Just picked up a new unit at Best Buy, and it appeared to be the only one they had on hand. Just had the chance to fiddle around with the player a bit and here are some quick notes.
HDMI audio bitstream - Sadly, I was not able to get the elusive DTS-MA logo to switch on on my Onkyo 605 receiver. Out of the box, and with the digital output set to bitstream, I only got regular ol DTS. Not sure if a firmware upgrade will ever allow a true pass through on the audio. However, it was interesting when I selected PCM as the digital output. I checked the display on the onkyo and it said PCM 7.1. I don't think it really means anything as the lossless DTS track on X-Men 3 is only 6.1.
Boot up and load times - About 10 + seconds or so from powering on to ejecting. Loading is a different story. Some of my discs got stuck during loading (Final Fantasy: SW) or just took awhile (Weeds S2 Disc 2). I'm comparing this to my PS3 which boots and loads almost instantly. The standalones still can't touch the PS3 in that regard. It was also strange that the main menu wouldn't even show the options on the FF disc. There was the background animation, but no way to select any options. I'm thinking this might be a java issue. Hopefully a FW upgrade will fix this.
Picture and audio quality - This is where the player seems to shine. With the 1080p and 24fps options on, I got a gorgeous picture via HDMI on my Samsung HLT6756 1080p set. From my first impression, it looked a tad smoother than the PS3's PQ, which was already great. I need to test some more discs, but the PQ is quite outstanding on this player. Audio also sounded nice although I haven't had a chance to do any extensive comparisons. Black Hawk Down and FF sounded just fine.
HDMI audio bitstream - Sadly, I was not able to get the elusive DTS-MA logo to switch on on my Onkyo 605 receiver. Out of the box, and with the digital output set to bitstream, I only got regular ol DTS. Not sure if a firmware upgrade will ever allow a true pass through on the audio. However, it was interesting when I selected PCM as the digital output. I checked the display on the onkyo and it said PCM 7.1. I don't think it really means anything as the lossless DTS track on X-Men 3 is only 6.1.
Boot up and load times - About 10 + seconds or so from powering on to ejecting. Loading is a different story. Some of my discs got stuck during loading (Final Fantasy: SW) or just took awhile (Weeds S2 Disc 2). I'm comparing this to my PS3 which boots and loads almost instantly. The standalones still can't touch the PS3 in that regard. It was also strange that the main menu wouldn't even show the options on the FF disc. There was the background animation, but no way to select any options. I'm thinking this might be a java issue. Hopefully a FW upgrade will fix this.
Picture and audio quality - This is where the player seems to shine. With the 1080p and 24fps options on, I got a gorgeous picture via HDMI on my Samsung HLT6756 1080p set. From my first impression, it looked a tad smoother than the PS3's PQ, which was already great. I need to test some more discs, but the PQ is quite outstanding on this player. Audio also sounded nice although I haven't had a chance to do any extensive comparisons. Black Hawk Down and FF sounded just fine.
























