The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[drago3451]

Iron man worked first try with my S300 player. I am running the latest firmware. Funny thing is because of the BD-live feature it would not play on my PS3.

[Scorxpion]

Originally Posted by drago3451

Iron man worked first try with my S300 player. I am running the latest firmware. Funny thing is because of the BD-live feature it would not play on my PS3.

Yes it works on a PS3 but you should disable internet capabilities or you have to wait till the movie download and everything will be ok.

[catchley]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

Just set the HDMI audio setting to PCM.

Those other two settings only affect the output from the digital out jack: optical or coxial. If you connected your player to your AVR using an HDMI cable, you don't need to worry about those settings.

Just for your info, I would suggest that when you play discs that have DTS-HD MA, DTS ES discreet, DTS-HD, or DD EX, you may get better sound by switching the HDMI setting to AUTO. That is, let your AVR decode these codecs instead of the S300. The DTS ES and DD EX flags are either ignored or not detected (not sure which) by the S300's decoder, and you will only get 5.1 channels. So if you watch the movie Gladiator and select the DTS ES discreet 6.1 track, you must have the HDMI setting on AUTO unless your AVR cannot decode it. When the S300 decodes DTS-ES 6.1, you will only get 5.1 LPCM output. The same goes for DD Extended (EX). To get that back channel (if you system is a 6.1 or 7.1 setup) you need to leave the setting on AUTO. My own preference based on listening tests that I have done, is to let my AVR decode the DTS-HD MA core. Maybe it's my AVR, but it sounds better than having the S300 decode it (HDMI setting set to PCM). For LPCM 5.1 - 7.1 it doesn't matter which setting you use. Both PCM and AUTO work equally well.

OK, call me a noob. I just installed 4.20 on my S300 and have it connected via HDMI to my Onkyo 605 (no FW update required, I already checked). I played Transformers and Batman Begins through the S300 with the HDMI setting to Auto and set to PCM and in both cases the "TrueHD" light never illuminated on the Onkyo. When set to "Auto" the Onkyo displays "Dolby D" and when set to PCM it displays "Multichannel".

What am I doing wrong?

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by catchley

OK, call me a noob. I just installed 4.20 on my S300 and have it connected via HDMI to my Onkyo 605 (no FW update required, I already checked). I played Transformers and Batman Begins through the S300 with the HDMI setting to Auto and set to PCM and in both cases the "TrueHD" light never illuminated on the Onkyo. When set to "Auto" the Onkyo displays "Dolby D" and when set to PCM it displays "Multichannel".

What am I doing wrong?

There's nothing wrong at all. Here's what's happening.

When HDMI is set to PCM, the player decodes DD-TrueHD to LPCM. The LPCM must be streamed to your AVR via HDMI. Your AVR sees only LPCM being input. It cannot tell if was originally TrueHD because it is only getting LPCM. Thus your AVR will not display DD TrueHD.

When HDMI is set to Auto, your player automatically selects the lossy audio tracks despite your selecting say, DD TrueHD on the BDs audio setup menu. That's because it cannot bitstream lossless DD TrueHD to your receiver. If it could do that, then yes you will see DD TrueHD displayed. Since your player when HDMI is set to Auto, can only bitstream the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1/6.1, that's what your going to see displayed on your AVR. So in this case your should be seeing Dolby D displayed.

So, the bottom line is, if you set your player's HDMI setting to PCM, and select DD TrueHD on the BD movie's setup menu, and be sure you've done that, then your player will decode it to LPCM and send it to your AVR through HDMI. You will only see PCM (on mine, on yours Mulitichannel) displayed on your receiver. But that doesn't mean the source wasn't DD TrueHD originally before it was decoded. The AVR just doesn't know the source other than that it's getting PCM from the player.

Sony really needs to update the S300 manual. It really causes a lot of confusion now that the player can decode DD TrueHD. I have checked the manual pdf file online download but it still isn't updatd for DD TrueHD unfortunately.

[catchley]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

There's nothing wrong at all. Here's what's happening.

When HDMI is set to PCM, the player decodes DD-TrueHD to LPCM. The LPCM must be streamed to your AVR via HDMI. Your AVR sees only LPCM being input. It cannot tell if was originally TrueHD because it is only getting LPCM. Thus your AVR will not display DD TrueHD.

When HDMI is set to Auto, your player automatically selects the lossy audio tracks despite your selecting say, DD TrueHD on the BDs audio setup menu. That's because it cannot bitstream lossless DD TrueHD to your receiver. If it could do that, then yes you will see DD TrueHD displayed. Since your player when HDMI is set to Auto, can only bitstream the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1/6.1, that's what your going to see displayed on your AVR. So in this case your should be seeing Dolby D displayed.

So, the bottom line is, if you set your player's HDMI setting to PCM, and select DD TrueHD on the BD movie's setup menu, and be sure you've done that, then your player will decode it to LPCM and send it to your AVR through HDMI. You will only see PCM (on mine, on yours Mulitichannel) displayed on your receiver. But that doesn't mean the source wasn't DD TrueHD originally before it was decoded. The AVR just doesn't know the source other than that it's getting PCM from the player.

Sony really needs to update the S300 manual. It really causes a lot of confusion now that the player can decode DD TrueHD. I have checked the manual pdf file online download but it still isn't updatd for DD TrueHD unfortunately.

So do all BRD players output TrueHD in this same way or just the S300 because it wasn't natively supported until 4.2?

Second question, am I losing any quality in the conversion from TrueHD to LPCM?

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by catchley

So do all BRD players output TrueHD in this same way or just the S300 because it wasn't natively supported until 4.2?

Some do. Some don't. Your player can only internally decode TrueHD to LPCM. The Sony PS3 is another player that does that. Others like the Panny 30 can only bitstream DD TrueHD to you AVR via HDMI to do the decoding. Still others can either decode internally or bitstream TrueHD to your AVR. The Sony S550 is one that does either way.

Your S300's DSP chipset is capable of internally decoding TrueHD. However it needs a set of instructions before it can do that. That's what the 4.20 FW update gave your player.

Originally Posted by catchley

Second question, am I losing any quality in the conversion from TrueHD to LPCM?

No. The original audio master was LPCM. LPCM master to lossless compression (TrueHD) to LPCM is a totally digital process. Quality is not lost in the decoding stage. You are probably thinking of the DACs which is digital to analog conversion. That's where audio quality might suffer. Your AVR has the DACs. Some BD players with analog outputs also have onboard DACs. The best DACs of course are found in high end audio equipment. Your Onkyo 605 has decent DACs, not the best, but slightly better than average.

[QwikSand]

So have all of you with 4.20 gotten Iron Man to play? I don't have the movie yet to test.

[JasonR]

Yep, watched it twice!

[QwikSand]

Awesome, great to know. Thanks Jason.

[tron3]

Originally Posted by QwikSand

So have all of you with 4.20 gotten Iron Man to play? I don't have the movie yet to test.

Loads up in 90 seconds, which is good on the Tron scale. Funny thing though, when I started to play the movie from scene 1 it locked and froze at abou 59.56 into the movie. The point where Iron Man spots the Ferris Wheel on his first flight.

When I play it from the main menu it plays fine. Haven't tried it again. Just a relief that it plays.

[QwikSand]

This seems to be one of your fastest load times, or at least the fastest of your tests that you've posted.

[drago3451]

Originally Posted by Scorxpion

Yes it works on a PS3 but you should disable internet capabilities or you have to wait till the movie download and everything will be ok.

To date everything is working fine with the PS3 but on release day even after I disabled the connection it failed to give me audio. It was not until I consulted with this site that I knew to delete the stored Iron Man file and start over. Thank god I love this stuff and am part of this site. If not I would still be having problems with the PS3. Not everyone will have this resource because they do not know about it.

[Sherm]

I have Roxie Easy creator 5. I do not have the burn image option on this software. When I created the disc it had the correct amount of data on the disc. I used the make a data CD option for this

Will this work for the upgrade ?

Will it harm the player if not copied properly ?

[tron3]

Originally Posted by QwikSand

This seems to be one of your fastest load times, or at least the fastest of your tests that you've posted.

No, any of the PotC movies now load faster, as does the Spidey trilogy. Longest load time I have is Madagascar. 2.20. Next firmware release should drop that down. Unless they fudge it again.

[Yeha-Noha]

+1

I totally agree. Thus when I do, if I do, decommission my S300 tank, Sony can rest assured that I will be looking at their players when I decide to upgrade. Their product support is exemplary, par excellence!

[jedi-bob]

My receiver (after the firmware upgrade) reads PCM 48, rather than DTS.

What does the "48" stand for?

[JasonR]

I would assume 48kHz.

[InfectedStranger]

Sony is all good but gets kind of annoying how they are at the top when Samsung should.

[Yeha-Noha]

Sony Samsung

[l3jmr]

I have a problem with updating to 4.20 on my player. I've been doing it step by step via sony support page and it stoped at step nr.6:
- A series of different messages will appear on the front panel display. This is normal. Do not operate the player during that time.

There were several different msges and the tray has opened but i havent seen the final step yet: "When the firmware update is completed, “DL OK” appears on the player front panel display."

Player just shut itself off with tray still opened, what should i do ?