Official Sony BDP-S480 Owner's Thread. All questions and comments go here - Page 4

I did never been able to handle .mkv file from dlna as it's stated on the sony's website. I'm about to get my 2 S480 back to the store tomorrow. These S480 units did never shows photo neither, and I get an "unsupported or corrupt file" message to most of my .mp3. sony did not been able to help me this problem. Every thing works just perfectly with my oppo.
If you get some info or good discoveries with your S480, reply me soon before I get these units back

HELP. Did Sony intentionally create the most cryptic audio settings interface?
I cannot get my device to play an audible dts-ma track via my Denon receiver. I know my cable is good and all was good with my previous Samsung BDP. I was able to play DTS-MA via bitstream and light the Denon Blu Ray light. Now I finally figured out via this thread that the BD Audio Mix Setting is really Bitstream.. Off means bitstream I guess. Anyway, now I get Dolby Digital with sound for the splash screen and a nice blue light on the Denon for the main film, but no sound. Any ideas, before this bad boy goes back to Amazon?

** Update This was a problem with my Denon 2310CI, not the Sony. I applied a firmware upgrade to the 2310CI and the problem went away.

I just hooked my BDPs480 up for a few minutes the other night. Its actually a Christmas gift, so I just did a quick test before re-boxing and then my wife wrapped it up to prevent any further experiments

Findings:
I was able to watch a 12gb 3d MKV via 16gb flash drive through this player on my Sony 3D nx720. Flash Drive was formatted NTFS due to the size of the MKV and it played flawlessly.
Unfortunately the nx720 TV does not recognize an NTFS formatted drive or maybe I would have been able to play it straight through the TV?

I was able to stream mkv file from a hard wired PC over the network through the BDLs480 player as well as directly through the NX720tv.
I streamed both an HD MKV and a 3D MKV for about 10 minutes each, however they did hiccup every here and there, but that's probably due to the slower desktop PC acting as a media server.

QUESTION:
I am waiting on a Segate 1.5tb drive that I am hoping this player will recognize through the USB port. I would like to store all the mkvs on that drive and turn off the media PC all together. Anyone have any experience with that?

With this player, can you play a movie from a PC, pause it, walk away, come back some time later, un-pause, and have it pick up where you left off?

I have a 1.5TB hard drive from Samsung formatted in ntfs and this works great, i think a segate hard dive will work as wel .

I have found 2 problems with the bdp-s480 first the player will not go to 1080/50P for pal media files like .TS .MKV and so on, the player stays in 1080/60P this is for ntsc content not for pal, and for pal this doesn't look very well, not really a smooth image. The second problem, the player doesn't play H.264 media that has a high profile of 5.1? the player plays only to high 4.1, you can edit the profile level with "H264LevelEditor".

Does anyone have a solution for the first problem?

I made a post of these 2 problems on the Sony forum but no answer so far.

I have no problems streaming MKV video with 5.1 sound using Serviio (as it transcodes when needed) I use Serviio on a winxp netbook with WD elements 2tb drive connected, ethernet wired through a gigabit switch. Ofcourse, some ripped H264 files have badly ripped audio stream, but thats life.
Only problem I find with the S480, is that Sony dropped support for divx, but I convert those files to MKV if and when needed.
1080/50p is only possible with blu ray optical disc play-back, unless I'm wrong, Someone may correct me here.

Its a very good, inexpensive, entry-level media player, with many features.

Thanks for mentioning Serviio never tried the network playback feature, it's working well, i have a sat receiver and i can record to a hard drive, i edit the material with videoredo and save it as a .ts file (mpeg2) when you play this .ts file the image is far from smooth, so i made a test dvd from that recording nothing was changed, the bitrate is the same, in a minute or 2 the test dvd was ready, burned to a dvd-rw, and boy was i surprised the image was smooth the background was calmed down, it looked just like a dvd that i bought, very sharp images, i say, almost high def quality, and if i play a hd mkv with the s480 and i compare it with my hiteker BD i get the same result as the .ts and the test dvd only the hiteker can't play files above 2gb at least he stops at 2gb , and this is why i asked around the internet to see if others see this problem to, for divx i use avi fourcc code changer and set it to xvid, it's a good solution for this problem fast and easy to do, here is another tip if you have a .mov file change it to .wmv works every time for me.

Greets

Actually, if it's like the 470, you only need to rename the files from avi to mkv and they will play. No actual conversion needed. So divx support is still there, it's just hidden.

No does not work, the only way this is gonna work is to change the fourcc of the avi to xvid instead of divx, and it teaks only a few seconds to do it .

Greets

Thanks for the tips MrCobra I will try fourcc code changer if its a lot faster than freemake.

If you register with serviio forums they have a great community help.

You could ask more codec file help there, as they have some expertise.

ps. Sony recommends serviio, and works well with samsung(.srt) supported

Is anyone else having problems using their Sony BDP-Sx80 for Hulu Plus? I have the S480, and whenever I watch a TV episode, it will play the initial ads and then the first segment of the episode with no problem. However, after the first segment ends, that's where the problem begins. There are normally two ads after the first segment, and those usually play fine (though sometimes not). When the app tries to resume the episode (or sometimes when it tries to start the ads), the screen says "Loading", but the video doesn't start. Eventually the "loading" message goes away, leaving just the background screen. After another couple of minutes, I get a message saying that there was a network error.

This problem happens virtually every time I try to watch a TV episode, making the S480 useless for this activity. Other videos (Netflix, Playon) work fine, so I'm assuming the problem is with the Hulu Plus app. I have a trouble report in with Hulu, but no word yet.

I also have a PS3 and a Panasonic Blu-ray player, neither of which have this problem with Hulu Plus. Right after I have the problem, I can try either of those and the episode plays fine.

I actually had the same problem on 2 Panasonics and another Sony. I think it's on Hulu's end. I bet if you start with the Panasonic, you'd have the same problem, then using any other player would work. My solution was to cancel Hulu.

The PS3 and Panasonic are used in other rooms of the house, and never have the problem. I agree the problem is likely with Hulu though. I just wanted to see if anyone else was having the problem with their Sony BDP.

A few generic questions about the 480. I just picked it up.

Will this output at up to 1080i via component both on BD discs and upscaled DVD’s? The manual says it will only output 480p, but the “troubleshooting” section of the website says it will not do 1080p via component but will do 1080i. If it will do 1080i via component, would this include Netflix and other HD streaming stuff as well?

If I set the output mode manually to 1080p or 1080i or whatever I choose, will it always output that regardless of the source? I have a 720p display I might use with this, and despite some advice to output at its native resolution, I think outputting at 1080 looks a bit nicer. I just want to make sure that whether I’m watching a 480p DVD or a 1080p BD, I’m outputting at 1080 and my player isn’t automatically going to 720 because my display is 720.

It probably will not output anything but 480P via component. More details here:

http://hometheater.about.com/od/home...y-1st-2011.htm

I can't test this because my component inputs on TV are obstructed. I sold my old player (BDP-N460) to my coworker and old player is able to do this (my coworker has old HDTV that doesn't have HDMI, so he has to use component).

Can anyone confirm for me that the BDP-S480 supports Amazon Instant Video with 5.1 surround sound over HDMI? I read on the Amazon site that the HD videos on demand have 5.1 sound but I saw a general reference that stated you should use the digital audio output for sound to your receiver with the Sony blu-ray players. Doesn't sound right so please confirm. The 2011 Panasonic players like the DMP-BDT210 don't seem to support 5.1 sound at all with Amazon Instant Video.

On another note, is there a reason why the 2011 Panasonic Blu-ray thread is so active compared to this and other 2011 Sony ones? Are the Panasonic models better in any way to the Sony models? Thanks!

could you please elaborate on this? I bought a second 480 because my first 480 is upstairs and works great. I just ran the most recent update on my 2nd unit and it will not play avi files (unsure if it would before the update, it's new to me). so i have one that appears to want to play avi's and one that will not play avi's.

The player plays avi files in general but doesn't play avi files encoded with the divx codec and to solve this problem there is a little program called "AVI FourCC Code Changer" you can Google this, open the avi file in the program and change whatever is shown in the FourCC Description Code and FourCC Used Code field to XVID then click apply and your done, you will see that the avi file now will play on the S480 .

Greets

thanks MrCobra
that's great information.

If I use "AVI FourCC Code Changer" and modify my files, will it impact the playability in any other system?

I have a chance to get this player for about nothing (except shipping) and it would replace the Samsung C-5500 I got almost two years ago which replaced my first generation Sony BP-300. Anyone else here have experience with both? Samsung kept saying the Amazon app was "on the way" but it hasn't shown up yet. This player seems to have everything I use now and Amazon. The 300 was abysmally slow at loading BDs but I did like the way it handled video files better than the Samsung. Of course the 300 didn't have Internet connectivity either so there were no apps.

I don't think so, because the file will be recognized as a xvid encoded file.

Greets.

I was wondering if anyone else out there has a setup similar to mine and is getting 5.1 SACDs to work properly.

I just got the 480 and I have it connected to my receiver via HDMI. The receiver is an older one that doesn't decode the newer codecs and won't decode DSD, so I have my blu-ray audio output set to PCM. Music Blu-rays (Rush Moving Pictures) play fine in DTS-HD. My receiver states that it is getting a PCM signal and output is obviously in surround.

For SACD, I have the Sony settings to not send DSD over HDMI and decode it to PCM and it's set to the SACD layer of a hybrid disc and the multichannel track. Those 3 settings are the only ones I see in the menu pertaining to SACD. Playing Dark Side of the Moon SACD, it shows on the TV that multichannel is playing, however my receiver is only getting 2 channels. I have an older SACD player where the disc plays properly, but I was sending it to my receiver with analog, not HDMI. The 480, of course, does not have 5.1 outputs. I suppose I could keep the older DVD/SACD player just to play SACDs, but that's not what I really want to do, nor should I have to.

If a blu-ray can send a 5.1 PCM signal to my receiver, why can't it do the same with the SACDs? I know HDMI can handle 5.1 PCM. I sent a question to sony about this, but they were no help at all, telling me I could only get 5.1 sound if using a 5.1 SACD after I specifically told them I was using the multichannel layer.

Thanks for any help!! I know not too many care about the SACDs, but I'd like to be able to play them.

Well, spoke with Sony support and that was pointless. They tried to blame it on my receiver. I know my receiver isn't the problem or blu-ray's sound would be correct. From the manual, if I leave the DSD output mode to Off it "Outputs PCM signals from the HDMI OUT jack when playing a SACD". My receiver can handle 5.1 PCM over HDMI, so it should be working.

Well, never mind. For giggles, I put the bluray player on DSD out and suddenly it works great. My Pioneer Elite receiver makes no mention of being able to decode DSD, I just thought it wouldn't work. Happily I was wrong.

I just figured out something interesting. The manual states that it can't stream mkv files and, when using Windows Media Player as my DLNA server, sure enough, no mkv. But I was noticing that the latest version of Media Monkey has a built in DLNA server. I turned it on and check the Sony blu-ray, and Media Monkey is showing. And it can stream mkv files!!! I'm loving this $90 purchase.

I have just hooked up the MDP-S480 I got for Xmas and my new bluray with 6.1 sound won't give me surround sound on my 5.1 system.
I read an earlier post with a similar issue, and setting the BD audio mix to off didn't work on my system.

I have the S480, my amp is a Samsung HT-X50.
I had to route through an HDMI switcher since my TV only has one HDMI input. It's a Monoprice PN 5557 - which is perfect since the Samsung only has a Toslink input. So - HDMI out of the S480, into the Switch, audio out of the Toslink into the Samsung and HDMI into the TV.

When I play a DVD with 5.1 surround in the S480 - I get 5.1 surround. When I play a bluray with 6.1, the only way to get sound is to set the Monoprice switch to 2.1. Swapped the HDMI cables around and no issues with them. I get HD and 5.1 surround out of my FIOS routed through the same switch.

The only thing I can think of is that the 6.1 out of the S480 disagrees somehow with the Monoprice box.

I don't have any other paths to test unless I get a coax to toslink converter to send the digital audio directly to the amp.

Any thoughts on how I can make the S480 output 5.1 surround?

Jeff

Ok, here's another one. I have 10 & 12 year old kids at home. The S480 has parental controls for some items. Any clues how to limit or disable the internet browser?

Jeff

Well, the internet is such a pain to use I seriously doubt that would be a problem, but I'll look and see if I notice anything. I don't think there is a way to disable it, though you may be able to block the internet to the blu-ray in your router if you're technically savvy (I wouldn't have a clue how to do it myself).

I took a quick look through the manual for the Samsung, and, unless I'm missing something, it does not decode the newer blu-ray audio formats since it's an all-in-one DVD/Receiver and has no HDMI in. Here's a page explaining the blu-ray audio in case you aren't familiar:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/1064

Since there's no way to get HD audio to your current receiver, you'll need to tell the Sony to only output Dolby Digital or DTS. I haven't looked back through the forum to see what the heck the BD Audio MIX Setting On/Off means and the manual doesn't tell me much. It does mention to get HD Audio Signal to set it to off. Well your receiver can't decode that, so maybe that needs to be set to On actually. And there aren't any settings I can see that would have the Sony default to DD and DTS. The "Auto" setting on the Sony for Audio (HDMI) sees the monoprice and thinks it's OK for it to output HD Audio, which doesn't work for you.

I'm not sure there is an automatic way to do this since you aren't directly connected to the dvd/receiver with HDMI. One way that may work would be to go into the Audio settings each blu-ray disc menu and select Dolby Digital. Most discs have a 5.1 track available and that should get you surround, but you'll have to tell it each time you load a new disc to use that audio, because most discs default to the newer formats. I would have thought that DTS-HD (which is on most blu-rays) would have been outputted from the switcher as DTS (old DVD version) through the TosLink to your DVD/receiver. But can your Samsung even decode DTS over the toslink? The manual doesn't say anything about it. The monoprice is likely converting the DTS-HD to 2.0 LPCM audio for the Toslink because the Toslink cable isn't capable of sending 5.1 LPCM audio, only HDMI can do that. Maybe there's a setting with the monoprice to help you with this?

Since you seem to like your all-in-one system, the best solution would be for you to return the blu-ray player and ebay the monoprice and samsung and just buy an new all in one blu-ray system:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+1...&skuId=1997349

If you can get $150 for the others, you'd only be out $100 and be much happier.

I'm sure that's not what you want to hear, but to get the old tech to work with the new tech easily, that's really the only way.