Official Sony BDP-S590 and BDP-390 Thread - Page 99

It's not the connection speed that counts. FIOS needs to sign on to the OpenConnect network with Netflix in order to get those xHD streams. I suspect most big cable carriers will not do so as they see Netflix as a threat to their core business and want to kill it in anyway it can, e.g. bandwidth caps. I suspect one of the terms in signing on to OpenConnect is to not count Netflix streaming as part of download caps.

No you can only get it if your ISP has an access agreement in place with Netflix for their OpenConnect content delivery network (CDN):

https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect

I have enough bandwidth but my ISP is Verizon and they clearly view Netflix as a competitor so I have to live with Netflix's "standard" HD feed as opposed to "SuperHD." But their "standard" HD still looks pretty good to me.

Oh well

I think the sales people at BB are clueless. I bought a Sony DVD Recorder/VCR from them and explicitly asked the person in the TV section if I would be able to record movies onto DVD off of HBO with this unit, or would there be some sort of copy protection that would not let me do it. After thinking about it for 5 sec. the salesman said I would have no trouble recording movies off HBO, although I had my doubts. When I tried at home, the player kept stopping the recording and kicking out the disc at random times into the movie. After some testing, the unit said recording was not allowed due to copyright protection. Needless to say, the unit went back the next day with a nice explanation of how I was given wrong information of capabilities of the recorder.

Granted, these are only my experiences and other may have had more favorable encounters.

If you're near Boston/Cambridge area, I would suggest Micro Center in the future. The sales people there live and breathe this stuff and are very knowledgeable.

There is a way to get the Super HD and 3D encodes if your ISP is not participating in Open Connect; we've been talking about it in the Super HD thread starting with this post. It's definitely not perfect but worth a try if you're interested.

Hah! Looks pretty cool! Ironically, I just clicked on the Unblock-US link to check it out but was BLOCKED from seeing it by our corporate firewall. So, this will require manually configuring the DNS server setting on the 590? OK. I will have to explore more in-depth later on tonight or if not, then later on this week. Thanks for the tip!

Generally you're right. Like most things, satisfaction with shopping at BB is a function of expectations. I don't expect much from them so usually not disappointed. And when I have been misinformed by them (which sadly happens more often than not) I never had an issue returning the item and in some cases, ending up with a better deal. See my story on the Best Buy Infuriates Me thread if you feel like chiming in although it seems it hasn't been active for a bit (I was the last person to post there as of this writing).

I live in Framingham but work in Bedford so usually go to the Burlington and Framingham stores. Appreciate the Micro Center tip. In Metro West, I go to Natural Sound on Rte 9 and I've found that some of the guys at Paul's TV in the Jordan's Natick store are fairly knowledgeable as well provided you can get them off the phone

Success! Thanks for the tip, Michael. I am now seeing the SuperHD logo next to a bunch of titles, and the video quality does seem a bit more, um, vivid when watching Phantom of the Opera, Meet Joe Black, etc. I could have sworn I even saw little specs of dust floating around behind Anthony Hopkins as he was sitting on his private jet talking to his daughter. So is there a way to validate the bit rate I'm now getting in Netflix through the Blu-ray player?

Therein lies the "it's not perfect" part. In order for you to get the 4300 Kbps and 5800 Kbps "Super HD" video encodes the player has to get assigned to servers in the nflxvideo.net domain. Using the Unblock-US DNS servers, you will always see the Super HD logos on the title descriptions whether or not you get hooked up to streaming servers with those encodes. Thus far, it seems that only the Netflix player on TiVo and the Win8 Netflix app are guaranteed to get assigned the right servers. After some experimentation, I came up with a procedure for making sure that the player is connected to Open Connect streaming servers and posted it here.

With the BDP-Sx90s you can further determine that you're getting the 5800 Kbps encode with the stream info overlay in the Netflix player (brought up with the DISPLAY button, I think; I have it mapped to something else on my Harmony One). If it says that the video is "X-High/HD" it's 5800 Kbps ("High/HD" could be either 3850 Kbps or 4300 Kbps).

You should read the posts in the Super HD thread and place any further comments you have there; it's a bit off-topic here.

Just read pretty much all of the posts in that thread after your initial pointer. Agree that it's somewhat off-topic for this thread. FWIW, I did not make any changes to my router. Simply changed the DNS server settings in the 590. Thanks again for the tip (and also thanks to APW2670 for your input)

Update:

Thought I would post an update. I received a replacement unit today. After initially hooking it up, I got the exact same message about 3D. I decided to try and do a network update. I had tried this on the previous unit and it stated I had the most current update. After clicking on the network update button on the new unit it stated there was indeed an update. It took about 15 or 20 minutes to do the update. After the restart, guess what? IT WORKS. I was glad to know that I indeed had a defective unit and that it wasn't something wrong with with avr.

I purchased a BDP-S590 this past weekend and have not been able to get the unit to play the DTS-HD Master Audio when I put in the The Dark Knight Rises blu-ray disc. I fiddled with the audio settings but all I get is DD. My receiver is a Pioneer SC-37. I am using a HDMI cable out from the S590 to the SC-37 then component out of the receiver to the television because there is no HDMI connection on the Pioneer Pro-510. I searched this thread but have not found anyone with my receiver having this problem. Does anyone have the Audio setting combinations for DTS-HD with my setup for watching movies and also the appropriate settings for playing SACD's? Thanks so much in advance!

Check this post to see if it applies to your situation:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1322401/onkyo-tx-nr609-tx-nr509-tx-sr309-thread/3420#post_22728593

Thanks for the quick response AM_DEW, I was not able to resolve the issue though. I guess the Onkyo's behave differently then the Pioneers. I will also post on the Pioneer SC-37 thread to see if they have any ideas.

Is it just this disc or all BDs? Have you made sure the DTS-HD audio track is selected from the disc using the disc menus or the audio button on the player's remote? How do you currently have the audio settings configured in the player settings?

Hey everyone, my BDP-S590 arrived yesterday, got it all hooked up last night, works great! I do have one question:
is there someplace on the internet (or in this giant thread) that lists out all the content on the SEN, what each item is, which ones are paid apps (Netflix, Hulu, etc...) vs. free (Crackle, Pandora, etc...)

I know my wife saw it all and rolled her eyes; if I could get a quick list of what they do, we could quickly put items into favorites and go from there, vs. hovering over every items to read their description.
Thanks in advance!

On my 590, when watching Netflix, after a while the picture dims to about half brightness. Anyone else have this happen. Is it a problem with Netflix or the player?

I don't have that particular issue, but I do have the issue where if i'm watching a TV show and let it go, every now and then it will pop up a question on screen, "Are you still watching this?" with the options continue or return to browsing, if anyone knows how i can disable this, it would be grateful. I find it annoying, and there doesn't seem to be any setting for it in my account settings on the netflix website.

Thanks, if anyone has an answer to this please let me know.

^^^ YES! It did that too. It's like a laptop screen dimming after so many minutes of non-use. There has to be a way to de-activate this. Strange thing is, I swear it just started doing this.

Vamp-
At this point I only have 1 disc with DTS-HD to test with. I did select DTS-HD MA prior to starting the movie from the disc's audio options but it played DD. Here are how my Audio Settings are currently set:
:
Audio (HDMI) - Auto
DSD Output Mode - On
BD Audio Mix Setting - On
Dolby Digital/DTS - Bitstream
DTS NEO:6 - Cinema
Audio DRC - Auto
Downmix - Surround

I appreciate your help with this, thanks.
John

Hi sf49erjohn, change "BD Audio Mix Setting" to Off.

Hi JChin
I turned off BD Audio Mix Settings as you suggested but it is still playing DD.

Thanks
John

Turn DRC off as well. While playing the disc, try cycling through the audio options with the audio button on the remote. Do you see a DTS-MA option? Still getting Dolby Digital with that option selected? Do you have any other cables besides HDMI connected from the 590 to your receiver?

Also, you are testing during the movie presentation, not just menus or trailers, correct?

Ok so I am running the HDMI cable out of the S590 to the HDMI input labeled BD on my Pioneer SC-37 receiver. I am also running the supplied composite cables yellow/white/red to a DVR/BDR input on my receiver. I was selecting that input on my receiver when watching theDark Knight Rises DTS-MA disk. When I go into my SC-37 Receiver inputs for BD (where I have my HDMI cable going into, it is greyed out). I have been playing the blue ray disc through the DVR/BDR input and that is why I am getting DD. I need to find out why my receiver is not letting me select HDMI Input for Input BD (where HDMI is connected). I believe that is my issue. When I switch over to BD input there is no picture but now the audio is DTS and sounds awesome! I get DD audio and picture on DVR/BDR input. No video on BD input but DTRS sound. Arghhh! Sorry for the stupidity. Gotta go will check back later or tomorrow for comments.
John

Your receiver may not offer the option of passing through a composite video signal along with an HDMI input as that is a non-standard configuration. Easy workaround would be to connect the composite video output directly from the BDP to the TV and just use the receiver for audio via HDMI. You'll need to change the source on the TV in addition to the receiver, but it should work, presuming the Sony sends the composite video and HDMI simultaneously (which I have never tried myself).

Not sure this workaround will work. I thought during setup up the 590 it asks how it is connected to the tv (hdmi or composite). I'm not near the player and may be getting mixed up with something else I own. But hey, won't hurt to try.
If it doesn't work, it may not like sending the audio over HDMI and video over composite.