Customer Reviews

Sony BDV-E580 Blu-Ray Disc Player Home Entertainment System (Black)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I did a lot of research looking at multiple surround sound systems and I'm very glad I chose this one. The surround sound and picture quality are great, the FM receiver works well (you'll just need to make sure the antenna is extended up as far as possible to help pick up the weaker stations), and it comes loaded with several different options for listening to music and watching movies/videos via the internet (i.e. Pandora and Netflix, just to name two) which work great. The set up was very easy (it comes with a DVD that I didn't even use), the speaker wires are all color coded so you easily connect the correct speaker to the correct wire to the correct plug on the back of the base unit. The only problem I had with the wires is that the ones for the two rear speakers were about 15 feet too short for the way I wanted to place them. I just bought a 75 foot coil of speaker wire from Walmart for $15 which I then cut and spliced onto the existing wire so I could run them down through floor, across the floor joists, and then up through the floor to place them where I wanted them. The only other minor issue I had is that for the first couple of days it would not start up and shut down properly. I had to turn it on, turn it off, and then turn it on again before I would get any sound. And when I would turn it off it would go into "stand by" mode for at least 30 seconds (during which time it would not respond to any input commands from the remote) before shutting off. But by day 3 or 4 these start up/shut down issues totally disappeared. Even with the two small issues I had I would definitely buy another one and recommend friends to buy one.

Ok, I read a lot of reviews on this product, and I understand where most people are coming from when they write these reviews. Ill break it down to my key points to keep it short.

- I linked this system to my Sony Bravia TV. It worked perfectly and took me less than 15 minutes to install. If your in the military and live in Germany, this product is dual voltage and does not require a transformer.

- I didnt have to use customer service because I have a brain and I used it to troubleshoot. I hear tons of complaints about Sony's customer service. Unless the product is broken in half, you probably just need to read the manual. It isnt that hard, either that or you arent that smart. Its 2011, this is technology, get used to it.

- I bought this to hook up my PS3 and XBOX - the two ports in the back of the system were perfect for this. If you need more ports then buy a multi hdmi out. Its not expensive and quit being lazy. Honestly.

- Overall ive had this product a month and never had any issues. 9 times out of 10 its the user. Sony makes a great product, people just love to complain. Yay internet, right? Now I get to hear about it all the time.

DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT IF YOU EXPECT THE EXACT SAME EXPIERENCE YOU WOULD GET FROM A MOVIE THEATER. THIS IS A HOME THEATER SYSTEM! HOME!!!! FOR A GREAT PRODUCT AT A GREAT PRICE, BUY IT!

I'm downgrading my rating because I'm beginning to have problems with this system. On three separate occasions, I have turned the system on and there was no sound. I had to turn everything off and then restart. Another major problem is that while watching television, the actors voice don't match their lips. There's some kind of delay.

Original review:

This sleek, stylish system pumps out a lot of sound, especially considering the smaller size of the speakers. The bass is rich without being overly heavy. The speakers have a great look with a piano black finish. If I had one complaint, it would be the lackluster remote. It's very basic, with all the buttons jammed together with no backlighting. You won't be able to use this easily in a dimly lit room.

I did a lot of research before buying this system and I got mine for around $400 on Amazon, for that kind of money I think I made the best choice.

I like to focus on the negative things first, I think they are the most useful.


Why 4 stars?
1) Remote control is very picky with a very narrow angle tolerance.
2) Sound quality is not 110% satisfactory
- - a) Bass should have been a bit better/deeper
- - b) Volume should have been a bit louder
- - c) Clarity could have been better
- - in other words it didn't exceed my expectations)

Positives
1) Everything else

Would I recommend this ???? >> Absolutely, buy it, you will have not regrets

I am reluctant to post a negative review, but I really feel compelled to alert others who might be considering a Sony product in this category. I have always loved Sony products, so it was an easy decision for me to purchase this home theater system a few months ago. However, from the first time we used it, we had a problem when using the volume or mute button on the remote: sometimes it would start muting intermittently about every other second (mute, then sound, then mute, etc.). The only way to stop this was to turn everything off, wait a few minutes, and then start again. Recently, the system's audio would not come on at all, and the remote control, which is the only access to check the system settings, would not work. I spent many hours on several phone calls with Sony customer service; they were very polite, but none of their suggestions solved the problem permanently: the audio would come back on after we followed their troubleshooting steps, we would end the call, watch TV without problem--and then the next day, no audio. Sony then told me to send the entire system back to one of their repair facilities (in another state)--at my own cost (at least $45), despite the fact that it is under warranty. I asked for a pre-paid shipping label, which they finally agreed to send me--and three days later, I am still waiting for an e-mail with that label.

I realize that any company sometimes produces a lemon, and I'm always willing to work with them to get it fixed. I also understand that the customer service reps are almost always doing the best they can. But while Sony's employees are very polite (as I noted above), their customer service system is extraordinarily inefficient: the telephone connections at their call center in the Philippines are so bad that I had to ask for e-mails so that I could understand what they were saying (because of the telephone connection, not because of accents)--but they told me that they did not have access to e-mail! Each time I called, they would insist on transferring me to the help desk to troubleshoot the technical problems, even after I had filled out an online work order to send it to a repair facility, which of course meant having to transfer me BACK to customer relations. I have no idea when I will actually get the shipping label or how long it will take to repair it. I would recommend that others considering a home theater system look at reviews both of the product and of the company's customer service. Sad to say, Sony has not come close to providing the sort of service its customer can reasonably expect.

This is a great product and I would highly reccoment it to anyone looking to buy a new home theater system. It was a little expensive but very worth the money.
-The sound is amazing. I no longer have to turn up and down the sound when people are talking or when there is action like I had to do with my old system.
-Set up was very simple. I could have used a little extra wire but it was easy to add some lengh so I could place the speakers where I wanted them in the room.
-Picture quality is amazing just as with all BlueRay so this was no surprise.
-The best feature is the internet streaming and the fact that the unit has wifi. Netflix streams perfectly and the picture quality is always amazing. And then there is Pandora. We use Pandora all the time and love the fact you can hear it through the house and dont have to be in the living room. I though I would use the iPod dock more but with Pandora its not really necessary. I do like the fact that I can use my iPod for the remote witch makes it much easier for looking at things on youtube or other internet sites available.
-Overall, this is a great product and well worth the money. It is a little expensive but you definately get what you pay for.

I purchased the Sony BDV-E580 on Black Friday from Amazon. I had read the reviews before buying so I knew what to expect; it's pretty good but not perfect. Expect some difficulties stemming from the initial setup. My experience:

I hooked it up, did the easy setup, did the software update, the apps show up, Netflix was easy to connect, awesome! But then I tried to play a Blu-Ray disc and just got a spinning white disc (loading graphic) in the middle of my screen. Forever. I reset the system, re-did the setup and it worked! Then I tried another disc and it didn't. So I reset it again, and it worked! Then it didn't... you get the idea. After some hunting online, I found something on their website that advised to set BD Internet Connection to Do Not Allow and suddenly it worked consistently. Alright!!!!

The picture looks incredible. The 1080p upscaling looks REALLY good. We watched Horrible Bosses on DVD from Netflix and I was amazed that a DVD could look that clear. I could have easily been fooled to believe we were watching HD content. The speakers are where the savings/low cost comes from. I'm an audio engineer and while it's easy for my ears to hear what's missing from the sound, it's as good as you can expect from small, light speaker drivers in light plastic housings. It's nowhere near hi-fi but I still think it sounds pretty good for what it is and doesn't detract from movies or tv at all. Overall I am pleased with my purchase. If you want the ultimate theater, this isn't the box for you. But if you want a lot of convenient features and don't need top of the line speakers to blow the roof off, it's not a bad choice (if you don't mind spending some time to get the setup right).

1. Ordered the unit
2. Arrived in 48 hours
3. Two hours after arrival, I was on the internet, watching You Tube, speakers were wired and adjusted, cable hooked up, and I was ready to watch whatever I wanted or to listen to cable radio or internet radio

The unit picked up our home wifi without a hitch.
Sounds great.

The only negative thing I can think of is the volume control. Our old Samsung had a numbering system for the volume. This might have it, but you cannot see the "settings" window while sitting in a chair, you have to be in front of the unit looking at the top of the unit. But, that is a very minor problem.

I'd recommend this to a friend.

This was purchased to replace an earlier Sony Home Theatre System that failed because a DVD became lodged inside the 5 DVD capable 'cassette'. I dismantled the old unit and was utterly amazed at the complexity therein. Gears, springs, levers, wheels and other unknown items everywhere. It is no surprise that Sony reverted to a single disc player.

As expected, the instruction manual was not well written and, of course, several calls (3) were required to answer some key questions. The customer support was amazingly seamless, quick and the technician in every case was knowledgeable and very helpful; most unusual in today's technical world.

The enclosed DVD which is used to calibrate all the speakers failed to produce a sub-woofer sound so I am uncertain if it is calibrated/positioned correctly.

The unit performs quite well once one figures out how to use it. I am satisfied with the performance and the value. There was one important function lacking in that the unit does not allow for shuffle play from my iPod which was an important feature to me. It does, however, play and re-charge the iPod simultaneously.

I use this unit in conjunction with my TiVo system, which I would not trade for anything, as well as a cable box and it worked quite well once I learned how to hook it up and waded through the seemingly illogical on-screen menu.

Do NOT get this if you have any desires for a ONE remote system. Was hoping this system would be easier to use but am disappointed.

Only get this if you're going to use it for BluRay and normally when watching tv,cable, or sat, you'll just use the tv's speakers. Otherwise it's annoying to be dealing with multiple remotes to get everything set to the correct input.

1) This system doesn't offer discrete input codes (remote doesn't have any and Logitech (our beloved remote) doesn't show any). What this means is that to go from TV to BluRay, or vice versa, you need to push a button called "function" over and over again to loop through all the inputs (tv,cable/sat,fm,hdmi1,hdmi2) . Extremely annoying and very slow. Even worse, there's no onscreen display of what input it's on. And when switching through fm, since we don't use fm, we were rewarded with very loud hiss. Only on the unit itself is there a tiny display, but that display is facing UP! So you can't really see anything from where most people sit, the couch.

2) Even the remote does NOT have any dedicated buttons for jumping to tv or bd direct.

3) TV is confusing because the unit actually has TWO seperate inputs, TV and Cable/Sat.

4) Tried hooking up two ways, A) all devices going through this unit and the TV just stays on hdmi1 and B) all devices going to TV and then an audio cable back to the sony for sound. Both work but what's lousy about B is that you have to rememeber to also loop through the functions to get the sony back to tv when you're done watching a BluRay. B allows easier video selection but not sound. Need to use two remotes.

5) Can't turn off or rename inputs.

6) No buttons on unit. It's just flat and touch sensitive but not reliable, we'd touch but the unit woulnd't acknowledge. It was easier to use the remote standing at the unit.