Customer Reviews

Sony BDPS1000ES Blu-ray Disc Player

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This player replaces my 1st generation BDPS300, I have to say that this new player is so much better in the video quality. The color is very nice. I don't have to wait 45 seconds for the player to start, it only takes 6 seconds. The wi-fi on the new player is great. Having a Mac I was unable to download firmware but now it just updates automatically.

It doesn't have all the new stuff like 3D, but I'm not ready for that till a few more years down the road. Overall this player is the best I've seen. Thanks Sony for a wonderful player.

The Sony 1000ES is an excellent Blu Ray player. It has the same Crossbar GUI the PS3 ha and also nearly the same load times. I have about 300 Blu Ray titles and it plays all of them! The Super Bit Mapping really does work. I am seeing an image that rivals my 2K player! Standard DVDs look very good and that's because the 1000 ES uses the same Marvell chip as the Pioneer 09FD. Sure 700 msrp seems a bit steep but if you want to squeeze out every last drop of picture Q then the 1000 ES is a steal! Oh and I almost forgot to mention the excellent remote that comes with it. That and you get a USB stick to! If you can find this player for somewhat less then MSRP don't walk, run!!!

Summary:
The Blu Ray Player landscape has become increasingly competitive in the past year as players have gotten cheaper, faster, more complete and added new features like Netflix streaming or wireless connectivity. The Oppo's emergence of a very strong purist player effectively crumpled the ceiling for mid-range players in my opinion.

Sony's upper mid-ranged BDP-S1000ES is a very capable player offering quality DVD and BD images with the convenience of wireless connectivity. That said, I struggle to see the value proposition of this player priced at $700 to an educated consumer. It is quick, but not fast. It offers some neat features, but lacks what I consider the most meaningful non disc playback (ie Netflix). Its touted image enhancement features tend to render a synthetic image whose contrast and pop is delivered at the cost of relatively common jaggies. While some might prefer this image (especially on the smoothening engines of soem LCDs). I struggle to describe the overall image with its enhancing engines without using the word artificial or synthetic.

My biggest criticism is not with the player but with its price. At $700, this player is grossly over-priced in my opinion (this is reflected in my 6.5 value rating). The LG BD390 offers very similar dvd performance and more features at half the price. For those looking for simply quality DVD and BD playback, the Pioneer 320 is its equal in most ways at nearly a third of its price. Sony missed an opportunity to introduce a class-leading player by introducing this player as is at $300 or $400 with netflix and other video-streaming features. Simply put, there are so many better options at this price point - like an oppo and a roku or a lg 390 and a pioneer 320 - both combined at lower the cost than this player!

In the interest of comparing the 1000 against an established performer (Oppo) and a very popular player (LG), I thought I would provide some anecdotal commentary of their respective performance for SD DVDs. LG and Sony appear to use their own chipset while Oppo uses the ABT 2010. In regard to film cadence recognition, the ABT is one of the best and quickest. I noticed a rather unusual occurrence with the Sony. Unlike other second set lock-on recognition, the Sony seemed to require a few seconds to lock on in each set. This surprised me as it was relatively new to me in the repeating sequence. The Oppo requires lock on in the second sequence for 2:2 cadences, but once it locks on, it repeats without moiré. The Sony appears to repeat its recognition error on each set in a number of cadences.

The Sony must have some very active edge enhancement that threw off its performance on vertical scrolling text. There was readily apparent shakiness or hesitation in movement as the text moved up the screen. This was different from the video deinterlacing I saw in some lower performing players. This text hesitation was also visible in some DVD's opening credits on film.
For real world material, all three players do not differ that frequently to be perfectly candid. Only seldom does an interlacing appear. The Oppo offers realistic edge enhancement and fluidity in motion. The sony's edge enhancement is aggressive and does bring a more definitive contrast between images. That said, its enhancement does appear to come at the cost of fluidity and motion. This is probably a subjective area - some folks might like the pop it brings and might play better on the high hertz lcds that sony makes.

In the second chapter of killshot (with opening credits), I did see a minor jaggie in the bumper of the blue Cadillac with the LG and the Sony. This was not present in the Oppo (and the Marantz 7004). Edge enhancement was the strongest with the Sony in most scenes; this might be desirable for those looking for a very poppy image with a smoothening engine on an lcd. For me, I found it a bit unnatural on my plasma. Some details were enhanced at the cost of others ie the distinct lines of people against the scenery over-powered the details of their faces, predominantly in medium zoomed perspectives.

Sony PQ adjustments:
The overlaid display menu allows for +/-3 settings for the HD enhancer. It appears to have an impact on contrst and edge enhancement. I pasued a dark scene and noticed that the contrast between dark and light images was amplified with each increasing setting. The image revealed by the HD enhancer is brings out more detail as well and I think more HDish for most viewers. That said, it brings out a lot of jaggies. Back to kill shot for specific references...in the third scene after the screen door moire, Mickey Rourke walks in a house with vertical paneling. To his right (screen left), you can see very noticeable jaggies on the vertical lines with +3. At the zero setting, thereis no moire. To an untrained eye, the +3 yeilds a better image. It bothers me with the amount of jaggies it creates.

There is also a smoothening feature - I was unable to see that big of a difference, but did detect slight tearing on fast motion with it dialed off the zero default position.

Another note:
The Sony had trouble with three of my burned DVD+Rs. Both the LG and the Oppo played them without issue. I tried some of the non-playing discs on my Marantz and Onkyo HD DVD player and both played them without issue. I am not trying to indict the Sony for poor error recognition of burned media, but I do want to pt this out.

I was looking at the Oppo BD-83 for a while. I waited, because I don't think paying 500.00 for a Blu-Ray player was worth it. I knew the Sony 1000ES was 700.00. So, I still was hesitant. I wanted a player that did what a player is suppose to do, just play discs, with GREAT picture and Audio. Bells and whistles belong on Cell Phones, even though this unit has a few of it's own. Well, my patience was rewarded when I saw the 1000ES for 199.00 including shipping! The Oppo is still 500.00. I don't know what some reviewers are seeing on their screens. Maybe it's the settings, or the TV itself. But, this player has so smooth and deep of a picture on our display, I feel as though I can reach inside the screen and touch the action. It's that real. Yeah, I would never pay 700.00 for a DVD player, or 500.00. But, when Sony dropped the price on this unit to 199.00, with a 5 year warranty, you better go for it!

For those of you who have been holding off buying a Blu Ray player until prices have come down, this review is for you. Initially I had my eyes on the Oppo Blu-Ray but at $500 plus dollars there was no way. Then as players started approaching $100 I thought Oppo would come down (it didn't), none the less this Sony has significantly dropped it's price to the point at which it becomes competitive at with the entry level players. What do you get with this player for slightly more than the others. A five year warrantee, nice build, very nice picture and sound quality. That said I was still somewhat disappointed in certain aspects of this player. It could have been great but Sony skimped on remote design and on a rather clunky operating system. Particularly annoying, some useless buttons that will never be used, and then no mute button. The buttons are non-ergonomic and are all the same size.Ie. a button like play which should standout is just like all the others. There is no memory feature. So if you remove the disk or even change any of the settings you will have restart from the begining see all the warnings, renavigate and find your place. Very annoying. My old Sony remembered the place of the last five disks played. I do have to say video quality is beautiful with DVD or BluRay using HDMI and only marginally less when using component connection. Not sure how the entry level players will stack up, but my guess is that it's superior. Do not get this player if you're planning to stream from Netflix, for that go with the cheaper players. It is possible they may upgrade the players firmware but seems unlikely. The network connection may not even be fast enough to do it. That's the main reason the price has dropped as this player is becoming obsolete in that regard. Other than that, if you are strictly looking for great image with a well built player for a good price then get this one. ALso its fairly fast at loading. Fast forward is responive even if slightly annoying how the player jumps ahead in quick image burts. Not too many choices of speed, so that you often end up overshooting.

This is my 1st Blu Ray player and I bought it because it's an ES, comes with 5yr warranty, and has quite glowing review based on the picture and sound qualities, and to that extent this unit does not disappoint. Setup was not that difficult, and setting up wireless was not that bad. It saw my routers, and I connected it to my Netgear WNR3500. Connection was stable. I had the firmware updated, and it shut down after firmware update instead of restarted it - minor annoyance.
My biggest gripes are twofold:
a) it can not play my BBC Life discs. Yes those discs can't be played on PS3s, but some Sony players apparently will play the discs w/o a problem. I have since bought a lower-end Panasonic unit that's almost 1/2 the price and it had no problem playing the discs.
b) the DLNA support is horrendous. So far I have tried WMP11 and TVersity, neither one can be detected by this player. I am going to try some other DLNA servers available, but at this time, despite the claim it supports DLNA, it's useless and I've spent more time than I should setting this up.

Replaced another BluRay player with this SONY. Since it is an outgoing model the price was down to $179. At this price this is an excellent player. The picture is flawless on my 8ft projection screen, the sound impressive (for movie sound - I have not done an evaluation as an audiophile music player). Set-up is easy, even the WLAN connection worked within seconds and allowed the player to do a firmware update without any trouble.

This certainly was overpriced at the original list price, but now you can't go wrong with it.

Over the years, I have found that Sony always has the best mechanical transport mechanisms (VHS, DVD, etc.).

They literally last forever, compared to all other brands that have proved to have finite life spans.

Case in point, I bought this Sony BD player because my Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD would not play many of the discs/movies that I bought. CAN'T READ DISC, DISC NOT READABLE, WON'T PLAY, etc.

I would send them back and good ol' Amazon would give me a refund. BTW, that's why I purchase everything I can through Amazon, and my card info stays safe too.

After sending back many movies, I finally realized that all these movie discs could not be bad. It had to be my Pioneer BD player that was at fault.

I proved this to be true by purchasing this Sony player, which I knew from past experience had great transport mechanisms. If anything could play these discs, it would be a Sony player.

Sure enough, all the discs that would not play on the Pioneer played perfectly on the Sony. Amazon will be relieved to hear that too - less unnecessary returns.

Note that the picture and sound quality are equal between the two machines, so purchasing the Pioneer wasted $800 of my hard earned bucks. And the Sony has Wi-Fi. The Pioneer doesn't. Of course, if I had purchased the Sony back then, I would have payed $700, not $180. Great deal too!

I also have a Pioneer 60" Elite Kuro plasma set, which went black (not the good black) 2 months after I purchased it. Pioneer's local service was a nightmare! It took over a month to get it repaired.

To be fair, it was not Pioneer's fault. It was the disreputable authorized Pioneer service trying to rip-off Pioneer for higher service fees by charging Pioneer extra for taking the set into their shop, when all they really had to do was replace a module in house (my house).

Note that all new TVs are modular. If a local authorized repair service wants to take your set into the shop, question their motives and call the manufacturer to report their fraudulent intents.

Bottom line, buy Sony if you want quality stuff that works forever.

This unit rocks and is made in Japan. Get them while you still can folks.

Excellent video. The sound quality is a significant improvement over the other lower-priced Sony players. I did not expect to use this player to listen to CD music but I find myself using it very often.