The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[Octavio]

Originally Posted by dvdpost

Odd...I'm not seeing anything like that. As a matter of fact, on the Sony firmware site, it says:

"NOTE: This utility is only for use with the products identified above and sold in the United States, Latin America, Canada, or Brazil. Not all models are sold in all countries."

Maybe they changed the wording since you last saw it.

You are right, It have changed since the last time I saw it. Yesterday sony support site only had the 3.90 firmware update.
Some hours ago none update was displayed, not even 3.90

Now appears the firmware update 3.95.

I'll download it now.

See what was all the rush? 1 day and voilá. Downloading and installing from the OFFICIAL site.

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by Octavio

You are right, It have changed since the last time I saw it. Yesterday sony support site only had the 3.90 firmware update.
Some hours ago none update was displayed, not even 3.90

Now appears the firmware update 3.95.

I'll download it now.

See what was all the rush? 1 day and voilá. Downloading and installing from the OFFICIAL site.

ftp://download.sony.com/US/bluray/UP...00_VER0395.EXE

^^^

I bet your download link is exactly the one I posted, officially....

[Octavio]

Originally Posted by JasonR

ftp://download.sony.com/US/bluray/UP...00_VER0395.EXE

^^^

I bet your download link is exactly the one I posted, officially....

I dunno, but even if it is the same, so WHAT? I just want to be sure that I am downloading the RIGHT file from the OFFICIAL site, not from some link posted by "x" member.

Blame me for being careful, if you want.
I just had to wait one day in order to be sure that what I was installing was the right file.

[tek101]

Originally Posted by JasonR

ftp://download.sony.com/US/bluray/UP...00_VER0395.EXE

^^^

I bet your download link is exactly the one I posted, officially....

Got it....and Installed
So far It fixed Stop......Resume.....Seems to load up faster.
Thanks.

[Omegaice]

Originally Posted by tek101

Got it....and Installed
So far It fixed Stop......Resume.....Seems to load up faster.
Thanks.

I downloaded the update from the FTP server before the offical US release & it worked fine. Keep the updates coming Sony!


_____________________
Sony BDP-S300 FW 3.95
Sony 60GB PS3 FW 2.35
Sony KDL52W4100 52" 1080p
Sony STR-DG720
Kenwood Series L/R Front, Center, L/R Surround
Kenwood 12" Subwoofer
Time Warner HD

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by tek101

Got it....and Installed
So far It fixed Stop......Resume.....Seems to load up faster.
Thanks.

I upgraded my S301 and confirmed it in System menu. But after playing POTC3 BD and stopping the player with the stop button, I still get the same ole 'Resume Off' displayed. It still reloaded the BD from scratch after pressing the play button.

So what exactly are you talking about that it fixed Stop......Resume.....?

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

I upgraded my S301 and confirmed it in System menu. But after playing POTC3 BD and stopping the player with the stop button, I still get the same ole 'Resume Off' displayed. It still reloaded the BD from scratch after pressing the play button.

So what exactly are you talking about that it fixed Stop......Resume.....?

POTC3 is a java-encoded BD so it will not resume play on any BD player. Not sure what the other poster meant. There really is a lot of confusion about BD resume play. It seems a lot of folks don't realize that BD-J's (i.e. Java encoded BD's) will not allow resume play on any BD machine. Its the way the encoding works with those BD's. Non-Java BD's will resume properly as long as you don't hit stop twice (which cancels the resume feature).

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by krisjan

POTC3 is a java-encoded BD so it will not resume play on any BD player. Not sure what the other poster meant. There really is a lot of confusion about BD resume play. It seems a lot of folks don't realize that BD-J's (i.e. Java encoded BD's) will not allow resume play on any BD machine. Its the way the encoding works with those BD's. Non-Java BD's will resume properly as long as you don't hit stop twice (which cancels the resume feature).

I already knew that about BD-j BDs and how they function but wouldn't be surprise if some FW update changed it. FW 3.95 sure didn't.

My S301 doesn't seem to load up any faster after FW 3.95. POTC, ID4, and I, Robot still take about the same time as before.

Did anyone else notice any real difference after updating to 3.95?

[JasonR]

I thought Ratatouille loaded pretty quick today, but I haven't tried it since 3.7.

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I thought Ratatouille loaded pretty quick today, but I haven't tried it since 3.7.

Cool! But did anyone notice a difference between 3.90 and 3.95?

[Octavio]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

Cool! But did anyone notice a difference between 3.90 and 3.95?

Not a single one. Ratatouille and Narnia loads as faster (or as slow) as it did with 3.90 update.

I think this update it's oriented to the newest releases and the ones about to be released

[khoops7]

I have had the S300 since last Christmas and have never had a firmware update. About how long should it take to install 3.95 on the player?

[didihala]

Originally Posted by khoops7

I have had the S300 since last Christmas and have never had a firmware update. About how long should it take to install 3.95 on the player?

It takes about 25 minutes.

-----------------------
Pioneer PDP-5050HD
Sony STR-DA5300ES
Sony BDP-S300

[khoops7]

okay, well I did the update and after the messages appeared on the panel, the disc tray opened. The disc tray has been open for a long time, is it supposed to close again?

[didihala]

Originally Posted by khoops7

okay, well I did the update and after the messages appeared on the panel, the disc tray opened. The disc tray has been open for a long time, is it supposed to close again?

Yes, when it finishes the upgrade, it will open the tray and stays open. Remove the disk and check the version to make sure it did the upgrade successfully.

-----------------------
Pioneer PDP-5050HD
Sony STR-DA5300ES
Sony BDP-S300

[khoops7]

thanks a lot didihala

[khoops7]

it's version 3.95. While I was waiting for it to install I was on the computer. I must not have realized the player displayed DL OK and it turned its display off.

[khoops7]

The new firmware seems to work good, except while I was watching Harry Potter 3, the movie froze for about five minutes and then started to play again.

[tron3]

Ok, this is getting ridiculous. In the past few releases some movies load notably faster and some noteably slower.

Here is what my records show on the two slowest BD-J movies I know of.

Firmware 3.70
===========
POTC:TCotBP - 1.40
Fantastic Four: RotSS - 1:50

Firmware 3.80
===========
POTC:TCotBP - 1.36 (Better)
Fantastic Four: RotSS - 2:03 (worse)

Firmware 3.90
===========
POTC:TCotBP - 1.13 (Much better)
Fantastic Four: RotSS - 2:05 (Little more worse)

Firmware 3.95
===========
POTC:TCotBP - 1.40 (Worse again. Back to 3.70 speed.)
Fantastic Four: RotSS - 1:41 (Best so far.)
CARS - 1.51 (better)


I haven't tested my other movies yet. But what are you guys getting?
Here are my 3.90 load times.

POTC 1: 1.13
POTC 2: 1.09
POTC 3: 1.03

Spiderman 1: 1.12
Spiderman 2: 1.18
Spiderman 3: 1.24

Cars: 2.02

[tek101]

Originally Posted by khoops7

The new firmware seems to work good, except while I was watching Harry Potter 3, the movie froze for about five minutes and then started to play again.

Mine works fine after update V.3.95.
I watch 2 Harry Ps...without problems..
Did you clean your disc before playing...might help.