The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[aqupunk]

Originally Posted by malam

I picked up Casino Royale and Ghost Rider yesterday. I like the Ghost Rider best, but both are great. However, I have decided to return the Sony Player this afternoon. I arrived at this decision after a review of the BD movies available currently and their prices. Its one thing to have the BD Player or HD Player for that matter, but its another thing to be able to support the very expensive "habbit" of collecting the movies.

I see the operating cost of these players as the biggest barrier and not which technology is better than the other. In my opinion, the availability and cost of HD or Blu-ray movies, either for purchase, or rental will be, by far, the most determining factor as to which of the two systems will "WIN" the war. Both Sony and Toshiba may end up Losing the war if the movies are not there to support them.

I have seen the passion on this forum for the Blu-ray format. I do share some of that passion, but I am willing to Cool it for a while longer and see how things go. I will still keep the space for a Blu-ray player on my Home Theatre rack open and reserved for Sony though. Maybe one of these days.
Thanks.

Netflix is a great way to inexpensively enjoy blu ray movies. I also feel the movies will go down in price over time just like dvd did! I still only pay 20$ for a movie via ebay, and amazon, which is fair to have high definition movies, I love.

[easycure299]

Ok, so I bought myself a Sony KDL-52XBR lcd tv which is capable of 1080p/24. So, I wanted to be able to view my entire standard definition dvds upscaled to 1080p. So, I've bought two Blu-ray movies for now, Into the Blue and XXX. Into the Blue looked fantastic. I'll watch XXX this weekend. I know some people say the upscaling is not great, but I need to tweak my 52XBR first and then watch some sd movies. So, even though blu ray movies may be more expensive, my reasoning is that if I have a 1080p capable tv, then I want to see my movies upscaled to 1080p while I wait for blu ray movie prices to come down. So, as long as upscaling looks good, I'll keep my blu-ray player ;o).

By the way, what do you guys have your blu ray player set to for video? Brighter, Theater, Standard, or custom? If anyone is using the custom settings, could you list them?

Thanks,

Marc

[aqupunk]

Originally Posted by easycure299

Ok, so I bought myself a Sony KDL-52XBR lcd tv which is capable of 1080p/24. So, I wanted to be able to view my entire standard definition dvds upscaled to 1080p. So, I've bought two Blu-ray movies for now, Into the Blue and XXX. Into the Blue looked fantastic. I'll watch XXX this weekend. I know some people say the upscaling is not great, but I need to tweak my 52XBR first and then watch some sd movies. So, even though blu ray movies may be more expensive, my reasoning is that if I have a 1080p capable tv, then I want to see my movies upscaled to 1080p while I wait for blu ray movie prices to come down. So, as long as upscaling looks good, I'll keep my blu-ray player ;o).

By the way, what do you guys have your blu ray player set to for video? Brighter, Theater, Standard, or custom? If anyone is using the custom settings, could you list them?

Thanks,

Marc

I set mine to theater!

[tkusterb]

Originally Posted by aqupunk

I set mine to theater!

My XBR960 (34-inch widescreen direct view) is set to Standard. Everything else looks too dark or soft to me. Vivid is ridiculously overblown. Standard, I find, really shows off blu-ray for me.

If there's a better setting with custom adjustments, I'd love to hear about them as well.

[johnmhemp]

Originally Posted by Coltboy

i have yet "not to have a wow factor" with any of my BDs and i was expecting a lot when i bought my $1000 unit. i was and still am Wowed by them.

What amazes me is the difference in pq from disc to disc. POTC 1 & 2 leave you speechless. However I got Coming to America & Trading Places from Netflix yesterday and they looked average......but then I can put in one of the new remastered Bond movies or Spiderman 2 in Superbit and they look near HD quality. I have noticed a huge difference just in the normal viewing of my existing library. We watched The Office last night and it was a completely different experience from my old upconverting player. I don't think enough can be said about the BDP-S300 upconverting ability.

[thebluemax]

Does the BDP-S300 have 5 channel analog audio outputs for PCM listening? For those of us who do not have a HDMI surround receiver.

[zepherman]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

Does the BDP-S300 have 5 channel analog audio outputs for PCM listening? For those of us who do not have a HDMI surround receiver.

Yes it sure does

[JSteinhoff]

yes, comes loaded with 2.0 firmware

[Jodi]

I concur with the 5 channel analog outputs and the 2.0 firmware.

Jodi

[Rup_Muk]

Originally Posted by easycure299

Ok, so I bought myself a Sony KDL-52XBR lcd tv which is capable of 1080p/24. So, I wanted to be able to view my entire standard definition dvds upscaled to 1080p. So, I've bought two Blu-ray movies for now, Into the Blue and XXX. Into the Blue looked fantastic. I'll watch XXX this weekend. I know some people say the upscaling is not great, but I need to tweak my 52XBR first and then watch some sd movies. So, even though blu ray movies may be more expensive, my reasoning is that if I have a 1080p capable tv, then I want to see my movies upscaled to 1080p while I wait for blu ray movie prices to come down. So, as long as upscaling looks good, I'll keep my blu-ray player ;o).

By the way, what do you guys have your blu ray player set to for video? Brighter, Theater, Standard, or custom? If anyone is using the custom settings, could you list them?

Thanks,

Marc

Marc (easycure)...
Welcome!

You are in the right place... get prepared to become addicted to blu - as the rest of us have...

Rup.

[Rup_Muk]

Originally Posted by JSteinhoff

yes, comes loaded with 2.0 firmware

Welcome,
JSteinHoff.. you are in for a cool blu ride!

Rup.

[monkyman]

I bought both POTC movies today, and expected the worst when it came to loading time. I didn't think it was bad at all, less than 2 minutes for each title once the tray closed. The BDP-S300 played the discs flawlessly. It's a keeper for me.

[THE STUD]

So guys, I bought mine the first day it was at Best buy, and it wasn't that much better than my marantz upconvert, I'm wondering WHYYYYYYYYY?
My tv is a 60" Sony grand VEga with 1080i not 1080p. Does it make that much difference to have the P? I tried pirates and Casino, I heard them to be the clearest, and was only marginally impressed from my marantz. I took it back. I'm thinking that maybe my tv isn't that clear? I see sports in HD and they look way clearer than those movies I watched. I wonder if my marantz is so good, that the upconvert looks close to blu ray quality.
that's why I'm waiting for marantz, and with the announcement form denon it may not be as long as I thought

[Freud]

I purchased both the Sony BDP-S300 and the Panasonic DMP-BD10AK. I was very disgusted with the extremely slow loading time with Java discs like the new Pirate of the Caribbean DVD. The Sony S300 would take slighly over 2 minutes to load the Priate DVD. The Panasonic DMP-BD10AK took only 40 seconds to load the same DVD. The Panasonic is slightly quieter with regard to fan noisy, almost silent. However, the Panasonic it is a little noisier when loading the DVD. With the Panasonic the need to lower the front door to get to the tray or any controls is a bad design decision and the remote is pathetic, with the Sony remote being much better. It may be my imagination but I think the picture rendered with the same Pirate of the Caribbean Blu-ray DVD is a little sharper with the Panasonic. My decision was to return the Sony and keep the Panasonic.

[Deciazulado]

They're not DVDs mate

[Freud]

Yes, Yes of course they are technically called "Blu-ray Disc". I am so accustomed to using the term DVD I frequently erroneously refer to them as a DVD when I actually mean to say Blu-ray Disc, as many people do

[Manco]

Originally Posted by THE STUD

So guys, I bought mine the first day it was at Best buy, and it wasn't that much better than my marantz upconvert, I'm wondering WHYYYYYYYYY?
...and with the announcement form denon it may not be as long as I thought

Yep. I did a side-by-side between the s300 and Denon 1930CI DVD using "Pirates" disk on same LCD display (toggling HDMI inputs). The upconversion from the Denon (thx to Faroujda processing) is soooo darn good, it's actually pathetic.

Bottom line... as soon as Denon announces their player, which we all know WILL be Blu, the s300 is going on eBay. It will be a quality machine far beyond s300.

[Mr. Joshua]

Originally Posted by THE STUD

So guys, I bought mine the first day it was at Best buy, and it wasn't that much better than my marantz upconvert, I'm wondering WHYYYYYYYYY?
My tv is a 60" Sony grand VEga with 1080i not 1080p. Does it make that much difference to have the P? I tried pirates and Casino, I heard them to be the clearest, and was only marginally impressed from my marantz. I took it back. I'm thinking that maybe my tv isn't that clear? I see sports in HD and they look way clearer than those movies I watched. I wonder if my marantz is so good, that the upconvert looks close to blu ray quality.
that's why I'm waiting for marantz, and with the announcement form denon it may not be as long as I thought

Lots of confussion on 1080P vs. 1080i. The naked eye cannot tell the difference. I have a Sony KDF-E50A10 that upconverts to 1080i and I have the PS3 connected via HDMI. All I can say is the picture is awesome. I've downloaded all the firmware updates and I had watched Ghost Rider on
blu-ray before the 1080p dvd upconversion firmware update and when I watched it after the firmware update the picture was even better. I was blown away with the picture quality. The only difference between 1080p and1080i is 1080p shows all lines of horizontal resolution at once and 1080i shows the odd lines and then the even lines and the naked eye cannot see this.

[seeker_moc]

Originally Posted by THE STUD

So guys, I bought mine the first day it was at Best buy, and it wasn't that much better than my marantz upconvert, I'm wondering WHYYYYYYYYY?
My tv is a 60" Sony grand VEga with 1080i not 1080p. Does it make that much difference to have the P?

1080p (or 1080i for that matter) is overrated for everything except front projectors with huge screens. Most people with average sized living rooms would need screens of 70"+ before you can seriously start to see a big difference.

I also have a Grand Vega, the KDF-E55A20. Unless your's is a SXRD series, it only has a 1366x768 screen, which is pretty standard for mid-level LCD displays. With these TV's 720p is the native resolution, not 1080i. Your tv can decode and display a 1080i signal, however it has to be de-interlaced (all digital TV's can only display a progressive signal, no matter what the source material and/or tuner is programmed for) and scaled first. Plus the Sony Grand Vegas tend to scale 1080i like this 1080i -> 540p -> 720p (where you lose alot of resolution), and the de-interlacer on these tv's is not so good. You'll likely get a much better result by setting your BDP to output 720p instead. Try it out and trust your eyes to which is better!!

[seeker_moc]

Originally Posted by easycure299

By the way, what do you guys have your blu ray player set to for video? Brighter, Theater, Standard, or custom? If anyone is using the custom settings, could you list them?

That really depends on how your TV is set up. I suggest geting a calibration disk such as Avia, Digital Video Essentials, or GetGray. (Avia even has a Blu-ray version coming out this month).

Using GetGray I found out that leaving black level and tint in the middle, and going one click above the middle for white level and color saturation worked best for me. However, that's something you really have to determine on your own TV/BDP combo with a calibration disk.