 Toshiba Samurai Falls On Sword |
| Review Date: September 19, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Liam Wilshire, Portland, OR |
I gotta admit it: when it comes to electronics, I'm about as brand-loyal to Toshiba as they come. Nevertheless, for me, the whole history of the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD wars has unfolded on the software battlefield. Sony has simply come up with a better DVD. By the time HD-DVD catches up, we'll all either own two fine DVD players, or one that can play both formats. After haunting a few electronics showrooms, and seeing and hearing the decks in my price range, this latest Sony player just became a no-brainer.
If you're wondering what's the difference between this and the BDP-S300, so am I. The operating manual that came with my S301 listed both model numbers on the cover. I got mine at a price $50 cheaper than I could have got the earlier model, and I didn't pay shipping. That's the only reason I have one and not the other.
Blu-ray Discs are awesome in every way. I use an optical 5.1 connection, and even though there are better connections in newer systems, the sound quality is still noticeably deeper and more dimensional than standard DVD's, due to the greater bandwidth available on the discs. Colors are far more stable, especially with Blu-ray Discs, but also with standard DVD's. My taste in films doesn't run perfectly parallel to the titles currently available on Blu-ray, so the rest of my comments really pertain to the quality of this deck as a player of standard DVD's.
I have found the transition blip between layers on DL-9 discs to be almost imperceptible. The bit encoding rate of "up to 40 Mbps" is probably the single most important spec this player has to offer. That is slightly higher than the Toshiba decks in this price range, though I doubt few people have eyes good enough to appreciate the difference. The point is, you are going to see a picture that contains every bit of information encoded on whatever disc you're watching, with gradations of color and depth of detail that make the disc the weakest link--and that's a good thing.
The fan motor on the S301 is whisper-soft, another factor that gives this deck superiority over its Toshiba counterpart.
All of that said, it should be noted that Sony is going for complete vertical integration, with all the studios (save Universal) behind Blu-ray, and with this and the S300 designed to work optimally with a Bravia monitor and audio system. They want world domination, and I guess we'll just have to trust the marketplace to sort things out. But for now, this is about as good a player as you'll find in this price range, and it works adequately with systems not designed by Sony.
"Adequately" is about as high a complement as I can pay it, though. Each disc has a certain amount of futzing around that is necessary to get the aspect ratio and video specs right. In other words, this doesn't just magically read the disc you put in and know where the settings should be. It does have a very handy video control center that allows for six picture settings, three preset to "standard," "theatre," and "light room," and three that allow you to make custom presets. By the time you've gone through a few discs and tweaked the color, white and black balance, etc., you'll find yourself flipping through the six available settings and finding one that suits each disc you're watching.
All of this extra "trouble," I should add, in reality arises from the far greater picture fidelity you will be seeing.
Some minor annoyances: 1) although this plays music CD-R's, it won't recognize data CD-R's. So, for example, if you have your jpegs stored on CD-R's, prepare to move them to DVD-R's, if you want to use this player as a slide viewer; 2) note the dimensions of the unit, especially the depth, which becomes about 16.5 inches once you've connected everything up--my player is hanging out about 2" from my other components; 3) there is no true "fast-forward," only a multi-speed "scan" feature that, even on the slowest speed skips over frames of significant action you may be trying to spot; 4) there is no "off" button on the unit itself, which, if you don't want to hunt down the remote, will shut itself off after about 25 minutes; 5) the "on" button on the unit doubles as "open" and "close," which is fine, I guess, but it takes exactly 32 seconds between the time you turn the power on and when the "Blu-ray" insignia appears on your screen. Once it is powered up, though, I found the loading times to be reasonable.
Finally, I would want to mention the aspect ratio issue, namely that it sometimes has to be changed manually, by changing the resolution. Some of this may be due to the fact that I am connecting to my monitor using an HDMI-to-DVI cable, but I rather doubt it. I suspect Sony simply did its best to make a good player, but loading it with electronics that would enable it to decode a wide variety of commercial discs would have made it prohibitively expensive.
Funny thing, though. It reads Universal Studios discs perfectly and without any tweaking necessary. Kind of makes you wonder if they weren't putting in a little more effort to win over the one Blu-ray hold-out. |
Awesome with other HD components
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| Review Date: January 22, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Daniel M. Guertin, Worcester, MA |
I have had this now for about 3 weeks and my first movie was Ghost Rider....simply AWESOME. I read a lot of reviews about the Sony BDP-S300 and there seemed to be a lot of issues with it, especially the load times. Well, I am not sure if this is the 'fix' to the 300, but the 301 has been GREAT! Ghost Rider rocks and I just got '300' to view.
I will admit, I won't buy any movie for Bluray, only super action films, but if you use the same, high-quality HD components, the audio and video are unmatched. I have an Onkyo reciever and a LG LCD tv. I use the HDMI set up for video and a fiber optic cable for audio from the bluray to the receiver as it acts as a thru-put for the TV. With my Polk speakers, you just can't beat it....no slow load times. Just might take about 20 seconds to power on, but I am used to boot times with computers. The operation is whisper quiet and it basically runs cool...no overheating.
GO SONY! |
info for bdp s300 read on!
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| Review Date: August 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: R. Dalton, ca, usa |
| hello i am writing this review because of all the negative reviews this profile 1.0 player has gotten which i think is a bad rap! First let me say i own 3 of these units and a bdp s500 which is also a great player from sony.I have owned my original unit for 2 years without any real problems at all! First off to all the readers that may not know keep your firmware up to date but the most important thing about this unit is when you do update each firmware you must do a full system reboot! After firmware is complete turn the unit back on without a disc in until it completely powers on.Then push down and hold the stop button with one hand and then push the power button and hold both until unit shuts down.After you have finished this power on the unit again and reset all your settings to what you need since by doing this all your old settings go away so you must re-enter them that is the only pain with this unit! I do this every time i do a firmware update and have never had a problem with any of them skipping,freezing powering down etc! Also purchase a maxell blu ray disc lens cleaner wich has small holes in the disc and creates a wind blowing action to clear away any dust on your lazer lens! Do not use brush lazer lens cleaning discs in a blu ray player because it may ruin the lens! You can buy one here on amazon and it never wears out since you are not using any brushes to clean it! I hope this review has helped! Enjoy! |
Just Dive in!!!
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| Review Date: March 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Carey D. Couvillon, Chattanooga, TN |
| I got mine refurbished for $250 and got an amazing buy, well considering it is $399 everywhere else. For the price it was well worth it. I considered waiting for one of the new lines of Blu-ray in the up and coming months but I was impatient. I wanted to dive into what I have been seeing displayed at Sears, Best Buy etc. so I got a refurbished Sony 40XBR4 and one of these. The television made the most difference. I received it first and had my DVD player hooked to it... WOW! That 120Hz makes all of the difference. Then of course the Blu-ray came in and I had even more fun. I really don't see a HUGE difference between the DVD and Blu-ray quality wise, but if you have to have one NOW, don't pay more than $300ish for one of these. I have had no problems playing any movies so far and the only really slow to load movie had been the first POTC. |
Solid player that has been misrepresented by earlier reviews
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| Review Date: November 1, 2008 |
| Reviewer: S. A. Hildebrand, Longview, Texas United States |
I got this player about a year ago as a Christmas present. It has always worked quite well. Some of the criticisms of the player are largely the result of the apparent ignorance of the reviewers. The player does not advertise True HD audio, so you can know that before you buy it. The player is a 1.0 player. That means that some of the newer discs are going to require a firmware update in order to play them. Some of the problems that other reviewers are describing sound very much like firmware conflicts. The load times are not quite as lengthy as some would have you believe. It does take around a minute for the machine to boot up. But come on, a minute?! What does that say about our society when we are complaining about having to wait an entire minute before we can watch a two hour movie?
Here's the player in a nutshell. It's a solid player that very rarely has any problems (provided that you keep the firmware up-to-date). It will properly display 24p material and 60i material for 1080i source material. It will play PCM audio (which is uncompressed). It will not play Dolby True HD. It also will only output 1080p through the HDMI output and not the component (720p/1080i max). It will NOT display PIP material on newer Blu-rays. It will NOT display online BD Live material. Most of the people I know that are interested in HD content don't really care about these feature anyway. It does an adequate job displaying BD Java material (again provided that the firmware is up-to-date).
The BDP-S301 cannot compete with the features of the newest players. But it wasn't designed to. It's a first generation player (Profile 1.0). If you can find a comparable 1.1 profile player or even 2.0 for a decent price, get it. However, if you find a good deal on this one (as the prices on these soon-to-be discontinued models is bound to drop dramatically as we enter the holiday season) and you are only interested in watching the movie in pristine HD detail with very solid audio, buy this one. I've been very happy with it. |
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