Reviews for Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc Player

BDP-S300

Strengths: Picture Quality

Weakness: Power on Time, Boot up Time, Selection of Blu Ray titles, Price

I held off purchasing this until the price was below $400. Amazon had a special with free shipping. Setup up was easy, just HDMI to TV, power cord, and left & right audio outputs to my surround sound.

First movie was Pirates of the Caribbean, great detail however it was only marginally better than my Panasonic S52 upscaling DVD player. The biggest difference was the lack of blurring during fast moving sequences or when the camera panned quickly. 2nd movie was transformers on regular DVD, again no major difference from my $89 panasonic player. 3rd movie was Bridge to Terabithia, this movie was not shown in wide screen but filled up the entire 40" Sony Bravia LCD. This picture was the best I've seen yet, you lose a little of the frame from left to right but gain much more picture overall.

Went to Sony's website and updated the firmware (quite easy to do with a DVD burner). Watched Premonition on blu ray, at 52 minutes in the screen froze. FF, rew, stop, etc had no affect, had to power the unit down. Skipped to the scene and this time had not issues. Later on in the movie more skips. Not sure if it was the disc or the firmware upgrade I performed. I'll update later if I continue to have the problem, if I do I will contact tech support and try to undo the firmware upgrade.

I'm only giving this satisfactory due to the disc skipping. If the trouble is a bad disc I'd raise it to 4 stars.

Turns out my problem was a bad blu ray disc, I've not had any skipping problems since.

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Great player-worked flawlessly from day one

Strengths: Great picture and excellent sound

Weakness: None for me

I bought this Blu-Ray player last July to watch movies and it has worked flawlessly for me from day 1. I am not a viewer who will use picture in picture (which this does not have)nor do I play any of the games which are on some of the discs. I wanted a Blu-Ray player which gives me full HD video and great sound. The audio sounds great on my surround sound system when I use it. Sometimes I just use the TV speakers and the audio is excellent. If you are interested in a Blu-Ray player with outstanding video and excellent sound this player is for you.

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Decent Player, Certainly Room for Improvement

Strengths: Plays Blu-Ray Discs, upconverts standard DVDs. Full 1080p output. Good array of audio outputs.

Weakness: No Dolby TrueHD onboard decoding, no Ethernet port. SLOW LOAD TIMES.

This player had promise--more reasonable price point, full 1080p Blu-Ray playback. However, this player is fraught with problems. The first thing you'll notice is the LONG LOAD TIMES. Blu-Ray Discs can take upwards of 2-3 minutes to reach the title screen, even after loading the latest firmware. While we're on the subject of firmware updates, the lack of an Ethernet port is completely UNACCEPTABLE when every other player in its class has one. The lack of this port means that you must download the update from Sony, burn it to a disc, and then load it in the player. What a joke.

Other than that, the player works fine. Blu-Ray playback is great once you get it loaded....the problem is getting there. This player would be a good option if it was $200. The player can generally be found for $400 or less, but this is just too much for a slow player with no Ethernet port.

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The format war rages on...

Strengths: Great picture and sound, lots of conectivity opotions.

Weakness: none yet

Truce! With the help of recent price drops I was able to grab this unit for just $256 at a local Military Exchange to go right along side my Toshiba HD-A3 (Black Friday $179) Now I have both formats for just over $400 not to mention 15 free High Def movies! In comparison to the HD-A3, the Sony player is way bigger and has more connectivity options, including a full set of 5.1 surround sound analog outputs. But as far as picture quality they're undistinguisable. The Sony also has the advantage to fully integrate with some Sony HDTV's as far as control is concern. But this matters little to me since I don't have a Sony TV. Overall a great buy for those who want to explore the HD world without braking the bank.

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Sony BSD-300 Blu-Ray DVD player

Strengths: excellent picture

Weakness: none

Very good picture quality. I have it set up with a Pioneer 60" Kuro plasma TV along with a Yamaha receiver with JBL wall mount 7.1 speakers. The picture is impeccable along with the best sound I have ever heard.

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Blu-Ray DVD

Strengths: Easy to use. Great Picture.Rental places like Flixster send Blu-Ray discs out that have less use which means more reliable.

Weakness: Not all DVD rentals are available in Blu-Ray format.

I hope Blu-Ray wins the battle in the DVD market.The picture quality is exceptional. The response time on the eject system is a little slow. Great buy and value overall.

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Finally, a Blu-ray Player Reasonably Priced!

Strengths: Better price point, plays CDs, Dolby TrueHD

Weakness: No memory for resume when unit turned off, slow loading, no remaining time display

Sony has finally come out their second generation Blu-ray player at half the original price of the original! The BDP-S300 is priced at $499.00 which looks like a bargain compared to their previous BDP-S1 model.

Besides the cost benefit, what else do you get with this player? Unlike the previous model the S300 can play CDs in addition to DVDs. This player has Dolby TrueHD capability installed. In addition, it seems to load slightly faster than the previous model.

Most of the weaknesses are shared by the previous model and Sony has not made any effort to improve on them. Specifically, when you turn the unit off, all memory has disappeared so that when to turn it on next time, you have to find where you left off. Very time consuming! A high-end product such as this should have memory for at least 6 discs.

The other complaint is that I would expect Sony to have a remaining time display in addition to elapsed time and total time displays. Sony offers this feature on most of its lower end DVD players, so why is this feature not possible on a high def player?

All in all, the BDP-S300 delivers what it promises. If it would correct some of these problems, it would be a first class product. The best improvement on this player is that Sony has reduced the price to make it affordable to more people wanting to get into Blu-ray technology.

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Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray Player is just awesome

Strengths: Excellent picture and build quality. Excellent upconversion capabilities.

Weakness: Long startup time (from powerup) and more than usual load time.

I bought the Blu-Ray player to go with my new Sony 50" 1080p Rear-projection TV. I have watched about 4 blu-ray movies so far (Superman Returns, Open Season, Mission Impossible & Fugitive) and have been blown away by the picture clarity. I have watched the Fugitive about 5 times already but I was able to see little things that I never noticed before in a regular DVD. I also threw in couple of DVDs that I own (Die Hard 3, Independence Day) and once again was impressed with the excellent job this player did to upconvert it to 1080p. Highly recommended.

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Very good Blu-ray player

Strengths: Blu-ray picture quality, easy setup, well built machine

Weakness: slow load time on Blu-ray Java titles, remote is not back lit, no HDMI cable included

I received this player last week and hooked it up to my 40V2500 Sony Bravia LCD via HDMI. Setup was very quick and easy. Load times are similar to other HD players. Power up takes about thirty seconds and loading Blu-ray discs and DVDs takes about another thirty seconds. The load times on the two Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-ray discs took almost two minutes each and navigating through their menus was a little slow. I watched Pirates 1 & 2 Blu-ray discs without any problems and the picture and sound quality was great. The picture quality on Pirates 1 & 2 is in the top tier of any HD disc released so far.

I tested a few other Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs and they all played fine. I could not tell any real difference in the DVD upconversion between the BDP-S300 and the HD-A2. Sound quality was also good although I am not using a receiver or surround sound speakers.

This player is not really a great value at $500, but overall, I am happy with the purchase. The player is very solid and Blu-ray discs look great. The player came with firmware 2.0 already installed, but hopefully a future firmware update can fix any slow load times with the advanced Java titles. I suspect many Blu-ray promotions, discounts, and new players are on the way so you may be better waiting until the fall to buy a player; however, if you are impatient like me, this seems to be a very good player.

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SONY BDP-S300

Strengths: Great picture when playing Blu ray Disk. Connected all audio connections at once except Coax, and all worked automatically...Great sound.

Weakness: Sloooooooooooooow loooooaaaaad times, One Blu ray disk to 5 Minutes before i could start viewing. No ethernet connectivity,Pricey for what you get. Standard DVD's Looked Grainy.

Beware of 5 Star ratings, Since they are usually posted by electronics sales people. I Purchased the Sony BDP-300 at a local retailer for $418.00 including tax, 3/13/2008, Returned it and got a full refund 3/17/2008.
Load times are to much to bare, Local Video rental very limited in Blu-Ray selection. After having it for 4 days i couldn't bare dealing with it anymore. My opinion for a player this disfunctional, it's worth $100.00 Paid to you by Sony Per day to test their new products.
The next Generation of blu rays to look for will be coming out soon. Sharp BD-HP50 Blu-ray Player (2nd Q 2008) and Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray Player (May 1st 2008).Click below for upcoming Bue ray players.

www.blu-ray.com/player...

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magnificant

Strengths: mutliple advanced features

Weakness: none

With this Blu-ray DVD player you will be able to enjoy movies in full 1080p format, the way how they were meant to be seen; wast of additional options that this DVD is offering will make that viewing session even more enjoyable

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Good player for ~ $ 300

Strengths: Picture quality, remote control, several audio-outputs

Weakness: S L O W loading, NO Dolby-HD or DTS-HD decoding.

I bought mine from WalMart.com for $ 350+ tax. Very easy out the box setup. Rather big and heavy unit. I bought HDMI cable from Amazon for $ 5. I upgraded the firmware to v3.3 and eventually to v3.7. No increase in loading and boot-up speed noted (with BD disks). It becomes annoying after a while. Anyway, great picture quality and integration with SONY Bravia TV. Remote has several functions and allows menu selection while DVD is playing - without exiting the movie. Has several audio outputs.

Mine started giving trouble a week into using it. The player would drop video and audio output randomly and this got worse, requiring the player to be returned.

Also, this player does NOT suppot DVD-HD audio decoding - which Samsung does support.

Overall a decent player for $ 300-350. It appears to be a "first generation" BD player and hopefully better (and faster) BD players will be released soon.

I am planning to purchase this again soon. This time I will buy extended warranty!

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Don

Strengths: Nice picture

Weakness: Movies Skip, takes a long time to load, terrible tech support

This is the worst BD player out there, It can not play a movie without skipping at the beginning or end. You cant access special features, the unit freezes at certain times, no wonder they dropped the price, they cant get rid of them. A word of advice, check out Samsung, LG or Panasonic, but stay as far away from the Sony.

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Needs work

Strengths: -Nice looking.

Weakness: -Slow -Pricey -No Dolby True HD and DTS-HD1, and HDMI 1.3 -No SACD

For this price, it needs to be much faster, and address all audio codecs. I'm sure Sony will eventually provide a killer Blu-Ray console that is affordable, but it's not here yet. Probably not till after Blu-Ray 2.0 specs are pushed. Wait a bit. In the meantime, just get a PS3.

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rian

Strengths: None

Weakness: does not play dvds. Locks up all the time.

I bought this blue-ray player today, and I'm taking it back first thing tomorrow. It started to play one DVD well, then I paused it for a phone call. That was a mistake. After 15 minutes trying to get it to play I gave up. Then it played Kill Bill okay, but lots of skips. After over an hour trying to get it to play other DVDs, I gave up permanently. I tried several different ones and the best I got was 4 seconds worth of the menue option. Then just a blank screen. I hooked it up with a HDMI cable to the reciever and kept switching ports. I rebooted several times, switched cables, etc...

Bottom line: Save your money! This is the worst piece of crap ever made. To bad all the major studios are going Blue-ray, because sony is supposed to be the best. And if this is the best they have, we are in a world of hurt. This is a defective product. I picked it up today shipped directly from the manufacturer. It will be going back tomorrow. Buying this product is no different than someone putting a knife to your throat and robbing you of $500. Trust me.

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Just got Lucky

Strengths: Don't care

Weakness: Tick tock tick tock

A year ago I would have told you that you would be crazy to buy Blu instead of HD just
looking at the price. My friend spent $1200.00. You believe that? Later I got my HD player
for the XBOX 360 for $200.00 and said "Oh Yea"! Then I started to try to buy movies that
I hadn't already bought on SD-DVD.(1200+) Well, I ended up having to duplicate a little
and learn patience. Things started to look brighter as the choices started to grow.
But after a while I got really frustrated that a lot of movies I wanted to own, were not
going to be on HD. So, while I was at Best Buy shopping for Xmas gifts, low a behold,
There lies a Sony Blu-ray player for!$299.00!. And on top of that, it was 20 bucks off
more for an open box. And since someone gave me a $50.00 Gift Cert. There was really
no choice. I had to buy it. That was before Warner Bros. switched sides. I finally made a
timely decision that I wouldn't regret.
But remember that friend of mine. I felt so bad that he couldn't see any HD versions,
That I got him and HD player for Xmas. "D'OH"!
In summation, I owned Betamax, LaserDiscs, Hi8 and Advantix cameras. You know as
well as I do, that 5 years from now we(I) will be in the same situation. Screwed no
matter what we do.

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An excellent Blu-ray player but a week upconvert...

Strengths: Blu-ray is awesome. Picture is the best with surround sound.

Weakness: Upconverted Player is very weak. The picture is shaky.

I am very disappointed in the upconvert player of this blu-ray combo DVD player. The blu-ray is great. Installation is easy. The size of the box is good compared to the older version. I used this player to play the picture I took with my HD camera.

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Don't Buy

Strengths: Good Picture

Weakness: Won't play newer Blu-ray disks

I have the latest firmware - 5.2. It won't play new blu-rays: Ran, Ong-Bak, or the PBS The War series.

I will not buy another Sony.

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Blu Ray may not be ready yet

Strengths: Picture Quality

Weakness: Unstable Requires constant updates

I've always thought Sony was over rated and this just reinforced that thought. When this thing works the picture is great but it's so unstable, it takes 3-5 to load up any Blu Rays. Regular DVD usually work fine and look great but if there's the slightest smudge or scratch -you'll have problems where regular DVD players don't. Newer movies seem to mess it up more and then you have to wait for the right firmware update to come out, without notice, to update it to maybe make it work. It skips, freezes, jumps ahead. I've never left a negative review in my life because I'm usually pretty easy going. This thing is not worth your $$!

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Doesn't hold up.

Strengths: It is Cheap

Weakness: Everything else

Received as part of a Christmas offer from Sony for buying a 46 in LCD TV, so I've only had it 4 months. The thing no longer works. It powers on, but then turns itself off and then tries to re-power up. Only way to stop it is to pull the plug. The DVD tray will not open or close. So now it goes for warranty repair with me paying the freight to the repair center. One expects top notch products from Sony -- this unit doesn't fit that profile either from a hardware quality standpoint or an operations standpoint. Others have addressed the slow boot up time. Others addressed the grainy picture on non HD DVDs. I would say the picture for the typical non HD DVD is no better or worse than what one would see on a cheap DVD player. I haven't watched any HD DVDs so can't comment on that, but it would seem that unless one is going to spend a huge amount on HD DVDs, blue ray players aren't worth the price. Just glad I didn't spend any money buying this thing.

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Sony BDP-S300

Strengths: Beautiful picture!

Weakness: must be very patient - a little faster after updating the system firmware with the online patch from Sony, but then the front panel stopped working, must use the remote - definitely needs future patch

Well the price was great and the quality and sound is extremely exceptional (the full 1080p gives it that extra edge!). Be aware if you plan to use this for your main theater; it is a little picky with the type of media you choose for making your home videos. Test it first.

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Good, but not great

Strengths: Nice user interface, plays movies without problems

Weakness: slow load times, sluggish response to commands, no decoding of TrueHD, DTS-HD MA

The BDP-S300 plays movies without problems. The picture quality is good.

However, it's slow to load, and sluggish when responding to the remote. Also, the player does not support the high-rez audio formats, TrueHD and DTS-HD MA.

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Sony BDP-S300 DVD Player

Strengths: great picture

Weakness: price

Blu-Ray movies need to come way down in price for me to buy all of my dvd's in that format. I usually reserve "keepers" as my Blu-Ray purchases. There also appears to be a few seconds adjusting up front when the dvd is first inserted into the player - perhaps set-up time? Overall though I am happy with my purchase.

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Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray Player

Strengths: Great 1080P picture, Easy firmware updates, Very good upconversion, unbeatable price

Weakness: Slow loading process, non-lighted remote control

This Blu-Ray player has it all for an unbeatable recently reduced price. Although the loading process and the power up process are slow I do believe that further firmware updates will improve that drawback. You also ge 5 free Blu-Ray DVD\\\'s with a mail-in rebate. Sony\\\'s firmware updates are more frequent than Samsung\\\'s and this is why I chose this Blu-Ray player.

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Sony BDP-S300

THE GOOD: Excellent picture quality on Blu-ray and DVD; DVD upconversion up to 1080p; HDMI output. THE BAD: Slow load times, particularly unbearable on newer BD Java discs like Pirates of the Caribbean; some minor video performance issues; no Ethernet port for firmware upgrades. THE BOTTOM LINE: The BDP-S300 is a decent choice if youre limiting yourself to a relatively cheap, standard-design...

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Sony Blu-Ray Disc Player (BDP-S300)

In the battle for next-generation movie supremacy both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have entrenched themselves as a strong competitor. With the release of the BDP-S300 Sony is aiming to compete with one of HD-DVDs advantages: price. The previous standalone BR player from Sony was the high-end BDP-S1 which retails at close to $1000. The S300 offers all of the functionality of the S1 in a much smaller...

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Sony BDP-S300

Testseek.com has collected 30 expert reviews for Sony BDP-S300 and the average expert rating is 73 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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sony bdp-s300

Sony Bdp-s300 receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 3 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #6 HD and Blu-Ray DVD player of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a product's...

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