Buzzillions.com - Sony BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player Reviews

VERY, VERY slow

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:01 GMT

VERY, VERY slow

Chad von Nau from New York, NY

I work for the Computer Art Department at a large university in Manhattan. We bought this player to replace a broken DVD player in our presentation room, and have had to return it because of how SLOW it is. It takes upwards of 30 seconds for this player to start up. In that time you can't put the disc in, so you're looking at a minimum of one minute before you can get an image on screen. Compounding this problem is the lack of a "real" power switch. It only has a "soft" power-on switch, so in our configuration where we turn on our entire AV rack with one surge protector, this player stays off until you hit it's power button. We're just going to stick with plain old DVD, for now. We considered a higher-end blu-ray player, but from the reviews I've read, all the players out right now are similarly slow. In a presentation environment, we just can't live with delays from our equipment. We didn't really need the blu-ray capability yet and were just looking for a reliable player that was … Read more

Very Good Blu-ray Player For Money

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:00:01 GMT

Very Good Blu-ray Player For Money

Anonymous from Undisclosed

First thing I did before watching any dvd, I went to esupport sony and downloaded the latest firmware (a software patch...blu-ray players run Java) update for the unit. The firmware is an iso image that you burn to cd or dvd. Firmware upgrades can add additional features and improve performance of the player. Pop your new firmware cd/dvd into the player and it self-installs in about 20-30 mins. Anyway, I got the Blu-ray version of the 'BBC: The Planet Earth' series and the picture and sound were spectacular! Regular dvd's also play great too. Can't beat B&H's price...no tax..free shipping! Read more

Excellent pictures, incredibly slow machine

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00:01 GMT

Excellent pictures, incredibly slow machine

-shs- from Los Angeles, CA

The 300 makes great pictures, if you have the patience towatch the player go through its boot-up procedure. FromPower On to Tray Open takes minutes, loading the BD-DVDtakes minutes more. Very frustrating. Another frustration isthe to-date lack of an firmware upgrade to HDMI 1.3 specs.The set-up GUI is easy and fine, if sparse. Searching andskipping are pokey.So, great pictures, absolutely. Great experience, not there yet. Expertise: Journeyman Problems Encountered: No problems on installation or operation. Just frustratinglyslow operating system and interface. Items I Recommend: A good universal remote control (Harmony on one of their good days) Read more

Blue Ray has sharp details!

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Blue Ray has sharp details!

drasticv from Toluca Lake, CA

Great design gives it a sleek look. When turning it on, it takes longer than a minute for the tray to open up. I have heard this before so it may be common for these types of DVDs. With the HDMI connection, the picture is very sharp! I definitely noticed a difference in DVDs to HD Blue Rays. Disadvantage on all HDMI connection is that you don't get closed captions signal through it. If the DVD doesn't have subtitles, then you need to use a different connection and the quality reduces, big time. The manual section on hook-up is confusing a little on the variety of choices. HDMI is too simple and yet the manual shows to many wires with options that won't make sense to some users. You need to figure out the settings if you want PCM audio, mix-down, etc. You need to know which quality is better. First couple of days on using it, it locked up once watching a movie. I had to unplugged it from the back to restart it. It could be a dirty DVD but it hasn't happened again. My bigges … Read more

Sony Blu-Ray - worthy expense to upgrade

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:01 GMT

Sony Blu-Ray - worthy expense to upgrade

RobertS from Seattle,WA

After waiting out the battle over Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD I decided to take the plunge and upgrade my Sony 5-disk DVD player for Blu-Ray. My first movie was Flags of our fathers. WOW! Rocked my socks off. I still have my older 32-bit Sony 5.1 Sound system with a optical connection to my Blu-Ray - even that sounded better than ever before. The picture detail was unlike anything I have seen before. Sony has done it again with audio and video that are worth the upgrade. The unit takes 30 seconds to "boot up" considering the processor power needed - worth the wait. Read more