The Sony BDP-S1 Review Thread

[Rheologuy]

I've had my BDP-S1 for a little over a month. Noticed it seems very touchy about playing even brand new BR disks and some standard DVD's too. Most frequently it says "Cannot play this disk". Opening/closing the tray sometimes takes care of it, but sometimes have to cycle the power (a pain of course because it takes minutes for it to "prepare itself"). Sometimes it will show the opening few seconds of video, then says "Unknown content" and loses the video although the sound continues. Again, cycling power sometimes fixes, but it can take several tries at this before it finally decides to work. I've had it stop several times on a disk that has no visible marks, dirt, or damage (sometimes continues after skipping, sometimes refuses to go on).

I've scanned this thread and it doesn't seem that many people have had the problems I describe. Should I exchange it? Thanks for your suggestions. Way too expensive for such funky behavior.

Otherwise, I love it, I have to admit. I have a Sony XBR2 46" system, HDMI cables, and I'm ga-ga over Discovery HD channel. Basketball games are fantastic, baseball also, waiting till football season to see what that's like. My only frustration has been the limited selection of BD movies and the agonizing slowness with which new releases are coming out. "Planet Earth" almost makes up for it.

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by Rheologuy

I've scanned this thread and it doesn't seem that many people have had the problems I describe. Should I exchange it? Thanks for your suggestions. Way too expensive for such funky behavior.

Sounds defective, take it back.

[TJandBLU-RAY]

(First Post)

I have had the player for about a month now; I have a MAC, so I called SONY®, and got them to send me the firmware update, and installed it.

My player is hooked up to the latest SONY® A/V device, (with two HDMI in, and one HDMI out). I go from that to a OPTOMA Projector, that accepts and displays 1080p (as well as lower settings). I have the OUTPUT on the BD player set to 1080p. This seems to be correct.

My question for this forum, is this: I was watching SHREK on DVD and this little 'projector' icon was on the screen while I started the movie; I hit the menu button, and it would go away. Not so much a big thing, but it was the first time that it had happened (On a regular DVD, that is).

Then, I was watching SHREK 2 on DVD, and about 15 minutes in, this screen saver pops up; the sound kept going, but the screen saver was there till I hit any button. Why would that happen? I should mention, I am very happy with the machine otherwise, despite it's glacier like speed when it comes to booting up. I hear that SONY® has a new player coming out soon, for $600, and it will play CD as well; maybe I should have waited? Dunno.

I will also mention that I have a TON of SONY® products, so I love their gear.

[ClaytonMG]

The upgrade is out now (surprised no one has mentioned it yet... unless I magically missed it). Supposedly helps some BD-Java features and whatnot...

Clayton

[Jim L]

Here's the link!

Enjoy!

I sure hope that it does something about speeding up player response.

It only really mentions BD-J stuff. I have noticed it takes a while to read certain discs (like The Guardian). But I haven't had trouble playing anything.

Please post your results in this thread all BDP-S1 owners.

[ClaytonMG]

The errors on Big Fish are fixed. When selecting PCM, it actually stays selected. Also (and this is a bigger deal to me), if you open up the menu during the movie, when you're done it actually closes the menu. Unlike before when the menu would leave a little line on the movie unless you actually shut the player off.

[Jim L]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

The errors on Big Fish are fixed. When selecting PCM, it actually stays selected. Also (and this is a bigger deal to me), if you open up the menu during the movie, when you're done it actually closes the menu. Unlike before when the menu would leave a little line on the movie unless you actually shut the player off.

That's great!

I just got Big Fish recently and that happened to me. I just thought there was something wrong with that movie. I have been hesitant to watch it again because of the funny line that stayed on the screen.

Does it make your movies start any faster? Let us know.

[fparais]

The 1080/24fps playback problem is fixed. I watched Casino Royal, and they are no judder issue anymore.

Wonderful. :-)

[TJandBLU-RAY]

I have APPLE® OS, so I have had to in the past, order (it's free, BTW), the update disc from SONY®. Which I find odd, since APPLE® is a corporate partner with SONY® on this project. You think that SONY® would support APPLE®.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up; I just called SONY® and another update disc is on the way.

[ClaytonMG]

It doesn't seem to load any faster unfortunately. But I have an HD-DVD player too, so the long load times don't upset me to much. I just tell myself "it could be slow all the time."

[theknub]

or: at least this works all the time

[thebluemax]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

The upgrade is out now (surprised no one has mentioned it yet... unless I magically missed it). Supposedly helps some BD-Java features and whatnot...

Clayton

Thanks for the info, sure hope it corrects the frame jumping thru 1080/24p?

[thebluemax]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

It doesn't seem to load any faster unfortunately. But I have an HD-DVD player too, so the long load times don't upset me to much. I just tell myself "it could be slow all the time."

My BDP-S1 loads pretty fast, much faster then the DUD Tosh players.

[Jim]

As with the previous update instructions, they are slightly off.

After you first insert the update disk, you will see the 'DISC - DWLD' message for about 30 seconds and then your player will turn off, and then back on. After about 2 minutes the tray will open and you will first see the message 'DOWNLOAD - 1' for maybe 10 minutes and then the message 'DOWNLOAD - 2' for 2 - 3 minutes and then you get the 'DL OK' message and then your player turns off. But at no point does the disk tray shut again after it opens the first time.

But just leave it alone until you see the 'DL OK' message and your player turns off for the 2nd time, then you are good to take the disk out of the tray, turn your player back on, and the upgrade should be finished.

[Donnie Eldridge]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

Thanks for the info, sure hope it corrects the frame jumping thru 1080/24p?

It's already been confirmed by several people. 1080/24P is golden now.

[ccplant]

My LXG does play anymore with the new firmware installed. Menus loads up but won't play my movie.

Does anyone have the same problem?

[TJandBLU-RAY]

I have the SONY player, I forget the whole title of the player, but anywho, I think I need the firmware update as well, so the menus will work correctly. 1.6 just came out.

[Jim L]

Originally Posted by ccplant

My LXG does play anymore with the new firmware installed. Menus loads up but won't play my movie.

Does anyone have the same problem?

Not only does LXG play on my player with 1.60, but it loads much faster than it did before.

Once you're viewing the movie, the popup overlay menu animation is super-fast now too. It used to be painfully slow. (It looked ok, just slow.)

I noticed The Descent loads faster too.

It may be my imagination, but the player now seems to respond faster to certain remote commands (not all). Now if this player were as fast as a regular DVD player and had Power-off resume for BD's, it would be perfect for me! (Do you hear me Sony?)

[Coltboy]

I had some problems with the patch but i called Sony and they helped me through it ,and under a 10 min phone call, and they spoke ENGLISH! i was very pleased with sony tech support.

[ClaytonMG]

Has anyone had any problems with HDMI drop outs? I am not sure if something happened to my reciever of it something is wrong with the firmware upgrade because the picture and sound keep dropping out for me...