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The Official Sony BDP-S350 Owners Thread - Page 219

post #6541 of 6719
12/13/10 at 7:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JezmundToo View Post

i bought my S350 for $120 off Craigslist about a year ago since my AVR doesn't have HDMI and I wanted to hear that sweet, sweet Blu-Ray sound. I then sold my brand-new S360 for $95 on ebay. Anyway, just wanted to pop in to say that I have never updated the firmware (i don't think the previous owned had either), and I have not had problem one (knock on wood), including playing Toy Story 3 from Netflix last week. I am not going to update the firmware until i have a problem.

also, does anyone know if this player can play .mkv files?

It won't play mkv's but these can be converted to AVCHD discs, although you may have to do some reencoding, which can be a complex task. Things I discovered in trying to do this is that you must add black bars if the mkv resolution is not exactly one of the standard resolutions (e.g. 1920x1080, 1280x720, etc.) Many mkv's have had the black bars cropped.
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post #6542 of 6719
12/14/10 at 6:33am
thank you for the reply. i believe that the source material is 720p, but i will check to make sure it is the proper aspect ratio. thanks!!
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post #6543 of 6719
12/17/10 at 8:52am
i had a lg bd 550 and it was very basic at best.........i went back a got the sony s270 an it works flawlessly
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post #6544 of 6719
12/19/10 at 3:03pm
I have the BX1, which I believe is the Costco S350 knock-off unit. I'm trying to get something other than PCM out of this unit. Its connected via HDMI to a Denon AVR-3311CI, which then outputs via HDMI to a JVC DLA-RS20 projector.

Reading the AVR manual, the display of 'Multichannel In' indicates that the receiver is receiving a PCM signal from the source--as opposed to Dolby/DTS. I've tried several BD movies with both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD selected as audio, verified the BX1 is [suppose to be] sending Dolby/DTS as preference over PCM, but apparently either the player isn't sending or the receiver is lying.

While the BX1 isn't on the latest update, I've updated at least once since I bought it a year ago. I read nothing of interest or pertaining to this issue to justify updating the BX1 again. On the other hand, I'm wondering if I might need to update the Denon (bought in July just after its release).

Before running a firmware update on the Denon, I guess I can try a Panasonic BD player, the PS3 Slim, or the LG BD550 and see if the Denon continues to display the same. Anyone else experience this with their S350/BX1?

Side note: I have never had a BD disk fail to play. Kudos! But then again this was the BD originally in the den.
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post #6545 of 6719
12/19/10 at 4:25pm
If what you have is really a Sony in disguise, you need to look for the setting that allows "Direct" vs. "All" - it's doing onboard mixing of multiple sound streams (e.g. commentaries and such) and doing onboard decoding, and then sending multichannel PCM over HDMI. If you change this to direct, you'll get the actual AC3/DTS HD bitstream instead, which will do what you want.
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post #6546 of 6719
12/20/10 at 3:02pm
So I finally bought this 350 and I cannot get Dolby Digital 5.1 to work. I have HDMI to TV and Dig Opt to older receiver (No HDMI hookup on it). Regular DVD's work fine and I get the 5.1 sound. On Blu-ray discs, I can get 5.1 on Spanish speaking track, but no sound on English track. Spanish says, under info, DD5.1 and English says DTS. When I change DTS setting to downmix PCM, I get 2 speaker output at least but no DD5.1. I assume my 10 year old Sony STR825 receiver does not support DTS but I know it supports DD5.1. Is there some reason I cannot get DD5.1 on BluRay discs via the dig opt hookup? Is there a chance I have a faulty disc? I read thru about 65 pages here and could not find a similiar story. Thanks for any advice!
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post #6547 of 6719
12/20/10 at 3:23pm
DD 5.1 and DTS are mutually exclusive. If you choose to play a DTS soundtrack, the player will not convert it to DD 5.1 on the fly. There's no player on earth I know of that does that. What they WILL do is decode the DTS onboard and convert it to PCM multichannel via HDMI, or 2-channel via toslink or coax S/PDIF (which can't handle the bandwidth required for multichannel uncompressed PCM, unlike HDMI.)

Some discs are just authored that way - either get a receiver capable of handling DTS bitstreams as well as DD, use multichannel PCM over HDMI (letting the player do the decoding), or just don't buy discs where the primary soundtrack is DTS. The disc's packaging should tell you what you're in for.
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post #6548 of 6719
12/20/10 at 4:29pm
Two follow ups for you Andrew. One is are there discs that specify DD5.1 over DTS still? I am looking at my Netflix queue and do not see any in recent titles. Two is, when you say "use multichannel PCM over HDMI (letting the player do the decoding)", what do you mean? Is there a way I can do that and get 5.1 out of it? Thanks for the advice!
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post #6549 of 6719
12/20/10 at 4:53pm
Here's the thing: On any given disc, there will typically be one "main" soundtrack that will be in EITHER DD or DTS - there may be additional languages that might be DD, or might only be 2 channel, or whatever, but there will usually be one track in fully lossless DTS-HD or Dolby 7.1 or whatever. All BluRay players must, however, be able to decode the bitstreams for the "mandatory" formats onboard and turn them into PCM analog out, or a 2-channel PCM digital audio stream. There is no player that will re-encode from one compressed format (e.g. DTS) into another compressed format (DD 5.1.)

In DVD, DTS was an "optional" format, which meant if someone shipped a DTS disc they generally also had a Dolby track on the same disc, or they sold two separate versions of the disc in case you didn't have a DTS decoder at all - because there was no guarantee the player could decode it to analog. In BluRay, both DTS and Dolby are "mandatory" supported formats - which means the player has to be able to decode the streams onboard, but only way to provide fully multichannel audio to an older receiver without the DTS support is via analog connections.

What HDMI gives you is a high-speed digital connection to your receiver sufficient not only for the newer high-quality DD and DTS lossless formats, but it can even handle a fully uncompressed "raw" PCM 7.1 multichannel bitstream where the DD or DTS is decoded onboard the BluRay player to PCM and then sent over the HDMI cable. However, your receiver obviously needs to support HDMI input to be able to play that back as well - at which point you might as well find one that can also handle the DTS or DD compressed streams, and then you have your choice of where to do the decoding.

However, with your older receiver, the only option you have is the older Toslink or coax digital connection, which will either get you a 2-channel PCM playback, or a DD5.1 playback (minus the extra lossless bits, if the disc has them), but you effectively have no ability to play DTS multichannel content natively without downmixing, if your receiver didn't have DTS support to begin with.
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post #6550 of 6719
12/20/10 at 6:04pm
Andrew you clearly know your stuff! So much so I am barely hanging on! One part I thought I was dead and then another part you gave me possibilities. So bottom line, is there or isn't there a way for me to get Dolby Digital 5.1 (thus lighting up the blue bar on my old Sony receiver) with my current setup?
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post #6551 of 6719
12/20/10 at 7:28pm
Let's make a long story short. If you're watching a movie where the soundtrack is DD already, you should get the blue light. If the sound track isn't DD on the disc, you're going to be limited to 2-channel audio.

The only solution for you to get all-multichannel-all-the-time via a digital connection is going to be a new receiver.
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post #6552 of 6719
12/21/10 at 8:27am
Solid information Andrew! I sincerely appreciate it. What I have discovered, unfortunately, is that the huge investment I made in a 'lifetime' of equipment has become quickly obsolete. Sony Receiver, Bose speakers, all bought thinking technology would not ramp up so fast and I could have a decade of enjoyment minimally! Sadly not true. If I get a new receiver, then I have to get new speakers due to analog connections, and then I realize I will not get max visual due to 1080i TV. Whew. I think I am stuck 'upscaling' DVD's for awhile till I get mentally (and financially) ready to toss out fully functional good equipment. Regardless though, my panic in completing my home entertainment room and then realizing I could not get sound has a legit understandable reason and that is what I needed to know. Thanks again for taking the immense time to help me out.
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post #6553 of 6719
12/21/10 at 9:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewsi View Post

Here's the thing: On any given disc, there will typically be one "main" soundtrack that will be in EITHER DD or DTS - there may be additional languages that might be DD, or might only be 2 channel, or whatever, but there will usually be one track in fully lossless DTS-HD or Dolby 7.1 or whatever. All BluRay players must, however, be able to decode the bitstreams for the "mandatory" formats onboard and turn them into PCM analog out, or a 2-channel PCM digital audio stream. There is no player that will re-encode from one compressed format (e.g. DTS) into another compressed format (DD 5.1.)

In DVD, DTS was an "optional" format, which meant if someone shipped a DTS disc they generally also had a Dolby track on the same disc, or they sold two separate versions of the disc in case you didn't have a DTS decoder at all - because there was no guarantee the player could decode it to analog. In BluRay, both DTS and Dolby are "mandatory" supported formats - which means the player has to be able to decode the streams onboard, but only way to provide fully multichannel audio to an older receiver without the DTS support is via analog connections.

What HDMI gives you is a high-speed digital connection to your receiver sufficient not only for the newer high-quality DD and DTS lossless formats, but it can even handle a fully uncompressed "raw" PCM 7.1 multichannel bitstream where the DD or DTS is decoded onboard the BluRay player to PCM and then sent over the HDMI cable. However, your receiver obviously needs to support HDMI input to be able to play that back as well - at which point you might as well find one that can also handle the DTS or DD compressed streams, and then you have your choice of where to do the decoding.

However, with your older receiver, the only option you have is the older Toslink or coax digital connection, which will either get you a 2-channel PCM playback, or a DD5.1 playback (minus the extra lossless bits, if the disc has them), but you effectively have no ability to play DTS multichannel content natively without downmixing, if your receiver didn't have DTS support to begin with.

You could also use multichannel analog from the player to the receiver to get the uncompressed track. However, that doesn't really help in this case because that receiver doesn't have multichannel analogs anyway.

Gekko- I'm not following why you would need new speakers. The speaker connections on the receiver have been pretty much the same since practically forever, so if you're using banana plugs or even just a bare wire/screw down type connection to your receiver now, you should be able to connect just fine to any new receiver. Also, see my comment above if you do want to get a new receiver but want to save a few bucks. You can find several receivers that don't decode the HD audio themselves but have multichannel analog inputs so that you can allow the player to do it. Having said that, I'm inclined to agree with andrew in that if you're getting a new receiver you might as well get one that can decode itself, but at least it's an option to save you some money.
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post #6554 of 6719
12/21/10 at 1:05pm
Oh, I did not know that about my speaker hookup. Most of the receivers I was looking at seemed to have a different type of connection than what I see on the back of my receiver. I just assumed that connection evolved also. I also saw others lament about loss of analog connections. You said I could get multichannel analog, which I believe provides 5.1 surround, what is that? Seperate device? I thought the wire hookup I have now is multichannel analog to tell the truth.
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post #6555 of 6719
12/21/10 at 1:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gekko4321 View Post

Oh, I did not know that about my speaker hookup. Most of the receivers I was looking at seemed to have a different type of connection than what I see on the back of my receiver. I just assumed that connection evolved also. I also saw others lament about loss of analog connections. You said I could get multichannel analog, which I believe provides 5.1 surround, what is that? Seperate device? I thought the wire hookup I have now is multichannel analog to tell the truth.

Gekko, my apologies. I'm confused. The S350 does not have multichannel analog outputs. The S550 does.

To answer the question though, multichannel inputs/outputs use an RCA connector to go between the source and the receiver, with each RCA cable carrying an individual piece of the signal. So, for a 5.1 system you end up with 6 RCAs going between the player and receiver (5 speakers and the sub). The player would decode the HD audio track and send the signal to the receiver. It works great for receivers that offer those connections but won't decode the HD track.
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post #6556 of 6719
12/21/10 at 5:01pm
Got it. Thanks for the help!
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post #6557 of 6719
12/22/10 at 9:11am
I have a Sony 350 and recently i have noticed that i am having to continously adjust the audio volume when watching a BR movie. Basically the quiet parts are too quiet and the loud parts are too loud, not great with the neighbors at 9pm on a night!

I have found a few people with this issue when listening through the TV speakers but i almost exclusively run the audio hrough my Pioneer LX60 amp, what would you suggest?? Is it a player issue or just because the audio range is greater due to less compression?

Its really beginning to annoy me now!

Cheers, nick
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post #6558 of 6719
12/22/10 at 9:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickosbad View Post

I have a Sony 350 and recently i have noticed that i am having to continously adjust the audio volume when watching a BR movie. Basically the quiet parts are too quiet and the loud parts are too loud, not great with the neighbors at 9pm on a night!

I have found a few people with this issue when listening through the TV speakers but i almost exclusively run the audio hrough my Pioneer LX60 amp, what would you suggest?? Is it a player issue or just because the audio range is greater due to less compression?

Its really beginning to annoy me now!

Cheers, nick

There are a few things that you can check:
1- if you are using a center speaker. Check that it has not gone bad because in film most of the dialog get redirected to the center channel.
2- If you are only using 2 speakers (e.g. no 5.1), make sure that your av preamp is configured to know the number of speaker you have.
3- BD Films usually have wider dynamic range than TV shows and if you are in a perfectly quiet environment you can play with the audio compression settings as described on page 45 of the BDP-S350 manual.
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post #6559 of 6719
12/22/10 at 10:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tranle View Post

There are a few things that you can check:
1- if you are using a center speaker. Check that it has not gone bad because in film most of the dialog get redirected to the center channel.
2- If you are only using 2 speakers (e.g. no 5.1), make sure that your av preamp is configured to know the number of speaker you have.
3- BD Films usually have wider dynamic range than TV shows and if you are in a perfectly quiet environment you can play with the audio compression settings as described on page 45 of the BDP-S350 manual.

Cool, my setup at the moment is my LX60 amp powers a KEF 3005 surround kit but the front left and right have been replaced with KEF IQ3 bookshelf speakers so they are considerably more powerful than the centre which is from the KEF Kit, is this likely to cause the difference?? I ran the MCACC on the amp so I assumed that it would compensate for the difference in speakers
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post #6560 of 6719
12/22/10 at 10:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickosbad View Post

Cool, my setup at the moment is my LX60 amp powers a KEF 3005 surround kit but the front left and right have been replaced with KEF IQ3 bookshelf speakers so they are considerably more powerful than the centre which is from the KEF Kit, is this likely to cause the difference?? I ran the MCACC on the amp so I assumed that it would compensate for the difference in speakers

Usually people advise to use the Front speakers and the Center speaker to the same. Maybe you should try to configure your system with no center (e.g. keep the subwoofer and surround and your new front speakers). This way you av preamp will redirect the center channel to the left and right speakers.
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post #6561 of 6719
12/25/10 at 5:22pm
"Cannot operate the disc" errors started increasing in frequency on my 2-ish year old S-350. What bugged me most is a couple new discs I purchased flat out would not play. So, I decided to pull the lid on the box and clean the optical drive lenses - as suggested by other wise folks in this thread. A couple of cotton swabs and 30min later and I am up and running. Those new discs that didn't play are now playable. So, stop whining about your errors, invest 30 minutes of basic maintenance into your complex machine, and be happy that you kept some perfectly good electronics out of a landfill.
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post #6562 of 6719
12/25/10 at 7:54pm
So I have my S350 since more than one year and has been working flawlessly, I recently switched my AV receiver from a Yamaha to the Pioneer VSX-1120 and I cant get them to work with each other, I don't get picture or sound to the Pioneer, I all ready switched my HDMI cables so that is out, I have played around with some settings on the Pioneer and still nothing, I was wondering if any of you guys have encountered a problem like that?
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post #6563 of 6719
12/25/10 at 10:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Killer View Post

So I have my S350 since more than one year and has been working flawlessly, I recently switched my AV receiver from a Yamaha to the Pioneer VSX-1120 and I cant get them to work with each other, I don’t get picture or sound to the Pioneer, I all ready switched my HDMI cables so that is out, I have played around with some settings on the Pioneer and still nothing, I was wondering if any of you guys have encountered a problem like that?

The HDMI inputs on that receiver are assignable... did you assign the correct HDMI input?

For example, if you have custom named an A/V selection on that receiver to be BLU-RAY did you pay attention to what video and audio input you assigned to it?

You get to decide what inputs the receiver uses for the various A/V selections (Blu-Rays, Cable/Sat, Xbox, PS3, etc.).
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post #6564 of 6719
12/26/10 at 7:28am
I will check that, i also noticed that when i turned on my Panasonic Plasma Tv the S350 got turned on as well, it didnt do that before i am thinking some thing got messed up with HDMI control betwen the Receiver-S350-Plasma
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post #6565 of 6719
12/26/10 at 7:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Killer View Post
I will check that, i also noticed that when i turned on my Panasonic Plasma Tv the S350 got turned on as well, it didnt do that before i am thinking some thing got messed up with HDMI control betwen the Receiver-S350-Plasma
I always turn that off. :-)
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post #6566 of 6719
12/26/10 at 9:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickff View Post
I always turn that off. :-)
How do you turn that off?
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post #6567 of 6719
12/26/10 at 12:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickff View Post

I always turn that off. :-)

So i got HDMI control OFF on every thing, and still nothing, when i plugged the S350 to the plasma directly it works as usual but with the Pio VSX 1120 i get nothing, the HDMI Indicator doesnt ligths up on the S350, and i have switch HDMI cables 3 times and still nothing, i just dont get it, so i will keep trying

Thanks
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post #6568 of 6719
12/26/10 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BLK3SS View Post

"Cannot operate the disc" errors started increasing in frequency on my 2-ish year old S-350. What bugged me most is a couple new discs I purchased flat out would not play. So, I decided to pull the lid on the box and clean the optical drive lenses - as suggested by other wise folks in this thread. A couple of cotton swabs and 30min later and I am up and running. Those new discs that didn't play are now playable. So, stop whining about your errors, invest 30 minutes of basic maintenance into your complex machine, and be happy that you kept some perfectly good electronics out of a landfill.

That's good to know. I'll keep that in mind if my S-350 starts to do this. Thanks.
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post #6569 of 6719
12/31/10 at 6:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tuxedocivic View Post

(although avatar takes a long time to load)

Just how long is long? The latest deluxe Avatar edition doesn't want to load. After the initial "you need the latest firmware" display, the player just seemed to hang. I gave up after a few minutes.

And yes, it has the latest firmware.
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post #6570 of 6719
12/31/10 at 11:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrvideo View Post


Just how long is long? The latest deluxe Avatar edition doesn't want to load. After the initial "you need the latest firmware" display, the player just seemed to hang. I gave up after a few minutes.

And yes, it has the latest firmware.

Just in case...

Try removing the USB drive from the back and unplug the ethernet cord, then try and play it. (if you use those of course)
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