The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[TheDoc46]

Originally Posted by tron3

3.80 firmware a hit and a miss. Meaning, some BD-J discs load faster, and some take LONGER.

Timing starts from the moment the tray clips shut, to the moment of first screen image.

Format is:
Title / 3.70 load time / 3.80 load time
======================================
Power on / 44 sec / 44 sec 0 Difference
POTC 1 / 1:40 / 1:36 -04 sec.
POTC 2 / 1:12 / 1:31 +19 sec
POTC 3 / 1:18 / 1:03 -15 sec
Spiderman1 / 1:35 / 1:16 -19 sec
Spiderman2 / 1:13 / 1:15 -02 sec
Spiderman3 / 1:24 / 1:22 -02 sec
Fan. Four / 0:23 (non BD-j) / 0:23 0 difference
Fan Four Rise / 1:18 / 2:03 +45 sec

Thanks for taking the time out for this testing... It helps us all out !!!

[Phatjedi]

Why do I get excited about firmware updates? I am seriously thinking of going home for lunch to load this.

I am a sick puppy

[SamInNorthCakalakey]

It probably has fixes for an upcoming title which they found to have issues with the player. So I think load times is a bonus and not what it's supposed to do.

[russtcb]

Originally Posted by SamInNorthCakalakey

It probably has fixes for an upcoming title which they found to have issues with the player. So I think load times is a bonus and not what it's supposed to do.

I was guessing either No Country For Old Men or Independence Day might be the reason for this update.

[LeeS]

FYI, the article detailing the two next-generation Sony Blu-ray players is at:

http://www.electronichouse.com/artic...u_ray_players/

[dankoo]

Originally Posted by Baldrick

3.80 only available for USA Machines, sony.co.uk still only shows 3.70 download.

Baldrick,

3.8 is available for UK. See this thread:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=40868

[tron3]

Originally Posted by TheDoc46

Thanks for taking the time out for this testing... It helps us all out !!!

You are very welcome. But I am a bit confused why people are not screaming about how some movies are taking longer, MUCH longer to load now. FF:RotSS took over two minutes on 3.20 firmware. Down to 1:50 on ver 3.7, and now back to over 2 minutes on 3.80.

The only reason why I keep 3.80 is most of the movies load a little quicker, and I probably need it for Ice Age 1 & 2. Other than that, I am a little miffed at the increased load times.

[russtcb]

I was able to test Independence Day today on an S300 before and after the 3.80 update. While the load times were the same, the menus moved MUCH faster after the update.

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by russtcb

I was able to test Independence Day today on an S300 before and after the 3.80 update. While the load times were the same, the menus moved MUCH faster after the update.

How did you get that early?

Or are you not U.S.?

[krazeyeyez]

jason! and all other 300 owners.

in case you missed it, paid confirmed that the s300 can do internal truehd decode, and that the only setting you need to change is the hdmi setting from auto to pcm, dont worry about downmix or anything, leave those settings as they are.

he also commented that it was an unadvertised feature and MAY be removed with future updates.
i don't have the ears to notice the difference, at least on the blu's i could check this on since they don't have strong audio tracks.

[yex94]

Originally Posted by krazeyeyez

jason! and all other 300 owners.

in case you missed it, paid confirmed that the s300 can do internal truehd decode, and that the only setting you need to change is the hdmi setting from auto to pcm, dont worry about downmix or anything, leave those settings as they are.

he also commented that it was an unadvertised feature and MAY be removed with future updates.
i don't have the ears to notice the difference, at least on the blu's i could check this on since they don't have strong audio tracks.

I tried a similar test to paidgeek's this AM. I dont have analog inputs on my receiver but I do have HDMI so I tested this feature by switching the HDMI setting between 'auto' and 'pcm'. Since my AVR cant decode TrueHD either the auto setting will always send standard DD. I put in "300" (the movie) into the 300 (the player) and tried to listen to a few different scenes for each of the following tracks - DD5.1, TrueHD, and PCM. I tried this with both the HDMI setting to auto and to PCM. Paidgeek is right (why would we doubt him), the TrueHD track came on with much better sound than the DD5.1 track which leads me to believe the player is decoding something more. The only slight hesitation on my part is that the PCM track still sounded better (IMO). It sounds deeper and more rich and full. But I suppose that may have more to do with how the audio tracks were laid down than with the player? I have noticed that the audio decoding quality on this player for all tracks is not as good as some other DVD players I have had so the difference I heard between PCM and TrueHD might not have anything to do with whether the player can decode it. I am now a paidgeek/TrueHD believer and will never doubt him again!

[russtcb]

Originally Posted by JasonR

How did you get that early?

Or are you not U.S.?

I have a friend in retail who was able to perform this test for me.

[Sailor-man]

Are you guys saying that if I switch the HDMI audio setting on the BDP-S300 from Auto to PCM that the unit will decode TrueHD and send it to the Receiver over HDMI.

I have a Yamaha Receiver that I know is TrueHD and the TrueHD display does NOT go on when I do this, so I assumed I'm getting 2 channel PCM.

When I swith from PCM to Auto, the display on the Receiver shows Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1.

I sent a note to SOny and they told me the unit will not send TrueHD by bitstream.

[djOS]

Originally Posted by Sailor-man

Are you guys saying that if I switch the HDMI audio setting on the BDP-S300 from Auto to PCM that the unit will decode TrueHD and send it to the Receiver over HDMI.

Yes, it decodes and outputs TrueHD as LPCM over HDMI

Originally Posted by Sailor-man

I have a Yamaha Receiver that I know is TrueHD and the TrueHD display does NOT go on when I do this, so I assumed I'm getting 2 channel PCM.

Thats because your AMP supports Bitstreamed TrueHD and the s300 will only ever bitstream the old codecs, DD & DTS.

You need an s500 or better to bitstream TrueHD to your AMP.

Originally Posted by Sailor-man

When I swith from PCM to Auto, the display on the Receiver shows Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1.

I sent a note to SOny and they told me the unit will not send TrueHD by bitstream.

that is the s300 extracting and bitstreaming the core DD5.1 track that is contained within all THD tracks.

[nycomet]

By the way everyone, page 48 of the manual for the BDP-S300 actually states that the unit can decode 5.1 Dolby TrueHD though HDMI via PCM auto setting. If you use auto, the player will only send 5.1 Dolby Digital.

This feature is poorly advertised in the manual. It is not a hidden feature.

[krisjan]

NYCOMET - I vote for your post as post of the year so far. Nice catch. The answer has been staring at us from the owner's manual all along. This means that the 300 has been capable of decoding True-HD from its release. I'm not sure why there's all the chatter about this being enabled via FW if it was there from the beginning. Great post!

[blurayisking]

NYCOMET:

What's missing from the manual from the beginning is a separate footnote that should have been included as such:

*7 Outputs 7.1 ch LPCM signals decoded from Dolby TrueHD audio stream

Sony should never assumed that everybody is completely on-board when it comes to understanding what they are trying to say.

[nycomet]

Originally Posted by blurayisking

NYCOMET:

What's missing from the manual from the beginning is a separate footnote that should have been included as such:

*7 Outputs 7.1 ch LPCM signals decoded from Dolby TrueHD audio stream

Sony should never assumed that everybody is completely on-board when it comes to understanding what they are trying to say.

I can only assume that insufficient information about BDP-S300 Dolby TrueHD decoding was caused by Japanese to English translation.

Since I use HDMI to connect to my Sony 710 receiver (which cannot decode Dolby TrueHD), I now keep my BDP-S300 on PCM audio setting at all times (not Auto) so the player can do the decoding.

.

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by nycomet

By the way everyone, page 48 of the manual for the BDP-S300 actually states that the unit can decode 5.1 Dolby TrueHD though HDMI via PCM auto setting. If you use auto, the player will only send 5.1 Dolby Digital.

This feature is poorly advertised in the manual. It is not a hidden feature.

How did we all miss it?!?!?!?

[Sailor-man]

Does this mean if I'm connected via HDMI and my audio is set to PGM (not Auto) that my receiver is getting TrueHD or are you guys talking about an analog connection using the audio out jacks.

I'm still confused here.