectly good receiver just to get HDMI at this point in time.

I'm not really a console gamer either so I couldn't justify having it. I'll just use the shekels for more BD movies.

[Tomko]

Hi, while this is my first post as a member, I've been lurking here for several months.

I just went to buy a BDP-S1, recently released in Canada, but discovered that its remote control does not have an Instant Replay button. I have one of these buttons for my DVP-NS700P and I use it all of the time. This is a deal breaker for me.

Does anyone know of a solution to engage a one button five or ten second replay?

Thanks,

Tomko

[Kierre]

Take a look at the Logitech Harmony Universal Remote. It's one of the best one's I have seen for the price, and one of its primary features is compiling sequential commands into one press of a button. I think this would satisfy your 'instant replay' and assist with your entire setup at the same time.

Originally Posted by Jim L

I think the PS3 is an impressive piece of equipment, but in terms of PQ the BDP-S1 is (to me) way better. I think the BDP-S1 has better contrast, color, resolution, depth, and black levels. The standalone also upconverts standard DVDs beautifully. DVD's look hideous on the PS3.

I agree with you.

In my opinion PS3 is a great BR Player but BDP-S1 is better. The image from BDP-S1 is more clean and I can see more grain when I´m using PS3. I also think that BDP-S1 is a little bit sharper than PS3.

Two things annoys me in PS3:
- The PS3 lacks display on its panel (because is a game).
- When I insert the disc PS3 do not start automatically to play. I need to go on dashboard and select what I want to see.

EDITING: Using joystick like remote control is very boring also, and I do not like the menu that appears when you use joystick with blu-ray movies.

PS3 is faster than BDP-S1, but I really like my BDP-S1 and I prefer it for BR movies.

I use a LCD Projector - Sanyo PLV-Z3 (HDMI) that I´m going to replace for Panasonic AE1000 (LCD 1080p).

Review of BDP-S1 on Secrets, like DVD Player.

Only a few words about Blu-ray, but it received a good comments

The Sony BDP-S1 is the first Blu-ray player to not rely on a stand-alone video processing chip for the majority of its video processing duties. Both the Samsung and Panasonic players that we reviewed before put in a video processing chip to handle its de-interlacing duties for both SD and HD content. While this may be a good thing for SD performance, it can take its toll on HD performance, depending on how good the video processing chip is with HD de-interlacing.

...

On the HD side, I was quite impressed with the Sony. The video was as good as I’ve seen from any other player at this point, and its support for 1080p24 was welcomed. Unfortunately it does not support decoding of Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master audio, but I’ve heard rumors that support (a downloadable software update) for at least Dolby TrueHD is in the works.

Overall, I can’t recommend the Sony BDP-S1 as a standard DVD playback device, but if you are just looking for a Blu-ray player, then this one is definitely worth a look. While I don’t think it is as future proof as the Panasonic design, the available 1080p24 output is enticing for those of us with displays that can take advantage of it. Be on the look out for the full review soon.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-b...%20(Component)

[Gary Murrell]

I knew the Sony didn't have the CUE bug, makes a world of difference with HD, its the first HD/BR player I have ever tested that doesn't have a CUE bug(including every Toshiba and the Samsung BR)

-Gary

[minchtree]

Could the speed in which the BDP-S1 loads and plays a BR be improved via a firmware update. It takes a long time to get the movie going.

[rbuzz]

I posted here about 2 weeks ago about a problem I was having with a brand new bdp-s1. While trying it out for the first time it played the blu-ray disc and the prerecorded dvd fine, but when I put in a dvd r- backup of a movie that I own it locked up. It will power on and off but will do nothing else. It will not eject the disc nor will the blue screen on the tv come on. It is totally dead except for showing "power on" on the front panel. I contacted sony support and they tried a few things such as having me unplug it or holding in the power button for 10 seconds, but nothing worked. In the end he suggested that I exchange it for another unit. I did exchange it for a brand new player and tried it out this past Saturday. It did exactly the same thing. I contacted sony again and after about 2 1/2 hrs on the phone they could come up with nothing. It went to a level 2 technician. He said that as he understood it I am not the only one with this problem and the engineers are working on a fix. Has anyone else had this problem? It seems that at the very least if it is a disc that the unit is having a problem playing, it should show a disc error or say that it cannot play this disc, or anything but totally locking up the player. Sony support and the owners manual both state that a DVD r- should play in this unit. I was just curious if anyone else has had this problem. Right now I am waiting to see if the electronics company will exchange this unit for another one. I guess that if they do I'll just have to restrict its use to either blu-ray or regular dvds.

[timb2112]

I made a music disc (mp3) on DVD-R that played fine.

[dwberryman]

Have you tried un-grounding the AVR with a two prong adapter plug? I had hum at one time but when I put the two prong adapter on my AVR the hum was gone. If this doesn't work you may need to put the adaptor on the player...a course of trial and error. All of my components are already grounded through a Monster AVS 2000 power regulator unit so un-grounding one of my components is of no subsequence. Good luck for I now how annoying a "hum" can be.

[rbuzz]

Thanks for the suggestion, but a humm isn't the problem. My player is for all intents and purposes dead. It shows "power on" on the front panel and will do nothing else. I also have a Monster HT Power Center for my player also so I know it is properly grounded. The Sony tech said that from what he understands I am not the only one having this problem and that the engineers are working on a solution. He said that a possible future update might be in the works. All I know is that Sony states in their literature and online that this player will work with r- DVDs and I based my purchase on that information. I was hoping to get a player that would work with all of my DVDs, both my present collection of regular DVD's and my future collection of blu-ray discs. I guess I'll probably have to invest in a second regular DVD player to handle this type of disc and hope that I don't forget and put the wrong disc in and lock up the works. At the very least maybe they can put in a software update that will put out a message that a disc that will not play in the unit when it is inserted and allow you to remove the disc instead of freezing up everything and forcing you to take the player in for service. I can tell you it's no fun when you have just put out almost a thousand dollars on a new DVD player and it won't do anything. The company that I bought the unit from is talking to their Sony rep and is supposed to contact me later today with any suggestions on how to handle this.