The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[jwn77]

Originally Posted by minimalist

I've had my BDP S300 since last February and this has been a consistent issue since day one.

Some BD's load fine and seem to play fine at first. But then at some point they cause the player to stutter, freeze and eventually reboot. Often after rebooting the machine will not load the problem BD giving the message, "cannot play this disc". Sometimes it won't even play other DVD's that previously played fine before the freeze. Resetting the machine solves inability to load discs but the problem BD still freezes at the exact same point every time. Multiple copies of the problem BD's replicate the issue.

At first I thought it was just bad encoding but it has happened with far too many BD's over the last year for this to be likely. Its not scratches because these discs are pretty much brand new. And its not firmware updates because I have updated every time there's a new update on the Sony site.

Does anybody have a clue as to what is causing this? Sony has been little help because the problem is sporadic and can't be produced on demand.

I just encountered the same problem for the first time while watching Step Brothers. The disk played fine until about the 27 minute mark and then froze and the player automatically turned off. When I turned back on I got the "Can't Play" message. I followed all the troubleshooting steps online and I'm on firmware v4.5 but still nothing. So far I'm still able to run other disks, but from what I hear I can expect this problem to persist.

I called Sony support and I'm out of luck becuase my warranty ran out. They want me to ship my player to a repair shop and pre-pay $150 to get it fixed??? How do I know I need to get my player fixed if I've only experienced the problem one time so far?? I'm getting very frusterated with this player and Sony.

[nycomet]

That's why I replaced my BDP S300 with a Playstation 3. The S300 was too unreliable. Sony should be held accountable for selling a semi-lemon.

[Edwin]

Originally Posted by nycomet

That's why I replaced my BDP S300 with a Playstation 3. The S300 was too unreliable. Sony should be held accountable for selling a semi-lemon.

Mine plays everything fine.

[Ibconfused]

Is there a factory reset for this player? I am really having problems with this thing. To much freezing, Can't play disc, and just slow loading times. I am running the latest 4.50 firmware and I think it made it worse.

[eddievanhalen]

Originally Posted by Edwin

Mine plays everything fine.

So does mine, I'm very happy with it.

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by Ibconfused

Is there a factory reset for this player? I am really having problems with this thing. To much freezing, Can't play disc, and just slow loading times. I am running the latest 4.50 firmware and I think it made it worse.

Page 53 of the owner's manual. With power on, press and hold the STOP button on the front panel and then press the on/off button. The player will reset to factory settings. If this doesn't help, it sounds to me like your transport is beginning to fail. If its still under warranty, I would contact Sony ASAP and get it repaired.

[tek101]

Originally Posted by krisjan

Page 53 of the owner's manual. With power on, press and hold the STOP button on the front panel and then press the on/off button. The player will reset to factory settings. If this doesn't help, it sounds to me like your transport is beginning to fail. If its still under warranty, I would contact Sony ASAP and get it repaired.

I think He meant to reset the FW V4.50 back to the original one when He bought it...?

And No.....I don't know how to.
I recently asked Sony's tech.support (For a friend)and they all said NO.
Sony wants me to send in player for repair with $125.00 Prepaid before they take a look at it.
Luckily mine works fine .

[SquidPuppet]

Mine has been perfect for 16 months. I hope it stays that way because "upgrading" to a 350 or 550 means the loss of slow motion. I really enjoy this feature for sports flicks and when rewatching action flicks. I cant understand why Sony would eliminate such a basic feature.

[jomari]

you cant replace your current firmware with an older version.

sad reality about this player is that
1. you get a perfectly working unit
2. you have a lemon
3. you HAD a perfect unit until you updated its firmware.

its a great player, and for old schoolers like myself, i love the multichannel analog outputs it has. its got a great DAC as well, and great picture for the price point. ive mentioned it before, and i hope to mention it here as well.

folks, lets also face the fact that its an outdated model. you wanted the best blu-ray player and as an early adopter, you had either one of the three i just mentioned.

dont let our impatience ruin its performance and capabilities. its a slow player, and we get that part. do something else while your not watching. grab a beer, drink your anxiety pills, or what not. by the time your back, you get the chance to watch your featured film. if it still displeases you, then do yourself a favor and get a newer model. heck for the quickies out there, get a ps3 if speeds your problem.

i got mine for 109 clams. for the right considerable price, this is an outstanding player. you get the blu-ray processing of a sony source, plus the multichannels output that you'd have to get the 550 or the panny bd-55 for half a grand.

[monkyman]

I've had mine since they first came out and have never had an issue with it playing movies, other than a couple cracked ones from netflix. I'm not running 4.5 however, I usually wait to upgrade after reading others reviews on it.

[tek101]

Originally Posted by monkyman

I've had mine since they first came out and have never had an issue with it playing movies, other than a couple cracked ones from netflix. I'm not running 4.5 however, I usually wait to upgrade after reading others reviews on it.

Smart move.....
But then you'd never know if new FW will mess up until Its too late.
As you can see..It happens randomly to one but not the others....
Enjoy while you can

[Dreedree]

Thanks for updating the Sony S300 Firmware-page.

[seeker_moc]

I have had some problems with freezing of this player, but only from BR movies from the Blockbuster mail service. Whenever I got a bluray in the mail from Blockbuster about 50% of them wouldn't play at all. It would say something like "can not play this disk". From the half that would play, about half of them would freeze during playback (75% total failure rate). Even after reloading the disk, it would freeze at the exact same point, or not load at all. These were all near-new scratch free disks. I have never had this problem with any DVD or with a Blu-Ray that I bought or rented from an actual Blockbuster store. I've since switched to Netflix, and have not had a problem since.

[DUKEMOUNTAIN]

Does anyone have the 007 blu-rays , I got dr.no to play once, and now neither 007 blu ray's I have play, anyone else having that problem
bdp s300 v 4.25

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by seeker_moc

I have had some problems with freezing of this player, but only from BR movies from the Blockbuster mail service. Whenever I got a bluray in the mail from Blockbuster about 50% of them wouldn't play at all. It would say something like "can not play this disk". From the half that would play, about half of them would freeze during playback (75% total failure rate). Even after reloading the disk, it would freeze at the exact same point, or not load at all. These were all near-new scratch free disks. I have never had this problem with any DVD or with a Blu-Ray that I bought or rented from an actual Blockbuster store. I've since switched to Netflix, and have not had a problem since.

Originally Posted by DUKEMOUNTAIN

Does anyone have the 007 blu-rays , I got dr.no to play once, and now neither 007 blu ray's I have play, anyone else having that problem
bdp s300 v 4.25

Update your firmware

[DUKEMOUNTAIN]

thanks , I have 4.50 on the way hopefully that will do the trick , thanks for the help

[Reliantcody]

I have a sony 301 that I just updated the firmware to 4.50. I've been following the firmware releases fairly closes because I'm unable to experience the Dolby True HD format. No matter what I do on my I Am Legend disc, I cannot get it to play in the True HD format even though it says it's supported. I've double checked my settings on the system setup menus to make sure the hdmi is on auto and dolby digital is selected (rather than DTS). I have a Yamaha 863 receiver, which to me shouldn't make a difference, the receiver should just output what is being sent out by the BD Player. If anyone has any suggestions for me to try, please post!!!!

[WarrenPS]

Originally Posted by Reliantcody

I have a sony 301 that I just updated the firmware to 4.50. I've been following the firmware releases fairly closes because I'm unable to experience the Dolby True HD format. No matter what I do on my I Am Legend disc, I cannot get it to play in the True HD format even though it says it's supported. I've double checked my settings on the system setup menus to make sure the hdmi is on auto and dolby digital is selected (rather than DTS). I have a Yamaha 863 receiver, which to me shouldn't make a difference, the receiver should just output what is being sent out by the BD Player. If anyone has any suggestions for me to try, please post!!!!

Be sure your Sony is connected to the Yamaha via HDMI. You must set the HDMI on the Sony to PCM, not automatic. The Sony will then decode the Dolby True HD internally and ouput the signal to your receiver as a PCM. The display on your receiver will show something to the effect of "multi-channel in," not Dolby True HD. However, be assured you are hearing the Dolby True HD codec.

[Reliantcody]

I have set it to PCM but the only display that I get on my Yamaha is PCM and it doesn't play through the rear channels at all.......

[WarrenPS]

Originally Posted by Reliantcody

I have set it to PCM but the only display that I get on my Yamaha is PCM and it doesn't play through the rear channels at all.......

Under Setup - Speakers, ensure that the Audio Output Mode is set to 5.1Channel.