The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[BTBuck1]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...d=1#post379635

ok, got confirmation:

user Brian has entered room

analyst Tom_ has entered room
Tom_>
Hi Brian. Welcome to Sony Online Support. I'm Tom. Please allow me a moment to review your concern.
Tom_>
Thanks for waiting, Brian. I'll be glad to assist you with the information about the firmware update.
Brian>
Yes I hear a firmware update is in the works to allow for internal decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio, is this true?
Tom_>
Brian, the firmware update is available for download.
Brian>
the site makes no mention of it enabling these audio codecs in the firmware update page
Tom_>
I'm sorry the firmware update doesn't allow for internal decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio.
Brian>
do you know if there is word of it comming?
Brian>
A member of Blu-ray.com forums said they called and a rep told them a firmware update was comming that would enable this.
Tom_>
I'm sorry we don't have exact information about the firmware, however you can expect it in the near feature.
Brian>
So it is comming, it's just a matter of sometime down the line?
Tom_>
Yes, Brian.
Brian>
Thank you so much. Sony r0x s0x!
Tom_>
You're welcome.
Tom_>
Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
Brian>
Yes, tell the whole world....Screw HD-DVD!!!
Brian>
=) bye
Tom_>
Good bye and take care.
Tom_>
Thank you for contacting Sony online support today.

[cking2729]

Can anyone that bought a S300 recently tell me if it ships with the latest firmware? The in-laws bought an S300 online from Best Buy on Black Friday, and they aren't exactly tech savvy to the point of burning and installing firmware. I need to know whether it comes with the latest firmware, so I can know whether to burn a disc to upgrade for them when I go to visit.

Also, I've heard some say you can successfully use a CD-R to upgrade? I suspected that would work, but I don't want to go screwing up their $400 player. What about CD-RW? I really don't like the idea of wasting a DVD, or even a CD-R for a 52 MB upgrade.

[mikesoba]

Originally Posted by cking2729

Can anyone that bought a S300 recently tell me if it ships with the latest firmware? The in-laws bought an S300 online from Best Buy on Black Friday, and they aren't exactly tech savvy to the point of burning and installing firmware. I need to know whether it comes with the latest firmware, so I can know whether to burn a disc to upgrade for them when I go to visit.

Also, I've heard some say you can successfully use a CD-R to upgrade? I suspected that would work, but I don't want to go screwing up their $400 player. What about CD-RW? I really don't like the idea of wasting a DVD, or even a CD-R for a 52 MB upgrade.

Can't say if the newest shipments do (or how you can tell if its a newer shipment). Not wanting to bother with downloading and burning, I had Sony ship me a disc, which I received in about 3 days -- but they did require a product serial number to order.

[Blu-Raider]

I upgraded my S300 with version 3.30 less than an hour ago. I used a CD-R instead of a DVD for the upgrade and it worked flawlessly. My unit came loaded with 2.20.

I cold started POTC before and after the upgrade and my load time decreased by almost 40%.

[dsage215]

I recently purchased an S300. Movies play fine, but for some reason it chokes on my JPG and MP3 discs. I've tried this with a couple of different discs (both CD and DVD), but it tells me it cannot play them, even though the S300 is supposed to support these formats. The same discs play fine on my standard (Panasonic) DVD players. Upgrading the firmware to 3.3 hasn't helped, nor has talking to Sony customer service. Discs were burned with Nero 6. Anyone else have this problem?

[mjh421]

Originally Posted by dsage215

I recently purchased an S300. Movies play fine, but for some reason it chokes on my JPG and MP3 discs. I've tried this with a couple of different discs (both CD and DVD), but it tells me it cannot play them, even though the S300 is supposed to support these formats. The same discs play fine on my standard (Panasonic) DVD players. Upgrading the firmware to 3.3 hasn't helped, nor has talking to Sony customer service. Discs were burned with Nero 6. Anyone else have this problem?

The manual says the MP3's and JPG's have to be on an UDF formatted Data DVD. Could this be relevant?

[Pictor]

Originally Posted by tron3

s301 as well.
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu...=BDPS301&LOC=3

Be sure to specify your PC operating sytem before d/l'ing.

I find it almost silly that there is a PC OS requirement for a DVD ISO. I downloaded the XP version and the ISO was inside a self decompressing executable that opened up find on my G5 PowerMac running OS X 10.5. I then burned the ISO to DVD using Toast 7 and it worked fine. I would suspect the same results if I had used my Linux workstation.

[sydney]

dec 19 the bdps300 will go down to 299.00 for a week

[dsage215]

Originally Posted by mjh421

The manual says the MP3's and JPG's have to be on an UDF formatted Data DVD. Could this be relevant?

Thanks for your reply. I'm not really familiar with UDF, but checked Wikipedia and noticed a couple of things:

Some users have reported that video DVDs burned on their computers in UDF version 1.5 are not compatible with their set-top video DVD players. These players seem to be only compatible with UDF version 1.02 (that provides both UDF and ISO 9660 directories.) As some popular DVD burning programs default to UDF version 1.5 when burning video DVDs, users have found it necessary to avoid using the software wizard and instead manually configure the burn to version 1.02. (link)

and

Blu-ray and the DVD Forum's HD DVD will be using UDF 2.50 or UDF 2.60. (link)

As I mentioned, I used Nero 6 to burn my discs (Data CD/DVD option). I haven't changed the default options, but checked to see if there were any settings related to UDF and couldn't find anything.

Any idea how I can check how my discs are formatted or how I can configure the burn to the appropriate UDF version?

[dsage215]

Originally Posted by mjh421

The manual says the MP3's and JPG's have to be on an UDF formatted Data DVD. Could this be relevant?

Thanks for your reply. I'm not really familiar with UDF, but checked Wikipedia and noticed a couple of things:

Some users have reported that video DVDs burned on their computers in UDF version 1.5 are not compatible with their set-top video DVD players. These players seem to be only compatible with UDF version 1.02 (that provides both UDF and ISO 9660 directories.) As some popular DVD burning programs default to UDF version 1.5 when burning video DVDs, users have found it necessary to avoid using the software wizard and instead manually configure the burn to version 1.02. (link)

and

Blu-ray and the DVD Forum's HD DVD will be using UDF 2.50 or UDF 2.60. (link)

As I mentioned, I used Nero 6 to burn my discs (Data CD/DVD option). I haven't changed the default options, but checked to see if there were any settings related to UDF and couldn't find anything.

Any idea how I can check to see how my discs are formatted or how I can configure the burn to the appropriate UDF version?

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by sydney

dec 19 the bdps300 will go down to 299.00 for a week

Where?

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by mikesoba

Can't say if the newest shipments do (or how you can tell if its a newer shipment). Not wanting to bother with downloading and burning, I had Sony ship me a disc, which I received in about 3 days -- but they did require a product serial number to order.

The newer s300's are made in Malaysia, the original shipments were made in Japan.

[sydney]

my sony rep sent email and its should be everywhere

[tron3]

Originally Posted by Blu-Raider

I upgraded my S300 with version 3.30 less than an hour ago. I used a CD-R instead of a DVD for the upgrade and it worked flawlessly. My unit came loaded with 2.20.

...

How long did that upgrade take? I am speculating that reading from the lower bit rate of a CD takes longer to finish. Mine took about 8.5 minutes from DVD-R, not counting the final restart.

[Blu-Raider]

Originally Posted by tron3

How long did that upgrade take? I am speculating that reading from the lower bit rate of a CD takes longer to finish. Mine took about 8.5 minutes from DVD-R, not counting the final restart.

It took about ten minutes -- give or take a few seconds.

[vltor]

Originally Posted by cking2729

Can anyone that bought a S300 recently tell me if it ships with the latest firmware? The in-laws bought an S300 online from Best Buy on Black Friday, and they aren't exactly tech savvy to the point of burning and installing firmware. I need to know whether it comes with the latest firmware, so I can know whether to burn a disc to upgrade for them when I go to visit.

I got my s300 on black friday. It had version 2.00 Upgraded to 3.3 using cdr (burned from my MacBook Pro) as I didn't have a cdrw on hand.

[dsage215]

Originally Posted by mjh421

The manual says the MP3's and JPG's have to be on an UDF formatted Data DVD. Could this be relevant?

Thanks for your reply. I'm not really familiar with UDF, but checked Wikipedia and noticed a couple of things:

Some users have reported that video DVDs burned on their computers in UDF version 1.5 are not compatible with their set-top video DVD players. These players seem to be only compatible with UDF version 1.02 (that provides both UDF and ISO 9660 directories.) As some popular DVD burning programs default to UDF version 1.5 when burning video DVDs, users have found it necessary to avoid using the software wizard and instead manually configure the burn to version 1.02.

and

Blu-ray and the DVD Forum's HD DVD will be using UDF 2.50 or UDF 2.60.

As I mentioned, I burned my discs with Nero 6 (Data CD/DVD option). I haven't changed any of the options from the defaults, but checked to see if there were any settings related to UDF and couldn't find anything.

Is there any way to check the UDF version on my discs or to configure the burn to the correct UDF version?

[heshy]

Two questions

1) is this how i post a ? ... can only find a reply command not a post command.

2) I want to control the bluray with another remote but cannot find the "device number" to enter... the remote's search function doesn't locate the number..???

Thanks in Advance

[tron3]

Originally Posted by dsage215

...

Is there any way to check the UDF version on my discs or to configure the burn to the correct UDF version?

Look under options before you burn. (All software will vary) You want the "Joilet" option.

[dsage215]

Originally Posted by tron3

Look under options before you burn. (All software will vary) You want the "Joilet" option.

Thanks. After some investigation it seems that the ability to burn UDF discs is only available in the "Ultra" edition of Nero 6, while I only have the OEM version. I'll have to see if I can find another program....