The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[jdsanko]

Originally Posted by monkyman

I don't think they blew it, It has the same chip as BDP-S1, which after a firmware upgrade got TruHD. TruHD is pretty much the only selling point for the BDP-S1 over the S300, once it becomes obsolite and the next gen of sonys comes out in the fall, you will see the S300 get it's upgrade to give it a better selling point unitl it becomes obsolite.

Looking at the BDP-300 Manual, page 48 has a nice chart of what the player does with various sources. Under Dolby TruHD, it states that it sends 5.1 ch out the 5.1 audio jacks (analog), 5.1 ch LPCM when HDMI audio is set to PCM and Dolby Digital when set to Auto. If it is not converting the Dolby TruHD, what is it sending?

Also, just for clarification, the HDMI connection is pure digital for video and audio. Here the reciever must convert the LPCM data to analog. The 5.1 ch audio outs are analog so this simply is amplified by the reciever and sent to the speakers. Is my understanding correct here?

[whsbuss]

Originally Posted by jdsanko

Looking at the BDP-300 Manual, page 48 has a nice chart of what the player does with various sources. Under Dolby TruHD, it states that it sends 5.1 ch out the 5.1 audio jacks (analog), 5.1 ch LPCM when HDMI audio is set to PCM and Dolby Digital when set to Auto. If it is not converting the Dolby TruHD, what is it sending?

Also, just for clarification, the HDMI connection is pure digital for video and audio. Here the reciever must convert the LPCM data to analog. The 5.1 ch audio outs are analog so this simply is amplified by the reciever and sent to the speakers. Is my understanding correct here?

I think you are just getting the core DDTHD track at 640kbs. LPCM for DDTHD. Doesn't matter what your setting for HDMI audio are. If your receiver can accept LPCM HDMI audio there is no converstion to analog.

[anthony.charman@nexu]

Just noticed that the Sony BDP-S300 appears in the Argos catalog as available September 2007. Is there any other info about a UK launch date?

[pug]

I returned my BDP-S300 because of the enclosed sheet saying that future interactiviy will need firmware updates (was it Blu-J?). I was annoyed of the lack of ethernet port or wireless feature such as the PS3.

Question: I had the 6800 Sony 6.1 Home theater-2 years old. There were no HDMI inputs/outputs on it so I bought the Sony STR DG-810 to replace it, which is also 6.1. I didn't want to start adding another speaker and re-wiring to get it to 7.1 (besides all 3 speakers -surround and back- are on the rear wall since I don't have a right side wall). So when I get the next Blu-ray (October?) or a PS3, do I select 7.1 or 5.1??? Thanks

[garytma]

Hi everyone,

I have my player hooked up via HDMI to my Sony STR-DA3200ES receiver, and that in turn, via HDMI, to my Sony 60" SXRD. Have obtained and watched only one Blu disc so far: "Ghost Rider". Loved the picture and sound!! I thought that the sound made for the cleanest home movie surround sound that I have heard yet- and I go back to the "Discovision" days of laserdisc. The image was clean, colorful, detailed, and often 3-D like. I am thrilled by 1080p!

SD DVD's were often great, but sometimes looking slightly out of focus, with some artifacts from time to time. I think that that was the result of "over upconverting", if there can be such a thing. When I got my SXRD display, last year, I set my cable box to up convert all of the incoming signals to 1080i. The TV picture looked great. But when I "bypassed" the cable box, and fed the SXRD the individual resolutions, the TV displayed awesome HD, and very good upconverted images- much better than the cable box upconvertings. So I have let the SXRD do all of the signal processing from cable.

Addtionally, before obtaining Blu-ray, I had been feeding my SD DVD player's signal, to the TV, via s-video, and the display delivered an absolutely marvelous picture, from the SD 480i source. So I left the connection with s-video, until getting the S300.

So back to the S300: when I changed the s300's output to 480i, DVDs suddenly looked great. All aspects of the picture looked dazzliing, and some mosquito-like noise that I noticed in the upconverted picture at 1080p, disapppeared. SD DVDs are revealing a solid, colorful image, with remarkable detail.

So presently, I am viewing DVD's upconverted only by my SXRD, from 480i to 1080p, and Blu discs at 1080p, natch, right out of the player.

This arrangement is working spectacularly for me, and since one can set the player on "source direct", in "video format", the player will automatically feed the TV whatever the resolution is on the disc, via HDMI. Be careful which selection you make, in video format though: "auto" tells the player to determine, through HDMI, what the native resolution of your TV is. The player will then output everything in that resolution (that was my initial choice- and the default setting). "Source direct" feeds a given disc's original resolution directly to your display. That is the one that I am using right now.

I hope this may be helpful to some of you!

[easycure299]

So, if you choose source direct and put in a standard def dvd, then the tv will be fed a 480i signal and diplay a 480i signal, which means there's no upconversion? I'm just asking because I'm completely confuzzled about the whole thing. I have a KDL 52xbr bravia tv and I've been using 1080p for the video format from the player to the tv.

[garytma]

Hi easycure!!

I don't blame you for being confused: and that has been the common legacy of all the companies and associations, who brought HD to us. So many confusing issues. Most folks are so confused: "the Digital Bits .com" quotes a stat that, "10% of people with a DVD player think that is will play hi-def."

Oh well, anyway...what I was saying was that, 1. Perhaps there should only be one component upconverting a data stream; and 2. For me, mySony SXRD seems to upconvert the best.

The end result is, the display shows the picture, in the TV's 1080p native resolution.

My own personal experience has been that my display has shown a 480i picture wonderfully in 1080p.

As I mentioned before though, I am still in the "courtship" period with the S300, and continue to tweak where I can.

I hope I answered your question easycure.

[garytma]

Hi again all,

Before too much time has gone by, I wanted to update you on the results of my additional experimentation with my S300.

With some free time available this weekend, and my wife out of town, I have spent some quality time with my player, and I think I can elaborate more authoritatively, on my previous posts, regarding which screen resolution to play back DVDs.

In playing many kinds of DVDs, on my S300, I have found that screen resolution selection depends so much on the nature of the DVD. We are most fortunate that this player allows us so many choices to provide for the best image on our own displays.

I have to conceed that, on high quality DVDs, letting the player output an upconverted, 480i to 1080p image to my 1080p Sony SXRD, did result in a lovely, detailed, colorful image that came pretty close to the same image shown with the player outputing 480i directly to my display, but with slightly more detail.

The slightly better image, resulting from outputing out of the player in 1080p, came at a slight cost of some artifacting of certain "busy" areas of the image, i.e., mostly backgrounds- containing lots of trees, or distant walls with patterned wallpapers, etc. It was this artifacting, that originally made me feel that player output of 480i was superior to having the player upconvert to 1080p. But the artifacting was much less distracting on good quality transfered DVDs, and it was worth it to get the overall better PQ on said discs.

So I would amend my original analysis, by saying that one may need to adjust the resolution output manually, depending on what kind of DVD you are playing. I found that, say, the DVD of "The Mummy Returns", was dazzling out of the S300 at 1080p. But the film imperfections, of an old B&W film like, "Bringing Up Baby", seemed to send the S300 into "upconverting overdrive", adding more unnecessary artifacts into the picture mix. Bringing Up Baby was much more satisfying coming out of the player @ 480i. My SXRD's own upconvert of the digital 480i data, from the player, made for a pleasing, more natural presentation of a very old movie.

I would suggest then, that the processing going on in the player and my SXRD combined, is too much, for a film that that may be older, or one that has a fair amount of grain in it. The processing going on in two devices is likely overkill, when all of these algorhythms are trying to eliminate lots of picture "defects" (by the way, in wondering about how picture elements affect processing, I purposely put on "Batman Begins", to see how the S300 & SXRD handled the snow scenes together, with the player outputing 1080p. The result: everything looked great!)

Probably, what I will do, going foward, is leave the S300's "video format" in "auto" mode, instead of the "format direct" mode, that I advocated in my previous posts. That simply keeps the player outputing in what screen resolution it preceives is your display's native resolution is. Then, if, like on "Bringing Up Baby", I see it appears to be too much processing, I will switch the format to "format direct", and let the player send 480i to the display.

And just to add to the general "database" of S300 observations, here is a minor curiosity I have noticed about using the "video format" selection for "format direct": When playing a DVD, the player correctly identifies the source as 480i/60, but seemed to have an issue when initially going to a program selection. For instance, when commanding the player to show a special feature on the disc menu, the screen woould go black, then the TV would show the video input icon momentarily (like it lost the player's data stream for a second), and then the program would start, but already be 3 to 5 seconds into the program. This would not be a major kind of problem with a film generally, since there are so many logos and such to get through before the movie actually starts. But with special features, I had to rewind slightly to get in the begining of the feature.

At first, I feared that something was wrong with my player's laser transport, but then I found it worked just fine ALWAYS when video format is set to "auto". Or when I played a Blu-ray disc.

I have reasoned that what is happening is: the laser would start to output data, when getting to a given disc program, but if "video format" is set for "format direct", the player has to analyse what kind of resolution is being picked up off of the disc first, then start to send the signal to the display. I have seen a similar thing happen with the audio on my Sony HDMI receiver: each time the laser moves to another program, the receiver re-asseses what kind of codex is coming through. I do not lose any audio in this case, but the receiver intially displays what kind of codex is now coming through, every time one selects a different program on the disc (and often times each program on the same disc, has a different sound mode).

The difference with the video is, the player seems to lack the necessary buffer, that would hold all of the video output until the player determines what the source format is. Then once that is done, it should send the data to the display. Instead, the first couple of seconds of program content is going to enabling the player to tell what to output.

When I set the "video format" to "auto", the player determines what one's display can show, when it boots up, so then it continuously outputs the appropriate resolution to your TV, and further sampling of the DVD's native resolution is unecessary, thus eliminating the missing few seconds of a given program. In this mode all is well!

Wow, can you follow all of that? Anyway, as I have explored the various combinations of settings, I have been finding what works even better for me, and am finding that the Blu-ray is delivering stellar picture and audio quality, and I am looking forward to obtaining more Blu discs!

[Jodi]

Originally Posted by garytma

Hi again all,

Before too much time has gone by, I wanted to update you on the results of my additional experimentation with my S300.

With some free time available this weekend, and my wife out of town, I have spent some quality time with my player, and I think I can elaborate more authoritatively, on my previous posts, regarding which screen resolution to play back DVDs.

In playing many kinds of DVDs, on my S300, I have found that screen resolution selection depends so much on the nature of the DVD. We are most fortunate that this player allows us so many choices to provide for the best image on our own displays.

I have to conceed that, on high quality DVDs, letting the player output an upconverted, 480i to 1080p image to my 1080p Sony SXRD, did result in a lovely, detailed, colorful image that came pretty close to the same image shown with the player outputing 480i directly to my display, but with slightly more detail.

The slightly better image, resulting from outputing out of the player in 1080p, came at a slight cost of some artifacting of certain "busy" areas of the image, i.e., mostly backgrounds- containing lots of trees, or distant walls with patterned wallpapers, etc. It was this artifacting, that originally made me feel that player output of 480i was superior to having the player upconvert to 1080p. But the artifacting was much less distracting on good quality transfered DVDs, and it was worth it to get the overall better PQ on said discs.

So I would amend my original analysis, by saying that one may need to adjust the resolution output manually, depending on what kind of DVD you are playing. I found that, say, the DVD of "The Mummy Returns", was dazzling out of the S300 at 1080p. But the film imperfections, of an old B&W film like, "Bringing Up Baby", seemed to send the S300 into "upconverting overdrive", adding more unnecessary artifacts into the picture mix. Bringing Up Baby was much more satisfying coming out of the player @ 480i. My SXRD's own upconvert of the digital 480i data, from the player, made for a pleasing, more natural presentation of a very old movie.

I would suggest then, that the processing going on in the player and my SXRD combined, is too much, for a film that that may be older, or one that has a fair amount of grain in it. The processing going on in two devices is likely overkill, when all of these algorhythms are trying to eliminate lots of picture "defects" (by the way, in wondering about how picture elements affect processing, I purposely put on "Batman Begins", to see how the S300 & SXRD handled the snow scenes together, with the player outputing 1080p. The result: everything looked great!)

Probably, what I will do, going foward, is leave the S300's "video format" in "auto" mode, instead of the "format direct" mode, that I advocated in my previous posts. That simply keeps the player outputing in what screen resolution it preceives is your display's native resolution is. Then, if, like on "Bringing Up Baby", I see it appears to be too much processing, I will switch the format to "format direct", and let the player send 480i to the display.

And just to add to the general "database" of S300 observations, here is a minor curiosity I have noticed about using the "video format" selection for "format direct": When playing a DVD, the player correctly identifies the source as 480i/60, but seemed to have an issue when initially going to a program selection. For instance, when commanding the player to show a special feature on the disc menu, the screen woould go black, then the TV would show the video input icon momentarily (like it lost the player's data stream for a second), and then the program would start, but already be 3 to 5 seconds into the program. This would not be a major kind of problem with a film generally, since there are so many logos and such to get through before the movie actually starts. But with special features, I had to rewind slightly to get in the begining of the feature.

At first, I feared that something was wrong with my player's laser transport, but then I found it worked just fine ALWAYS when video format is set to "auto". Or when I played a Blu-ray disc.

I have reasoned that what is happening is: the laser would start to output data, when getting to a given disc program, but if "video format" is set for "format direct", the player has to analyse what kind of resolution is being picked up off of the disc first, then start to send the signal to the display. I have seen a similar thing happen with the audio on my Sony HDMI receiver: each time the laser moves to another program, the receiver re-asseses what kind of codex is coming through. I do not lose any audio in this case, but the receiver intially displays what kind of codex is now coming through, every time one selects a different program on the disc (and often times each program on the same disc, has a different sound mode).

The difference with the video is, the player seems to lack the necessary buffer, that would hold all of the video output until the player determines what the source format is. Then once that is done, it should send the data to the display. Instead, the first couple of seconds of program content is going to enabling the player to tell what to output.

When I set the "video format" to "auto", the player determines what one's display can show, when it boots up, so then it continuously outputs the appropriate resolution to your TV, and further sampling of the DVD's native resolution is unecessary, thus eliminating the missing few seconds of a given program. In this mode all is well!

Wow, can you follow all of that? Anyway, as I have explored the various combinations of settings, I have been finding what works even better for me, and am finding that the Blu-ray is delivering stellar picture and audio quality, and I am looking forward to obtaining more Blu discs!

Hi GaryTMA,
I'm glad you're enjoying your S300 so much!! I have one and I love it, too!
Gotta say, what a LOT of experimentation!! I'm very new to the whole HD game myself. I currently have my S300 hooked up (video) to my Sony Bravia KDL-V32XBR2 via HDMI and (audio) to my rather antiquated Pioneer Elite surround receiver via coaxial digital cable. And yet my HDMI and coax audio cables are not the best in the world by any stretch. The Bravia has been ISF calibrated, though....but my S300 has not met the "ISF dude" yet.
What kind of audio gear do you have?
If you get more BDs (please get some from Fox, Disney), please tell us more about the sound of your S300.
Again, welcome to the HD madness!

Jodi

[bimbamboom]

I picked up my BDP300 from a Visions store up here in Canada yesterday and was surprised to discover it has firmware 2.10. I thought the highest version was 2.0. Anybody else have 2.10?

[Jodi]

Originally Posted by bimbamboom

I picked up my BDP300 from a Visions store up here in Canada yesterday and was surprised to discover it has firmware 2.10. I thought the highest version was 2.0. Anybody else have 2.10?

Maybe because you are a very special Canadian.
That 2.10 is news to me -- sorry I can't answer that question, but I think you made a good purchase, nevertheless.
Hope you enjoy it!!

Jodi

[monkyman]

Mines 2.0, now you got me curious as to what 2.10 has.

[garytma]

Thanks for the welcome Jodi!

I have Sony's A/V receiver, STR-DA3200ES, 4 great Fisher speakers that I've had for 30 years + (got 'em when I bought a quadraphonic receiver!! They still sound wonderful), a Cerwin-Vega subwoofer, and Sony center speaker.

I have a Sony 60" SXRD display, the S300, another Sony DVD/CD player, a Panasonic DVD recorder, and Pioneer Laserdisc player. I also have a Harmony universal remote that I cannot recomend enough! Very handy to operate all of this stuff with, and it eliminates all of the other individual component remotes effectively.

I am one of the 3 people on the Earth that has and loves minidisc, and have a MD recorder connected into my system.

Only my S300, the Sony receiver, and my SXRD are communicating in HDMI. The other components are connected via composite/s-video/component/digital coaxial/digital optical connections.

I have been into home theatre, long before there was a "Home Theatre" market. I had an original Sony SL-7200 Betamax, a Maganavox Laserdisc player, and Kloss front projection 7ft Novabeam TV (along with my quad receiver which played a nice surround from the laserdiscs)- all by 1979!

Then I had a great Pioneer Elite 55" rear projection TV, which delivered a great picture for 14 years, until I sold it last year, and bought the Sony SXRD.

I am into music, movies, good sound, good video, but not such a fanatic that I always have to have the latest audio/video gear. I just replace as I need it, and when I do need something, I simply try to research for the best equipment, for the money that I am willing to spend.

My wife and I are great movie fans-from the oldest films to today. Have over 400 films on LD, and/or DVD. "2001" is still my fave (though next week it might be "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" , or maybe "The Dish", or possibly "The Firm", or maybe "Serenity"), but if I get the upcoming Blu version of "2001", due in October, I may be looking for a new home. That one would be the fifth version of the film I would have (not counting an old Beta recording I made of the film from the network)!

It is interesting you mentioned about getting Disney Blu-ray discs. Just before getting the S300, we watched "Bridge to Terabithia" (a Disney DVD). Besides enjoying a touching film, we were mighty impressed by the total DVD presentation.

Disney has gone all out to make menu/previews/special features quite the delight on this disc. Very innovative. And the quality of the transfer was simply stunning! I can only imagine what the Blu version would be like. Disney may well be taking the lead in how to present films on a disc!!

Hope this tells you a bit about myself Jodi. Thanks again for your kind welcome here!

[Orion75]

After waiting for quite a while and sitting on a 1080p HDTV for around a year, I finally took the leap today. Got my BDP-S301 from Costco ($449.99 + Tax).

After setting up the player I checked the firmware and found it to be 2.0 (Sony's website did not have any updates for this model as yet)

My setup includes:

JVC 56FN97 56" HDILA / LCos 1080p HDTV
Onkyo TX-SR674 7.1 Ch. Receiver
Oppo 981HD
Infinity 1100 5.1 speakers system
(All connections are via HDMI)

What I liked about this player:

1. Very good picture and audio quality
2. Run very silent
3. Remote has quite a few useful functions

What I didn't like:

1. The sluggishness/slow response of the player to commands from the remote. (Haven't worked with anything slower than this in past 4-5 years). If at all I end up returning the player, this might be the biggest reason.
2. Limited upconversion quality. My Oppo 981HD does a way better job of upconversion to 1080p.

While watching the blu-ray discs I realized that I was not able to use the "source direct" video output at 1080p/24. Now I am not sure if my JVC 56FN97 supports 1080p@24fps or not. Does anyone here own a similar HDTV model and have they faced any such issues?

[garytma]

Hi Orion75,

Glad you are enjoying the S300 (discounting your not liking the response of the player to the remote, and the upconversion capability).

Regarding your question about having 1080p/24: first, remember that when you select the "source direct" function of the "video format" button. you are telling the player to automatically output according to the nature of the media in the player. If you select "auto" mode, you are telling the player to base its output resolution on what your TV's native resolution is. If selecting that mode displays a "1080p/60", then it is likely that you do not have the 24 fps capability on your display.

My SXRD does not have the capability to display the 24 fps.

As regards the remote, I have not noticed a particularly horrendous sluggishness about the player's response to remote commands. But, to be fair, I am not an avid remote button pusher, and I do not use the player's actual remote now that I have programmed the "watch Blu-ray disc" function into my Logitech Harmony remote. I use that remote for all functions now.

Using the Harmony remote, is another reason, probably, why I am not too bothered by the S300's bootup time. My SXRD display is positioned at one end of our media room, and my various components (except for cable box) reside on the opposite wall behind our seating.

When I press the Harmony activity button for "watch Blu-ray/DVD", the remote starts the S300, turns on the TV, selects the appropriate TV input, toggles off the TV's speakers, turns on the receiver, and selects the correct receiver input for "Blu-ray". By the time all of the components are on, the display has warmed to full brightness, and I am ready to insert a disc, the S300 is ready to go!

As I noted, on my previous posts, I have found that on my system, great DVDs look great with the player doing the upconverting. DVD's with older, or less well-transfered films, seem to look much better if I only have the display upconvert the DVD. You might try some experimentation in this area.

[glabelle]

Can someone help me with this or tell me I'm full of it ;-)

I'm playing my S301 thru HDMI to a 16:9 CRT projector.

I've had my S301 for a couple of weeks. Everything seems great, except when I try to play a 1.85:1 LETTERBOX (non anamporphic) SD DVD. I get black bars on the top, bottom, left and right, as though it is outputting to a 4:3 screen. A review I read said they came across this and it was solved by setting 4:3 format to "full". When I do this, the picture is stretched horizontally, but not vertically, so the aspect is ruined and it doesn't fill the screen. Seems to me that it should. BTW, the movie is Commando. Seems to me that if you are watching on a 4:3 set and ask for "full", it should stretch vertically to fill the screen anyway. Sony online chat help was of no help.

[wisper9999]

How do you check the firmware?
Thanks

[wisper9999]

Forget it. Sorry I found it..im 2.0



Power on the BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc® player.
If the player starts to play a disc, press the "STOP" button and wait until the blue Sony Blu-ray Disc screen is displayed on the television before proceeding.
On the remote control (RMT-B100A), press the SYSTEM MENU button.
At the "System Menu" screen, use the arrow keys on the remote control to highlight "Setup" and then press the ENTER button.
At the "Setup" screen, use the arrow keys on the remote control to highlight "Video Setup" and then press the ENTER button.
Use the arrow keys on the remote control to highlight "TV Type" and then press the ENTER button.
On the remote control, press "BLUE" button.
The firmware version currently installed on the BDP-S1 will be listed on the television screen. If the version number is 2.00 or higher, it is not necessary to install this firmware update.

[garytma]

Originally Posted by glabelle

Can someone help me with this or tell me I'm full of it ;-)

I'm playing my S301 thru HDMI to a 16:9 CRT projector.

I've had my S301 for a couple of weeks. Everything seems great, except when I try to play a 1.85:1 LETTERBOX (non anamporphic) SD DVD. I get black bars on the top, bottom, left and right, as though it is outputting to a 4:3 screen. A review I read said they came across this and it was solved by setting 4:3 format to "full". When I do this, the picture is stretched horizontally, but not vertically, so the aspect is ruined and it doesn't fill the screen. Seems to me that it should. BTW, the movie is Commando. Seems to me that if you are watching on a 4:3 set and ask for "full", it should stretch vertically to fill the screen anyway. Sony online chat help was of no help.

How old is the DVD? When DVD's first arrived on the scene, letterboxed movies were not "enhanced for widescreen". On my set, those discs look just like letterboxed laserdiscs. For myself, I generally leave the image as is, as I prefer not to blow up the image simply to fill the screen- and often times, if subtitles are involved, one loses those as the result of the enlarging of the image.

If you are keen to expand the image, you might dig out your manual for your display, as every TV seems to attack the displaying of aspects differently.

[aqupunk]

Originally Posted by whsbuss

I think you are just getting the core DDTHD track at 640kbs. LPCM for DDTHD. Doesn't matter what your setting for HDMI audio are. If your receiver can accept LPCM HDMI audio there is no converstion to analog.

Ok so the best way is to set the audio to pcm instead of auto, if you have a reciever that can accept it right?