Great picture, not-so-great ergnomicsAugust 22, 2008 I am writing this review as someone with a good home theater setup who wanted a higher quality picture. The good news: the picture quality with this player is great. I won't belabor this as it's covered in the other reviews. The player has a nice low profile and setup out of the box is easy. Otherwise, I am disappointed. The bad thing is that Sony believes you to be a thief, and this belief informs the design of the player. Everything is designed to prevent hijacking of the digital signal. (You *were* planning to make digital copies of your blu-ray discs and sell them for a profit, right?) If you're knowledgable about Blu-Ray, you already know this. If you don't know it, you might find this player disappointing.
This player will not necessarily yield a better experience than what you currently have with your 5.1 DVD setup. You can only get better than 2-channel sound with Blu-Ray if you use an HDMI cable (manual, p. 62), and thus you need a home theater receiver that accepts HDMI, so you may need to upgrade your receiver. (For example, if you're hearing 5.1 sound on DVDs with an optical cable, you won't hear 5.1 on Blu-Ray with this player, even though it has optical out.)
You may find the menus to be a pain. Generally, I find navigation with this player to be confusing, although scene selection was a pleasing exception. The remote is not great. Tonight, while watching a spectacular looking blu-ray movie, I hit the wrong button (in the dark, of course) about half a dozen times. Each time, I wound up staring at a message saying that the player could not resume play from the menu I had reached and I would have to start playing the movie from the beginning. So I had to hunt through the scenes to resume. My existing DVD player easily resumes; and it stores the resume points on the last 30 discs played. This player will not remember your location on a disc if you a) open the disc tray, b) play another title, or c) it just plain may not do it (manual, p. 31). Why???
It seems slow to load. Yes, I know the other reviews are pleased about load times < 20 seconds. It doesn't seem fast if you're used to DVD. On some DVDs, there are menus and previews I could skip that I cannot skip with this player. This slows things down further.
Many of the other reviews compare this player to an earlier generation of Blu-Ray. If you're upgrading from first generation BluRay, perhaps you will be pleased. If you're upgrading from DVD, you may have a mixed reaction. The salesman who sold me this player told me the picture would look great but warned me that the player was a pain to operate, albeit better than prior Blu-Ray players. I'd say it was a good assessment.
BEST ON THE MARKET.August 21, 2008 BEST ON THE MARKET FOR A SINGLE USE BLUE RAY DISC PLAYER. NOTE: TRUE DOLBY SOUND REQUIRES AN A/V RECEIVE WITH "TRUE DOLBY" CAPABILITIES! ONLY THE LATEST A/V RECEIVERS SUPPORT THIS NEW "TRUE DOLBY" TECHNOLOGY. SO YOU HAVE TO INVEST IN A NEW A/V RECEIVER! DIGITAL OPTICAL A/V AUDIO CABLES WILL GIVE GREAT SOUND PLAY BACK W/OUT THE ADDITIONAL INVESTMENT.
WE OWN A PS3 W/BLUE RAY PLAYER BUILT IN.
IF YOU CURRENTLY HAVE NO BLUE RAY PLAYER THE PS3 IS A BETTER VALUE. YOU CAN PLAY HIGH DEF. GAMES & BLUE RAY DISKS W/ THE ABILITY TO UPGRADE TO THE LATEST BLUE RAY TECHNOLOGY VIA USB/SANDISK/SONY MEMORY CARD.
WOULD HAVE BROUGHT A SECOND PS3 BUT, DID'T WANT THE KIDS TO TAKE OVER TWO TV'S!
Amazing ExperienceAugust 20, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I recently picked up this Blu Ray Player and have been watching movies/shows pretty much non stop since then. The Planet Earth series is excellent. I am using the S350 with my Samsung LN46A550 and it is unbelievable. Even cartoons on Blu Ray are spectacular.
This unit responds quickly to remote functions and has been flawless so far. Every movie has played without a hitch and has been a treat to watch.
I would buy this for myself if it was 250 but at this pice... PS3August 20, 2008 0 out of 4 found this review helpful
My good friend has one of these, and she loves it. I am looking for a blue ray player, but at this price i might as well go for the PS3, unless this were to drop down to 250, at that price ppl would buy this over the PS3 any day of the week. I might even buy two. one for my parents and my self. hehehe
Very Nice!August 20, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am very pleased with this unit. This is my first Blu-Ray player but my experience with friends/family's older units were much slower to load. I must say that compared to my Sony upconverting DVD player connected to my Bravia W-Series 1080p set, HD/Blu-Ray is hardly any better. (that's how good the standard upconvert player is!!!) Sound is noticeably better. Great unit!
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