The Sony BDP-S360 Review Thread

[HDTV1080P]

SONY BDP-S360 BLU-RAY PLAYER
(Home Theater magazine June 2009 review link)

The improved loading speed, better video quality, and advanced audio decoding of DTS HD Master audio is a nice improvement over the BDP-S350 that I purchased last year. The Sony BDP-S360 and Panasonic DMP-BD60 both are $300. I perfer the Panasonic over the Sony. The Sony does not have as good as video performance when compared to the better quality Panasonic. The Sony does not offer reverse 3:2 pulldown for film based 480I DVD's. The Panasonic will up convert film based DVD's to 1080p/24 with its 3:2 pulldown detection. Like the Panasonic the latest Sony BDP-S360 has dropped legacy 480I S-Video support. The Sony BDP-S360 does not have built in 1GB of internal memory and does not offer 1GB ethernet networking support like the PS3 does. Just like the two BDP-S350's that I purchased last year the new BDP-S360 uses a micro USB slot in the back of the player to plug in for BD-LIVE. The Sony players would be much easier and better to use if they included 1GB of built in memory for BD-LIVE and a front loading SD card slot to add additional memory. The Panasonic SD card slot for BD-LIVE is easier to access and looks a lot better cosmetically compared to USB flash memory.

The Sony auto check for firmware updates is nice and it notifies one if there is a firmware update available as soon as the player is turned on. I also wish BLU-RAY engineers would design a BLU-RAY player that would automatically turn on the player in the middle of the night and check for the latest update and if one is available to have it automatically installed while one is sleeping. Having to wait 10 minutes to install a update to watch the latest new releases is not consumer friendly. These updates should automatically be installed when the player is turned off and not in use. I am on a 100% 1GB network using CAT5E cable and am not interested in a wireless option. For those consumers that are on a wireless network the Sony BDP-S560 will be released later this year that will add wireless Internet and a easy to access front USB port for BD-LIVE. The BDP-S560 list price will only be $50 more at $350.

Quotes

" Sony includes a USB port on the back panel to meet the memory requirements for BD-Live. Unfortunately, Sony doesn’t include the memory, so you’ll need to purchase a 1-GB USB stick if you want to try out BD-Live. Again, we would prefer that manufacturers either meet the 1-GB spec with internal storage or at least include the external storage to minimize confusion."

" Sony’s auto update feature notifies you when a firmware update is available. This takes out the guesswork, and it’s a very nice touch that I hope we see from other manufacturers."

" Most of the market is now approaching this same price point and including more features, such as on-demand video streaming from online sources like Netflix. This makes the competition stiff for the rather bare-bones Sony. However, that doesn’t mean that Sony doesn’t deliver a capable Blu-ray player for the dollar."

" The BDP-S360 ($300) is Sony’s newest entry-level offering, and it supports Blu-ray’s full interactive capabilities. This includes BD-Live via its Ethernet connection and Bonus View picture-in-picture. This year, Sony will also release the BDP-S560 ($350), which builds on this platform by adding wireless Internet connectivity and a front-panel USB port."

" The back panel features only a stereo analog audio output. As with the Panasonic, you need HDMI in your surround processor or AVR to take advantage of the player’s output capabilities. This seems to be the norm with a lot of players on the market, and I wouldn’t be surprised if multichannel analog outputs completely disappear in the future."

" The HDMI output is version 1.3a, and the setup menu lets you select the output color space. This can be a big plus in terms of tweakability. It also lets you set the bit depth for upsampled Deep Color. The BDP-S360 supports up to 12 bits per channel for a total of 36 bits. It includes standard analog video connections, along with TosLink and digital coaxial options."

"The BDP-S360 includes full internal decoding for all of Blu-ray’s advanced audio codecs, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. You can also choose to simply bitstream them in native form. However, the player does have one minor quirk. The dynamic range function defaults to on, so I’d recommend that you set it to Wide Range during your initial setup in order to eliminate any possibility of unnecessary implementation of dynamic range compression."

Video Performance

"Sony has definitely upped the ante with the BDP-S360’s video processing. Previous players did a good job with 1080p/24 playback of Blu-ray titles, but their deinterlacing and standard DVD playback left a lot to be desired."

"The BDP-S360 features very good video processing that actually improves upon Sony’s flagship BDP-S5000ES’s performance. (See our March 2009 issue for the full report.) It includes full HD deinterlacing and solid standard-definition deinterlacing."

The BDP-S360 still doesn’t sup- port HD motion-adaptive deinter-lacing. This is vital for material that’s sourced from video-based cameras. This also includes some concert titles that are only available in 1080i and any AVCHD content that’s sourced from a consumer-grade 1080i camera. However, this will generally have little effect on Blu-ray playback."

"The Sony’s standard-definition DVD deinterlacing was good, but its scaling wasn’t quite up to the level of the better video processing solutions out there. I used several different luma and chroma bursts to evaluate resolution, and I noticed some occasional flickering and scaling artifacts. If you want to make the most out of your DVD library from a Blu-ray player, you might want to evaluate this player’s performance against some of the other options that include higher-end video processing solutions."

" It was nice to see Sony improve on its general operability with this new design. While I can’t say the BDP-S360 has reached the level of the outstanding PlayStation 3 in terms of load and response times, it’s definitely faster than previous Sony models I’ve tested. Load times were just above average for a new player, and I didn’t find myself as agitated with the Java-intensive discs as I typically am with most players. Sony also includes a Quick Start mode hat turns the player on a bit faster than normal. It doesn’t cut down on load times, but it gets you up and going quicker. General navigation was average and could still use some improvement."

" DVD playback was good, but some other manufacturers deliver better video processing, including 1080p/24 playback, at or near this price point."

" Overall, Sony has definitely improved upon its previous players and delivered a solid Blu-ray player with the BDP-S360. I have no complaints about the BDP-S360’s Blu-ray playback performance, but the design leaves a bit to be desired in terms of extra features and connectivity."

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