The Sony BDP-S300/301 Review Thread

[tron3]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I will try, if I have time. I have family stuff tonight. I might only be able to do one of the Pirates. You pick....

POTC 1 is the longest loading of the three.

But do ID4 if you have it.

[Fatboymart]

4.20 -almost 52meg. I'd like to think a lot's going on under the cover, but as already said - I doubt it.

[JasonR]

I never noticed this before, but if you eject the movie and let it reload it is faster then inserting the movie and letting it load from a cold start. Talking load times, no start up time involved. POTC 1 was definitely faster after the upgrade. I don't own ID4 and was on lunch, so I had time restraints. I hope this helps.

POTC 1

3.95

Inserted after cold start - 1.42.9

Ejected and let reload - 1.34.5

4.20

Inserted after cold start - 1.21.0

Ejected and let reload - 1.09.3

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by Fatboymart

4.20 -almost 52meg. I'd like to think a lot's going on under the cover, but as already said - I doubt it.

Hopefully it still has DD TrueHD decoding.

[JasonR]

I was hoping it would light up somewhere (when you hit audio on the remote), but it doesn't....

Tried w/ The Fifth Element.

[tek101]

Hi Guys. V 4.20 is for EU models right.?
US Sony'site still has V3.95
Thanks

[Fatboymart]

I've just updated to 4.20.

The only disc I have-AVP-2, requiem. Seems to load faster-but I can’t really tell the difference as I don’t have a reference point from last time.

I don’t have HDMI on my amp either, so I cant select the Audio HDMI option and report what’s beyond.

For me nothing seems to have changed, so I’ll put this patch down to more Java fine tuning.

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by LeeS

A while back, I was inquiring about the soon-to-be-released S350, but have since purchased the S300 since I couldn't see any significant advantages, other than Dolby True HD compatiablility, that would cause us to wait.

We've had the S300 for about four months and I haven't noticed anything that I don't like about it. Sony sent us the V. 3.95 software which I loaded into our Blu-ray as well as a friend's player. Disc loading times seem to be improved, but I don't really care about waiting 30-40 seconds anyway, so it's not paramount to me.

We haven't noticed anything that we don't like. It plays Blu-ray dics well, as expected with brilliant video and audio, which we have set up in PCM. It's rumored that V. 3.95 provides Dolby THD audio, but I can't verify that, but will soon as we are exchanging our HDMI 1.1 Harmon/Kardon receiver for a new HDMI 1.3 version. That will verify is that is true or not. If it isn't, it still sounds great.

What I was surprised about was standard DVD playback, which I feel, it does extremely well.

The only downside, if it is one, is the player runs hot. I had it on top of our receiver, which is not ideal anyway, but have since seperated them with a shelf raised above the receiver to promote better air flow. It seems a little cooler now, but much warmer than a standard disc player.

We rent movies from Netflix and then have our own, also, but I haven't seen one disc that didn't play well, except 'Cloverfield', but it had a lot of scratches on the disc, so I couldn't really blame the player.

I'm glad that we have the S300 player, it's great machine.

+1

However...

My S301 has never run hot. It gets slightly warm even after hours of use. If your receiver is any of the high current biased onkyo's that would explain it. I used to have the 805 and could fry an egg or make pancakes on top of it. I would have fried my S301 and the onkyo too if I had placed player on top of it. In fact, I put the onkyo on top of the audio rack so it had unlimited air flow and space above it (well up to my 16 ft high cathedral ceilings that is).

One caveat ...

I have an HDMI 1.3 receiver. You still won't be able to verify that the player is decoding DD TrueHD except by ear. All your receiver is going to tell you is that it is getting a PCM input and should display along with that the number of channels that are input. The only way you can visually verify it is by bitstreaming DD TrueHD to your receiver and let it do the decoding. That's when you need HDMI 1.3. However if you set your player to Auto and select a DD TrueHD track, your receiver is going to get the lossy DD TrueHD core 600 -700 Kbps. On your receiver's display you'll see DD or Dolby Digital and not DD TrueHD. If you want to bitstream over HDMI 1.3 you'll need the S350 or Panny DMP BD30.

Overall I am happy with it too. It will eventually be replaced probaby by the Panny BD 30 so I can get 7.1 DTS-HD MA. I am crazy about 7.1 surround. My player (S301) with the HDMI set to AUTO, does at least bitstream the core 7.1 DTS-HD MA. And that's down mixed to 6.1. Even that gets a big WOW from me. By the holidays, with the BD35 probably selling a discount prices, the BD30 I expect will plunge below $300. I am waiting ...

[tek101]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I never noticed this before, but if you eject the movie and let it reload it is faster then inserting the movie and letting it load from a cold start. Talking load times, no start up time involved. POTC 1 was definitely faster after the upgrade. I don't own ID4 and was on lunch, so I had time restraints. I hope this helps.

POTC 1

3.95

Inserted after cold start - 1.42.9

Ejected and let reload - 1.34.5

4.20

Inserted after cold start - 1.21.0

Ejected and let reload - 1.09.3

Jason. Did you download V4.20 from this..? and for US players...?

08/27/2008 06:18AM 54,512,128 UPDATE_BDPS300_VER0420.EXE

[tron3]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I never noticed this before, but if you eject the movie and let it reload it is faster then inserting the movie and letting it load from a cold start. Talking load times, no start up time involved. POTC 1 was definitely faster after the upgrade. I don't own ID4 and was on lunch, so I had time restraints. I hope this helps.

POTC 1

3.95

Inserted after cold start - 1.42.9

Ejected and let reload - 1.34.5

4.20

Inserted after cold start - 1.21.0

Ejected and let reload - 1.09.3

Thanks, Jason. You are a brave dude for taking the chance.
The cold start times seem about the same as about 3.70. before 3.80 and 3.9x came along and messed it up.

I still have my scattered notes at home as to load times with various firmware. But I am waiting for the Sony US site to update to be on the safe side. Then I will know for sure if it improved. If ID4 loads much faster than 2.28 then I know it is a big improvement.

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by tek101

Jason. Did you download V4.20 from this..? and for US players...?

08/27/2008 06:18AM 54,512,128 UPDATE_BDPS300_VER0420.EXE

I downloaded it from here. It is the EU site, but the firmware IS the same.

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/HAV/BDP/FW

[Yeha-Noha]

Originally Posted by JasonR

I downloaded it from here. It is the EU site, but the firmware IS the same.

ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/HAV/BDP/FW

I'll wait. The EU release often precedes the US release. I expect he US release to come out within the next few days or so.

[JasonR]

It will, I am just an eager beaver...

[tron3]

Originally Posted by rwojtalewicz

I'll wait. The EU release often precedes the US release. I expect he US release to come out within the next few days or so.

Originally Posted by JasonR

It will, I am just an eager beaver...

I'll wait too, but Jason how did you find this file and how do you know they are EXACTLY the same? Only a "file compare" utility will say for sure.

[JasonR]

Well, they are exactly the same size and I have loaded both previous versions before. Both perform exactly alike.

[JasonR]

I found the download location on AVS like 4 or 5 versions ago.

[tek101]

Jason. Thanks.

[rdodolak]

v4.20 from the US site.

ftp://download.sony.com/US/bluray/UP...00_VER0420.EXE

[tron3]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

v4.20 from the US site.

ftp://download.sony.com/US/bluray/UP...00_VER0420.EXE

I have the file but couldn't do the update last night. I will do it today, though I rather see it on the official Sony site first. If only to see if it does anything more than improve Java performance.

I had my player when it was 2.0 firmware. Took 3 or 4 minutes to load POTC. Reports of it now loading under 90 seconds makes me very happy. Independence Day loads in 2.28 with 3.95 firmware. A 90 second load time would be incredible, but ANY improvement is appreciated. I just hope the improvements are consistant across the board.

Standalone BDP-S300 owners should remember this is a second generation tank, and pretty much runs like one. If the 4.20 firmware loads our BD-J movies under 90 seconds consider it "normal and acceptable for a tank", and be thankful.

Standards of acceptable performance levels should be expected for a "tank" of a blu-ray player.
I would define the "load time performance bar" as follows.

* Non BD-J loading in 35 seconds or less. Excellent.
* BD-J up to 60 seconds. Very Good.
* BD-J 61 to 90 seconds. Good.
* BD-J 91 to 120 seconds. Fair.
* BD-J over 120 seconds. Poor.

[JeffPr]

yay im gonna update tonight