Sony BDP-S360 and BDP-S560 Blu-ray players (and BDP-BX2) - Page 43

The latest one, 008

I never had any problems with 8 and previous, but they actually snuck another one after that eight (11); I just checked there is an (11) for both the s360 & s560. I was fine with (8). (11) is the one that got me. Although Sony states it was not the firmware but an error in the update process (who knows for sure) but this update went the same as all the previous updates without an problems or errors; I'm asking them in the note I send along with my unit to put it back to (8).

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/select-system.pl

Just picked this player up on craigs for $40. Upated the FW from I think 6 to 11. Using it as a bedroom player. So far so good. Anything I need to know about this player? Thanks.

Wow, I didn't know about 11. Why didn't anyone announce it here?

Anyone else having problems with 11?

I'm getting very tired of updating my player only to find no difference whatsoever from the previous firmwares. I've had absolutely no issues with my S360, so unless there is some known issue out there that 11 fixes, I don't want to update. Are these just BD-Live enhancements or something?

I have the s360 and have been running firmware v11 since it's release without any issue.

Garrett

Thanks, Garrett. I'm going to have to wait until I have time to fool around with my unit. The update process is rather time consuming and why fix what's not broken. Maybe later when I'm in the mood, I'll update. But right now, I have better things to do. Not sure why Sony released an update so soon. It's so unnecessary.

Hey guys just wondering if the Sony BDP S560 player can play files from a USB flash stick?

My father has one of these players and I was just curious if I could upload MKV's or full BD's on a USB flash stick and watch it on his player?

Hey Garrett, do you remember when you updated it? And are you throwing a lot of Blu-rays at it since? Or just a few?


No, it can't. It can only do pictures from that front port or via your network.

Which one?

My Sony BDP-S560 has a problem. It will not play most Blu-ray discs. Regular disks spin up no problem but if I put in a Blu-ray, it just says "Cannot play disc". What's interesting is the disc will not even spin as when I open the tray, the disc is just like I left it.

I've tried using a lens cleaning tool but that has not worked.

So the repair cost is $112 direct from Sony. There are many Blu-ray player in the price range so the question is is the BDP-S560 that good that I should pay to repair it vs just buying a new one?

ah that suuuucks.....thx for the info though

I believe I updated to v011 just a day or two after v011 was released. I probably watch 3-5 movies a week (mostly Blu-ray via Netflix, occasionally an old DVD). I always keep the firmware current so I am less likely to run into disc compatibility issues. I have not experienced any issue with firmware v011, indeed, I have never had any issue at all with this player (BDP-S360). It is connected via HDMI to my Pioneer receiver, then via HDMI to the TV (Sony KDL-46v5100).

Garrett

A couple of follow up notes: So far I have not (seen anyone with a BDP-s360 listing issues with Firmware update 11.

As I said b4 I contacted Sony about the problem we went through the steps (same as I had already performed) but I was happy to dot t's & cross i again.
Shipped it down to Laredo TX, with a nice note describing that prior to 11 it played every BR I have tried. After 11 I gave them a list of the discs it wouldn't play and the ones it would still play (including 1 I had tested before & after). So I get a call about 10 days later, yeah what's wrong with it?
FACE-to-PALM ==> huge note??? <-- I said politely did you find the note I attached right to the BR player describing everything in detail. (oh one department unpacks it so...

I listed off from my paper copy at home the discs that wouldn't work after the flash but IDK if he was actually copying them down or not (there was a fluency in language issue to overcome).


I'm sure it's more efficient to have one dept unpack & then save the techs to just work on the units but if you don't pass along my information. <-- Did not say that (but thought it). I asked is there anyway you could get my note? Well they type in the main points. <---ME - OK? Are you able to access them? Yes, I should be able to get it. <--- Thinking to my self after a 15 minute conversation Hmmm well maybe if you had checked there in the first place you wouldn't have had any questions or need to call?
I said OK that sounds like a good place to start. Besides the information I had given him just then.

I asked some follow up questions that may help the person below...
Unlike the PHONE tech, this guy said I should have been able to download 11 from the Sony site burn it to a disc, and then he said when you stick it in it should give you the option of re-doing it or flashing it again.

(((*** A, I haven't tried this so IDK if that's true. I actually considered it but dismissed it out of hand bc of the response I got from checking for updates online. I should have just tried it bc it would have been $13.50 cheaper & saved about a 3 weeks round trip. <-- It's entirely possible however that this tech doesn't know what the actual end user / consumer experience is with flashing over and that they have access to another method that lets them simply flash over.***)))) BUT it's worth a shot to get your unit back up and running.

PLUS if there keep being more & more BDP-s560's that get bad firmware updates there is a chance for continued firmware updates. This tech said after I asked say a firmware version 12 comes out with some new BR specs, will that overwrite completely a bad firmware and have got me back up running --> siting that after my unit is out of warranty sending it to them will no longer be an option, and he said that it will. So it's not like the units are BRICKED, it's more like they have a cold.


Hey, sorry I didn't return to see this post earlier as I'm guessing you might have already made up your mind either way. Let me first say Sorry that this Also happened to you. And thank you for reporting it to Sony. That is pretty much how I would describe what was happening with mine. Played all DVDs just fine. But on a list I posted a page or two back it wouldn't play most BR's after F.W. 11. --> I could hear what sounded like the laser armature moving back and forth, back and forth (much more so than when a DVD was inserted). But I failed to notice - or check that the actual BR's on the bad discs wasn't spinning up. That is a nice piece of information I wish I had been able to pass along.
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Some things you might try. #1) IDK if this will work but the tech said it would. Download a copy of the latest firmware from the website (11) or ? I haven't checked since April. Burn it to a disc and attempt the flashing process again. --> this tech also said that Sony would mail out the Firmware. I asked him if there was a charge, he said NO. But grain of salt as always, I should have recorded the conversation.

So, the BDP-s560. I have owned it since Sept 2010, and UNTIL F.W. 11 it was great as a solid but basic BR player.
However, it is NOT REPEAT NOT WORTH the $112 to repair when for that money not only can you get a NEW Blu-ray player (with a full 1-yr warranty --> your repair job would only have a 90 day repair warranty).
You would also be missing out on getting online streaming features like Netflix, and various other online features (depends on the maker for which ones come with) included with your player whether you use them now or may in the future. DLNA full features like streaming your music, videos, pictures directly from you PC (this one is limited to just pictures).

So save your money, try reflashing the firmware --> on you BDP-s560. If the tech was wrong and it will NOT reflash for an end user the same firmware (in this case F.W. 11 to F.W. 11 --> then wait and keep pestering them to release a new FW at which time you could / should download & burn it to a disc or request one from Sony. Hope that helps.

ONE LAST THING: Can you post a list of the BR's that DID and didn't work for you.

Set up consists of:
1 Denon AR 1911 receiver, 5.1 channels set up
2 Some decent Boston Acoustics for Fronts, Center, and the Subwoofer.
3 Two "Craigslist special" Sony's for the rear speakers.
4 A newer Sony Blu-Ray player. I believe it's the BDP S360
5 An Optoma HD-20 Projector.
6 Media room is painted very dark with heavy curtains
7 Thick carpet - insulated ceiling
8 Room size is about 13' x 12'
9 One HDMI cable from the Blu-Ray to the Receiver, one long HDMI cable from the receiver to the projector in the back of the room

Problem:
1 Long delays when first starting the player (usually 20 - 30 seconds)
2 Blackout picture half way through a 2 hour movie for about 5 seconds (consistently)
3 Hitting pause - and allowing enough time for the screen saver to appear - makes it impossible to start the movie again - the player must be restarted
4 Trying to reach the main menu results in 5 second blackouts
5 The audio track completely disappears twice or more throughout the movie - and comes back immediately, but slowly gaining in volume

Solution:
1 Connected a long component cable directly from the blu-ray to the projector
2 Connected an optical cable from the blu-ray to the receiver
(all aforementioned issues disappear)

QUESTION:
WHY DOES IT BOTHER ME NOT TO USE HDMI CABLES - WHY DOES IT BOTHER ME THAT I ONLY GET DTS INSTEAD OF DTS-MA OR DOLBY DIGITAL INSTEAD OF DOLBY TRUEHD?

Someone please calm my nerves...this is stupid, right????

Well, speaking as someone with OCD and other issues, I can sense another perfectionist. The carpet, the room size, the dark curtains; you've gone to lengths to create the "perfect" movie environment in your home... so it's natural that you'd continue to expect and want the very best from the audio as well.

A second about problems 1 & 3, no matter what TV I have this hooked to it does have a long start up because I don't see any need to waste the wattage and have a fan running to put it into the faster power up mode. So the delay is expected and really it's not a big deal right?
What does it do when you switch it over to the other power state? Is there still a long delay?
And 3) I too have paused my player and left the room to come back to it in a near frozen state. However, after learning not to press Home <-- Ghod I hate what that does to Blu-ray playback, but most times I could get the unit to respond by pressing play several times. But I did have an issue once that it wouldn't come back from (unfortunately I don't know if I was using HDMI or Component cables at that point). It could just be a hard to pin down bug?

Now to your real audio question, Can you tell the difference? I mean other than seeing the different lights on your receiver? If you covered up the indicator lights on your receiver is the quality really that noticeable TO YOU, not anyone else but you? If it isn't (as most people can't really detect what some ultra audiophiles can?) and even if occasionally you do, don't let it ruin (as it seems to be doing currently) your movie pleasure. Unless you have enough money to retire + everything and you'll need in life then don't sweat this, unless someone has an easy settings fix for you.

I've had issue #3 occur with my S360. It only occurs with Universal Studio titles (the Universal Studios logo appears on screen). I have found that pressing Play doesn't start the movie playing again, but pressing * top-menu * in the remote does. Took me awhile to discover that one. Maybe it's just a Universal thing, I don't know.

Garrett

Hey, thanks Gar1138, nice observation. I never would have guessed it was studio / title related.

===> Reminds me of those lines in the Matrix. Paraphrasing poorly. (The machines) created the perfect world but humans didn't believe it, they kept trying to wake up. All these little nuances in life are killing me. I say we tell the machines to recreate the perfect world for at least those that request it. ME ME ME!! One Blu-ray player, that plays everything, never needs firmware upgrades, connected to the perfect receiver that always works and is easily affordable. Connected to the perfect size image and low power consumption TV... a utopia please.

I would say that pretty much describes the S360. Yeah, there are firmware updates available, but I really don't know what they do. I don't see any difference in performance when I update the firmware on this machine. But other than that, this player does play every title perfectly without any problems whatsoever.

Thanks...I may be okay. I did a couple of demos to family using a blu-ray disc of Salt. Only the DTS audio track was played, NOT DTS - MA, and I didn't bother to point out the limitations of my new system. Everyone has rave reviews thus far - which certainly helps too.

:-)

Actually, thinking about it more, it might actually be the "pop-up menu" button on the remote that makes playback resume (not "top menu"). It's been awhile since I had that occur.

Garrett

I thought of and would have described the BDP-S560 as a really good / dependable blu-ray player without any of the higher end bells and whistles (so far from perfect, I meant something that would do and play it all & have all the possible outputs etc. (perfection) as I mean something that he 360 & 560 aren't. Especially given the sync issues with some TV brands and Sony BR players. It's like being perfect at being a C student. I was very happy with the unit it's just the grass is always greener just over there. It just as likely could have been the 360's that were affected...

However, I got it to play blu-rays and except for the cold it got (haven't tested it yet since I just got it back & haven't had time to re-rent some of those blu-rays again) it was a solid Blu-ray player at a deeply discounted price (at the time). I was disappointed it never got the ability to do extra networking but I it was a spontaneous price purchase when I saw it bc I was tired of waiting for a sub $100 blu-ray player and at $75 new this one was perfect. I have plenty of other devices and ways to do networking & streaming with; I don't hold it as a negative bc I could have returned it if I felt it didn't do enough...but being that a Blu-ray player is what I wanted and got it for the rest would have been gravy.
But one bad upgrade (if that's what it truly was, hopefully is just how I view it a temporary cold - Sony never said or sent any information about what they found or what the problem was????). From now on, I'll make sure the internet wi-fi is off, I don't want to do anymore upgrades until or unless absolutely necessary... and when that time comes if at all, I will take a few extra steps to download & burn it to a disc or possibly have Sony send me the official disc rather than trust the internet updating method.

We recently purchased a new Sharp Aquos 60" LCD TV and I set everything up as I did with our previous Toshiba DLP. We have a 5'ish year old Yamaha receiver that does NOT have HDMI capabilities.

To set up the Blu-Ray with our last TV, all I had to do was plug the HDMI in to the TV and the optical in to the receiver, and everything worked great with the surround sound. Now, however, I cannot get the "main" audio working with the surround speakers, only through the TV speakers. I get background noise (background voices, music, etc.) through the surround speakers, but not the important stuff like the main voice, etc.

Only when I set the receiver to "7ch Stereo" mode, does all audio come out of the surround speakers.

Is there a way I can get all audio through optical (so the audio only plays on the surround speakers) and video through HDMI to the TV?

Or is there a different way this should be set up?

Thanks!

Is everything set bitstream and the 2nd audio is off?

I have no idea what that means... Sorry, I'm so lost when it comes to this kind of stuff. Would you find this in settings?

Sorry to start a new thread, but I was having trouble finding answers to a problem I've been having.

I hooked up the Sony BDP-S360 to my Onkyo HT-510R 5.1 Receiver over Coax (and tried optical) and I can't seem to get Dolby Digital enabled on on the receiver. On the DVD player, it says 3/2.1 48K. My receiver says PCM enabled, and I can only cycle through DTS Neo 6 and Dolby Pro Logic. I never had this problem with my old standard DVD player, it would always output Dolby Digital.

If I switch to HD cable, it will switch to Dolby Digital no problem. I've tried various BluRay and regular DVD and it won't switch...

My receiver says it is compatible with: Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic II Decoding.

Is the S360 outputting an incompatible version of Dolby Digital or DTS that my receiver can't recognize? I would think at the very least DD and DTS would be supported.

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

Answered my own question...I found in DVD Player settings Audio Priority was set to HDMI, and not COAX/Optical....hope this helps someone else.

So, after having half a year of perfect operation from my SONY BDP-S560 when the update for 11.4.011 came up several months ago (the unit prompting me It's a available, do I want to update?) And so I did. I stupidly did it wirelessly, I should have taken the few extra minutes to at least connect a LAN ethernet cable or better yet burn a CD or save it off to thumbdrive ...because not long after that I began running into a list of Blu-rays about 80% of the Blu-rays I tried, most from Redbox were not playing.

Even BR's I had previously tried and that played fine on version 11.4.008 were not "UNKNOWN" to this player. I did all the things mentioned, reset the system, power cycled, hard reset, shut off BD-Live, removed USB drive etc. Still same thing.

Sent the Unit down to Laredo, Texas (I think I spelled that right). They sent a letter back saying nothing was found / wrong but I had asked them to, no matter what, re-flash the firmware. They obviously did that bc I tried many of the BR discs at that time and they played. Fast forward some time. The player has mostly sat idle, this summer, I've used my Playstation 3 in it's place as it's hooked up to a different TV.

Decided to show some older family members the wonders of LORD OF THE RINGS last week using the BDP-S560 and wouldn't you know it... UNKNOWN is back!!! LOTR - Trilogy (theatrical Version)-the one that's been out for around a year or more so this is no issue of it's too new to play. DISC 1 & DISC 3 UNKNOWN"; while DISC 2 The Two Towers is read but with some problems. Sometimes have to replay it and go back to the home menu and hit play movie again to get it to work. BAD DISCS?? NOPE!!!! They play perfectly well in a Samsung HT-C6730w Blu-ray player and of course the Playstation 3.

Decided I better try some more titles as my warranty is coming to a close here... just tried "Limitless" --> UNKNOWN also.
I'm NOT Freaking paying $13-$15 to ship this back to Laredo, TX. Going to download and try a firmware overwrite, that the tech in Loredo said I could do... though I have a feeling they have some tool or hardware that lets it work for them only; to do an in place overrite usually doesn't work for most things with firmware, but I shall find out in an hour or so.

EDIT: just wanted to point out... this is NOT a redbox has bad Blu-ray quality discs. I've NEVER EVER NEVER EVER NEVER had a BLU-RAY rental from them not play in my Playstation 3, and also now, I have a new Samsung toy to test things in and it plays the LOTRs that are giving me the UNKNOWN from the Sony BDP-s560. Just wanted to make that clear.

My daughter and son-in-law had a Sony Blu-ray player that BRICKED during a firmware upgrade. Sony's response to-bad, buy a new player.

Sorry to hear that GPowers... I assume that their player was past the one year warranty mark? Right? Any chance it was less than 2 years and they bought it with a AMEX or VISA CCard? After learning some lessons, I had been trying to make most of my purchases with an AMEX or Visa card as they will dbl mnfr warranty up to one additional year.
Since a lot of commercial sites have been getting hacked lately, I've leaned on Discover cards secure 1x use online numbers and in those cases If It's a pricer thing I try to find 30% coupons for SquareTrade. Usually the prices for their warranties then fall less that 10% of the original purchase price that way.

So it just puked out on you? Does/did it do anything after that?


I have been spending a fair amount of time here reading about all the issues of UNKNOWN Cannot play this disc problems as a result of firmware updates. There are A LOT of reviews on other message boards about it.

I was on the fence about picking up a Sony BDP-s370 for $40 floor model (new otherwise). Perhaps if I don't update the firmware unless I absolutely have to?!? I hang out on some deal sites, and I've heard people speak poorly of Samsung BR players (in deal threads about their players) too. I just dipped my toes in to Samsung BR land and except for the lack luster menu system (HTIB system) its playing all the discs...so far so good.