It took about an hour to set everything up and test all the functions. Overall, I am very satisfied with this player.
Some reviews about Sony Blu-ray players (not sure what model) that I had seen before I bought the unit said that there were problems with streaming HD Netflix movies. This was NOT true. I had no problems whatsoever with streaming HD Netflix movies. (Note: My Internet speed guaranteed by the provider is 12 mbps, I used a wired Internet connection to the Blu-ray player, and I have a 1.4 HDMI cable. I also have the setting for video quality on the Netflix site set to "Best". I think to successfully stream HD movies you probably have to set that to "best". And you need at least 10 mbps of Internet to be able to watch HD.)
Before I bought this, I had also seen reviews about Sony Blu-ray players (could have been other models) that said that the load time was slow. This was NOT true either. I don't notice any difference in time compared to a Sony DVD player.
Pros:
This product successfully achieves all the functions I expected it to fulfill. Namely: Playing Blu-ray discs, streaming Netflix movies (in HD and SD), and streaming Pandora radio. There is also a Netflix button on the remote control, which is nice, although it isn't hard to find Netflix in the menu list.
Cons & some notes to help you set up:
#1: They could have done a better job in the instruction manual to tell you how to set up the individual services, like Pandora, Netflix, etc. Basically the instruction manual just says to click on the icons on the screen and follow the instructions (for all services... there are no explanations for any individual services). But the instructions on the screen were either not correct, or they were missing steps, so it was not possible to set these services up based on the instructions that were on my screen.
For example, with Netflix, if you go into the Blu-ray Netflix menu, it says "type in this code at Netflix.com" and gives you a code. However, if you do what they tell you to do, at Netflix.com, it will say "this code has expired, get a new code." What I discovered after a little bit of Internet searching is that the code that the Blu-ray player gives you at that point, is not for Netflix. It is for the "Customer Central" part of Sonystyle.com. You have to go to Customer Central, create an account, and input that code for your Blu-ray player. Then, when you go back to your Blu-ray player, it will have a different code on the screen. It is this code, the second code after you register at Sonystyle.com, that you input in the Netflix activation screen. Then everything works fine after that. In the Sonystyle.com page, you can also see where to register for Pandora, which I did easily. There were a few more services listed on that page, but I don't think all the services that the Blu-ray player supports were listed there. So yeah. This was easily solved with a little research on my part, but basically there are no instructions anywhere in the manual or on the player that will enable you to set the services up without doing your own separate research about it online.
#2: It seemed like you could successfully run a Youtube search, but you cannot search for movies on Netflix successfully through the Blu-ray interface. There is a way to search Netflix, but when I did that (with 1 word only), the search results generated 2 random movies that had the keyword I typed in their title, but not the famous movies that I was intending for it to show (Netflix definitely has them). I tried a different keyword with similar results... the search returned some animated movies that were on the theme of what I was looking for, but not the famous movies I was intending for it to show. Not sure why this happened, why it would generate some results but not the intended results. So basically you need to use a computer to manage your instant queue. And if the movie you want to watch is in your instant queue, it is easy for you to get to it on your Blu-ray player.
