The Official Sony BDP-S550 Owner's Thread - Page 123

I purchased an S550 last year but really haven't used it much until now. I'm now getting it set up again in the new house and I guess I've fallen behind in the new audio formats. I have a non-HDMI receiver (Denon 5803) with 7.1 analog inputs and have the player connected that way. I'm assuming if the blue-ray disc doesn't have a 7.1 audio track (how do you know?) my two surround back speakers will be silent.

If that's the case would I be better off using the SPIDF connection and PLIIx decoding in the receiver? I could even apply DSP processing to the 7.1 analog inputs to derive the two surround back channels.

What do you guys do or are most just content with 5.1 when that's the audio track in the disc?

Thanks for your help.

I have the 550 and it works great. Except for one thing.... Highlander season 1 on blu ray....I got it last nov....1 out of 4 discs will work...its a single layer vers the other 3 our double layered. I complained to sony last dec...talked to 3 people and they said they would get on to it...highlander saposidly sent them a set of discs but still no fix. My buddy has the sony bdp-300 and the 500 players and the discs will play just fine on his OLDER sony blu ray machines....WTF...over! I hear season two might be out....i cant buy them if i dont know if they will work.

With analog, yes, they'll be silent unless your AVR can redigitize the analog inputs. As for how you know, the disc box will likely tell you. Or, you can check blu-raystats.com, which has audio and video specs for all BD releases.


That's a good alternative. The lossy outputs on BD are less compressed on BD than on DVD and they sound great, rivalling lossless. S/PDIF is the way to get 7.1.

Does your Denon offer that function for the external inputs?

Yes it does. You can select straight analog or DSP which includes the option of PLIIx music or cinema modes. I used it sometimes with DVD-Audio and SACD. Probably the better option for 5.1 BR stuff.

Thanks for your help.

Anybody able to play past Chapter 10 of "Kick Ass" on this player? Updated to FW 020 and still won't play. No visible defects on the disk.

No problems with Kick-Ass, I watched the entire movie on this player.

Played fine on my player.

Owned my 550 for a while now with no problems. My next step is to retire this unit to the bedroom. I want to replace it with a newer model that provides Netflix (and other online stuff). I already have a LAN cable so wireless is not required + I have HDMI out.
Since I respect the Sony line, can anyone suggest a model for consideration? After your recommendations I will move to the appropriate forum to further narrow down my decision. Thanks in advance for any help you can throw my way.

this player was working great, i went to florida for a month, come back and none of my dvd of br`s work, the unit was unplugged the whole time

what gives?

Plug it back in?

Sorry, had to be said. Electronics like to be plugged in, especially if they're used a lot. In my experience unplugging something for a long period of time can allow for a failure that wouldn't normally have occurred. For example I had a cable modem that was working fine (on 24/7), but there was a power outage in my area for 8 hours, but no power surge or anything like that. When the power came back it no longer functioned.

I have the same experience. No problems for the first 18 months...then Netflix problems...the dreaded "can't operate disc" message comes up. I would struggle and eventually I could get the discs to play, but recently ran into some discs I could not play despite repeated attempts..and now....discs in my private collection are not playing now either...I suspect the blue diode is getting weaker and balking at certain double layer discs. My two cents

my 550 is with a Yamaha v663 truehd reciever, I am only running it with 5.1 speakers. I never use the special features or pop ups, comentary etc, I just watch the movies. I want the very best sound. SO, what is the best selection on my blu ray player? pcm or bitstream? the bdp menu does not say bitstream but has other options. also I heard about, after loading a blu ray dvd, then press menu to select audio options?

Audio Output Priority = HDMI (default)
Audio (HDMI) = Auto (default)
BD Audio = Direct (Mix is the default here. Change it to Direct)

This player does not have a PCM/Bitstream setting. Whn set to Direct, it uses the HDMI handshake to determine whether to decode or bitstream. If your receiver has the needed decoder, the S550 will bitstream. If not, it will decode and send PCM. It's the same quality audio either way.

i also noticed that the cooling fan no longer works could there be a relation?

thanks

Problem: I have bought the Blu-ray disc Shakira Oral Fixation Tour and use for audio 5.1 LPCM (48KHz, 24bits) HD audio but when I playback another Blu-ray disk I have an echo in the sound. I use the BDP-S5000ES stand-alone and connected to high-end stereo equipment. In the set-up of the player, I have selected as primary audio two channel stereo. I have installed the latest firmware version 020. The only way to solve this issue is to playback a standard DVD in 5.1 Dolby Surround then there is no echo in the Blu-ray playback. I have contacted Sony for this problem and they will look into this matter. The firmware version 020 is also used in the BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 so more players could have this echo problem when down mixing 5.1 audio to two channel stereo.

Tried to watch The Ghost Writer last night. Would not play when selecting the "play" mode. Just cycled over & over. Got around it by selecting chapter one. This is the first hiccup by my player so not really too annoyed just reporting my experience.

I bought my BDP-S5000ES player in June 2010 and so far no problems with the playback of BD and SD. If you experience problems with the BD you can always ask for a new copy at your retailer. Most discs I buy on Amazon UK and the service is very good. I hope that Sony can resolve this echo problem caused by the Shakira BD. Blu-ray discs should never influence the performance of the player or integrity.

Fixed it!!!!! I bought a disc player cleaner(DRdvr) and ran it a couple of times. Playback issues disappeared right away! Whew!!! I tried all my personal titles that stopped loading and they all load just fine! If you are having the dreaded "cannot operate disc" message problems, try a a lens cleaner..worked for me. Good luck.

Month 19: works pefectly...have not had a burp since a Netflix disk somewhere around the beginning when doing a in-home face-off with the Panny... when Transformers audio stopped for 30 seconds(my store bought disk is perfect)...I have done only 2 FW upgrades and this unit has played every disk thrown at it .....a great purchase. Every title posted by others that has had complaints and was available to rent in bluray has been played. Thank you Sony.

hello all,

anyone streaming netflix thur your s550 player? if so, does it decode 5.1 sound?

wow, does this thing support netflix streaming?? was there a firmware or something?? I thought only the new ones supported nexflix streaming.... and not the s550.

new firware update:
My player updated its firmware this morning.

Here is the info from Sony:

This utility upgrades the Blu-ray Disc player firmware to version 021 and provides the following benefits:

Improvements over firmware version 020:

* Improves compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs.

Benefits provided by previous upgrades and included in version 021:

* Adds slow and freeze frame functions during Blu-ray Disc and DVD playback.
* Improved BD-Live performance to enhance interactivity.
* Adds BD-Live functionality.
o BD-Live allows you to enjoy additional content and services while playing a BD-Live capable disc.
o For optimal performance, we recommend that you use a Broadband Internet connection to access BD-Live content and services.
o BD-Live content and services require external USB flash memory (sold separately) for local storage.
* Improved sensitivity to the Remote Commander® signal while the player is in stand-by mode.

but no netflix streaming with netflix disc right??

No, it does not provide Netflix streaming.

Thanks for the heads-up. Looks like a typical blu-ray compatibility update. Thanks Sony!

No the older players didn't have nextflix streaming, and the older "S" models didn't in general--you needed an "N" model. E.g. The BDP-N460 was the model of BDP-Xx60 generation that had Netflix. With the newer Sx70 models I think they all have it though.

The S550 having Netflix is some odd internet rumour (that I too have read before) but it does NOT have it and never will.

I was surprised to see the update as well, on the Sx50 generation players, but I guess with BD players firmware updates are always needed so even older players get them

And now for a question of my own... Has anyone had any Bravia Sync problems with their player? I reconnected my S550 to my 46XBR8 the other day and noticed I could no longer get Bravia Sync to work. I'm not sure if it's the TV or the player that is the problem. I could swear I had it working before but I can't remember (I've only used the player a handful of times with this TV). They're the only two Bravia Sync components I have right now so I dunno what is up. I tried different HDMI inputs, tried enabling and disabling the features on each, powered up/down to no end, nothing. I even reset the S550 entirely, but no dice. Anyone have any hints/tips or things to try?

Well looks like I solved this. It was the HDMI cable! First time I've had something like this happen. Was using a cheapo ngear braided 6ft cable, I mean it was cheap but the quality seems decent enough. All my other cables are from monoprice but I got this one because it pushed me over the free shipping limit with a computer parts order I made a long time ago. When I went to connect the player I just grabbed the first HDMI cable I found (which happened to be this one) and connected it.

In a last ditch to solve my above problem, I swapped the cable for a monoprice 24ga one and bam Bravia Sync worked right away--as soon as I turned on the player the TV switched inputs and indicated BD player. Weird eh?

Edit: I tested the ngear cable and it turns out the pin (#13) for CEC is not continuous. I.e. the metal pin/conductor is there in the plug on both ends, but unlike all the other pins I tested, #13 is an open in this cable. So looks like the cable was intentionally made without the wire in there for the CEC pin. I guess some HDMI cables not "CEC compatible"? Ghetto!

So, if I plug my 550 into this thing, will I be able to access the internet to use the Bluray-Live features? Assume I am able to get this thing to talk to my wireless LAN router.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=663



DAP-1522 Xtreme N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point

That D-Link AP/Bridge should work fine if you have a wireless router in another room for example. I am using a Trendnet AP/Bridge myself.