The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by rox addict

So Meerkat, if my receivers decodes True HD and DTS-MA then I'm good to go on True Hd and DTS-MA with the Panny BD 30 ? I read that on my BDP-S300 manual but I couldnt get it to work !

Yes. The Panny BD30 will bitstream the hi-rez audio to an AVR via HDMI 1.3. The AVR will then decode the hi-rez audio (assuming it has that capability - the Onkyo 605 does). The Sony 300 will not do this - it is not HDMI 1.3 compliant. The hi-rez audio you can get from the 300 is LPCM or True-HD decoded as LPCM via hdmi pcm (it won't decode DTS-MA). Not bad but just not complete for all the latest hi-rez codecs. I own both players (as well as a Samsung 1200) and an Onkyo 605. The BD30 has honors in my HT setup. It's a great player.

[rox addict]

So krisjan, you would take a Panny BD 30 over a PS3 ?

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by rox addict

So krisjan, you would take a Panny BD 30 over a PS3 ?

I've never owned or experienced a PS3. I have zero interest in gaming. My choice would be the BD30 (it is DTS-MA capable via bitstream while the PS3 does not have that capability yet anyway).

[yex94]

Originally Posted by rox addict

Yex 94 the Panny BD 30 doesn't decode True HD nor DTS- MA ! I just read the specs on it and another poster brought this to my attention when I posted if I should trade my S-300 in for the Panny Bd-30. Can you clarify on this ? I'm about to trade it for a PS3 and just live without DTS-MA and pray for a firmware that will give the PS3 DTS-MA ,Thanks

Correct, but if you pair it with the Onkyo 605 (which you said you were looking at) then you can get TrueHD and DTS-MA via bitstream and the Onkyo can decode it.

[Meerkat]

Originally Posted by rox addict

So krisjan, you would take a Panny BD 30 over a PS3 ?

The PS3 has the potential to be upgraded to profile 2.0, PIP and BD-Live capability. The Panny 30 will remain profile 1.1, PIP only. If this matters to you.

Panny 30 seems to be a very good profile 1.1 player, probably the best 1.1 player so far. The Sony 350 coming middle of this year sounds like a very good player as well, it also will be profile 1.1. If you really want to get a really good player, IMO, and can wait until late 2008, the Sony 550 may be a good option. This is a profile 2.0 with all the HD codecs built in.

[rox addict]

Picked up the Panny today at BB.....The Sony BDP-S300 is on its way back to Vanns as we speak

[truenorth]

Hi,

Have been lurking for some time. Purchased a used (like new) S300 a few weeks ago, my choice was based on this forum (had HD-DVD prior).

I notice trouble with accessing the menu of some standard DVDs. For example, Little House on the Prairie, Season 8, I am unable to use the arrow, enter, or play keys, so it is impossible for me to play any of the episodes - the player refuses to respond to any input from the remote (or front panel, which is to be expected, as the play button does not work as an enter button). I have the latest 3.7 firmware. What is the trouble? I would love to know.

I am not a novice, I have owned many pieces of electronic equipment. This one I can't seem to find a work-around.

P.S. These DVDs work fine on our Denon DVD player.

[yex94]

Originally Posted by truenorth

Hi,

Have been lurking for some time. Purchased a used (like new) S300 a few weeks ago, my choice was based on this forum (had HD-DVD prior).

I notice trouble with accessing the menu of some standard DVDs. For example, Little House on the Prairie, Season 8, I am unable to use the arrow, enter, or play keys, so it is impossible for me to play any of the episodes - the player refuses to respond to any input from the remote (or front panel, which is to be expected, as the play button does not work as an enter button). I have the latest 3.7 firmware. What is the trouble? I would love to know.

I am not a novice, I have owned many pieces of electronic equipment. This one I can't seem to find a work-around.

P.S. These DVDs work fine on our Denon DVD player.

Try updating the firmware to 3.8 (just released from Sony).

[carbuff]

truenorth, are you able to control Blu-ray discs properly and the problem is only with non Blu-ray discs? Or do you have problems with all types of discs?

Does your BDP-S300 power come on and turn off using the remote? Or, do you have to use the front panel buttons"

If no remote buttons work, check the remote’s battery placements; positive, negative poles, etc.

Change the supplied batteries even though they may be “new.”

Is anything obstructing the path from your remote commander to the front remote sensor of the unit? If so, remove it or change location of remote.

Clean the front remote sensor of the unit with a lens tissue or soft cloth.

If these procedures are not pertinent, the manual has instructions to return settings you may have made back to the factory default settings. It initializes and resets. Try this if all else fails.

Hope you are able to resolve the problem. I have a new BDP-S300 and find it trouble free and an excellent player.

[truenorth]

Hi,

All remote functions work with Blu-Ray and DVD, just this DVD LHOP season 8 has given trouble so far. I think there was one other DVD that would not work ... all my Blu-Ray and other DVDs are just fine (front panel buttons or remote).

I have read in another thread that 3.8 is a mixed bag ... ??

Thanks. Any other ideas would be welcome. I can't figure why just this DVD set is giving problems, as it works just fine on our (no longer used) Denon DVD player.

[truenorth]

Well, the S300 does not read the discs correctly for this season of LHOP. I have to access the chapters through the number pad using the "Play Mode" button. The menu is simply non-responsive.

[garytma]

While trying the switch over to setting my S300 over to "PCM", in audio mode, it occurs to me that there really does not seem to be many occasions where there is much to be gained by doing this.

Correct me if I am wrong, but would not the only reason for doing this be, if one gets a Blu-ray disc, and the disc contains say, a Dolby HD codec, but does not offer a lossless PCM track?

When playing a DVD, or Blu disc, I have always manually selected, on the disc, what I perceived to be the highest quality codec.

If the Blu disc has a lossless track, I would always have selected that one for play. But on a DVD, what is to be gained by selecting PCM on the player since whatever plays is a compressed codec anyway. And would not a DVD, simply recorded in "Dolby Surround" just play as a stereo LPCM track, and not decode the single surround channel, if the player is set to PCM?

It just seemed to me that leaving the S300's audio mode on "auto" would more conveniently provide for best all around play, excepting when playing a Blu-ray without a "lossless" track.

What do you folks think?

[blurayisking]

Exactly my sentiments regarding the BDP-S300 especially if you do not have an HDMI equipped receiver.

[garytma]

I probably should have stated that I am playing my discs, through HDMI, with an HDMI-capable receiver. And for the record, I have just had enough time to try playing The Fifth Element, with my S300's PCM audio enabled.

The apparently decoded DolbyHD track is astounding, sounding very open, active, and quite transparent!

If, as Paidgeek, has suggested, future Sony Blu-ray discs are likely to eliminate the PCM track, favoring the DolbyHD audio, then those of us with the S300, will desire to decode that codec into either 5.1, or 7.1, LPCM.

For my own convenience however, I was suggesting that I, perhaps like most folks, may want to stay with the "auto" setting, on my S300's audio, for most disc playback.

I was essentianally inquiring whether anyone could discern a potential benefit by staying in PCM mode all of the time- especially since it seems likely, as I suggested, that DVDs encoded with a basic "Dolby Surround" codec, would not get decoded beyond a stereo 2-channel PCM mix, cancelling out the surround back channel. It would seem to be for the best, to stay in "auto" mode, for the player audio playback, in all situations except for playback of a Blu-ray disc that had DolbyHD, but lacked a seperate lossless audio track.

[WarrenPS]

Originally Posted by garytma

I was essentianally inquiring whether anyone could discern a potential benefit by staying in PCM mode all of the time- especially since it seems likely, as I suggested, that DVDs encoded with a basic "Dolby Surround" codec, would not get decoded beyond a stereo 2-channel PCM mix, cancelling out the surround back channel. It would seem to be for the best, to stay in "auto" mode, for the player audio playback, in all situations except for playback of a Blu-ray disc that had DolbyHD, but lacked a seperate lossless audio track.

I have my BDP-S300 attached via HDMI to a Denon AVR 2807. I have my audio set to PCM on the 300 rather than auto. I play DVDs with basic DD5.1/DTS and receive the audio signal in multichannel PCM (as opposed to 2-channel). In fact, the surround back channels are much improved with this setup.

[garytma]

Originally Posted by WarrenPS

I have my BDP-S300 attached via HDMI to a Denon AVR 2807. I have my audio set to PCM on the 300 rather than auto. I play DVDs with basic DD5.1/DTS and receive the audio signal in multichannel PCM (as opposed to 2-channel). In fact, the surround back channels are much improved with this setup.

Thanks for your comments.

Actually, I am set up similarly- and- DO get 5.1 surround through HDMI as a LPCM decode. When refering to getting 2 channel Dolby Surround, I am talking about the 2 channel Dolby Matrixed codec, that when decoded, "normally" sends audio to 2 front stereo speakers, and 1 surround channel to the rear- a similar codec to the old Columbia SQ surround LPs.

Many DVDs are encoded with this, and not a Dolby 5.1, or DTS 5.1 track. So far (and to be fair, I have not explored this fully yet), what I am seeing on my receiver, and actually hear, is that the S300's decode, of the matrixed Dolby Surround track, is that the player is not sending a surround rear channel to the back 2 speakers. More experimentation is needed for me to determine this for sure.

Since most of my digital videodisc collection, to date, is DVD- many with only Dolby Surround (versus Dolby Digital, DTS, etc), I was wondering if anyone saw an advantage to keeping the S300 in PCM mode. You are saying that you believe that your 5.1 DVDs actually sound better then they would simply decoding by way of using the "auto" setting, if I understand what you are saying?

[carbuff]

The comments I write here are not to dispute anything that has been posted by others. I simply do not understand the quandary about sound quality.

My listening acuity is that I find nothing inferior about the sound quality delivered by the BDP-S300. To the contrary, I am quite pleased with the quality I hear.

The S300 is cabled to a Pioneer VSX-82TXS A/V receiver via HDMI. I set the output of the S300 to linear PCM surround sound and the input of the VXS to Pure Direct Stream Mode. Choosing this protocol bypasses all unnecessary signal processing. The result is what I believe to be the truest possible reproduction from a Blu-ray disc.

The signal is then delivered by the VSX to seven MK speakers and a MK sub-woofer. I think the result is that I hear the purest digital sound I can obtain with these units. It is richer in tone and greater in depth than the setup I had with my Denon AVR-4800 A/V Receiver and DVM-3700 (non Blu-ray) DVD Changer connected by digital coaxial cable.

[yex94]

Originally Posted by garytma

If the Blu disc has a lossless track, I would always have selected that one for play. But on a DVD, what is to be gained by selecting PCM on the player since whatever plays is a compressed codec anyway. And would not a DVD, simply recorded in "Dolby Surround" just play as a stereo LPCM track, and not decode the single surround channel, if the player is set to PCM?

It just seemed to me that leaving the S300's audio mode on "auto" would more conveniently provide for best all around play, excepting when playing a Blu-ray without a "lossless" track.

What do you folks think?

Not exactly. When the s300 decodes DD on a normal DVD it will decode it into 5.1 sound and output that. It really doesnt matter whether your receiver or your s300 does the decoding on regular DD or DTS tracks, it should sound the same.

[David Mamet]

Would like to add that I have owned a bdp-s300 since Dec. and I love the machine. I have no real comparison, but sound and picture have been excellent.

[Baldrick]

A Question for all you audiophiles out there, i have two options for the audio from my S300, as my Sony AV amp does not have HDMI, only optical/digital coax or seperate 5.1 channels, which would give the best sound.