The Sony BDP-S360 Review Thread

[PoorSignal]

Not a performance issue but has anyone able to get that big silver sticker on the right side of the machine off, the only that has the sony phone #?

Did it leave a bit adhesive mess?

[Ray_Rogers]

Originally Posted by PoorSignal

Not a performance issue but has anyone able to get that big silver sticker on the right side of the machine off, the only that has the sony phone #?

Did it leave a bit adhesive mess?

If you have Goo Gone that usually takes off adhesive residue.

[BLindsay]

ok so i was trying to setup my fathers 360 and i cant remember what setting i need to change so the player decodes HD audio because his reciever does not (it has HDMI but it was before HD audio, onkyo 604)

[Apophis906]

Originally Posted by Sooner_Blu

If so, we may have a solution to the issue of the 360 internally decoding DTS-HDMA, and what the settings should be. I was wading though the thread on the Sony BDP-S550, and guess what? Early on they were having this very same conversation on the decoding issue.

First lets review the Dolby Digital True HD: put the setting of the 360 to Direct, and it Bitstreams the True HD over to the receiver, which decodes it into PCM. Set the 360 to Mix, and the 360 internally decodes the True HD. It sends PCM over to the receiver along with any secondary audio. This secondary audio is the audio for PIP, menu clicks, etc. This is simple, straightforward, logical and intuitive.

Now for the DTS-HDMA, and where the fun begins: Put the 360 on Mix, and it will only Mix the secondary audio with the Core DTS that has been decoded. It is not decoding DTS-HDMA into PCM here. Both audios(Core DTS & Secondary) are sent to the receiver. Put the 360 on Direct and one of two things may happen: 1) If the receiver is set to auto, or something to make it decode, then the receiver will decode the the HDMA into PCM. Or 2) put the receiver setting to PCM, or where it will only accept PCM. This will make the player recognize that, and then the player will decode HDMA into PCM and send PCM to the receiver. If your receiver display is showing PCM, but is not decoding, then the player must be decoding the HDMA to PCM.

What do you think?

I am very glad you found this and mentioned it. I just checked by leaving it on direct and setting my receiver to PCM. Stuck in my animated Iron Man and the receiver showed 7.1 PCM and the s360 showed DTS-HD Master Audio on its on screen display. So its for sure the s360 decodes DTS-MA internally. Just that if its set to mix you only get the core and the secondary audio. So glad that got cleared up. Of course I do think its silly it only decodes the core when set to mix,when with True-HD its decodeing the whole thing and mixing it together. Still not that big of a deal since you only need mix when watching a pip track,and you dont really need lossless with that.

[Jimbo976]

From another forum....

"For general movie playback, you should leave the Secondary Audio option in the Setup menu off by default. Turning it on will prevent the player from decoding the full lossless Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio formats, or transmitting their raw bitstreams. Instead, your audio will be downgraded to standard lossy fidelity"

That's a dealbreaker for me. I was really interested in this player, but having to go into the Setup menu every time I want to listen to PiP tracks or live with lossy audio the rest of the time (whether the movie has a PiP track or not) is unacceptable. Try explaining that little detail to the wife or parents. I thought it might be a simple oversight in their UI and emailed Oppo. To their credit, they responded very quickly, but said this was a hardware limitation and it could not be fixed with a firmware upgrade. The player seems about perfect in every other way, but requiring trips into the Setup menu just to watch a special feature is ridiculous in a consumer device. No other Profile 2.0 or 1.1 player has this limitation, so it's sad that an otherwise great product has this one glaring flaw.

Sounds like exactly what you're seeing. If you have mix on you can't get lossless. This is no big deal for me as I don't give 2 hoots about PiP but maybe some people will care. It also sounds like this same issue exists in every Blu-ray player other than the PS3.

[PoorSignal]

is there a way to resume a movie after it has been stopped?
it only seems to work with some movies.

[Jimbo976]

Well I finally bought a BDP-S360 today. I got it for $270 Cdn using my friend's discount card.

It took me 90 minutes to try to figure out how to get multi-channel audio of any kind (even on a DVD) coming out of it over HDMI (I was getting 5.1 no problem over Optical but not on HDMI no matter what I tried). In the end I had to change 2 settings in my Sony receiver to make it work (2 HDMI related settings). These were not needed for my PS3 using the same receiver but at least it all works now. I was getting ready to return the player or call Sony tech support but gave it one last try.

I was getting DTS HD MA 7.1 when using direct so it seems that the decoding is working for me. The Dolby Digital and DTS options don't seem to have any effect in my case (either downconvert to PCM or the default). Are they only for the non-HD Dolby and DTS codecs? My receiver can decode standard DD and DTS.

The loading times are a little slower than with my PS3 but not as much so as I expected. It's really cool to now use my Harmony 880 for everything to watch a Blu-ray. Plus the player is dead quiet. The noise from the PS3 is the main reason I got the S360.

Once I watch some whole movies I'll post more but so far i'm a happy camper.

[PoorSignal]

Originally Posted by Jimbo976

Well I finally bought a BDP-S360 today. I got it for $270 Cdn using my friend's discount card.

It took me 90 minutes to try to figure out how to get multi-channel audio of any kind (even on a DVD) coming out of it over HDMI (I was getting 5.1 no problem over Optical but not on HDMI no matter what I tried). In the end I had to change 2 settings in my Sony receiver to make it work (2 HDMI related settings). These were not needed for my PS3 using the same receiver but at least it all works now. I was getting ready to return the player or call Sony tech support but gave it one last try.

I was getting DTS HD MA 7.1 when using direct so it seems that the decoding is working for me. The Dolby Digital and DTS options don't seem to have any effect in my case (either downconvert to PCM or the default). Are they only for the non-HD Dolby and DTS codecs? My receiver can decode standard DD and DTS.

The loading times are a little slower than with my PS3 but not as much so as I expected. It's really cool to now use my Harmony 880 for everything to watch a Blu-ray. Plus the player is dead quiet. The noise from the PS3 is the main reason I got the S360.

Once I watch some whole movies I'll post more but so far i'm a happy camper.

I am glad you figured it out. When I popped in my first movie in this player, I selected DTS MA but my receiver said PCM, all I needed was to set the player to "Direct". I havn't touched a thing since, that took me 2 minutes
Congrats, you will enjoy the quieter, much much lower power consumption BD playing now.

[raulromo34]

Originally Posted by PoorSignal

Not a performance issue but has anyone able to get that big silver sticker on the right side of the machine off, the only that has the sony phone #?

Did it leave a bit adhesive mess?

you can usually use some WD-40 and a rag. spray wd-40 on rag, then scrub. there is something in wd-40 that disolves the adhesive, but does no damage to painted surfaces, or plastic sufaces. hope this helps. Raul

[Ashamed Pegasus]

I just sold my PS3 because I never plays games on it... I was looking at the S360 for a primary player and can buy one for $176 shipped... Any reason why I shouldn't buy it?... My main requirement was AVCHD playback so I can watch movies recorded from my HD camcorder...

[FeltToaster]

Originally Posted by Ashamed Pegasus

I just sold my PS3 because I never plays games on it... I was looking at the S360 for a primary player and can buy one for $176 shipped... Any reason why I shouldn't buy it?... My main requirement was AVCHD playback so I can watch movies recorded from my HD camcorder...

Well i recently sold my PlayStation 3 too because i only played Metal Gear Solid 4 on it. The S360 plays some of the AVCHD's that my PS3 refused to play. I also like that some times bad burns don't get readied as a Data DVD. If AVCHD is going to be some where near on top of the list i recommend fully

[Ashamed Pegasus]

Originally Posted by FeltToaster

Well i recently sold my PlayStation 3 too because i only played Metal Gear Solid 4 on it. The S360 plays some of the AVCHD's that my PS3 refused to play. I also like that some times bad burns don't get readied as a Data DVD. If AVCHD is going to be some where near on top of the list i recommend fully

Thanks for the info... I just ordered it (came out to $171.60 after discounts )... Just have to order the flash drive for BD-Live...

[enricokael2005]

Originally Posted by DaveXX

Hi connect42, I am new to this forum but I like what I see so far. I just got S360 a few days ago myself and I am a very happy with this unit. To activate the HD formats to A/V receiver. Go to the audio setting/BD audio setting click on DIRECT and your good to go.

So when "Direct" selected the HD audio is bitstreamed to receiver to decode?
The only thing important to me is that HD audio is bistreamed to receiver and receiver decodes DTS-HDMA sound and not PCM!

[Jimbo976]

Direct seems to be used for both bitstream or internal decode. Mix is only if you want the player to internally mix a 2nd audio track like a picture in picture stream with the main movie audio and send them out together. This is my understanding as I have it set to direct and it seems to decode HD audio formats internally as my receiver cannot.

From another forum this seems to line up with what I said above...

Direct does not mean bitstream. Direct means the HDMI handshake determines whether the player decodes or bitstreams. Direct never includes secondary audio.

Mix forces player decoding. TrueHD is decoded as TrueHD. But, with dts-MA, the lossy core is decoded instead. The sampling rate is limited to 48kHz when set to mix, even for TrueHD tracks.

I have watched some Blu-rays now (and the kids watched some DVD's) using the BDP-S360 and I am very happy with it. Flawless playback of everything i've tried and really not much slower loading up than my PS3. I am very happy with how quiet it is while playing compared to the PS3 and it's cool to finally be able to do everything with my Harmony remote.

[Jimbo976]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

Is there a way I can turn off the noise reduction? Or the settings for it?

I think that is one of the things in the menu under video while playing a movie. It looks like they are all off by default.

[MichaelE]

Originally Posted by coil77

Why do DVDs look really bad when played on BDP-S360? I have the BDP player hook up to a Samsung LN52B750 with HDMI cable. Can anything be done to get a better picture?

You can probably get a better picture through component. I've had both the S350 and S360, and to be perfectly frank, neither are very good for DVDs. Even after completely re-calibrating my display, DVDs still looked very soft and murky through HDMI. Using component cables and 480p output improved PQ somewhat, but I could never get DVDs to look as good as they do using my old Sony progressive player.

My advice to you is: either buy another Blu-Ray player or else simply use a good progressive scan player for DVDs (upconverters are a waste of money). Unfortunately, unless you're willing to spend $500 on an Oppo BD-83, there really isn't a quality Blu-Ray player that can play DVDs well. Some people claim the Panasonic BD60/80 models are good for DVDs, but they freeze up with BDs.

[kwc858]

I get noise flashes (fine with 1080i) when selecting "1080p" or "Auto" video output format from my BDP-S360. I have tried 3 different HDMI cables and the same problem were all there. I have a Samsung 52" LCD (LN52A650). Any idea why? Did I get a bad BD player?

Thanks

[FeltToaster]

Sony's next Blu-ray player the BDP-N460 is going to have Youtube Support and Netflix and yes I was pretty mad when I found that out as its a common feature in Blu-ray players nowadays and the BDP-S360 should have that or at least have Youtube (As it is free and you don't need to go through as much papers for it) in a system update.

P.S Even as much as I dislike BD-Live. I would buy a Flash Drive if it were a requirement.

[icyteddy]

Originally Posted by FeltToaster

Sony's next Blu-ray player the BDP-N460 is going to have Youtube Support and Netflix and yes I was pretty mad when I found that out as its a common feature in Blu-ray players nowadays and the BDP-S360 should have that or at least have Youtube (As it is free and you don't need to go through as much papers for it) in a system update.

P.S Even as much as I dislike BD-Live. I would buy a Flash Drive if it were a requirement.

I agreed, however the BDP-N460 will significantly cost more than the S360. The N460 does not come with WI-FI and you have to buy a separate wireless bridge. That will cost more than the price tag of $250. I am guessing to fully utilize the full potential of this player with Netflix and youtube will run you $300. S360 cost under $200.

[FeltToaster]

Originally Posted by icyteddy

I agreed, however the BDP-N460 will significantly cost more than the S360. The N460 does not come with WI-FI and you have to buy a separate wireless bridge. That will cost more than the price tag of $250. I am guessing to fully utilize the full potential of this player with Netflix and youtube will run you $300. S360 cost under $200.

It seems like Sony is trying to Nerf (Make Less Appealing) there Standalone Player's to make the PS3 a much more attractive system. While companys like Samsung, Panasonic and LG for a while had .MKV Support, Youtube, Netflix, Pandora Radio and some other features (As it was clear they were directly competing with the beastly Blu-ray Player Ala PS3). Then you also have Bargin Brands like Magnavox and Insignia making very cheap 100 dollar players by just taking out a couple of gimmicky features (such as BD Live).

So IMO the N460 really should not even be and the S360 and S550 should just get a intensive update. (Samsung players get very awesome updates that add lots of value on it) So if Sony really wants to push Blu-ray. They should push Standalone Blu-ray players not the PS3 as the PS3 in most if not all peoples eye's is a Game Console and with its rep a very hardcore one too. Most people who didn't attach themselves with technology since they were at realistic maximum of 25 (A full time working age) would not be too attracted to a PS3