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The Official Sony BDP-S550 Owner's Thread - Page 7

post #181 of 3962
10/11/08 at 10:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarheel72 View Post

What do you mean by this? I have a HK635 and use the same set up as you for audio. I run video direct to the 1080P TV with HDMI. I am using a Samsung 1200 set to upscale everything to 1080P, which takes advantage of its outstanding Reon processor. Are you saying that you have to set the 550 to do no upscaling and send the 480i signal to your video process so it can perform that function? In that case, we still do not know what kind of job the 550 does in upscaling a SD DVD. I want to see how it compares to the Reon in my 1200. I would like to have an all in one machine, but if I have to I can keep the 1200 hooked up for the occasional SD DVD that I pop in.

Yes, I am running 480i through the DVDO and it is performing the upscaling. The picture I am getting is better than the 480i through the DVDO with the Samsung. I will have some time today and I will bypass the DVDO to assess the Sonys upscaling abilities.
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post #182 of 3962
10/11/08 at 10:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RShlansky View Post

Sorry, could someone pretty please tell me if I am out of luck with this unit or direct me to the correct thread. Pretty please. Again, will the 550 be able to convert TruHD to a 5.1 compatible format that can be sent thru pcm for coax or toslink. thanks again.

Quote:
Originally Posted by EWL5 View Post

You get the lossy 5.1 DD through coax/toslink. Every BD player does this. Don't expect lossless through coax/toslink unless it's 2CH PCM.

As EWL5 says, you will not get multichannel lossless (either encoded or decoded to PCM) via an optical or coaxial connection. The S/PDIF protocol used for optical/coax is limited to legacy DD and DTS for 5.1 and to stereo for PCM.

However, Blu-ray players are required to have backwards compatibility for processors without TrueHD and dts-MA decoders. Set the player to output bitstream over optical. When you select a TrueHD or DD+ track on a disc, the player will actually send a companion DD 5.1 track instead. When you select a DTS-HD (HRA or Master Audio) track, the player will send the 5.1 core part of the track. These legacy tracks are usually encoded at higher bitrates on BD than you get on DVD and they will likely sound better as a result.

Hope this answers your question.
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post #183 of 3962
10/11/08 at 11:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Spackman View Post

Here are some inside pics:

(they were taken by a friend James B.)

Quite big pics...
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post #184 of 3962
10/11/08 at 1:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thuppu View Post

Quite big pics...

yours are bigger right?

I have not had my hands on a S550 yet. A friend got one and I asked him to take some nice photos, these are what he gave me. I will open one when I can, maybe next week.
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post #185 of 3962
10/11/08 at 2:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Woodshed View Post

Cool.

Check out this link that was posted in the S5000ES thread Jon.


http://hdtvpolska.com/index.php?showtopic=13050

Not sure if you saw it, any impressions of the interior? Any similarities to the S350 (or the 550 for that matter) that you remember?

Looks to be the EXACT same BR drive.

Thanks

It seems that the S5000es shares a similiar main board with the S550 and S350. Of course without having them all in person its just a guess. But It seems that they share a very similar board with the same heatsink. The 5000es of course has an improved power supply and a fancy analog board with huge DACs.

My guess is that the main board that takes the audio/video from the disc to the decoder is the same for all three models. The difference is in the boards after that main sigma chip. For the S350 it simply goes to either the HDMI output or to the small analog board. For the S550 if goes to the HDMI or to its larger analog board. for the S5000es it goes to another board for all the edge enhancement crap, then to the HDMI, video goes to a large analog board; and audio goes to that fancy analog stage.

It just depends whether you need HDMI only, or analog/HDMI combo.

The S5000es seems to have nicer parts, but are they worth $2000?

Also the drive in the three players is the same BDP 200 drive, except the 5000es drive has a different model number: BDP200 ES. So it may have better dampening or other similar improvements.
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post #186 of 3962
10/11/08 at 3:17pm
I checked the Sonys SD DVD upconversion and it looks really good. Better than the 1400 but not as good as the DVDO. We'll have to wait till the professional reviews to see how it passes all the torture tests.

I played some CD's and I was surpised as how good they sounded. I tried playing throught the multichannel analog outs and it outputs 2.1. I'll be interested to see what DAC's the Sony is using. I also tried outputting through the optical and using the 96khz setting and I couldn't tell a difference.
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post #187 of 3962
10/11/08 at 3:43pm
I was about to buy the S350 when on that thread folks said that you can't watch in bitstream DTS-HD MA and watch the secondary auto at the same time as the bitstream cannot send both and the 350 cannot decode HD MA. Since the 550 does decode MA, would I be correct in assuming that the 550 will mix the two audio signals and allow me to watch both in HD MA?

I actually pulled the trigger as it was on a big time sale at ABT , but since it's backordered I figure if my asusmption is wrong I can still cancel.
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post #188 of 3962
10/11/08 at 3:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dengland View Post

Have you tried the S300 remote with the 550 player. I have done that before with other Sony products. Usually, it the remote from the more expensive device that has a button that the lesser device responds too.

The S300, being the cheaper device has the feature but the 550 doesn't. That sure is odd. How about the new top of the line model 5000. Does it have the feature?
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post #189 of 3962
10/11/08 at 4:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Spackman View Post

It seems that the S5000es shares a similiar main board with the S550...

They look very similar, if perhaps not totally identical....

Photos and review of BDP-S550 (German): http://www.areadvd.de/hardware/2008/sony_bpd_s550.shtml


BDP-S550


BDP-S550

Photos of BDP-S5000ES (Polish): http://hdtvpolska.com/index.php?showtopic=13050


BDP-S5000ES


BDP-S5000ES
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post #190 of 3962
10/11/08 at 4:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roscoe View Post

I was about to buy the S350 when on that thread folks said that you can't watch in bitstream DTS-HD MA and watch the secondary auto at the same time as the bitstream cannot send both and the 350 cannot decode HD MA. Since the 550 does decode MA, would I be correct in assuming that the 550 will mix the two audio signals and allow me to watch both in HD MA?

No player can do secondary audio while bitstreaming the main soundtrack. That would mean sending two separate audio tracks at the same time, which HDMI can't do. The movie has to be decoded in the player. It is mixed with the commentary track and the mixed output is sent to the AVR.

There's really no advantage to the 550 for secondary audio. Even though it can decode the lossless track, it appears to use a lossy one when mixing in secondary audio. That's true of all moderately priced players. That also means you have to change the audio setup when switching between watching a lossless movie and listening to commentary.
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post #191 of 3962
10/11/08 at 4:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluechunks View Post

They look very similar, if perhaps not totally identical....

Photos and review of BDP-S550 (German): http://www.areadvd.de/hardware/2008/sony_bpd_s550.shtml


BDP-S550


BDP-S550

Photos of BDP-S5000ES (Polish): http://hdtvpolska.com/index.php?showtopic=13050


BDP-S5000ES


BDP-S5000ES

The heatsink on the 5000 has 3 more fins than the 550
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post #192 of 3962
10/11/08 at 4:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Spackman View Post

It seems that the S5000es shares a similiar main board with the S550 and S350. Of course without having them all in person its just a guess. But It seems that they share a very similar board with the same heatsink. The 5000es of course has an improved power supply and a fancy analog board with huge DACs.

My guess is that the main board that takes the audio/video from the disc to the decoder is the same for all three models. The difference is in the boards after that main sigma chip. For the S350 it simply goes to either the HDMI output or to the small analog board. For the S550 if goes to the HDMI or to its larger analog board. for the S5000es it goes to another board for all the edge enhancement crap, then to the HDMI, video goes to a large analog board; and audio goes to that fancy analog stage.

It just depends whether you need HDMI only, or analog/HDMI combo.

The S5000es seems to have nicer parts, but are they worth $2000?

Also the drive in the three players is the same BDP 200 drive, except the 5000es drive has a different model number: BDP200 ES. So it may have better dampening or other similar improvements.

Thanks for the feedback Jon.
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post #193 of 3962
10/11/08 at 4:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Woodshed View Post

The heatsink on the 5000 has 3 more fins than the 550

Well it IS the ES.
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post #194 of 3962
10/11/08 at 4:59pm
For those interested, here is a link to the review translated in English.

http://translate.google.com/translat...hl=en&ie=UTF-8
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post #195 of 3962
10/11/08 at 5:03pm
I have my 550 hooked up to the Sony 910 (hdmi and will support 7.1 lpcm). I am connected via hdmi. With audio set to "mix" I get truehd 2/0 with my 5.1 system (front speaker output only). With audio set to "direct" I get DD 3/2.1 with all speaker's working. I am, at this pint, not knowing what to change.Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
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post #196 of 3962
10/11/08 at 5:05pm
buy.com just canceled my order.....bastards, I knew 314.00 was to good to be true.
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post #197 of 3962
10/11/08 at 5:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by express10 View Post

I have my 550 hooked up to the Sony 910 (hdmi and will support 7.1 lpcm). I am connected via hdmi. With audio set to "mix" I get truehd 2/0 with my 5.1 system (front speaker output only). With audio set to "direct" I get DD 3/2.1 with all speaker's working. I am, at this pint, not knowing what to change.Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

This is what worked for someone that was using analog outputs, see if you can adapt this to your HDMI setup.

Settings: Output Priority Multi Channel Analog
Audio (hdmi) : 2ch pcm
BD Audio setting : direct
Audio ATT: off
Dolby Digital : Downmix PCM
DTS : Downmix PCM
48khz/96khz PCM : 96khz/24 bit
Audio DRC: wide range
Downmix: Dolby Surround
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post #198 of 3962
10/11/08 at 5:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kbueno View Post

As promised, I'm happy to report that I can confirm (at least w/Rambo) that the S550 decodes 7.1 DTS MA over analog. Pretty neat player...what a step up from standard DVD.

Sounds like a winner. Does a lot more than the Pios, then. Glad I waited.
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post #199 of 3962
10/11/08 at 5:19pm
So...just curious, with the deal ay SonyStyle where by opening up a credit card you get $150 off your first purchase...why isn't everyone going that route? I think I saw someone post where after shipping it came out to $279. What am I missing?
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post #200 of 3962
10/11/08 at 5:35pm
The 350 and 550 sure look like they use the identical, or at least very similar main boards, with different daughter boards for output. If the BDP-S350 uses the NEC chipset, it sure seems unlikely that the BDP-S550 uses Sigma. In any case, they both appear to be use the same chipset due to the PCB layout.


BDP-S350 (http://formatwarcentral.com via Jon Spackman)
AV-123 daughter board


BDP-S550 (http://www.areadvd.de)
AV-124 daughter board
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post #201 of 3962
10/11/08 at 6:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by smithb View Post

So...just curious, with the deal ay SonyStyle where by opening up a credit card you get $150 off your first purchase...why isn't everyone going that route? I think I saw someone post where after shipping it came out to $279. What am I missing?

Some people think it's a better idea to have 1 less inquiry on their credit record.

(I'm not one of them)
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post #202 of 3962
10/11/08 at 6:11pm
And since this credit card promotion has been going on for over a year, lots of people already have one from other purchases (PS3, etc.)
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post #203 of 3962
10/11/08 at 6:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrentSP View Post

buy.com just canceled my order.....bastards, I knew 314.00 was to good to be true.

If you can wait till thanksgiving, 299 is possible, i think.
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post #204 of 3962
10/11/08 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrentSP View Post

buy.com just canceled my order.....bastards, I knew 314.00 was to good to be true.

Did they give you a reason, like a misprint on the site or something? I was looking at getting mine there too.
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post #205 of 3962
10/11/08 at 6:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bluechunks View Post

The 350 and 550 sure look like they use the identical, or at least very similar main boards, with different daughter boards for output. If the BDP-S350 uses the NEC chipset, it sure seems unlikely that the BDP-S550 uses Sigma. In any case, they both appear to be use the same chipset due to the PCB layout.


BDP-S350 (http://formatwarcentral.com via Jon Spackman)
AV-123 daughter board


BDP-S550 (http://www.areadvd.de)
AV-124 daughter board

Yeah if you compare the 550 to the 350 they are nearly identical internally.
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post #206 of 3962
10/11/08 at 6:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bbexperience View Post

Did they give you a reason, like a misprint on the site or something? I was looking at getting mine there too.

Hello Brent,

When we take your order we have every intention of shipping your order.
However, sometimes circumstances beyond our control prevent this from happening.

We have cancelled the following item(s) from your order:

Order #42714567

sku - 208670548 : description - BRAY DISC PLAYER


Items not listed above may still ship to you after they have entered the shipping process.

Your credit card will not be charged for any item(s) that do not ship.
If you paid by some other payment method such as check or PayPal,
please allow a couple of business days for your refund.

We apologize for any inconvenience and we thank you for shopping at Buy.com.

If you have any questions, please contact customer support at http://www.buy.com/support.

Sincerely,
Customer Support Team
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post #207 of 3962
10/11/08 at 7:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrentSP View Post

Hello Brent,

When we take your order we have every intention of shipping your order.
However, sometimes circumstances beyond our control prevent this from happening.

We have cancelled the following item(s) from your order:

Order #42714567

sku - 208670548 : description - BRAY DISC PLAYER


Items not listed above may still ship to you after they have entered the shipping process.



Your credit card will not be charged for any item(s) that do not ship.
If you paid by some other payment method such as check or PayPal,
please allow a couple of business days for your refund.

We apologize for any inconvenience and we thank you for shopping at Buy.com.

If you have any questions, please contact customer support at http://www.buy.com/support.

Sincerely,
Customer Support Team


Buy.com is a joke. I called them 3 differant times to get a quote on a screen. They Never called me back.
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post #208 of 3962
10/11/08 at 7:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by epontius View Post

So this is curious. In my seemingly never ending quest to get DTS-HD MA 7.1 LPCM from my S550 to my STR-DA5300es via HDMI, I've found some rather strange results.
With the S550 "BD Audio" set to "mix" and the "Decode Priority" on the DA5300es set to "auto" I only get 5.1 LPCM according to the receiver. The 550 display shows DTS 3/2.1 48kHz.
With the S550 "BD Audio" set at "direct" and the DA5300es "Decode Priority" set to "PCM", I get 7.1 LPCM on the receiver and the display button on the S550 says DTS-HD Master Audio 3/4.1 48khz.
Why would the behavior be different?

From page 7 of this DTS-HD Brochure:
Quote:


Secondary and Sub-Audio with DTS Express

Compared to standard DVD, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats deliver incredible interactive features. The new high-def players come equipped with an Ethernet port, delivering a whole world of content that can be streamed or downloaded over the Net. This streaming content can be seamlessly overlaid on the principle title without interrupting playback. Now, months after buying a movie or concert disc, you can receive feature updates such as directors' commentaries, extra scenes, and additional songs.

When these new entertainment features are streamed in, your player will actually mix the audio portion of the new content with the audio already on the disc. The new audio is called Secondary Audio on Blu-ray Disc and can be up to 5.1 channels; on HD DVD this is called Sub Audio and can be in 2.0 channels. DTS uses a system called DTS Express to deliver Secondary or Sub Audio to your player. The DTS Express stream is decoded by your player and then mixed with the Primary Audio, giving you an intensely great interactive surround experience.

The mixed audio can then be outputted to an AV Receiver as a LPCM digital stream over an HDMI [...] connection. [...]


It looks to me like DTS's intent was that additional and/or replacement audio should blend seamlessly with the existing soundtrack; this text says that the replacement material is limited to 5.1. If a portion of a 7.1 DTS-HDMA playback was replaced by a 5.1 secondary audio, I don't think you could call that seamless! So it makes sense to limit the source BD track used to 5.1 lossless, if there is replacement/secondary audio to be inserted somewhere during playback of the movie...

[Of course, we can only speculate about Sony's reasoning...?!]
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post #209 of 3962
10/11/08 at 8:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kutlow View Post

Buy.com is a joke. I called them 3 differant times to get a quote on a screen. They Never called me back.

I'd have to disagree. I've bought several things from them without a problem. I've never dealt with their customer service though, so they may suck there.

Anyway, has anyone actually received an order from somewhere OTHER than SonyStyle? Is Sony not shipping these out to other vendors for now?
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post #210 of 3962
10/11/08 at 8:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SoundChex View Post

From page 7 of this DTS-HD Brochure:It looks to me like DTS's intent was that additional and/or replacement audio should blend seamlessly with the existing soundtrack; this text says that the replacement material is limited to 5.1. If a portion of a 7.1 DTS-HDMA playback was replaced by a 5.1 secondary audio, I don't think you could call that seamless! So it makes sense to limit the source BD track used to 5.1 lossless, if there is replacement/secondary audio to be inserted somewhere during playback of the movie...
[Of course, we can only speculate about Sony's reasoning...?!]

The part that bothers me is that it only does 5.1 even if you aren't doing secondary audio (PIP bonus view) or even if the disc doesn't even have secondary audio at all.
I could see the logic behind it if you are watching a disc with the bonus view enabled, most of the time the program audio is so attenuated so that the commentary can be heard, having 7.1 doesn't make much of a difference.
I'm thinking there may be a bug in the way S550 is handling the "mix" option with DTS-HD MA.
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