The Official Sony BDP-S350 Owners Thread - Page 51

Originally Posted by Urlacher5454

I too swore never to buy a SONY product again but when I heard how much everyone enjoyed theirs I had to give it a try. I would have been stupid not to try it just because I had a feeling about their past products.

Originally Posted by Timbelmont

Matt_W_MN:

If you can't see a difference between standard-def and blu-ray, you can save money by sticking to standard DVD players. . .and you may want to retrieve that trusty VHS player from the closet.

Seriously, vision issues aside, you may want to check your output resolution settings, etc.

TA

Originally Posted by Matt_W_MN

I picked up a 350 yesterday and upgraded from an old p-scan player. This is my first blue ray player and my first upconverting player. I have it hooked to a Runco 610 (1080i only) with an Integra 7.7 providing audio duties (no Dolby HD or DTS HD).

While I was able to get everything running fine over HDMI and set the audio for bitstreaming I am not sold on the picture quality of blue ray. Neither my wife nor I could drastically tell the difference between the old player and the new one. We tried Street Kings and while the DTS sounded great I am not sure I am getting my 400 bucks worth out of this player.

Does anyone here have any thoughts on this? Am I losing the effectiveness of the blue ray only being able to watch it at 1080i? My 610 is only 2 years old and upgrading is quite out of the question.

I know this is my first post but I have been a lurker here for some time and I reference this site often. I hope to have the knowledge to contribute to this forum going forward but it can seem intimidating for a theater newbie.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by mchalebk

I hope this doesn't sound like a silly question, but can I assume you were watching a Blu-ray disc? You didn't mention it. Some people think that upsampling an SD-DVD is the same as HD, so I just want to rule that out.

I searched on the AVS Blu-ray Disc Reviews forum for Street Kings and found the following review:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...t=street+kings

Here's an excerpt from the review: The video had a distinctly (and intentional) hard edged and gritty look to it.

I'm going to guess that Street Kings is probably not the best disc to decide how good Blu-ray can look.

Originally Posted by Urlacher5454

I too swore never to buy a SONY product again but when I heard how much everyone enjoyed theirs I had to give it a try. I would have been stupid not to try it just because I had a feeling about their past products.

Originally Posted by jlangner

Agree with what others have said. It has a fan, but to my knowledge I have never noticed it...so thats a good thing.

Originally Posted by Matt_W_MN

I picked up a 350 yesterday and upgraded from an old p-scan player. This is my first blue ray player and my first upconverting player. I have it hooked to a Runco 610 (1080i only) with an Integra 7.7 providing audio duties (no Dolby HD or DTS HD).

While I was able to get everything running fine over HDMI and set the audio for bitstreaming I am not sold on the picture quality of blue ray. Neither my wife nor I could drastically tell the difference between the old player and the new one. We tried Street Kings and while the DTS sounded great I am not sure I am getting my 400 bucks worth out of this player.

Does anyone here have any thoughts on this? Am I losing the effectiveness of the blue ray only being able to watch it at 1080i? My 610 is only 2 years old and upgrading is quite out of the question.

I know this is my first post but I have been a lurker here for some time and I reference this site often. I hope to have the knowledge to contribute to this forum going forward but it can seem intimidating for a theater newbie.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by th8ter

I would try a different title I watched Street Kings last night and was not impressed with the quality of the reproduction at all.

Originally Posted by realmiggy

I tested A New Hope and it did the same thing. I found out that the bit about it happening at the same place every time is only partially true. I can pause it while it's showing up normally and after a few seconds, it goes dark.

I attempted to make a video of it. Sorry for the crappy quality, but I had to lower the video size so that the file size wouldn't be too large. If you play it on full screen, you should be able to at least make out how it's fading out and then back in on the playing one. The paused one just shows how it does it when it's paused, too.

Playing
Paused

Miggy, the Thief

Originally Posted by realmiggy

Okay, I got this player today and have a major problem.

I wanted to test DVD performance first before I popped in The Mummy (the only BD I have so far). I put in Revenge of the Sith. Figured that would be a good test for video quality. I immediately noticed it doing an odd thing.

The display goes back and forth from normal (I'm asusming) to dark, and it does it at the same places each time I play it. For example: When the main Star Wars logo appears, it's normal. Just as the words have just about faded back into space, the screen goes dark. It's not a gradually thing, it instantly does it. Then when Revenge of the Sith has come into full view, it goes back to normal; it goes dark again as the words are scrolling past. I watched a few minutes of the battle scene and it continues to do a noticeble shifting from normal to dark. I tested it in my DVD player to confirm that I was not just imagining things. I then put in Attack of the Clones into the Sony and it does the same things at the same exact moments. I have not yet done extensive testing with other DVDs, but I expect the same from all of them.

I played The Mummy, and it.. seemed to be okay. It does darken and get brighter at the beginning, but I think it's supposed to with the sun going in and out of view behind the statues. I played random scenes throughout it and don't see anything off.

This is my first Blu-Ray player and I like how this machine operates, the menus, how the BDs work, etc. But I wont' be able to tolerate this behavior it's exhibiting so far with regular DVDs.

I have a Sony Bravia KDL-40V3000 as a display. I looked through the menus of both the player and TV and cannot find any setting that would cause this.

Any help would be appreciated, and if needed, I'll return it during the 30-day period for another player (if it appears this one's defective) or try another brand/model.

Miggy, the Thief

Originally Posted by NismoZ

Check the color output options. It's probably set to auto. I don't know if it's cabpable of changing itself in the midst of a movie, but try changing that setting to 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 and see if the darkness changes stop.

Originally Posted by benjosevilla

The Sony S350 BD has a video setting for HDMI YCbCr (4:2:2) or (4:4:4) & auto setting. The BD is connected via HDMI to an Onkyo 750 then connected to the Panny PZ800. What setting should I use, I tried all three and so far do not see a difference.

Originally Posted by realmiggy

Okay, I got this player today and have a major problem.

I wanted to test DVD performance first before I popped in The Mummy (the only BD I have so far). I put in Revenge of the Sith. Figured that would be a good test for video quality. I immediately noticed it doing an odd thing.

The display goes back and forth from normal (I'm asusming) to dark, and it does it at the same places each time I play it. For example: When the main Star Wars logo appears, it's normal. Just as the words have just about faded back into space, the screen goes dark. It's not a gradually thing, it instantly does it. Then when Revenge of the Sith has come into full view, it goes back to normal; it goes dark again as the words are scrolling past. I watched a few minutes of the battle scene and it continues to do a noticeble shifting from normal to dark. I tested it in my DVD player to confirm that I was not just imagining things. I then put in Attack of the Clones into the Sony and it does the same things at the same exact moments. I have not yet done extensive testing with other DVDs, but I expect the same from all of them.

I played The Mummy, and it.. seemed to be okay. It does darken and get brighter at the beginning, but I think it's supposed to with the sun going in and out of view behind the statues. I played random scenes throughout it and don't see anything off.

This is my first Blu-Ray player and I like how this machine operates, the menus, how the BDs work, etc. But I wont' be able to tolerate this behavior it's exhibiting so far with regular DVDs.

I have a Sony Bravia KDL-40V3000 as a display. I looked through the menus of both the player and TV and cannot find any setting that would cause this.

Any help would be appreciated, and if needed, I'll return it during the 30-day period for another player (if it appears this one's defective) or try another brand/model.

Miggy, the Thief