Sony BDP-S1 BD Player: USER REPORTS Here

Yes. As someone interested in this player because of 1080p/24 I'd like some reports by those who have projectors, tv sets, etc. which can take this signal like my HP Pavillion 1080p can. Quality of video, etc.

And someone please post screen shots of the player in action. All the money floating here yet no one can seem to afford a digital camera.

Something that is confusing me a little. First off everything is via HDMI.

On my Samsung when I sent a pcm signal (lossless or not) I was able to apply DPL IIx to the pcm stream. The Sony will NOT let me apply any processing by my Pioneer 84txsi. What is different in the signals between the Samsung and the Sony. Something has to be.

Anyone with any ideas??

I 'll try to summarize my impressions and comments made in other threads.

Although the audio is a secondary issue for me, I was dissapointed by the lack of
configuration available to the signal coming out of the analog outputs. There is no
bass management, can't adjust it to a system with no subwoofer and can't set the
channel delays. That means you really need a receiver/processor to handle the sound,
so even if there is an upgrade to decode the advanced audio codecs it won't be that
useful. I would settle for an upgrade to output the new audio codecs through hdmi and
let a processor decode them. I can't believe they didn't include that capability in the
first place.

The picture is great, at least compared to SD DVD. I haven't seen HD-DVD so I can't
compare it to that. Compared to film it's still inferior, as expected. 1080p is just not
sufficient resolution. Overall the picture delivered through my Sony Ruby makes me
very happy. By the way it passes blacker than black. Fast forwarding, chapter changing,
etc. is not as responsive as other players I've had, but it's not slow enough to be
annoying.

The player looks great, is solidly constructed and is all around very polished. With
the video being my primary concern, I am happy with my purchase.

Tasos

Alright fellas

I just purchased this player today (1 of 5 units at my local pittsburgh bestbuy). This is my first bluray/hd dvd player of any kind so i cannot compare it to anything sorry guys. Nor do i have a digital camera on hand to take pictures which i would love to do. However i do have a 1080p display for whatever thats worth.

Anyways my initial response when i seen this (on display) was wow! The build quality of this thing is supperb. Since i already knew i wanted this before i went out there I quickly bought it and 7 blu ray movies to go along. Now ive only got to observe 3 thus far 1. swordfish which looked great initially (on default picture settings) and then i used petmic10's calibration settings he used on his xbr2/3 for my 40xbr2 and it looked even better (THANKS Petmic). 2nd i popped in lord of war which i was actually disappointed in a little compared to swordfish, And last i threw in league of exraordinary gentlemen and wow!! it looks absolutely incredible. I am very pleased with the pq but remember i am only used to 1080i broadcast content and sd dvds.

As far as the audio goes. Thats the only downer but i am unable to utilize next generation audio with my equipment for now so this isnt really an issue. Also the remote is pretty nice, setup was easy, loadup time was slow but tolerable, user interface is very solid looking but response time is a bit slow. Overall i am very happy and think its money well spent.

I wonder if PQ can be comparative. I don't want to enter into any format war nonsense as I'm going format neutral shortly and I just want a decent blu ray player. I have the Toshiba A1 and am very pleased with the PQ and AQ. What interests me is the 1080p/24 capabilities of this player and comparisons with HD DVD video on the Tosh and this player or other blu players.

My experience with the Sony has not been good. I have the Samsung blu ray, and after the firmware fix, it has been a pretty good player. I thought I would give the Sony a chance, as it looked like an awesome player. I purchased it day of release at BB. Took it home, hooked it up and waited forever for it to initially boot. It took much longer than the 90 seconds listed on the insert. After waiting nearly 3 minuets, I had to unplug it to turn it off. Turned it back on and still no video. I had to eject the drawer to get it to put up video. Strange!!

Played it some that night and thought it looked a touch sharper than the Samsung, but it was hard to tell. Either way, it's responsiveness was not impressive to me. I though the Samsung was a touch slow, but the Sony took 5 seconds to respond to the Menu button presses. I gave it another chance yesterday, but things didn't improve. Almost every time I turn it on, it has Startup on the screen, but after 2 minuets and no video, I have to unplug the unit, re-plug back in and then start it again. Then I will get video.

I'm taking this unit back. I don't understand how Sony can still have these many problems after working on the software for this unit for as long as they did, not to mention the Audio issues (future upgradeability in question) and this player seems rougher in operation than the Samsung.

I didn't experience any such problem. Perhaps you got a defective unit. By
the way did you go through the initial setup process? If you didn't that
could explain the subsequent problems.

Tasos

I'd like to hear from owners of both the Toshiba and the Sony who have played the same title on both players. That will be very interesting. If anyone is doing these comparisons, try to keep the same connection methodology (HDMI/HDMI or component/component). I'd also like to hear how the upconversion of the Sony is since we all know how good the Toshiba is in that regard.

Darksets, I did go through the initial setup. What was funny is that after going through the initial setup, it wouldn't play, and that's when I had to unplug it. After I plugged it in, it kept all of my settings, and I got it to play correctly. After turning it back off and then back on later the same night, it made me go through the setup again.

I think you might be right, I probably got a bad unit.

here you go Ken

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=759883

Doom4420, I just turned mine on now and it takes about 25 seconds to get to the initial blu ray title screen then about another 20-30 seconds to load up the movie. I tried it a few times and it was pretty consistent. It however didnt go into the setup screen like you said. I'd say you have a defective unit and also the response times are actually pretty good for me. It just takes a few moments to load up different screens after you make a selection. Top menu and pop up menu loaded up immediately but system menu was where it was a bit slow.

See, that's the funny thing. Now, after setup, I will turn it on and when it works properly, your time quotes are pretty much on the money. But I will turn it off again, then back on later and it will just sit there and not give me anything. At that point, I have to unplug it. I've had to unplug it 3 times out of 6 times turning the unit on. There is something wrong there. Like I said, probably just mine.

Thats definitley not right. I'd like to see if anyone else is having similar problems.

Your thread is miss leading. Your forgot ( I wonder why) to tell us that inside the package along with the manual there is a Importand Notice for your Inital BDP-S1 Set Up.

It states "The very first time a BDP-S1 is started upit takes about 90 sec to power on and start the easy setup process. After this initial setup is complete, the BDP-S1 willstart up more quickly.

It does in about 15/18 sec.

2 sec tops when menue button is pressed.

In the future how about telling the whole story.

This is the most civil and proper way to dispel FUD. Thank you for setting an example that if others followed, would improve this site greatly!

That is true. Mine took longer than 90 seconds maybe 3 minutes the VERY first time i turned it on but i remained patient and eventually the setup screen appeared and i set everything up pretty quickly. After that i have not run into any problems if you can even consider that a problem. Thank god for the flyer they provide. But he states it happens basically every other time he turns the unit on. The only explanation i can think of is the settings did not save or the settings are not correct.

For anyone interested in this player. It does not play the following formats...

Any type of cd
vcds/super vcds
dvd audio discs
super audio cds
dvd-rams
hd dvds
BDs with cartridge
BD-REs/BD-Rs (but promises an upgrade in 2007)
Dvd-rws/dvd-rs of Vr mode

I stopped in BB yesterday to look at something else and saw the Sony Blu-Ray. Took the Sony BRP-S1 home with UnderWorld Evolution BR version and watched the movie on Sony Ruby with a 119" Da-Lite HiPower screen. The PQ was absolutely incredible and the sound quality on the Sony 5200ES was its equal. The Sony 5200 ES is acting as a Pre-amp with 3 Yamaha power amps and a 3 channel Adcom running 7 Martin Logan Stylos and a Sunfire woofer.

I have been reading AVS for months trying to put together an upgraded HT after my Seleco SDG700 went dead this last summer. I have been watching HD since September of 1998 on the Seleco so I am a bit spoiled and I thought that I was no longer prone to the wow factor any more, at least that is what I thought before starting my research on AVS. But now I will say that with the help of other AVSers, the all Sony 1080P line up, does deliver the goods, WOW. In case anyone else is out there with a Ruby wanting to know how the Sony lineup works, I can honestly say it Rocks. I no longer miss the Seleco.

No need to get testy about it Don. No one is trying to purposely slam the Sony or put FUD out here. Listen to yourself "I wonder why". Come on, I'm not some 20 year old kid trying to mislead anyone. I was a little tired yesterday from playing around trying to get the Sony to respond correctly the night b4. I can read, and I knew about the insert that Sony included b4 I even bought it. What I said stands. After going through the initial setup, and turning it off, I would turn it on again and sit there for 3 minuets and nothing on the screen. I would unplug it and plug it back in, and then it would boot in the normal 20 second range.

Makes me wonder if I should post my experiences again here. Snippy snippy snippy....

Please ignore or discount defensive postures by those who are justifying their purchases, or who are paranoid of any negative comments. Perish the thought that anyone could actually have a problem with electronics (like that never ever happens ).

Your post was good information on a problem you had with the Sony Blu-ray player. It's good to know pro's & con's of any particular format, or specific player.

Thanks rhcorolla, and that's all I was trying to do is post my experience and see if anyone else had this issue, or if it was just my player.

A set up needs to be done right away with this player...It is slow at first, but the more you play with it the faster it gets...the only thing a bit slow is when you go to set-up it takes 3 to 4 secs to pop up...other than that, I absolutely love this player!... Very good build design...has weight and is not loud like Panny. Very quiet during reading. Have watched over a dozen movies without a hitch...Picture is excellent on my 133" screen. It is as good as HD-DVD. This is the first Blu-ray machine that seems to play all titles beautifully...

Since I have a processor without HDMI yet (Theta Casablanca 3), do I need to use the anolog ins or does it also have a toslink connector?

Thanks,
David

There is digital out, both Coax and Optical. Of course it only outputs plain
Dolby Digital and DTS through these outputs.

Tasos

BDP-S1 manual online!!!

http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/DocsConn...=76785&DL=true

Is the player equiped with HDMI 1.3 ???

Sony have HDMI 1.3?

No. This has been discussed many, many times in multiple threads.

As of right now, none of them have it. The Sony is based on the Pioneer platform. Will the Pioneer, since it's been delayed? According to some who have direct contacts with Pioneer, no. But, it's remotely possible Pioneer will have it by launch, but I wouldn't count on it, based on all signs.

ss9001