Sony BDP-S1 BD Player: USER REPORTS Here - Page 12

I have had this unit for a few weeks now and have been very happy with it except for one thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned. I am experiencing some sort of audible interference for about 3 seconds at the beginning of the movie, when I change track, or when I hit pause and then play again. It sounds like a crackle and then a pop finishes it off. It is fairly loud and I do not want to damage speakers so I am trying to figure out a root cause. After this happens the audio plays fine through the duration of the movies but this only happens on Blu Ray discs (all of them). I have put SD movies in and have not had this problem. I am using the optical digital out for audio since my receiver (Denon AVR3802) does not accept HDMI inputs. I have both DD and DTS set to "dolby Digital" and "DTS" respectively since I cannot take advantage of the PCM until I get a new receiver accepting HDMI. I am not sure if it is the BDP-S1 or if it is a result of having an older receiver that is having problems with the Blu Ray bitstream? Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.

Monsterlee, not sure why you are having that problem, but I just wanted to let you know that HDMI is not the only way you can take advantage of BD's PCM tracks. I looked up your receiver, and it does have multichannel analog inputs on the back (7.1, to be exact, but your player only outputs 5.1). They are the set of analog inputs towards the upper left of the receiver's back panel. Try using the analog outputs from your player and see if the popping sound continues. Follow the instructions (if any) in the Sony's owner's manual for multichannel analog sound setup.

Thanks bferr1 - I had thought about that option as a test, but that still isn't going to tell me whether the problem is in the BDP-S1 or in the receiver. The upside is that it may at least let me listen "pop" free. I switched around the digital inputs and cables with my other components that work normally (although no Blu Ray content) and still am experiencing the problem. Thanks for the input and info though - I may go that route or may swap out the BDP-S1 at BB to see if that does it.

Check your manual. I recall reading something about audible noises in the Sony manual.

Checked the manual and on pg 20 it does mention that if I connect a component that doesn't conform to the selected audio signal that I might hear a loud noise that could damage my speakers. I then double checked all of my audio set up options and found them to be correct. Seems as if it may be in the receiver now that you pointed out the fact that the manual does reference and potential "loud noise". This may push me to go get the Elite 84TXSI earlier than anticipated.

I used to get a pop when the audio would change from 2ch to 5.1 ch on my old Yamaha receiver. That was with the optical connection, I switched to digital coax on that receiver and it stopped. My new Yamaha doesn't do that with the same source and cable as it did before on the previous setup.

Alrighty, so got another disc today, World Trade. not the best of movies, but as far as BD goes, it blows the holly DOORS of the crap Fifth Element Disk that came with the player. I mean, NIGHT and DAY as far as quality goes. This makes me think an HD or BD player is worth it, to get this type of video.

I wouldn't say it is as good as HD coming from a nice source, OTA or something like that, but it was clearly 8 / 10ths.

I checked the flow as I was watching, and it only showed about 33-35 mbps. Is that normal? I have seen people write here about 45 mbps flow?

Has anyone been able to get a tech rep to talk about the 5.1 LPCM output problem?

Problem of output of 5.1 LPCM signals as 7.1 LPCM. Don't really know if anyone else has noticed this or not.

I have talked online (twice) and on the phone once and the three reps I talked with didn't really know what they were talking about.

Over the air HD is limited to 19 mbps, so 33-35 mbps is already better than that.

Well I have had the Sony for a few days and I am very impressed. Luckily I read many reviews and was prepared for the delay with the remote control and the long start-up.

The first movie I watched was Xmen3 and I was totally over analyzing every seen. I noticed quite a bit of grain that I did not expect to see. The 3D effects were great though and overall looked great.

I then watched Devil Wears Prada which surprisingly my wife and I thought looked good. After looking at the Tier system I wasn't expecting a lot from that movie.

Knowing that I haven't seen the best of Blu-ray I went and bought KOH. The movie was long but who cares with the clarity and unbelievable scenes. Now I hope that every new movie comes out close to that standard!

I plan on buying Rocky next just because I love that movie. I did, however, watch The Fifth Element and was impressed. It was not as bad as the grain in Xmen 3.


By the way, I have a Sony 60" SXRD Rear Projection Television KDS-R60XBR2.

The perception of PQ is also offset by your HDTV a true 1080p ready TV will have cleaner clearer picture then say a 1080i CRT tv or a plasma, LCD 1366x768 720p TV. most people that bought their TV even as late as Dec. 2006 may very well have a HDTV thats not a true 1080p and have the plasma or LCD res i talked about, if this is the case as the HDTV down samples your PQ will be less. This is not to say PQ will be horrible, by no means my personal set a philips LCD 1366x768 looks wonderful its just up to you whether you want to let the sony down sample to 720p or set the sony to 1080i and then let the HDTV do the down sampling.

Santa brought my Mitsubishi 57731 (1080p) TV a Sony Blu-Ray for Christmas and we are greatly enjoying them.

Once it was setup, the initial power-up time is approx 30-secs (an guestimate) and it takes a measured 25-seconds from the time the disk is inserted until an opening screen appears. These times are entirely reasonable for me as I have the Mitsu set at low-power, so it takes a minute or so to spin-up when I turn it on.

So far, we have watched three non-HiDef dvds (Polar Express, Narnia, and The Wind and the Lion) and two Blu-Ray DVDS (The Devil Wears Prada and Phantom of the Opera). The non-HiDef dvds exceptionally nice upscaled to 1080p (the Mitsu confirms this) and both Blu-Ray dvds look excellent. In one scene of The Devil, you see a closeup of Andrea's face and can clearly see even the tiniest details of her eyes.

The only negative (if you want to call it that) is that that the colors are muted. The TV has three brightness settings: Brilliant, Bright, and Natural. I have been viewing all TV content in Natural, but was forced to changed to Bright when using the Blu-Ray to bring out the colors. Everything now looks both colorful and realistic.

Coincidentally, The Wind and the Lion was on a HiDef channel the other night, so I put that movie in the Sony and flipped back and forth. The 1080i output from the TV looked excellent from my viewing distance of 15-feet, and the 1080p Blu-Ray output only looked slightly better. I would say that the lack of improvement of one over the other was due to the inability to discern any great difference of -i- vs -p- from that distance as opposed to any other factor.

Anyway, I have had NO problems and everybody is wowed by the picture.

I have chosen Blu-Ray as my HiDef dvd of choice and will support it by upgrading my library to as many dvd titles as possible. I just hope that the studios support Blu-Ray in the same fashion they are HD DVD as I would love to see Casablanca in Blu-Ray format.

Congrats Kevin...and welcome to the wild, wild world o' blu-ray! I've been diggin' it not much longer than you! Ain't the PQ dazzling? Enjoying NEW technology now!
I love a success story!
Ty-K :-)

Purchased a 60gb PS3 a few days ago at my local Wal-Mart.

Not to impressed with the BR player, overheats and locks up sometimes when playing movies. I also get a "crackling" sound sometimes in my speakers, sounds kinda like static. Seems to do this the longer the unit is on?

Overall, I am impressed with the gaming(graphics are killer) and ability to play BR movies all in one box. Plays and functions at a drop of a dime, unlike my Toshiba XA1. I think I'm going to end up returning it or selling it on Ebay.

Mike

Sorry about the bad experience. You might want to post it in the "PS3 as Blu-ray Player" thread. This thread is about the Sony standalone Blu-ray player.

Yeah, sorry just noticed I clicked on the wrong thread! I'll repost in the PS3 thread, thanks! Not really a bad experience, I'm hoping it's just a "beta bug" and I'm sure it will get resolved?

Mike

I have a question about upconverting standard dvds with the Blu-ray player. I have a Pioneer 5070, which passes 24p. When I view a standard dvd, is it possible to upconvert to 1080p or only to 1080i? I have not been able to get the tv to register 1080p as it does when playing a Blu-ray disk.

720p is tops for upconversion via HDMI. 480p via component, unless the disc isn't copy protected.

I'm happy to report that it has been a week since I exchanged for my third Sony BDP-S1 and I have not had any problem with it. I guess it was just extremely bad luck on my part to get two duds in a row. I hope it continues to play nice.

I am on my third player and still experiencing skips and freezes. I am returning the Sony and getting the Pioneer. Hopefully that fixes the problems.

Norm

I still have the original Sony box, which says "dvd upscaling to 1080p". Does this mean that the player can upconvert all the way to 1080p?

Yes, there is no limit on upscaling DVD via HDMI. Most newer players can upscale DVDs to 1080p.

The only restrictions on DVD upscaling apply to component output.

Yes, excuse my previous senior moment. There are only limits via the component interface.

That is what I thought. I have tried upscaling a regular dvd with the Sony BD player and can get 1080i on my Pioneer 5070 but not 1080p - yet I can get 1080p when watching a Blu-ray disc. Am I doing something wrong? I get 1080i by setting the Sony to Direct.

This may be of interest to those who are using a connection similar to mine. I am using a HDMI-DVI cable to connect to the DVI input on my Sony KDF-70XBR950 HDTV. I've experienced some changes in black level that I first noticed when I played some Warner Brothers VC-1 encoded titles. I later found that the black level was off on everything I was playing. I finally figured it out.

According to the manual (pg 45) the correct setup for connecting to a device with a DVI input is in the video setup menu, item "YCbCr/RGBPC" should be set to RGB (16-256). I've found that sometimes despite still showing "RGB (16-256)" under item "YCbCr/RGBPC", that sometimes the unit will be set for "RGB (0-256)" which is the setup for an RGB device rather than a DVI input. This drops the reference black level several steps below video black (DVI level), and causes darker details of the picture to disappear below black level on a properly cailibrated display.

I recommend that those using this unit with a DVI input be observant for changes in picture quality, particularly a loss of near black picture detail. If this happens, stop the disc, go to the video setup menu, and reselect RGB (16-256) although it already appears to be selected. If you notice a slight increase in brightness or any disruption in the video as you make the selection the unit was not set to RGB (16-256). If there is no change at all when making the selection, RGB (16-256) was already set.

At present I have to occasionally "remind" the unit that I've previously selected RGB (16-256). The occurances of this resetting I've noticed seem to correlate with turning on the unit.

The Pioneer 5070 can't display 1080p, so if you have the player set for 1080p output, your set is downconverting that signal.

The 5070 accepts 1080p/24 and the Pioneer display shows 1080p when watching a Blu-ray movie.

Your set can't display a 1080p signal. Its native resolution is only 1365 x 768. For 1080p display, you need 1920 x 1080 or better.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ist&sku=439537

It can't display a 1080p signal, bit it will accept a 1080p24 signal and scale down to it's native resolution. The benefit is that it will take the 24 fps signal and display at 72 hz, thereby eliminating 3:2 jutter.

Lisa- I think the problem might be that the player cannot output 1080p24 when upscaling SD DVDs - only 1080p60 which the display cannot accept. Just a guess.

Thanks Ghettogreg - I think that you are correct about the 1080p60.