The Sony BDP-S1 Review Thread

[wagonwheel]

Can anybody tell me when the new sony blu-ray player is going to be availiable in Australia. No one in the shops semm to know, except to say that it will be szometime in March, we're almost half way through March and still no sign of it. Not even Sony itself can tell me HELP.

[meyerste]

I picked up the Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray HD -DVD player about 2-weeks ago. And have to say. I have NOT had any problems at all. I have so far about 50-Blu-ray movies. Watched about 10 of them with no problems whatsoever. Including Casino Royale, The Departed, Blazing Saddles, The Searchers, and last night Rocky Balboa. ALL had a picture that is AWESOME just jaw dropping. And the sound is incredible too. I did upgrade the firmware to the latest version of 1.55.

Originally Posted by Iceman

Post reviews and your own personal experiences with the BDP-S1 here

[kuklitis]

Originally Posted by planetweckesser

Since Sony just added a firmware update to their BDP-S1 to allow BDMV playback on BD-R and BD-RE discs, I am certainly hoping that this will be in the new update.

I got this from PS3 firmware thread and I wonder whether its true or not ?
Had someone achieved success with ripping-decrypting movie to PC, burning it to BD-R/RW and then watching it on BDP-S1 ???
If yes, than whats the exact number of this firmware ?

[splashjibe]

The BDP-S1 Seisure Syndrome finally got me about 2 weeks ago. Tried to play a standard commercial DVD for the kids and got the "Power On" lock up. Of course the machine in under warranty and I had to send it back to the Mount Pleasant, PA Repair Center. The repair center can be very helpful when you call them directly (866) 748-8272. The eservice web site unfortunately wasn't very informative on tracking the actually repair. It referenced you to the Service Call Center 800-222-7669 and that was a joke. They were very very poite and very clueless. I got the UPS notification that my machine was on it's way back to me and the call center was totally unaware. I called the Service Center to find out what they had done to fix it. They had to take the front panel off to get the disk out. Then they updated to a new release of the software. They couldn't tell me what release they updated to however. I'll check that in a few minutes because my box arrived safely back at my door step and I'm ready to reinstall it. I also received an upgrade disk in the mail the other day. Version 1.50

Almost all of the of the theater down time was due to return shipping. UPS ground.

[splashjibe]

The repair center upgraded me to what they thought was the latest sw release. It's 1.50. Guess Ill have to do the 1.55 update myself.

[twhatt]

I am shipping my BDP-S1 to the repair center tomorrow for the same "power on lock up". I was just wondering if you had to pay shipping and what was the total time you were without your player.

[aihengheng-da]

Originally Posted by splashjibe

The repair center upgraded me to what they thought was the latest sw release. It's 1.50. Guess Ill have to do the 1.55 update myself.

I have a problem with my blu ray palyer is has a firmware version 1.06 and i can't play movies like pirates of caribbean 1 and 2

[ClaytonMG]

The upgrade is out now (surprised no one has mentioned it yet... unless I magically missed it). Supposedly helps some BD-Java features and whatnot...

Clayton

[Jim L]

Here's the link!

Enjoy!

I sure hope that it does something about speeding up player response.

It only really mentions BD-J stuff. I have noticed it takes a while to read certain discs (like The Guardian). But I haven't had trouble playing anything.

Please post your results in this thread all BDP-S1 owners.

[ClaytonMG]

The errors on Big Fish are fixed. When selecting PCM, it actually stays selected. Also (and this is a bigger deal to me), if you open up the menu during the movie, when you're done it actually closes the menu. Unlike before when the menu would leave a little line on the movie unless you actually shut the player off.

[Jim L]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

The errors on Big Fish are fixed. When selecting PCM, it actually stays selected. Also (and this is a bigger deal to me), if you open up the menu during the movie, when you're done it actually closes the menu. Unlike before when the menu would leave a little line on the movie unless you actually shut the player off.

That's great!

I just got Big Fish recently and that happened to me. I just thought there was something wrong with that movie. I have been hesitant to watch it again because of the funny line that stayed on the screen.

Does it make your movies start any faster? Let us know.

[fparais]

The 1080/24fps playback problem is fixed. I watched Casino Royal, and they are no judder issue anymore.

Wonderful. :-)

[thebluemax]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

The upgrade is out now (surprised no one has mentioned it yet... unless I magically missed it). Supposedly helps some BD-Java features and whatnot...

Clayton

Thanks for the info, sure hope it corrects the frame jumping thru 1080/24p?

[Donnie Eldridge]

Originally Posted by thebluemax

Thanks for the info, sure hope it corrects the frame jumping thru 1080/24p?

It's already been confirmed by several people. 1080/24P is golden now.

[ccplant]

My LXG does play anymore with the new firmware installed. Menus loads up but won't play my movie.

Does anyone have the same problem?

[Jim L]

Originally Posted by ccplant

My LXG does play anymore with the new firmware installed. Menus loads up but won't play my movie.

Does anyone have the same problem?

Not only does LXG play on my player with 1.60, but it loads much faster than it did before.

Once you're viewing the movie, the popup overlay menu animation is super-fast now too. It used to be painfully slow. (It looked ok, just slow.)

I noticed The Descent loads faster too.

It may be my imagination, but the player now seems to respond faster to certain remote commands (not all). Now if this player were as fast as a regular DVD player and had Power-off resume for BD's, it would be perfect for me! (Do you hear me Sony?)

[TJandBLU-RAY]

I have the SONY player, I forget the whole title of the player, but anywho, I think I need the firmware update as well, so the menus will work correctly. 1.6 just came out.

[billy]

The sony blu-ray player does not recognize the menu tab "enhanced sound" on the blu-ray dvd movie The Guardian. And therefore will not play the movie. The sony blu-ray player is incredibly slow to recognize any of the menu tabs in the newly released blu-ray dvd movie, The Messengers. And it will not play the movie at all if you choose the tab, "pcm 5.1" I called the phone number on sony's blu-ray remote control and asked them what to do. Phone support said this issue would be taken care of with the new firmware upgrade 1.6. However, the firmware description does not address this issure.

[kinglm]

Thanks for the heads up about the 2.0 firmware update being available. I successfully installed. I'll have to play with it later to see what it actually updated for me...

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by billy

The sony blu-ray player does not recognize the menu tab "enhanced sound" on the blu-ray dvd movie The Guardian. And therefore will not play the movie. The sony blu-ray player is incredibly slow to recognize any of the menu tabs in the newly released blu-ray dvd movie, The Messengers. And it will not play the movie at all if you choose the tab, "pcm 5.1" I called the phone number on sony's blu-ray remote control and asked them what to do. Phone support said this issue would be taken care of with the new firmware upgrade 1.6. However, the firmware description does not address this issure.

That's weird, even before 1.6 I didn't have problems with The Guardian. Even though it might not be described on the upgrade page, it still will probably fix it. I think the new firmware (2.0) fixed my HDMI problems even though it didn't say it would. But now I can't get Dolby TrueHD to work...