Official New Sony S370/S470 Owners Thread - Page 86

Interestingly, Serviio shows up and can be accessed even when Internet Video (e.g. YouTube) still isn't ready. It must be checking some server somewhere in internet-land.

We have 2 370 units (2 diff locations - both Comcast internet) and they both handle Netflix w. no problems. Both are on same Netflix acct.
FWIW - One is connected via HDMI, the other via component. Both are hardwired to internet (not via wifi). Bought them both early last spring. One at compUSA, Miami - the other via Amazon.

Mine does play Netflix just fine but it does this after nearly every start-up of the unit (I keep it off most of the time and it turns off if I don't use it for a bit). Mine is connected via HDMI and Ethernet.

I've gotten into the habit of turning it on, then walking away for a bit and coming back. It definitely seems to take a couple of minutes to boot, then do whatever network handshaking it needs to do with Sony's servers before it will let you stream anything.

Nobody can help ?

This is not much help but my S370 does play mkv files with latest firmware. Did your mkv files play before last firmware update?

Does the S370 put out 5.1 audio on the HDMI for Amazon or Netflix streams?

Anyone?

The 370 currently doesn't support 5.1 on Netflix, period.

No , before update or after , still the same , i tried the mkv files on a burned DVD DL , or in a stick formated in FAT32 , same result , i ended up buying a Panasonic BDP-110 , and file are playing falwless.

Thank you for the clarification. I thought you were posting a hey I just found this on clearance @ my local Target kind of thing. I still not sure that they would be flying off the shelves though at that price.
I noticed a few weeks back that Walgreens ran in their weekly flyer the same BDP-s370 players for the same price they had almost a year ago $99. I have a gut feeling that they or comparables may hit $50-$60 this Blk Friday.


Thank you to those that answered this here and previously. I was wondering why I had to switch to a prologic (synthetic) / or \\ movie setting to get more than 2 ch sound from my Sony HT with this player. Still sounded better than 2 ch TV spkrs.

Just wondering...

Does anyone have the Fringe Season 3 set and has tried to play any of the bonus materials? My S470 will not play any of them and essentially locks up the screen so I can't cursor to anything and I have to eject the disc and reinsert it to get things going again. I haven't done an update for about 6-7 months since I haven't encountered any playback issues till now, and I don't update till something doesn't work in a new disc release.

I will, I guess, have to do that update now, but I hope everything works for all of my previous discs, and the Fringe season 3 discs as well. I've got nearly 100+ discs in my collection and would hate to find any of my older discs now broken by the update.

I have experienced a weird sound problem twice now in the past 2 weeks on two new movies. I have my 370 HDMI to my Sony LCD and the optical from the 370 to my Denon receiver.

What will happen is the picture will stutter or slow up for a second then resume fine but the audio becomes out of sync. If you press pause or go back a few second and replay it fixes it. This has only happened once in each movie and cannot duplicate it.

I searched the web and someone mentioned disabling the HDMI Sony sync. So I did but have not watched anything since.

Anyone else seen this happen?

Nope!! Update did not work. Will call Sony on Monday to let them know about the issue.

Update: Just tried the discs on my Samsung D5500 and they work perfectly on it, so I guess the discs themselves are fine!

It could be just a read-error on the disk causing the player to get out of sync. I've seen it once or twice. Even an old Sony DVD player I had would do that sometimes, too. The way most disks have the double-encryption using BD Java, it doesn't take much to screw things up.

Has anyone had their player stop reading discs? I've never had any problems with this player. It worked fine two days ago. I've been watching netflix. Now tonight, it won't read a single disc...blu ray or dvd. It just says "No Disc"

You could try blowing out any possible dust. Otherwise, you may have a failure in the drive. I think it uses two different lasers for BD and DVD, so it could be something deeper. Do you even hear it spin up?

Hey, after what happened to me w/ my BDP-s560 and is posted about all over on the SonyStyle message boards. It simply is NOT a good idea to do firmware updates. I know that you followed a very sound protocol not updating until you couldn't play something, but it doesn't seem to matter --> wired, wireless, burned CD, or one that Sony mails out... there is something going wrong with a statistically significant number of SONY stand alone BR Players. I'd check as many BR discs of yours or Redbox that want to assure yourself that they all read correctly. My BDP-s560 appeared to have updated normally (some get Sys err 's ) but mine seemed fine until I started playing BR's. about 60% or more of them weren't recognized by the player anymore, including discs I had previously tried and played. If it's under warranty it will only cost you ~$15 to ship it to them to have them reflash it, but otherwise it's well over $100+ plus shipping if it's not covered.


As i was saying above (different player) but on the Sony message boards it's hit all the models including BDP-s370. Yours is the first one i've read where it doesn't play anything; yet still operates...I've seen people say it has "SYS ERR" and won't do anything.
Or the more common, it says "UNKNOWN - Cannot playback this disc"on the sony menu - Flashing or flashing INVALID for a second and then "UNKNOWN" - I can't remember if it says NO DISC on the the front LCD panel after it says INVALID or what. But usually in those cases (cases where a firmware flashing went bad) it still plays DVDS just fine. That's what my unit did...played all DVDs still fine just messed up on most BR's until they re-flashed it.
And you've tried on the steps they tell you to try. Doing a power cycle of the unit (unplugging it for at least a minute)... and then if that doesn't work doing the unit reset...unplug etc. ?

Did this happen after a firmware update or just out of the blue?
EDIT: yeah as AndyRoss points out, bc it has two different lasers ...so it's unusual without something more serious going on for both lasers to go down at the same time. There was talk on the Sony Message boards by some whose units where already out of warranty that some had blown, wiped off, or used a cleaning disc to clean the BR lens and that the Unknown errors went away.
I read one such report I think here or Amazon that said he did this but the problem wasn't solved after initially thinking it was by that.

What we need is to find out HOW they do the re-flashing in Laredo TX at the Sony Repair facility.
Is the firmware stored on a ROM? If so are the techs down their erasing it? Because I know that you cannot (if say v....11 firmware is bad) you can't simply burn a (v....11) disc and re-write or re-upgrade it detects for us End users that it's already updated. Even though that's exactly what the tech who called me on the phone told me I could do...(Well maybe you can if you have some Sony service device plugged in, if that's how they do it).

So the techs down their have some method around it. Do they clear the ROM, replace the ROM or otherwise have some master method of allowing the firmware to be re-done. I've never opened my unit so IDK where or what the chip looks like but since it's out of warranty I might just crack it open and post some pics.
Unfortunately, as some have tried...to wait simply for a new firmware to be released and hoped that it would overwrite and correct the problem ((However)) this is NOT what people report happens. They report that it updates, but it still doesn't fix the problem. It still plays or doesn't play the same percentage of BR's that it played [the same BR's that had once played before the well first bad UPDATE...] so this update does nothing to correct the problem.

DOES anyone know exactly what TOOL or TOOLS they use? Do they swap ROM CHIPS? Have a Disc or tool that erases the ROM makes it ready to accept a new firmware??? Some sort of Service tool? What / how do they do it?
To anyone looking for a SIDE JOB... if you find out how or can erase bad firmware jobs you maybe able to make $10-$20 doing these.

My 470 has numerous issues, of late when I stick a Blu-Ray in will say "can't read disc" or something to that affect. If it doesn't do that, it will just crash with a weird pink screen. If I power cycle it a few times sometimes it will read the disc. Sometimes it will just play with no issue. It's to the point now I'm starting to hate sitting down and watching a movie, I never know if the player will work or if I will have to mess with it for 15 mintues or better.

When I turn it on a lot of times now it won't even load the home screen, it will instantly crash to the semi transparent pink screen. Today I turned it on and the screen was red, like that of the Netflix page. I had just turned it on though so nothing was loading.

I checked through about a dozen BD's so far and they play fine, My Fringe Season 3 disc's bonus material doesn't play, but I've already spoken of that.

I do have one Sony release movie, 2012, whose Bonus disc won't load on occasion, but that's been the case from when I first purchased the movie.

I own about 150 movies on BD, and probably another 200 DVD's, so it would take a good while to check them all, so I'm checking the more recent ones first, but no issues with anything else so far.

I do a burned disc update on my players and never a network internet one, since I'm not connected to it for this player.

Sony is still going to get a call from me about Fringe 3 and it's issues.

I had very similar issues with my previous (and first) Blu-Ray player, the Sony BDP-S350. It was quite expensive when I purchased it (~$400), and a great player overall. But after a couple of years, it would show a message of "UNKNOWN" for many Blu-Ray discs. Some discs would never load, some would load rather reliably, but most would take 5-10 tries of ejecting and reinserting before it would load up. Once it loaded up, it was always fine. I remember thinking that if it had been a laser issue, I would have seen problems in the middle of discs, but I never did. But DVDs were never an issue.

I always suspected a bug in the firmware update process. I'm usually a "keep everything updated" kind of guy, but no longer with Sony players. I haven't updated my S470 in quite a while. Probably never will at this point.

The only weird thing I've had is that occasionally, when trying to eject a disc, the whole unit freezes and it won't eject. Won't turn off, nothing. I have to unplug the unit and let it completely power cycle (which is a pain since the cord doesn't disconnect at the back of the unit). I also tore up the front door the first time this happened, trying to get the disc out.

Overall, this will be my last Sony player. If I had the money I'd probably get an Oppo - at this point, I'll wait until the S470 breaks. The general playback quality isn't a problem, it's the quality of everything else. The DLNA is useless, Netflix isn't anywhere as good as it is on the XBox, most of the extras just end up as visual clutter, and I can't trust the Sony update system at all. At least it was only $100 when I bought it a year ago. It'd be a fine unit to purchase for an extra TV somewhere in the house, but not for a main media system.

EDIT: i found this link to www.blu-ray.com forums It sound like this guy is having a similar problem as you:
http://forum.blu-ray.com/blu-ray-pla...nk-screen.html

Can you remember / pin point the time line of things. You bought the player when? Did you update the firmware then? Have you updated it since and if so when? Did the problems start after that?
The first part sounds like the common Unknown - Can't read disc - Invalid error after a firmware problem w/ the unit updating. But the Pink screen sounds more like something else wrong... like maybe the number of on/off cycles is wearing down or has damaged something else.

Anyway, it sucks and you aren't alone! SonyStyle message boards are also filled w/ peoples whose units don't work or don't work right after a problem with the firmware update --> even if it seemed a perfectly normal update.


Good about calling them. I am going to call them about LOTR T.E. BR trilogy and Limitless on Monday... Although at this point I won't be installing any more firmware updates on any players out of warranty.
------
Usually if the unit works even after a bad firmware updating process it plays 100% of DVDs. It's the randomness of the BR's that it won't play that is the problem.
--------
IDK if I mentioned it here in this particular thread. But although the CD/DVD method is IMO safer than the Network firmware update, it is NOT sheilding people from these same UNKNOWN disc error problems. Including people that paid $6.50 for SONY to mail them the firmware update disc. Now that's got to be the ultimate kick to the nards!


Hey, sorry to hear (but in a way oddly comforting) to know that others are experiencing the problem.
If the unit is working IE not showing a SYS ERR or worse then most report playing 100% of DVDs. This still doesn't totally eliminate the laser dusty or dirty or misaligned or whatever theory because they use two different lasers one for the DVD & one for the BR's. But I find it FAR too coincidental in these cases that the problems begin after a seemingly good flash/firmware update process. Either immediately, or as soon as someone hits on the "wrong" Blu-ray disc and finds that it's UNKNOWN and unable to play.
Do you remember what the time line for your unit was? When you last updated the firmware and when it happened?
It's not always easy to pin down in my case, my player was working about 40% of the BR's so it was a few weeks after installing the March 2011 Firmware V...11 - [[which has still not been updated/ latest firmware for the BDP-s560/360 ((that's the other player I own from Sony that experienced the problem))]] before I started to run into BR's that came up UNKNOWN. --> all were tested in PS3 and other players and worked fine some had even been played in this exact player fine prior to that update. But not all BR's...

Sony is in deny mode, or cover up mode. It's always cheaper at first to deny the issue exists. I'm not a litigious person but given the numbers reporting on message boards it seems big enough to call/force Sony to answer for it! IF sony admitted the problem and offered some sort of reduced re-flashing at least that would be something. Perhaps they don't know what the issue(s) causing this are, but to stick customers out of warranty with $125+ s/h bill to have them simply re-flash the unit is obnoxious!

We have to find out what's behind the Sony's secret recipe for re-flashing or erasing the FIRMWARE and allowing it to be over written. How they are doing it could restore a lot of peoples' bricks and / or their only semi-functioning Blu-ray players.

This series of posts is not good news for me. We bought 2 S370 players about 7 months ago. They are both hard wired to the internet.
We don't play many BD disks. Have a Netflix one-at-a -time plan. Maybe a total of 20 between the two players in that time. Have done hours of streaming Netflix on both and many many hours of Pandora.
So far - everything works perfectly. No delays, glitches etc. We do the online updates as they come in.
Bought them for 2 reasons. One, price about $130. Other is one of our Panny plasmas only has component input. Players made after 1/1/11 (think that's the date) can't pass copyrighted material via component.
I wonder if the mfr. date makes a diff? When did they stop making these altogether?

Sounds like optical drive failure, possibly - i.e. return for warranty repair if still covered. I have a 370 and update it whenever an update is released. No problems reading discs.

Well, with my S350, which I purchased in July 2008, it started about a year and a half ago and got so bad that I replaced it with the S470 last fall. The S350 had indeed gotten to the point where I dreaded the idea of sticking a blu-ray disc in.

After I wrote my post yesterday, I pulled the S350 out and opened it up, and cleaned the lasers. I would have shuddered at doing this to a $400 unit, but given that I had written it off a year ago, I was mostly doing it to see if that indeed was the original problem.

I got everything put back together, and tried about five discs, including a couple of the ones that always gave me the most trouble. All of them worked on the first try.

I also updated the firmware on the S350, and everything still worked.

So at this point, I'm convinced that the root problem on my S350 was it just needing a light cleaning. It's very possible that those having similar issues with the Sx70 are having a similar problem. Tearing these down might be a bigger pain, as they're much smaller then the Sx50 units were.

If the S350 loaded discs in anywhere near the time the S470 does, I'd probably switch back to it. The $99 for the S470 was worth it just for the increased loading time. But if it's out of warranty and you're having trouble with it, I'd be curious if opening up the S470 to clean the lasers is feasible. In any case, I'm positive that a general cleaning is included with any trip a player makes to a service center.

I used to have a DVP-S530. It had a known issue of the laser getting a bit weak. There were diagnostics where it could run an auto-calibrate which would help for awhile. It eventually got too bad and I had to replace it. I wonder if the BDP's have something similar?

Who were you referencing that post about or to?

Congrats! And there has got to be a bit of satisfaction in getting it back and running. The first few times I read it I was starting to really thing there might be something to it. But one of the problems is most people don't report back how it's going. Except one guy who used a cleaning cd (not at all the same as the process you did - which is more thorough) but his unit started acting up again.

The very last thing you wrote is entirely possible that it had NOTHING to do with them re-flashing the firmware and everything to do with as you suggest a basic compressed air or better system cleaning. The report back from them contained no findings no information. Except for Limitless and LOTR T.E. the (BDP-s560 is playing everything else since it returned). I don't intend to do anymore updates on it; so if the problem re-occurs I will definitely give it a careful cleaning. PLEASE KEEP US UPDATED on how it's doing down the road. Even though I use my BDP-s370 & Samsung BR players on the Two TV's I keep the BDP-s560 nearby. It has a kewl feature that when it reads and starts playing a BR vs a DVD the white light turns to BLUE and i can see that the counter is operating etc. So if I'm being lazy I can check really fast if it at least read the disc before I return it to Redbox.

It's I suppose a small comfort at this point, but at least you have a back up.


Could you elaborate? Where you cracking the unit open? What kind of diagnostics / auto calibrate where they (as in like how was it performed)?
What's interesting to me is that most of the time people with these problems don't seem to be having the issues with the DVD laser. I usually get & watch 4x's as many DVDs as I do BRs from Netflix & Redbox yet either the positioning or ? doesn't seem to accumulate dust / debris if that's what's partially causing the UNKNOWN reads. Granted the DVD has been tried & tested but wouldn't you simply orientate the BR laser similarly if not the same way? Too late at night time for zzzz I'm rambling.

I recently got a BDP s470 bundled with my Sony 46" 3D LED tv. I've noticed that this unit is usually extremely hot on the bottom even when it's off. I also had this problem with the s380. The s380 died less than a month after I got it. Is this heat going to cause a problem in the future? I rarely use the player because the tv can stream content from my pc and there is really no need to use this player except for the odd 3D movie.

People with players that no longer (or only intermittently) read discs. I didn't think of cleaning the laser though - which is not something the every day user would/should do. :-)

I believe the s470 (which I also own) has a fan built in. It's supposed to kick in when the player reaches a certain temp. Mine gets a little warm too, especially in the Summer months, but so far has never been problematic.

If it's hot even when its off, I wonder if you've got it set for its quick start/standby power mode. That might account for that condition.