Sony BDP-S300

I bought the BDP-S300 two weeks ago, even the picture and sound are excellent, it keeps freezing-up, sometimes two or three times during playing a movie, I have to unplugged from the wall and power-up again. After a while I decided to call Sony's Customer service, they gave me a "good advice", take back. That's it for me in buying Sony again.

Picture is great but the player stops and you had to powerdown, did all
the firmware updates still had the same problem, now it just says NO DISK
will not even play a cd. It gets to go back to Sony and I don't have a Blu-
ray.
By the way it lasted 6 months.

I love Sony... but I must say I am worried about this purchase. Here's my lineup:

BDP-s300 with v3.70
Samsung 52" LCD 71 series
Onkyo TX-DS 777
Monster 1000HD HDMI
Monster Power HTS 5200 MK II
Polk Seperates with bipole/dipole rears
12" powered sub

To appease my wife, the first BD we tried was "PS I Love You." I tried running it @ 60 hz before trying 1080p/24. Basically it was flawless for an hour and a half at 1080p/60 until the unit decided to lock up. NOTHING would respond, not the remote, not the buttons on the front panel. I held down the front panel's power button for 5 seconds and it finally powered off. I started the machine up and finished the BD without any issues... but for this to happen on the first movie I played on it is a bit scary.

1080p/24 on this unit looks great, very smooth. The startup time was 1 minute - not bad (stop complaining people). I am not sure if upgrading my firmware to 3.90 is going to help with freezing, or if it was just breaking in on the first time it was ever turned on. I'm having a movie-party this weekend and I hope the s300 doesn't embarress me! Come on Sony, don't let me down for $400.

This is a fanastic Blu-Ray player. I've owned the unit before Thanksgiving 2007 and it's amazing. At $399 it's definitely the cheapest but don't be fooled into thinking that it's lacking in performance because of it.

The picture quality (even DVD upscaling) is amazing at 1080p and the sound is excellent.

I'm currently using a Onkyo TX-SR605 A/V Receiver, Panansonic TH-42PZ700U 42" Plasma 1080p, with Klipsch speakers and a Velodyne 12" subwoofer. (Monster HDMI cables ... what else would you use?)

Anyway, the startup & load times aren't really all that bad if you are downloading and updating your firmware like your suppose too. I've noticed a big drop in loading time after the last couple of firmware updates and no more freezing.

For those complaining about long load times and freeze ups .... UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE!

For anyone buying their first Blu-Ray player on a budget ... I highly recommend the BDP-S300 model. It's a great way to get your feet wet without going broke!

You can always upgrade to the BDP-S500 later on if you need the extra audio decoding options assuming your currently home theater A/V receiver supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.

This blue-ray player is worth every penny. The picture quality will blow you away. My first movie was Apocalypto on my new XBR-5...what great picture and sound! The load time is a little slow but it's worth the wait. Sony is the way to to go!!

Player works just great. Picture is awesome. Sound is great too. Could not be more pleased.

If you are looking for your first Blu-ray Disc player, this device will hit your radar given its price relative to other players on the market. At $399, you will still be an "early adopter" as you will be paying a premium and forced to make sacrifices. The obvious shortcoming is the lack of HD audio support. This may be OK if your goal is picture quality over audio quality, but know that you are not getting the full suite of features possible in a next-gen device. Next is the painfully slow load time of many newer "Java enabled" discs. While this might not seem like a huge inconvenience, it does make the player feel sub-standard. As such, I would never give this device to someone who is not prepared to accept the compromises. In short, the device is not ready for the general public.

On the positive side, the image quality is great, but that is what you would expect from the next generation format.

I have this DVD Player directly hooked up to my Sony KDS-60A3000 TV (With a Monster High Speed HDMI cable) and my first Blu-Ray movie was House Of The Flying Daggers. There are not enough adjectives to describe how great the picture is. I used to think 1080i was the cats meow until I saw a 1080p picture. As far as I am concerned this player is really great. A little slow, but made up for in picture quality. I don't mind waiting one bit.

So far I have had the unit freeze up to the point it has had to be powered down to get it restarted. Don't know if it was a bad DVD or the unit itself. One other time on a different DVD it hesitated during playback but didn't stop as in the previous incident. No other problems with quality of video or anything else. If I have no other issues in the next several months I will have to upgrade the rating as it is based on these 2 incidences.

Folks, I am not sure where the hyped hddvd vs. blu-ray battle is or where it is headed, but you simply cannot go wrong with this player. The sheer amount of movie studios on-board to support this technology alone should help make up your mind. We are playing this using the HDMI into a SONY SXRD 55" set, so we are experiencing the full 1080p, which is simply spectacular. The upconvert for all "regular" dvd's is amazing as well (what you read about "experiencing them again for the first time" really has some merit!). For sound, we are running the optical audio into an ONKYO TX-SR703 THX select receiver, and out into 6.1. The sound blows away our former progressive scan dvd player running into the same receiver. That was the deal breaker for us, we wanted the option to "split" the audio from the HDMI and have the blu-ray player transmit this signal unaffected to our av receiver. Some models we were considering did not offer this option - and we do not have HDMI switching on the ONKYO. The price after xmas was amazing as well, we noticed the pre-holiday sales, and thought that the unit might drop in price even more after the holidays, but it has actually gone up. Well worth the MSRP, however. Disc-loading is not bad, I read some reviews where it took tooooo long, well, the thing boots up a blu-ray disc in under a minute for us; and regular dvd's almost instantly boot. Very highly recommended.

I have added this to my Toshiba A3 player. Both are wonderful. The Sony adds optical digi audio in addition to Toslink and HDMI which the A3 also has. However, the Sony adds also the 6 cable 5.1 Analog audio out.

If you follow the internet discussions, you will find that I am not alone here. I had to run a cable directly to my subwoofer from the Sony 5.1 analog subwoofer out. Passing it into my Onkyo 5.1 sub input yields nothing. This is not strickly an Onkyo problem and I know of no explanation for it. It sounds great though.

I can't use HDMI because it would dead end in my Samsung toy speakers.

I purchased the Sony BDP-S300 just before New Year's. The only complaints I have, and they are minor, is for the time it takes for the DVDs to load and that the remote is not backlit. I understand the loading time is normal for all the HD players, so it is not particular to this product. If you are watching a movie in a darkened room, it can be rather challenging to find the pause button if the phone rings or if you have an interruption. Other than this, I love the player, the quality and the blu-ray format.

I have only used it to watch DVDs and the quality is topnotch. I have watched both regular and blu-ray discs and it is difficult to tell the difference. I have the player connected to the TV, a Samsung 4069 FX by HDMI cable, but I have the audio connected to a Sony digital receiver by digital optical cable, so I am not getting true surround sound from the system. I believe it is because there is no HDMI connection to the receiver. If I disconnect the HDMI cable from the television and run the player with component video cables, the surround sound works fine. I will be getting a new HDMI receiver to go with my system, and that should eliminate this problem.

The resolution is unbelievable. Everyone whom has seen it, has been blown away by the resolution. Bottom line: fantastic product. I would highly recommend this player. Of course, getting such a great price and such fantastic Crutchfield's World Class Service always makes for a happy customer as well.

I will agree with the prior posts - this player does have an exceptionally long boot-up time and can be sluggish at times at responding to commands. I bought this player from Crutchfield approx 6 months ago. I just found on Sony's website that they released a firmware update for this (and other Sony Blu-ray players) back in December '06. I just finished the update and it took about 35 minutes, start-to-finish. PRINT THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE WEBSITE AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!! If you do so, your update should be problem-free. I went from V2.0 to V3.70 and I've already been able to tell a difference. Sony says it will increase compatibility with newer BD-RWs and, more importantly, have improved JAVA menu functionality. Let me tell you - Pirates of the Caribbean 1's menu before vs. after the firmware update is night and day! Prior to update, it took several seconds before a keystroke would register on the menu and now it's virtually simultaneous. THIS FIRMWARE UPDATE IS A MUST. And while you're on Sony's support site, go ahead and get the instructions for the new December PS3 firmware update. If you have the PS3 connected to the internet it literally can't get any easier - don't even need to burn an ISO file to a CD-R. Back to the BDP-S300 though, it's a great product/technology overall. A few glitches are to be expected for us "early adopters"...

I should preface by stating that I am an editor for broadcast television and so I look at video all day for a living. I'm also EXTREMELY conservative in my purchasing patterns because we all know the first to rush into a new technology spends the most and gets the least. While it is not my inclination to jump in during a format "war", I bit the bullet and decided on Blu-Ray because I simply want to watch movies in HD, now. Truthfully, I don't think one format will win; the universal players like Samsung's new UP-5000 will and my BDP-S300 will simply become a moderately hamstrung player. Anyway, I actually bought the PS3 because it was highly rated by many. It does alot for the money. But then I hooked it up to my 52" LCD and felt silly. I don't play video games. It's doesn't look right stacked on the VCR and stereo. The remote is a kid-oriented joystick (and it's blue-tooth so other Sony remotes wont control it!). And the kiss of death; you choose in the menu the one way for it to spit out sound. It's either through the HDMI cable or the analog port or the optical port. That does not work for me. So, I returned it and got the BDP-300. It takes :52 seconds for the machine to boot up and for the drawer to open. Let's remember that it IS a computer and there is alot going on inside. It took :14 seconds to access the first menu. This in my humble opinion is not objectionably long. In many instances the you simply have to let the 300 play through the menus before starting your movie; this is exactly the same as it is on standard DVDs and is not abnormal. Patience and restraint are virtues, remember? I like this machine very much. Its price has dropped considerably and I admit I still buy Sony because I think they make great equipment. This unit is no exception.

This is a great player at a great price. Make sure to download & print
the PDF file for 5 Free Mail-in movies. The selections are pretty good.

We bought both an HD-DVD and Blu-Ray player together. We've received several
rentals through Netflix, and it's fun. We
did a Side-By-Side viewing with a Blu-Ray, and the HD-DVD is clearly a
better picture. The boot up time is much slower on the Blu-Ray.

Blu-Ray has more participating studios as of December 2007, so there are
less HD-DVD titles, but I'm sure this will change in the future.

If you decide to buy both HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray as I did, you'll need a
digital receiver that accepts HDMI, and has HDMI switching. My receiver
has 2 HDMI inputs, and 1 of them is for the Digital cable. If you need a
3rd, I bought a push-button HDMI selector switch. That way if I'm
watching one player, I push the button to 1. If I'm watching the other,
I push it to 2. You have to go to the player to put your movie in
anyway. We use the HD-DVD as our primary player, and the Blu-Ray only for Blu-Ray movies.

As the players get cheaper, you will want both HD-DVD & Blu-Ray to get all of your favorite movies from all of the studios. The
combo units are not really an option as they aren't really true HD-DVD
players. They fake it.

I have owned the S300 for a couple of weeks now. The picture is fabulous. Two of the problems I have with the unit are that it does not decode the latest Dolby and DTS sound that was developed for HD, and it is horribly slow in booting up. When you put in the Bluray disc you want to watch, go out make some popcorn and a little hot chocolate, do the dishes and maybe a little laundry and by the time you are done, the movie should be ready to watch after the ridiculous boot up time that you have to go through first for the previews (which you can't skip) and then for the movie. If you are going to go into the setup menu add another few minutes before you are going to be watching the movie. Also the features on both the Bluray players and the HD players change so fast that the unit you buy this month is obsolete next month. Overall the actual watching experience with Bluray and HD is so great that you will be spoiled and will never want to watch anything but 1080p format, well maybe 1080i will work if you are watching TV. Be sure that the unit you buy has the sound decoding that you want, because it isn't a given that the latest players have the latest sound capabilities.

Recent purchase of the SONY BDP-S300 ( entry level ) blu-ray disc player is summed up in one word WOW! With prices coming down, this unit is well worth it. Loading time for blu-ray disc is not that bad, consider the vast amount of info these discs are loaded with. My standard dvd discs load fast. The upconversion feature has my wife accepting the purchase. Our collection has the two of us feeling like it's all new again. Disney dvds are very brilliant in veiwing, with Rattatoullie being our first blu-ray, our HD plasma tv just jumps out at you. I would highly recommend this model for first time purchase.

This is a superd Blu-Ray player for the money. I have owned it since this past Aug 07 and encountered no problems with it. Other than longer than average start-up, the player has performed flawlessly with an amazing picture for both Blu-Ray and upconverted standard DVD's. No problems encoutered with the Pirate Blu-Ray DVDs and no freeze ups either. I did update it with the most recent 2.6 Firmware update available free from Sony just to be safe. In fact, Sony has recently introduced two more upscale models that incorporate the True HD and DTS HD formats. However, if you don't own a receiver that can accept these signals, there would no reason to spend the extra cash.

The player is not as slow as some people say, there is a playback resume as long as you push stop only one time before you turn off player, pushing stop more than once cancels the playback resume, it is a bit slower than a regular dvd player but you have to remember it has a lot more information to read than a standard dvd. above all it has a super sharp crystal clear picture, standard dvd's still have a bit of a vhs tape look to them when you compare the two.

I have been buying Sony products for a long time. It's no surprise that this Sony blu-ray I just bought has impressed me just as much. The picture is awesome and so is the sound quality. I have read reviews that it is slow to start up. It is slow, but not as slow as I expected it. Sony just released the firmware update, V2.60, on September 28, 2007. I already receive my copy via online request and updated my player. Everything is in good working order. I am glad I got this player versus Panasonic. I can't wait to my 5 free Blu ray movies.