Sony BDPS6500 - Blu-ray Forum

technohobby · 06-13-2015, 08:24 PM

(I'm assuming no one has started a SONY S6500 discussion)
SONY BDPS6500 purchased June 11. I need to get the cosmetic issues out of the way first. This player has the aesthetic appeal of a scotch-tape dispenser. Small, light-weight, bland plastic, single green ON LED, no info display at all, and a generally cheap feel. It’s hard to imagine sophisticated technology having less visual appeal. Ugh. I previously owned a SONY S6200 with occasional issues but at least it had some effort at design. Often my Pioneer AVR wouldn’t properly recognize the 6200 input (HDMI hand-shake?) without fussing with both units. Getting a good DVD display was difficult and streaming was ordinary on a good day.

Now, on to more important issues for this new S6500: performance is very high for Blu-Ray (regular and 3D), older DVDs as well as streaming (Amazon Prime). The images from all modern Blu-Rays, projected onto a 120” screen using a JVC X500r projector, are spectacular. They are colorful, finely detailed, without any artifacts, and accompanied by great sound. This is an exceptional quality player by any image and sound quality measure.

Initial setup has its issues. DO NOT try to use this player without first connecting it to the internet and installing the firmware updates. My unit hung on its 1st Blu-ray and I needed to convince it to restart and eject. After the upgrade, most glitches were corrected. Setting are also a potential source of frustration. My first DVDs had no menus at all and a variety of glitches. A few changes in the settings (screen format NORMAL) corrected lost menus and (forced 1080/24p resolution) fixed my HDMI recognition issues. Not at all intuitive, but I had been ready to return my player until I stumbled onto these fixes.

Video streaming from Amazon was interesting. I’ve had problems getting high quality video. Low resolution, soft blurry images all made my experience very poor. With this player, I thought it was as bad or even worse. BUT WAIT . . . WAIT . . . WAIT . . . and before your eyes, like magic, the image visibly improves over the next 40-60 seconds until it is extremely close to the highest resolution I’ve seen from a streaming service. Go figure. I’ve not tested any other service, but something odd . . . but great . . . is going on here. And it happened with absolute repeatability. I wish the experience was perfect from the get-go, but I’m now a fan of streaming.

The remote is cute, small, but easy to use despite not being back-lit. I like the very useful submenu under OPTIONS on the remote. Here you can select to adjust your 3D effects and depth. I also use this feature to modify my VIDEO settings for special situations. Here I can brighten my image (especially useful when displaying 3D images which are darkened by 3D shutter glasses) or modify brightness and contrast on older, low quality DVDs. Changes can be stored under Custom1&2 settings (as long as you DO NOT have 4K resolution output set when you initially set-up your player).

Bottom line: If you can get passed the least attractive AV design to come out of SONY, a very problematic startup/setup process, the S6500 is a very high performing Blu-Ray player.

[Confession: I gave it up. Traded for the Oppo103D. Why? I was having persistent HDMI handshake issues. Green, pink and striped screens until I restarted one or more of my devices. I got caught in a vicious cycle of "what device is not playing well with others." Was it my projector? My Pioneer SC71? or my Sony S6500? Only the Sony was new and it could be returned to BB. I'm not willing to blame any of these devices. And yet, the Oppo 103 solved my problem. The Oppo cannot be shaken off (cheesy pun). Whether it was the perfect combination of option settings, a high output or better synchronized HDMI signal, or something else . . . it works . . . EVERY time. I'm now two months in. How does it compare with the Sony? I'd be hard pressed to say I see a better picture without Darby. However, to my eyes, Darby only adds detail to an already perfect picture. I'm too sensitive to added noise to enjoy it on lesser images.I do feel the sound field is more detailed and solid. The SONY has a larger, more useful APP collection. The Oppo is a lot prettier, operates more quietly, and is heavier than the connected cables. Is it worth 4X the price? No. But my blood pressure is lower. I still recommend the Sony highly, but Sony truly needs to respond to the needs of serious videophiles.

ilovenola2 · 06-14-2015, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by technohobby

(I'm assuming no one has started a SONY S6500 discussion)
SONY BDPS6500 purchased June 11. ........
Bottom line: If you can get passed the least attractive AV design to come out of SONY, a very problematic startup/setup process, the S6500 is a very high performing Blu-Ray player.

I have ordered one of these players and should have it in about a week or so. I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm appreciative of these tips from you. I'll certainly pay attention.

steve1971 · 06-19-2015, 08:51 PM

I'm going to order a 6500 on Monday. Its going to be a gift from my wife for my birthday next Sunday. I have a $50 gift certificate from Sony and I will apply it to my order so I get it a little cheaper. Its replacing my 6200 and I hope I have no problems with it. I personally like the new design of Sony's 2015 players because they went back to the old style look. But again I hope I dont have any performance issues with it like I did my 6200, it was a pain in the butt to say the least!

rabbit · 06-22-2015, 07:49 PM

5500 pics to share

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=12996

steve1971 · 06-24-2015, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rabbit

5500 pics to share

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=12996

Sweet rabbit! Thanks for shareing. I'm hoping my S5500 arrives this weekend but that depends on FedEx I guess.

***Update*** My S5500 arrives this saturday and I am stoked as hell to see what this little player can do!

ilovenola2 · 06-24-2015, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovenola2

I have ordered one of these players and should have it in about a week or so. I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm appreciative of these tips from you. I'll certainly pay attention.

Received my 6500 (modified for region-free) yesterday. I'm very high on it. Everything works just great and, though I haven't used the streaming yet (except a couple of things on You Tube), picture quality on blu-rays, 3-D and 2-D), b&w and color, is astoundingly good!!

I'm most impressed. And thanks again to Techno for the tips to check when setting up. I disagree about the design though. I like it-- and the fact that it's flat-topped!! If readers get a player, check out his post!

gj3263 · 06-26-2015, 07:00 AM

Just got my new 6500 and on my trusty 2011 Vizio 3D TV, I get serious 3D ghosting with this player, meaning the more distant features in the 3D picture appear as double silhouettes. I thought this might be an issue with the 3D screen size setting, but even after adjusting it to my Vizio screen size and rebooting the player the problems persist. I already tried updating to the latest firmware, but the player claims it already has the latest version.

I never had this with my Orei BDP-M2.
Anybody else have had this problem and found a solution by any chance? Thx.

P.S. haven't tried connecting it to my dual projector, 200" 3D projection setup yet, that's after I develop confidence in it.

ilovenola2 · 07-11-2015, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gj3263

Just got my new 6500 and on my trusty 2011 Vizio 3D TV, I get serious 3D ghosting with this player, meaning the more distant features in the 3D picture appear as double silhouettes. I thought this might be an issue with the 3D screen size setting, but even after adjusting it to my Vizio screen size and rebooting the player the problems persist. I already tried updating to the latest firmware, but the player claims it already has the latest version.

I never had this with my Orei BDP-M2.
Anybody else have had this problem and found a solution by any chance? Thx.

P.S. haven't tried connecting it to my dual projector, 200" 3D projection setup yet, that's after I develop confidence in it.

Well, the 3-D play on my new 6500 as reproduced on MY Vizio (2013-- 50"3d) tv looks just fantastic. What you see as ghosting I see as natural vision.
Now, perhaps it's the couple of years' difference in the Vizio tvs we are using, that produces what you are seeing rather than a problem with the Sony player. Perhaps not. Just wondering as I'm thoroughly happy with my player (if Gracenote and Sony can get that little problem straightened out!). And I hope your problem is solved soon.

gj3263 · 07-20-2015, 09:32 PM

Thanks for the replies - solved my problem by reverting to factory settings.

Whatever the "3D screensize" setting in the menu is for, it needs to be treated with caution, as 3D didn't work right for me anymore once I changed it to my actual screen size. If I find out more through future experimentation I'll post the info here.

Yungheat · 07-22-2015, 01:21 AM

How is this player I'm debating between this one and the s7200 and the s6200 any suggestion thank you

mogwai_macabre · 08-14-2015, 03:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yungheat

How is this player I'm debating between this one and the s7200 and the s6200 any suggestion thank you

What did you decide? I'm thinking of picking this one up as well.

Bepaof17 · 10-02-2015, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gj3263

Thanks for the replies - solved my problem by reverting to factory settings.

Whatever the "3D screensize" setting in the menu is for, it needs to be treated with caution, as 3D didn't work right for me anymore once I changed it to my actual screen size. If I find out more through future experimentation I'll post the info here.

Thanks for the tip. The original setting on my 2-day-old BDPS6500 was something like 57" and I changed it to 70" for my Sony XBR-70X850B. I experience slightly more ghosting in the background than I did before with my old Panasonic DMP-BDT361, but the 3 blurays that wouldn't play on the Panasonic do play on the Sony. The settings and controls are also easier to work with on the Sony.

It's the smallest DVD player I've ever seen but I like it! I'll post more after I check it out more.

roundasapound · 10-15-2015, 07:18 AM

I have an S6500 player and what I don't like is that it doesn't play PAL content and this matters more than fast loading, size and other features. I only need it to play region A content.

Fortunately my S490 is a lot smarter.

SixSpeedSamurai · 10-29-2015, 04:53 PM

Just modded mine for region-free playback, so I'll be putting it in today. Pretty geeked to try it out.

roundasapound · 10-29-2015, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SixSpeedSamurai

Just modded mine for region-free playback, so I'll be putting it in today. Pretty geeked to try it out.

You 'modded' it yourself DIY style?! But what about for playing PAL and 50i content?
Please share the modding know-how. PM me if you don't want it known publicly.
I'd be extremely grateful

SixSpeedSamurai · 10-29-2015, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roundasapound

You 'modded' it yourself DIY style?! But what about for playing PAL and 50i content?
Please share the modding know-how. PM me if you don't want it known publicly.
I'd be extremely grateful

PM Sent!

abrasat · 11-01-2015, 03:39 PM

Can somebody compare the Sony BDPS6500 and the BDPS5500 blu-ray players, which are the main differences between them ?
Is it worth to buy the more expensive Sony BDPS6500, which important features are missing at the Sony BDPS5500 ?
Thanks in advance.

roundasapound · 11-01-2015, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SixSpeedSamurai

PM Sent!

Muchas gracias

EVERRET · 11-01-2015, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abrasat

Can somebody compare the Sony BDPS6500 and the BDPS5500 blu-ray players, which are the main differences between them ?
Is it worth to buy the more expensive Sony BDPS6500, which important features are missing at the Sony BDPS5500 ?
Thanks in advance.

4K up-scaling ....... is the main difference

abrasat · 11-01-2015, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EVERRET

4K up-scaling ....... is the main difference

Thanks for your answer.
What about the noise level ? Is the BDPS6500 eventually more silent than BDPS5500 ?
And does the better processor on BDPS6500 have any influence on the speed of the player (for instance when starting the player or loading a blu-ray) ?
And is there any patch available, to enable support for the DivX codec on any of both players ?

06-13-2015, 08:24 PM	#1
technohobby Junior Member Member since:Nov 2013 Location:Austin Home Theater Gallery:1 4K collection:227 Blu-ray collection:1336 DVD collection:302	Sony BDPS6500 (I'm assuming no one has started a SONY S6500 discussion) SONY BDPS6500 purchased June 11. I need to get the cosmetic issues out of the way first. This player has the aesthetic appeal of a scotch-tape dispenser. Small, light-weight, bland plastic, single green ON LED, no info display at all, and a generally cheap feel. It’s hard to imagine sophisticated technology having less visual appeal. Ugh. I previously owned a SONY S6200 with occasional issues but at least it had some effort at design. Often my Pioneer AVR wouldn’t properly recognize the 6200 input (HDMI hand-shake?) without fussing with both units. Getting a good DVD display was difficult and streaming was ordinary on a good day. Now, on to more important issues for this new S6500: performance is very high for Blu-Ray (regular and 3D), older DVDs as well as streaming (Amazon Prime). The images from all modern Blu-Rays, projected onto a 120” screen using a JVC X500r projector, are spectacular. They are colorful, finely detailed, without any artifacts, and accompanied by great sound. This is an exceptional quality player by any image and sound quality measure. Initial setup has its issues. DO NOT try to use this player without first connecting it to the internet and installing the firmware updates. My unit hung on its 1st Blu-ray and I needed to convince it to restart and eject. After the upgrade, most glitches were corrected. Setting are also a potential source of frustration. My first DVDs had no menus at all and a variety of glitches. A few changes in the settings (screen format NORMAL) corrected lost menus and (forced 1080/24p resolution) fixed my HDMI recognition issues. Not at all intuitive, but I had been ready to return my player until I stumbled onto these fixes. Video streaming from Amazon was interesting. I’ve had problems getting high quality video. Low resolution, soft blurry images all made my experience very poor. With this player, I thought it was as bad or even worse. BUT WAIT . . . WAIT . . . WAIT . . . and before your eyes, like magic, the image visibly improves over the next 40-60 seconds until it is extremely close to the highest resolution I’ve seen from a streaming service. Go figure. I’ve not tested any other service, but something odd . . . but great . . . is going on here. And it happened with absolute repeatability. I wish the experience was perfect from the get-go, but I’m now a fan of streaming. The remote is cute, small, but easy to use despite not being back-lit. I like the very useful submenu under OPTIONS on the remote. Here you can select to adjust your 3D effects and depth. I also use this feature to modify my VIDEO settings for special situations. Here I can brighten my image (especially useful when displaying 3D images which are darkened by 3D shutter glasses) or modify brightness and contrast on older, low quality DVDs. Changes can be stored under Custom1&2 settings (as long as you DO NOT have 4K resolution output set when you initially set-up your player). Bottom line: If you can get passed the least attractive AV design to come out of SONY, a very problematic startup/setup process, the S6500 is a very high performing Blu-Ray player. [Confession: I gave it up. Traded for the Oppo103D. Why? I was having persistent HDMI handshake issues. Green, pink and striped screens until I restarted one or more of my devices. I got caught in a vicious cycle of "what device is not playing well with others." Was it my projector? My Pioneer SC71? or my Sony S6500? Only the Sony was new and it could be returned to BB. I'm not willing to blame any of these devices. And yet, the Oppo 103 solved my problem. The Oppo cannot be shaken off (cheesy pun). Whether it was the perfect combination of option settings, a high output or better synchronized HDMI signal, or something else . . . it works . . . EVERY time. I'm now two months in. How does it compare with the Sony? I'd be hard pressed to say I see a better picture without Darby. However, to my eyes, Darby only adds detail to an already perfect picture. I'm too sensitive to added noise to enjoy it on lesser images.I do feel the sound field is more detailed and solid. The SONY has a larger, more useful APP collection. The Oppo is a lot prettier, operates more quietly, and is heavier than the connected cables. Is it worth 4X the price? No. But my blood pressure is lower. I still recommend the Sony highly, but Sony truly needs to respond to the needs of serious videophiles. Last edited by technohobby; 10-02-2015 at 12:56 AM. Reason: Updated information

06-26-2015, 07:00 AM	#7
gj3263 New Member Member since:May 2015	BDP-S6500 3D playback ghosting? Just got my new 6500 and on my trusty 2011 Vizio 3D TV, I get serious 3D ghosting with this player, meaning the more distant features in the 3D picture appear as double silhouettes. I thought this might be an issue with the 3D screen size setting, but even after adjusting it to my Vizio screen size and rebooting the player the problems persist. I already tried updating to the latest firmware, but the player claims it already has the latest version. I never had this with my Orei BDP-M2. Anybody else have had this problem and found a solution by any chance? Thx. P.S. haven't tried connecting it to my dual projector, 200" 3D projection setup yet, that's after I develop confidence in it.

07-20-2015, 09:32 PM	#9
gj3263 New Member Member since:May 2015	BDPS6500 problem solved Thanks for the replies - solved my problem by reverting to factory settings. Whatever the "3D screensize" setting in the menu is for, it needs to be treated with caution, as 3D didn't work right for me anymore once I changed it to my actual screen size. If I find out more through future experimentation I'll post the info here.

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06-19-2015, 08:51 PM	#3
steve1971 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Feb 2008 Location:Saint Paul Minnesota. 4K collection:15 Blu-ray collection:349 Blu-ray reviews:119 Trading Score:1	I'm going to order a 6500 on Monday. Its going to be a gift from my wife for my birthday next Sunday. I have a $50 gift certificate from Sony and I will apply it to my order so I get it a little cheaper. Its replacing my 6200 and I hope I have no problems with it. I personally like the new design of Sony's 2015 players because they went back to the old style look. But again I hope I dont have any performance issues with it like I did my 6200, it was a pain in the butt to say the least!

07-22-2015, 01:21 AM	#10
Yungheat Special Member Member since:Aug 2012 Location:charleston sc Home Theater Gallery:66 Blu-ray collection:304 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:66	How is this player I'm debating between this one and the s7200 and the s6200 any suggestion thank you

10-15-2015, 07:18 AM	#13
roundasapound Active Member Member since:May 2015 Location:United Kingdom Blu-ray collection:466 DVD collection:83 Digital collection:36	I have an S6500 player and what I don't like is that it doesn't play PAL content and this matters more than fast loading, size and other features. I only need it to play region A content. Fortunately my S490 is a lot smarter.

10-29-2015, 04:53 PM	#14
SixSpeedSamurai Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Apr 2010 Location:Bruce Wayne lives in my attic 4K collection:128 Blu-ray collection:669 DVD collection:33 MA collection:2 Digital collection:267 Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:33	Just modded mine for region-free playback, so I'll be putting it in today. Pretty geeked to try it out.

11-01-2015, 03:39 PM	#17
abrasat New Member Member since:Nov 2015	Can somebody compare the Sony BDPS6500 and the BDPS5500 blu-ray players, which are the main differences between them ? Is it worth to buy the more expensive Sony BDPS6500, which important features are missing at the Sony BDPS5500 ? Thanks in advance.

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