The Official Sony BDP-S550 Owner's Thread - Page 86

I have the 550 and have enjoyed it tremendously. The color and sound (coupled with my onkyo tx-sr 705) is fantastic. My only dislike is it won't play my MP3"s. Anybody figure out a hack for that?

Dave

No, and no. You need to either download the update on a computer, or hook the player up to the modem or the router.

No, the 550 will only look at a disc for the update. The network update address is not user changeable.

Me too, can't Sony put out a firmware so we can play mp3s on this unit?

Let me get this clear.....each time I use a disc with an HD audio option, I need to switch to it manually? Really?

No. Some discs have the legacy track as the default, and you must manually select the lossless track on these. This has nothing to do with the player.

is it like that with most or all Blu Ray players?

Yes. It's like that with DVD players, too. I've never heard of one that allows the user to specify using DD 5.1 or DTS or anything else as the default. They allow you to select a default language. But, none have a format or codec option, although some SACD players let you choose whether to play the stereo, multichannel, or CD layer as the default.

Anyone having trouble with audio on the 550?

I currently have the 550 hooked up to my receiver using the fiber optical cable. The problem is I can only get 2.0 sound from the player. I am usually pretty good with connections. I also have a 350, the panny 35, and ps3, all three have no problems with audio. I am sure that the receiver is not the problem. I have an older Denon 2909 regular dvd player that works flawlessly with the same receiver and have no problems with 5.1
Probably something really simple that I just can't correct. Anyone ?

Thanks,

Did you set your player Audio Output Priority to Coax/Optical?

You need to go to a PS3 forum and see if you can set it up as a network bridge. If so then yes, if not just burn a CD on a PC, get a gaming adapter (witch you may need a PC to configure) or get a long long cable. :-D

What is true is that every time you load a disc you need to see which track was selected which is about just as easy/hard as manually selecting it in the first place. And if you want to see which track was selected you must wait until the actual movie starts--it will sometimes change formats while playing the studio logo and you have to get past that.

Thanks guys...think I made a bigger deal of this then was necessary. Great responses.

I'm set to direct on the S550 and do not need to select DTS HD MA or True HD it is done automatically. My receiver is a Marantz SR7002.

Ray

hmmmmmmm

it depends on how the bluray disc is authored and has nothing to do with the player... some releases default to the HD audio track, while others default to the legacy tracks. People who say theirs always selects the TrueHD etc just must not have encountered one of the ones where that isnt the default yet

Personally ive noticed that alot of newer releases seem to default to the HD track now, whereas a year ago you often had to manually select it

I think this last sentence may be the most important. A year ago, just about every BD with a dolby track defaulted to a DD option and you had to select TrueHD manually. Most DTS discs I've encountered defaulted to MA (in fact, that was the only user-selectable option). All of the uncompressed PCM discs I played defaulted to a lossy track and you had to manually select PCM. Of the last 15 or so movies we've played, the lossless codec has been the default (or only) selection. I think this reflects the fact that all currently available players can at least bitstream all the lossless formats. This wasn't true when BD started.

Because I was an early adopter, I still reflexively check the default format, but I'm having to make a change much less often than I used to.

agreed 100% with you...

...and I agree 100% with you as well.

Wow. This has been a pretty drama free player with regards to bugs. I have 2 units, both now updated via lan to the 1.5 fw...both have been basically glitch free and I have heard nothing except for issues where a correction in player setup is the solution...Pretty sweet peformance considering what I read on other players.
To review , these are my only questionable observations:
-prior to the FW upgrade my oldest of the 2 units, 4 days in to use, manifested one time a "sharpness" like bump producing a very grainy picture. I did have sharpness set to a +2 prior to that and I think it was almost like a the player reacted late to the switch on when I 1st did it in "options". This was solved by a reset in "options" and an unplug followed by a fresh player reset of all settings just to be safe. the anomoly has not occurred again in 3 weeks of heavy use.
-Prior to the FW upgrade the same unit had a freeze on a store-rented bluray of Transformers, the freeze was duplicated 4 times at the exact spot. During the freeze the clock was actually still counting???? At that time I had a Panny bd55 next to it for a face-off, the Panny did not freeze on that disk., (it still lost the face-off to Sony)... My bludisk Transformers that I bought at BB does NOT produce any freeze whatsoever any where on the movie. It's pefect.

There have been no other "concerns" while throwing everything at these 2 players. One gets returned this weekend.

Yes, alot of words typed just to say...."great player, it's a keeper".

GO STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WooHooo!!!!!!

Anyone?

I am glad you guys had the answer because I didn't want a reason to not like this player. Thanks!

I think that for 5.1 and 7.1 on the 550, you have to use the analog outputs or the HDMI. I haven't read the manual in awhile, but I think it indicates that Coax and Optical will only output 2.0 due to the limited bandwidth that they offer. That may be only for the uncompressed audio, though. You may be able to get Dolby Digital by using the Audio button on the remote and switching it around the audio options for the particular movie.

Not true.

salrmrcrey, check your audio settings in the s550. Make sure you have DTS set to output DTS and Dolby set to output Dolby and not PCM 2ch.

The optical and coax output will run up as far as discrete 5.1 but not 7.1

For USA Region 1/A - no.

Also remember that hack information is forbidden here.

I was partially true (but that would mean all false logically, I guess). After looking at the manual, it will not send uncompressed audio over Coax/Optical. It will send the DD/DTS core (compressed audio) over the Coax/Optical cables. It needs to be set as bitstream and not PCM, PCM gives 2.0 output for thee Coax/Optical outputs. I think that is where I was confused with the 2.0 output.
To receive the DD/DTS output the manual note on the chart listed on Page 66 lists:

Based on the chart, it lists Dolby Digital/LPCM 2ch for everything (or DTS/LPCM 2ch), I thought that meant optical was always 2 ch. However, I now see that it is either Dolby Digital OR LPCM 2 ch.

salrmrcrey, if you ever change out to a receiver that has anaolg 7.1 or hdmi audio, make sure you make the appropriate changes to the 550 or you will only get compressed audio. The uncompressed audio is quite a bit better to listen to compared to plain DD or DTS.

I will look at everything once I am back home.
Thanks goes out to redduck, philyc and balboa !!

Cheers,

I have a Yamaha RX-V2600 receiver that does not decode True HD or DTS audio and would like a BD player that decodes these formats. I believe from what I have read that this player will do this.....correct? I also have a video camera that records to a HDSD card so it would be nice if the player could accept these cards and play AVCHD directly.

Will the Sony S555 meet the requirements above?

Also, will the yamaha pass through 1080P to my TV if I use HDMI to the receiver and then HDMI to the TV. The receiver is only HDMI 1.1 I think. If not I will connect the player directly to the TV via HDMI which is 1080P native. But by doing this will I still be able to send PCM audio to the receiver using fiber since I am assuming that there is only one HDMI output from the player and if I send this to the TV it will be used.

Before anyone tells me to read this tread I want to say that I have but still did not see answers to my questions.

Thanks

Anyone??

Wow, that's some receiver based on MSRP!

Looking at the manual, it looks like the receiver will do 5.1 audio through HDMI, I would be tempted to do that if you only have a 5.1 speaker setup. It also looks like it will do up to 8.1 analog through some of the other jacks on the back. If you have 7.1, then that would be the preferred way. The 550 will decode all of the uncompressed audio (PCM/TrueHD/DTS-HD-MA) and send them through HDMI or the analog out. If using analog out, the 550 will handle the distances and levels of the speakers and output directly to the amplifier section of the receiver. Which is good considering the manual looks a little weird for this. It looks like in 8.1 mode, you hook up the back surrounds to the front channel. Link to manual for others that are interested.
I had to use an SD card reader with a USB dongle to use an HDSD card in the unit, but it did work.
I would stay away from the digital outputs as I said a few posts above, it only outputs the compressed Dolby Digital or DTS audio. The HD audio will not go through the digital outputs. Only HDMI and analog will send out the HD audio. So go with HDMI for easy 5.1 hookup or analog out if you have 7.1 or 8.1. I could be wrong on your inputs, but that is the way the manual looks to me. You are probably more familiar with it. I cannot see much on whether 1080p is available on the HDMI cable. The manual says 1080i in most places, but the menu example on page 45 shows 1080p. If it doesn't support 1080p and your TV does, then you could use the HDMI for video only directly to the TV and connect the analog for audio or get some sort of HDMI splitter or diplexer or something if they make such a device to send the HDMI to the TV and to the receiver (for audio).