The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by Fatboymart

I spent an hour trying to get some sense from a Sony guy over the weekend (Newport, South Wales) believe it or not he didn’t even know what TrueHD was and DTS Master...well just forget it.

I thought Sony would at least have one sales person that knew what they were selling, goes to show how wrong you can be

Sony authorized dealers don't work for Sony and Sony doesn't hire their dealer's sales people. You can't put the blame on Sony. At big chain high volume retail stores or outlets you can expect some sales people lacking knowledge. As for spending a hour with such a person, you should know better than that. You can get the drift after the first few minutes talking to such a person that he/she doesn't know anything about audio electronics especially the one you talked to. Didn't that store have anyone else who knew anything about audio? If not, that store doesn't deserve to have your business. Go somewhere else like a privately owned audio shop. I always got the answers to my questions from them. Sure you pay more but then you know what you are getting and they know what they are selling.

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by AJwolf

So if I understand you correctly, you do get Dolby TrueHD from the S300 with the HDMI output and the settting on PCM. There is no TrueHD output from the 5.1 jacks or optical jack? Thanks.

That's correct.

[Colglizity]

I went to the Sony site to order a firmware disk to have it sent to my dad's house for his 301 and it's saying there is an invalid entry, won't let me get it. thoughts?

[gleff]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

When HDMI is set to AUTO and you select DD TrueHD on the BD, the player only streams the lossy DD TrueHD core via HDMI to the AVR which as you said does further processing based on the settings he selected on his V1800. His receiver will display Dolby Digital, the lossy format.

Thanks heaps for a great explanation. And thanks to Yex94 as well.

[Fatboymart]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

Sony authorized dealers don't work for Sony and Sony doesn't hire their dealer's sales people. You can't put the blame on Sony. At big chain high volume retail stores or outlets you can expect some sales people lacking knowledge. As for spending a hour with such a person, you should know better than that. You can get the drift after the first few minutes talking to such a person that he/she doesn't know anything about audio electronics especially the one you talked to. Didn't that store have anyone else who knew anything about audio? If not, that store doesn't deserve to have your business. Go somewhere else like a privately owned audio shop. I always got the answers to my questions from them. Sure you pay more but then you know what you are getting and they know what they are selling.

Your right of course, I shouldn’t have spent all that time with the Sony guy. But after a bad week in work, sometimes it’s nice to take it all out on these stuck up gimps who like to pretend they know it all when quite clearly they don’t.

Loved the equipment on display though

[blurayisking]

Based on my experience in dealing with Sony Store staff, I've concluded that they know SFA.

[monkyman]

I'm confused. If the Sony BDP-S1 (Which has the same chip as the S300/S301) could send TrueHD out through the 5.1 analog outputs after it got V2.0 firmware, why can't the S300/S301?

I'm not so sure everyone here is right when they say it can't send it out this way. Wouldn't it be advertised in the upgrade that it only sends it through HDMI if this were the fact? Or are you going by what one of our insiders said months ago. This machine IS capable of sending it out through 5.1, does anyone know for a fact that it doesn't?

[daphish76]

I have the Sony BDP_300 player and would am trying to get DD True HD. Do you need to get the latest firmware and set the player to pcm to get it? Can you get DD True HD with any of the older firmware updates?

[tek101]

Originally Posted by Colglizity

I went to the Sony site to order a firmware disk to have it sent to my dad's house for his 301 and it's saying there is an invalid entry, won't let me get it. thoughts?

Hi Col. You have to give them your original Address when you first Resgistered.

You might have to update your account with sony. Better yet why don't you download and burn to disk for him..Its quite simple.
If you don't have Burning Software yet, use this..:

http://www.imgburn.com/

Good luck.

[doubles1283]

So I updated the firmware to 4.20 and have the audio set to PCM via the hdmi connection, it is connected to a denon avr888 which is hdmi 1.3a so it will take the lossless codecs, my only question is should the player display that it is playing the truehd track when you press the audio button. For instance I am playing transformers which is truehd but when I press the audio button it only shows Dolby digital 3/2.1

[neto]

Originally Posted by peterfabian

Hello everyone. I'm new here also. Today i got the new firmware. My receiver doesn't have HDMI, only analog and digital inputs (coaxial and optical). The display of the blu-ray player doesn't show Dolby True HD. However, and in spite my receiver doesn't have HDMI, i noticed a big improvement on the sound quality by optical output (monster optical cable (THX)) after watching Resident Evil and The Fifth Element. I noticed the sound very clear and some sounds that i had never noticed before. The low sounds are louder now also. So i'm very glad with this new firmware.

I have the same situation as you, and I'm not dreaming. I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas before the upgrade last weekend. The audio in DDTrue HD and DD evidently was the same. I have a BOSE without HDMI. Today I installed the firmware, and I can hear a real difference between DolbyTrue HD sent optical to DolbyDigital.
It sounds perfect, much louder, and definitely better details and sounds I didn't noticed before.
By the way, this transfer of TNBC is TOO impressive. Not even on theaters looked that way!

[Colglizity]

Originally Posted by tek101

Hi Col. You have to give them your original Address when you first Resgistered.

You might have to update your account with sony. Better yet why don't you download and burn to disk for him..Its quite simple.
If you don't have Burning Software yet, use this..:

http://www.imgburn.com/

Good luck.

I can't even get to that point. I click on the icon to download the update, which is where there is another icon to click to have a disk sent, and it says there is an invalid entry. I've had all the previous updates sent to my dad from sony, and this time it's not working. Are all of you using the sony website for this?

[mjh421]

I sent the following question to Sony -


The latest BDP-S300 firmware version 4.20 adds Dolby TrueHD Audio decoding functionality. Will this be bitream only over HDMI, or will the analogue outputs carry the hi def audio as well?

And the response -

Thank you for your recent e-mail received on 01/09/2008 09.19 AM.

In response to this, I can confirm that Dolby TrueHD Audio will only be available via HDMI on your Sony BDP-S300 after the firmware update has been applied to it.

I hope that this information is useful to you.

Yours sincerely

Daniel Ayliffe
Customer Information Centre
SONY UNITED KINGDOM LTD

Sony United Kingdom Limited, a company registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: The Heights, Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 0XW
Registered company number: 2422874

Although this came from Sony, I do find it a bit strange. If the S300 can internally decode TrueHD and convert it to PCM to send over HDMI, surely it could convert PCM to analogue as it would with a PCM only disc?

[Colglizity]

Originally Posted by Colglizity

I can't even get to that point. I click on the icon to download the update, which is where there is another icon to click to have a disk sent, and it says there is an invalid entry. I've had all the previous updates sent to my dad from sony, and this time it's not working. Are all of you using the sony website for this?

Nevermind, I got it. Pay no attention to the man behind the screen.

[judgeestes]

OK, so after verifiying that my BDP-S301 currently bears firmware version 3.7, I carefully followed the SONY instructions to upgrade to version 4.20, downloaded and ran the .exe, burned the resulting .iso to a CD-R disc, loaded it in the BDP-S301 , and was happy for a few seconds after the "DISC DWLD" message appeared in the front panel display. Alas, within 30 seconds the display message was "NO DWLD 9"! A question in the SONY Firmware Update FAQ regarding a front panel display of "NO DWLD 2" is answered as follows: "The latest firmware is already installed. No update is necessary." I re-checked the current version and the unit still reported 3.7!

I verifed that the CD-R I burned is properly named "BDPV-11420."

Does any of you have a suggestion as to how I can work around this problem? Any help is appreciated.

[Fatboymart]

Originally Posted by judgeestes

OK, so after verifiying that my BDP-S301 currently bears firmware version 3.7, I carefully followed the SONY instructions to upgrade to version 4.20, downloaded and ran the .exe, burned the resulting .iso to a CD-R disc, loaded it in the BDP-S301 , and was happy for a few seconds after the "DISC DWLD" message appeared in the front panel display. Alas, within 30 seconds the display message was "NO DWLD 9"! A question in the SONY Firmware Update FAQ regarding a front panel display of "NO DWLD 2" is answered as follows: "The latest firmware is already installed. No update is necessary." I re-checked the current version and the unit still reported 3.7!

I verifed that the CD-R I burned is properly named "BDPV-11420."

Does any of you have a suggestion as to how I can work around this problem? Any help is appreciated.

Wow. Bad luck.

As I am totally new to this I don’t think I can contribute much, but here goes.

Why don’t you try using another brand of CD-R

Told you I didn’t have much to add, sorry.

[QwikSand]

Someone here fixed it, try what they did maybe :

http://www.agoraquest.com/reply.php?...quote=1&mod=11

[tek101]

Originally Posted by judgeestes

OK, so after verifiying that my BDP-S301 currently bears firmware version 3.7, I carefully followed the SONY instructions to upgrade to version 4.20, downloaded and ran the .exe, burned the resulting .iso to a CD-R disc, loaded it in the BDP-S301 , and was happy for a few seconds after the "DISC DWLD" message appeared in the front panel display. Alas, within 30 seconds the display message was "NO DWLD 9"! A question in the SONY Firmware Update FAQ regarding a front panel display of "NO DWLD 2" is answered as follows: "The latest firmware is already installed. No update is necessary." I re-checked the current version and the unit still reported 3.7!

I verifed that the CD-R I burned is properly named "BDPV-11420."

Does any of you have a suggestion as to how I can work around this problem? Any help is appreciated.

Hi. try this burner.....:after you download the sony update...extract it give it file location.....Now all you need to do is Double click the file and Imgburn knows what format you want to burn.

http://www.imgburn.com/

Good luck.

[GORT]

Originally Posted by judgeestes

OK, so after verifiying that my BDP-S301 currently bears firmware version 3.7, I carefully followed the SONY instructions to upgrade to version 4.20, downloaded and ran the .exe, burned the resulting .iso to a CD-R disc, loaded it in the BDP-S301 , and was happy for a few seconds after the "DISC DWLD" message appeared in the front panel display. Alas, within 30 seconds the display message was "NO DWLD 9"! A question in the SONY Firmware Update FAQ regarding a front panel display of "NO DWLD 2" is answered as follows: "The latest firmware is already installed. No update is necessary." I re-checked the current version and the unit still reported 3.7!

I verifed that the CD-R I burned is properly named "BDPV-11420."

Does any of you have a suggestion as to how I can work around this problem? Any help is appreciated.

Go to sony.com and you can order an update disc from sony it tates about 2-3 days to get it in the mail I always get my firmware updates from there and have never had a problem

[judgeestes]

QuikSand,

Many thanks for the url to the helpful thread! After reading it, I burned the .iso to a Memorex DVD+R via Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7.5, and Joy returned with the coveted "DL OK" and without a hitch.

I reckon that sometimes a small departure from the dictated protocol pays off.

Thanks also to the other posters who pitched in to help me out!