The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[tbui57]

Thanks Jason. Does this mean firmware version 3.7 can decode dolby trueHD and send over HDMI ?

[JasonR]

I am not sure the exact firmware release it was, but yes that is what it means.

[blurayisking]

In the famous words of Paul Newman from " Cool Hand Luke " :

WHAT WE HAVE HEAR IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE !

We need someone who has the proper setup (HDMI equipped receiver) to confirm that the Sony BDP-S300 does indeed decode Dolby Digital True-HD via HDMI connection. Play a blu-ray title that has this codec and confirm that the receiver is decoding the soundtrack properly.

Blurayisking

[krazeyeyez]

it can decode but can't output the true hd correct?

[blurayisking]

So what your saying is:

You do not get the full decode of the true-HD, just the core dolby digital which is exactly what you get via digital coax.

Please clarify.

[sandman6662]

Originally Posted by Dyana B

I have a quick question to ask of my blu-ray brothers and sisters:
I have my BDP-S300 connected to the Onkyo 605. Should I set the audio (hdmi) on the BDP-S300 to Auto or PCM? Thank you in advance guys...

Hey this is the ? I'm trying to figure out also. I have the marantz SR4001 Rec. and it has HDMI 1.3a and also has DD EX & DTS . I played around this morning and was checking out both options Auto & LPCM on the BDPS300 ,And was looking at my REC. to see what would light up as PCM or the DTS OR DD .Kind of funny . I'm still not sure what sounds the best .Any Input would help .Thnaks

[didihala]

Originally Posted by sandman6662

Hey this is the ? I'm trying to figure out also. I have the marantz SR4001 Rec. and it has HDMI 1.3a and also has DD EX & DTS . I played around this morning and was checking out both options Auto & LPCM on the BDPS300 ,And was looking at my REC. to see what would light up as PCM or the DTS OR DD .Kind of funny . I'm still not sure what sounds the best .Any Input would help .Thnaks

Sandman,

1) Are you sure the SR4001 is HDMI 1.3? I don't believe it is, at least not out of the box. Have you done a firmware upgrade to make it 1.3? (I am not even sure if this is technically possible)? From what I have read on the net, it is HDMI 1.1.
Also, looking at the SR4001 manual on the net, it does not talk about supporting the new HD Audio codecs/formats: Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital +, dts-HD HR (High Resolution), or dts-HD MA (Master Audio). It supports the previous generation Audio formats: Dolby Ditial/DD EX, dts/dts-ES, etc.

2) In order to listen to the new HD Audio formats on the Blu-ray (or HD-DVD movies), you have to have a HDMI 1.3 receiver and/or Blu-ray player.

3) BDP-S300 is not HDMI 1.3, it is 1.1, meaning it will not decode the new HD Audio formats and send it to your receiver.

So, if my assumption is correct regarding your receiver, you will not be able to take advantage of (hear) the new HD Audio formats.

Best you can do, when you play blu-ray movies, is the previous audio formats, meaning: if the blu-ray movie has dts-HD HR/or dts-HD MA audio tracks, your receiver will play it back in dts only, and if the blu-ray movie has Dolby Digital +/Dolby TrueHD audio tracks, your receiver will play it back only in Dolby Digital.

Now to answer your question:

On the BDP-S300, if you select Auto (for HDMI): player will choose automatically the audio format on your movie and sends it to your receiver (according to what I explained above, the paragragh: Best you can do...).

If you select PCM (for HDMI): no matter what audio format is on the movie, it will send it in PCM to your reciever.

If the movie has only PCM audio track, then it doesn't matter what your HMDI option is, it will send PCM to your receiver.

From my experience, PCM sounds a little bit better (or at least louder) and adds more base to the sound. Also, in this mode, you can hear the spoken words, that comes only from the center channel, better than in Auto.

Hope this helps. I have spent many hours reading this new stuff and it is still confusing at times and I may be wrong on some of what I have said above, so hopefully someone with more knowledge will give feedback.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pioneer PDP-5050HD 1080i plasma
Sony STRDA-5300ES 7.1 receiver
Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray
Monitor Audio Radius R180 7.1 speaker setup w/Klipsch KSW-12 subwoofer

Wish list: Next generation Sony BDP-S2000ES or Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD. Both are supposed to have internal decoding of all HD Audio formats, including dts-HD MA.

[Blu@me]

Originally Posted by didihala

Sandman,

1) Are you sure the SR4001 is HDMI 1.3? I don't believe it is, at least not out of the box. Have you done a firmware upgrade to make it 1.3? (I am not even sure if this is technically possible)? From what I have read on the net, it is HDMI 1.1.
Also, looking at the SR4001 manual on the net, it does not talk about supporting the new HD Audio codecs/formats: Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital +, dts-HD HR (High Resolution), or dts-HD MA (Master Audio). It supports the previous generation Audio formats: Dolby Ditial/DD EX, dts/dts-ES, etc.

2) In order to listen to the new HD Audio formats on the Blu-ray (or HD-DVD movies), you have to have a HDMI 1.3 receiver and/or Blu-ray player.

3) BDP-S300 is not HDMI 1.3, it is 1.1, meaning it will not decode the new HD Audio formats and send it to your receiver.

So, if my assumption is correct regarding your receiver, you will not be able to take advantage of (hear) the new HD Audio formats.

Best you can do, when you play blu-ray movies, is the previous audio formats, meaning: if the blu-ray movie has dts-HD HR/or dts-HD MA audio tracks, your receiver will play it back in dts only, and if the blu-ray movie has Dolby Digital +/Dolby TrueHD audio tracks, your receiver will play it back only in Dolby Digital.

Now to answer your question:

On the BDP-S300, if you select Auto (for HDMI): player will choose automatically the audio format on your movie and sends it to your receiver (according to what I explained above, the paragragh: Best you can do...).

If you select PCM (for HDMI): no matter what audio format is on the movie, it will send it in PCM to your reciever.

If the movie has only PCM audio track, then it doesn't matter what your HMDI option is, it will send PCM to your receiver.

From my experience, PCM sounds a little bit better (or at least louder) and adds more base to the sound. Also, in this mode, you can hear the spoken words, that comes only from the center channel, better than in Auto.

Hope this helps. I have spent many hours reading this new stuff and it is still confusing at times and I may be wrong on some of what I have said above, so hopefully someone with more knowledge will give feedback.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pioneer PDP-5050HD 1080i plasma
Sony STRDA-5300ES 7.1 receiver
Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray
Monitor Audio Radius R180 7.1 speaker setup w/Klipsch KSW-12 subwoofer

Wish list: Next generation Sony BDP-S2000ES or Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD. Both are supposed to have internal decoding of all HD Audio formats, including dts-HD MA.

Hi didihala. You r right on the money there but to my taste , I like the true sound from the recordred artist album which is DD or DTS...PCM...Cause most of them has its owned tech. by the time they recorded(The best they want you to hear)So I 'd set it to AUTO,If the dvd does not sound as good as you like,I can alsway ckick the Audio button to change it to my taste.This way U don't have to switch between Musics...Movies.(With music I like either DD/DTS 2/1Ch) GoodLuck...enjoy your goody.

[sandman6662]

Originally Posted by didihala

Sandman,

1) Are you sure the SR4001 is HDMI 1.3? I don't believe it is, at least not out of the box. Have you done a firmware upgrade to make it 1.3? (I am not even sure if this is technically possible)? From what I have read on the net, it is HDMI 1.1.
Also, looking at the SR4001 manual on the net, it does not talk about supporting the new HD Audio codecs/formats: Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital +, dts-HD HR (High Resolution), or dts-HD MA (Master Audio). It supports the previous generation Audio formats: Dolby Ditial/DD EX, dts/dts-ES, etc.

2) In order to listen to the new HD Audio formats on the Blu-ray (or HD-DVD movies), you have to have a HDMI 1.3 receiver and/or Blu-ray player.

3) BDP-S300 is not HDMI 1.3, it is 1.1, meaning it will not decode the new HD Audio formats and send it to your receiver.

So, if my assumption is correct regarding your receiver, you will not be able to take advantage of (hear) the new HD Audio formats.

Best you can do, when you play blu-ray movies, is the previous audio formats, meaning: if the blu-ray movie has dts-HD HR/or dts-HD MA audio tracks, your receiver will play it back in dts only, and if the blu-ray movie has Dolby Digital +/Dolby TrueHD audio tracks, your receiver will play it back only in Dolby Digital.

Now to answer your question:

On the BDP-S300, if you select Auto (for HDMI): player will choose automatically the audio format on your movie and sends it to your receiver (according to what I explained above, the paragragh: Best you can do...).

If you select PCM (for HDMI): no matter what audio format is on the movie, it will send it in PCM to your reciever.

If the movie has only PCM audio track, then it doesn't matter what your HMDI option is, it will send PCM to your receiver.

From my experience, PCM sounds a little bit better (or at least louder) and adds more base to the sound. Also, in this mode, you can hear the spoken words, that comes only from the center channel, better than in Auto.

Hope this helps. I have spent many hours reading this new stuff and it is still confusing at times and I may be wrong on some of what I have said above, so hopefully someone with more knowledge will give feedback.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pioneer PDP-5050HD 1080i plasma
Sony STRDA-5300ES 7.1 receiver
Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray
Monitor Audio Radius R180 7.1 speaker setup w/Klipsch KSW-12 subwoofer

Wish list: Next generation Sony BDP-S2000ES or Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD. Both are supposed to have internal decoding of all HD Audio formats, including dts-HD MA.

Hey thnak for the great info, As I did go and recheck , i was looking at the Marantz site and yes I have the SR 4001 And it's V 1.1-- I was looking at recv. and did'nt see they changed the model number to the SR 4002 Which is 1.3a My Bad , sorry I was just looking at the specs and comparing them with the higher end recv. and they were the same , so I figured it was also 1.3a . Again thanks for the info and I guess it boils down to what sounds better to me. I was also waiting on the Marantz BDP-8002 Blu Ray player , but I also see its only ver 1.1 also kind of funny if they dont up it to 1.3a to match thier new Recv. don't you think . I also see you have the same Blu Ray Sony BDP- S300 what do you think of it? I bought mine because I got a good price on it and to get in the game of Blu ray then i was going to upgrade to a Marantz down the road. LMWYT ,,thanks again

[martigen]

Quick question, since it seems that the BDP300 will never be able to be updated to a DTS-HD, is there any major and noticeable difference when you play back a DTS and DTS-HD movie? I was playing The Fifth Element last night and my receiver (which is capable of reproducing DTS-HD) played the movie in reg. DTS, it sounded awesome, so if the BDP300 would've had the DTS-HD decoder, would it had made any major difference?

And, I also see people claiming that PCM its still better than DTS / DTS-HD, how is so?

[russtcb]

I wonder if we've seen our last Firmware update for the S300 and S500 since the S350 & 550 were announced?

[monkyman]

Originally Posted by krazeyeyez

it can decode but can't output the true hd correct?

If, and I mean if it can decode TrueHD, I believe the only way you are going to get this to the reciever is through the analog outputs. I still can't find anyone to confirm this. At least when the S1 got the firmware upgrade to TrueHD they said so.

[awre]

Originally Posted by sandman6662

Hey thnak for the great info, As I did go and recheck , i was looking at the Marantz site and yes I have the SR 4001 And it's V 1.1-- I was looking at recv. and did'nt see they changed the model number to the SR 4002 Which is 1.3a My Bad , sorry I was just looking at the specs and comparing them with the higher end recv. and they were the same , so I figured it was also 1.3a . Again thanks for the info and I guess it boils down to what sounds better to me. I was also waiting on the Marantz BDP-8002 Blu Ray player , but I also see its only ver 1.1 also kind of funny if they dont up it to 1.3a to match thier new Recv. don't you think . I also see you have the same Blu Ray Sony BDP- S300 what do you think of it? I bought mine because I got a good price on it and to get in the game of Blu ray then i was going to upgrade to a Marantz down the road. LMWYT ,,thanks again

I have Marantz 9600 with my Sony BDP-S300 waiting to upgrade to the new Marantz BD player. What I hear from Marantz is that their BDP8002 will be 1.3a. For the money, if Marantz is not well above the other BD players out there in upscaling video and SQ and decoding I will look at the new Sony or Panny 50 coming out soon.

Hopefully we will hear from Marantz soon on full specs, price, and availability date.

[Kilian]

Originally Posted by didihala

2) In order to listen to the new HD Audio formats on the Blu-ray (or HD-DVD movies), you have to have a HDMI 1.3 receiver and/or Blu-ray player.

3) BDP-S300 is not HDMI 1.3, it is 1.1, meaning it will not decode the new HD Audio formats and send it to your receiver.

These statements aren't quite accurate as they stand.

If the player can internally decode advance codecs to PCM, all you need is HDMI 1.1 to send it to the receiver in digital form or via analogue 5.1/7.1. You only need HDMI 1.3 to bitstream the codec to the receiver to decode.

Whether a player can or cannot internally decode advance codecs has nothing to do with the HDMI version as such but it happens that newer players with such ability also has HDMI 1.3.

[tron3]

Originally Posted by russtcb

I wonder if we've seen our last Firmware update for the S300 and S500 since the S350 & 550 were announced?

Let's see what happens as Ice Age, and I,Robot draw near to release in a week or two. Certainly, either the Java is compliant with our 3.70 firmware, or another patch is in order.

We helped Sony win this war with our support, they owe us. The new firmware better be faster.

[russtcb]

Originally Posted by tron3

Let's see what happens as Ice Age, and I,Robot draw near to release in a week or two. Certainly, either the Java is compliant with our 3.70 firmware, or another patch is in order.

We helped Sony win this war with our support, they owe us. The new firmware better be faster.

I agree. I'm hoping there's at least one more update and yes I hope it speeds things up considerably.

[krazeyeyez]

couple of questions

1.) this doesnt have hdmi 1.3 what exactly does this mean in terms of functionality.

2.) which update is the one that made it possible for the player to decode true hd and then send it as pcm.

3.) i read this player only has 5.1 outputs, what does this mean for a 7.1 setup.

4.) this does pcm over the hdmi correct?

[Fozcycle]

Newbie here.............I have a Sony BDP-S300 with a Mitsubishi 73" Diamond Rear Projection and a Sony STRD-777ES receiver driving Klipsch speakers.

Video travels via HDMI to DVI to the TV; Audio travels via Optical to the Receiver.

When I played 3:10 to YUMA the other day, the soundtrack came through as PCM rather than dolby digital.

I only heard sound through my front speakers.....nothing from the rear.

Why?

[DisneyKrayzie]

Amazon just dropped the price to $379.98, not much of a drop buy nice to see the price going down. I used site called Price Protectr through Bzzagent that will send you an email when an item drops in price. Its supposed to be use to see if a price drops so you can get a refund withyin 30 days, but I am using it to monitor the prices of Blu-Ray players to see if they are going down or not. I was kind of expecting a bigger drop on the BDP-S300 with the new ones getting released soon.

[hitechiowa]

Originally Posted by Fozcycle

Newbie here.............I have a Sony BDP-S300 with a Mitsubishi 73" Diamond Rear Projection and a Sony STRD-777ES receiver driving Klipsch speakers.

Video travels via HDMI to DVI to the TV; Audio travels via Optical to the Receiver.

When I played 3:10 to YUMA the other day, the soundtrack came through as PCM rather than dolby digital.

I only heard sound through my front speakers.....nothing from the rear.

Why?

i also am experiencing this problem, i was watching good luck chuck and im only getting audio out of the front channels and i have my s300 hooked to my receiver but optical like this guy. whats goin on?