610 of 631 people found the following review helpful:
Sony BDP-S350 vs. Panasonic DMP-BD30K: DVD Upconversion, etc.
I went to Circuit City yesterday to purchase the Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-Ray Player. As the salesman showed me where the Blu-Ray players were located in the store I told him I was interested in the DMP-BD30K. His response was that I should consider the new Sony BDP-S350 instead. He claimed that the BDP-S350 had received great reviews and is a better player than the...
158 of 164 people found the following review helpful:
Which is better? This player or the Panasonic DMP-BD35K? I bought them both and tested them side-by-side!
I take my home theater hobby pretty seriously, that's why when it came time to invest in a Blu-Ray player (finally the wait is over!!!), I did a ridiculously great amount of research. I was willing to spend much more money on a blu-ray player, but the prices have come down so much, you don't have to! I narrowed down my extensive search for the right player to the...
This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
I went to Circuit City yesterday to purchase the Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-Ray Player. As the salesman showed me where the Blu-Ray players were located in the store I told him I was interested in the DMP-BD30K. His response was that I should consider the new Sony BDP-S350 instead. He claimed that the BDP-S350 had received great reviews and is a better player than the Panasonic DMP-BD30K. Usually I don't listen to anything the sales people at Circuit City say, but this time I decided to see if he knew what he was talking about. I did some quick research online, while in the store, and discovered that he was correct about the Sony receiving decent reviews. I had my mind set on the Panasonic DMP-BD30K after months of research and waiting until the price dropped below $300, so the prospect of the Sony BDP-S350 through me for a loop. I decided to purchase both players, try then both out, and then return the looser.
I have to admit that the results surprised me. As I said before I had my heart set on the Panasonic DMP-BD30K, but after installing the 2 players and carefully comparing their image quality and features the Sony BDP-S350 is the clear winner in my opinion.
Panasonic DMP-BD30K: (Profile 1.1)
The start up time was respectable (as the reviews I had read indicated) and the menu interface was straight forward and relatively easy to navigate. After setting up the player, my first test was to compare its ability to upconvert standard definition DVDs with my now obsolete Toshiba HD-A20 HD-DVD player. I had read online that the DMP-BD30K's upscaling abilities had something to be desired and my tests confirmed this. To be honest the results were a little disappointing. Next, I decided to move through the players setup menu and change a few settings. At this point I made another disappointing discovery. If for any reason you need to access the players setup menu while you are watching DVD or Blu-Ray disc the player will not remember where you left off. When you exit the menu and resume play, the disc will start playing from the beginning of the disc. Although accessing the setup menu looses your place on the disc the Panasonic does remember where you left off if the DVD is stopped or the the player is shut down and then turned on again. Other than these criticisms the DMP-BD30K is a very nice player that yields excellent results using Blu-Ray discs, but doesn't do a great job with SD DVDs.
Sony BDP-S350: (Profile 1.1, but soon to be updated via firmware to 2.0)
The Sony player was a pleasant surprise. The start up time was very respectable, and was comparable to the Panasonic DMP-BD30K. After setting up the player I proceeded to run the same tests that I ran on the Panasonic. I had read online that people were impressed with the BDP-S350's upconvertion abilities, but having owned multiple Oppo DVD players (in my opinion, some of the best out there) I was skeptical. I put in a SD DVD and could immediately see the improvement over the Panasonic. Although the image is a little softer compared to my obsolete Toshiba HD-A20 HD-DVD player, and my other Oppo DVD players, it was still excellent. It made the Panasonic's upscaling abilities seem unrefined and outdated. Next, I then jumped into the players setup menu and changed the players output resolution. What really amazed me was that when I exited the menu the player began playing my disc where I had left off. Finally, I tried powering the BDP-S350 down while in the middle of a DVD. When I powered the player back on it remembered where I had left off and began to play the disc. The Sony BDP-S350 seems the winner in my opinion due to its superior upconversion and disc playback memory.
Finally, I wanted to add that I read a review comparing the Sony BDP-S350 to the new Panasonic DMP-BD50K that declares the DMP-BD50K the winner (http://hdguru.com/first-review-of-sonys-latest-blu-ray-player-exclusive-sony-bdp-s350-vspanasonic-dmp-bd50/256/). This may be true, but the almost $300 price difference makes me feel that this is an unfair comparison. In my opinion, the Sony BDP-S350 is currently one of the best deals out there.
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This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
I take my home theater hobby pretty seriously, that's why when it came time to invest in a Blu-Ray player (finally the wait is over!!!), I did a ridiculously great amount of research. I was willing to spend much more money on a blu-ray player, but the prices have come down so much, you don't have to! I narrowed down my extensive search for the right player to the Panasonic DMP-BD35K and the Sony BDP-S350. **I BOUGHT THEM BOTH AND DID A "SIDE-BY-SIDE" TEST!**
I have some nice equipment, so I feel that the test was an excellent representation of the capabilities of these two players. My equipment includes a 100-inch Stewart screen with a 1080p Sony Pearl front projector, an Integra 9.8 DTC processor (with all the latest surround sound goodies), an NAD amp, 7 Paradigm Signature speakers, and a dual M&K subwoofer (for full 7.1 surround sound).
I do understand electronics, but the Sony manual was really hard to follow. After only one call to Sony, I eventually got the player set up properly. After I set up the Panasonic, everything became much clearer. The Panasonic manual is so much better. But, who really cares about manuals? How do these two players perform side by side?
Audio for BOTH Blu-ray discs and standard DVDs: The Panasonic unquestionably has better audio. Compared to the Sony, the highs were much clearer. The 7.1 surround sound put me right in the middle of the "explosion" (my first test blu-ray disc was National Treasure I) when the Charlotte blew up. The biggest Audio difference was the bass. The bass in the Panasonic was so much better than the Sony. In fact, my old Sony standard-DVD player had better audio than the Sony BDP-S350. I'd give the Sony 3 stars with the audio. The Panasonic had outstanding treble, bass, and surround: 5-star audio!
Video for BOTH Blu-ray discs and standard DVDs: The Sony's video was ok, but the Panasonic's video was fantastic. The skin tones were more realistic and the colors were more vibrant with the Panasonic. The Sony seemed to have a thin gray film over everything -- like looking through a filmy-dirty window. The Sony had 4-star video, the Panasonic and its upscaling gets an easy 5 stars!
Both my wife and I did the "side-by-side" test by going back and forth between Blu-Ray discs and standard DVDs. We didn't discuss any of our thoughts until we each independently formed our own conclusions. After seeing and hearing both players, we were both in complete agreement that in every way the Panasonic DMP-BD35K was superior to the Sony BDP-S350.
By the way, the card slot on the Sony for BD-Live is very hard to get to. I do like Sony as a brand for some things, but not Blu-Ray players.
Also, to save you some research time, I've already checked out all of the professional reviews including the ones on CNet.com: The Sony is considered ok, and CNet liked the Panasonic so much that it is the first Blu-Ray player EVER to receive CNet's "Editor's Choice Award."
I have to go to the store now and return the Sony player that I bought. I'm keeping the Panasonic!! :-)
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This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
I purchased my BDP-S350 from Sony Style web site. This is my first BD player. I was waiting for the format war to end once it did I read a column by David Pouge in the New York Times that said you might consider waiting to making the jump to BD until the next generation of players to come out on the market.
This one loads pretty fast. From what I read it is much faster then older models. I was upgrading coming from a Sony 5 disc up converting DVD player and that thing was slow so I'm very satisfied. The picture is awesome and the audio is great too. I don't even have it connected to a amp that does Dolby Tru-HD or DTS-MA. That will be my next purchase.
There is only one thing that I'm disappointed with the player has the Bravia Theater Sync feature. Which works great with my Sony amp. But for some reason the DVD remote will only control the volume for the TV not the amp. So I still have to use a second remote for volume on my Sony amp. This makes no sense to me.
We watched Batman Begins, Mission Impossible III, and the Bucket List on BD so far. Batman Begins was jaw dropping good from an audio and picture quality issue. My wife said she had no clue that a DVD could look that good.
I also watched Stop Loss on a SD DVD and that look pretty good too.
The DVD player has a slot in the back for a USB drive and it also has a ethernet port so it can connect to the net for firmware updates and to access bonus features.
There is another model the S-550 due out in the fall it will cost more but it decodes all the audio inside the player.
Overall a week in I'm happy with the purchase and I'm happy I waited for this model.
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This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
My previous Blu-ray player was a Sony until late last year when I purchased a Panasonic DMP-BD30 which had all the latest profile upgrades. The biggest problem with the Sony was its slow loading time.
With the BDP-S350, this has all changed for the better. Load time have vastly improved and it is a Profile 2.0 player. Picture quality is stunning, but most Blu-ray players display this picture.
One of the best features of this player is its size. Sony has been able to reduce the size of the player to just over a 2" height and only 8-3/4" deep. Sony's previous model was nearly 15" deep and just over 3" high.
Finally Sony adds a remaining time function to the display. Previous models only had a elapsed and total time display, so you had to do the remaining time in your head. Most Sony DVD players always had this function, but this is a first for their Blu-ray players.
Main complaint I have with this unit (a minor one) is that you cannot turn off Sony's GUI control panel (Xross Media Bar) over the desktop pattern--it is always on unless you are playing a disc. I use this player with a front projector and it looks tacky for guests seeing my control panel over the desktop. Sony didn't do this with their DVD players, so why do it with this new technology? About the only time you even need to use the GUI is when you are setting up the unit or add new equipment to the player.
All in all, Sony did a great job with this player. It's easy to set up and offers an outstanding picture.
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This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
Ok,my HD player of choice was HD DVD. I own about 100 HD DVD disks. These players were far less expensive than Sony Blu Ray. The movies were generally less expensive than Blu Ray. HD DVD had more features, easy to update on line, less expensive...easy choice. The dreaded evil Sony corporation was not going to get my business.
When Toshiba pulled their product after the major studios dropped them, I was shocked and annoyed. What did evil Sony do to get the others to drop them?
After the demise, Sony showed no signs of putting out a good player at a reasonable cost. I didn't want a bulky Playstation. There was plenty of HD DVD movies out there, and at bargain prices.
Then last month a crazy thing happened. Sony released the BDP-S350 to rave reviews. I held out no longer and bought mine from Amazon for 344, no tax, free shipping. I got it within a week.
I just set it up. Took about 15 minutes. It would have taken less but the audio set up confused me a bit. God forbid I read the instructions.
Anyway, I bought a single BluRay disk and played it.
The picture and sound were nothing short of wonderful. I'll buy a few disks as they are still way too expensive, and rent from Netflix or Blockbuster. I am very impressed with the quality of this unit, and consider me a convert.
I recommend this machine highly, and congratulations to Sony for finally waking up!
Update: I bought a Yamaha RX663 so I can enjoy the Tru HD and Master HD sound. Yamaha only recognizes Bitstream signals. The S-350 audio choices are PCM or Direct, no Bitstream. The solution is to choose direct, and Voila, it works! You will not get the uncompressed sound unless you do this! I hope this helps.
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This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
I previously gave this player 3 stars. I now would upgrade to 4 but Amazon won't let me change the rating.
The good news: the picture quality with this player is great. I won't belabor this as it's covered in the other reviews. The player has a nice low profile and setup out of the box is easy.
One thing to note: by default the player converts Dolby Digital and DTS to 2-channel PCM. There are items in the audio setup menu that let you change this.
You may find the menus to be a pain. Generally, I find navigation with this player to be confusing. The remote is not great. Tonight I hit the wrong button (in the dark, of course) about half a dozen times. Each time, I wound up staring at a message saying that the player could not resume play from the menu I had reached and I would have to start playing the movie from the beginning. So I had to hunt through the scenes to resume. My existing DVD player easily resumes; and it stores the resume points on the last 30 discs played. This player will not remember your location on a disc if you a) open the disc tray, b) play another title, or c) it just plain may not do it (manual, p. 31). Why??? (Update: This weekend I hooked up our old Rotel DVD player in parallel and my 15-year old daughter was thrilled. More than me, she really dislikes operating the Sony player.)
Many of the other reviews compare this player to an earlier generation of Blu-Ray. If you're upgrading from first generation BluRay, probably you will be pleased. If you're upgrading from DVD, you might find your existing player more convenient. But the picture when playing a Blu-Ray disc is spectacular.
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If you're looking for reviews on the Sony BDP-BX1, check out the reviews for the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player. The BX1 is basically the S350 repackaged with a unique part number for Costco (so other retailers don't have to match their low prices). You'll find more than 100 reviews there that should apply to the BX1.
I've had the BDP-BX1 for a couple of months now, and I really like it. The player's crossbar menu system is very straightforward and easy to configure. Blu-Ray discs take longer to load than standard DVDs, so be patient.
I don't have a 1080p TV, so the quality for me is the same as watching a 1080i HD program on TV. You should read the reviews for the S350 to find out how well it works for 1080p.
It does a great job of upscaling standard DVDs - I have Batman Begins on both DVD and Blu-Ray, and after watching/pausing the same scenes, I've noticed the quality in 1080i of the upscaled DVD is amazingly close to the Blu-Ray.
It supports BD-Live, as long as you get the latest firmware. Go to Network Update in its menu. If you look at the System Information, the last 3 digits of the version should be 010 - that indicates BD-Live is enabled. You can confirm this by going to Sony's support site for BDP-BX1. But note - you need to insert a USB flash drive in the back and reboot the player before the BD-Live content begins working.
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This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
After mourning the death of HD-DVD for a while, which reduced my Toshiba HD-DVD player to upconverting DVD's to 1080P, I decided to buy a Blu-Ray player.
I already had a PS3 and have watched Blu-Ray movies on it. Athough it does a great job, I wanted something that was plug-and-play that would play nicely with my Logitec remote and the rest of my equipment while also fitting in my rack.
I was looking for a player that supports the new lossless HD audio, 1080P/24 video, had HDMI 1.3 and has a ethernet port for upgrading the firmware as well as possible BD Live capability. I also did not want to spend a fortune. I did not need the player to internally decode the audio since my Onkyo 606 receiver has that capability.
I reasearched several players by looking at reviews from both the Home Theater magazines and the AVS Forum before deciding on the S350.
Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase from Amazon and the performance of the player. I would recommend it if you either have (or plan to upgrade to in the future) a receiver that decodes Bitstream over HDMI. If you are planning on sending audio directly to the TV (a big mistake if you want the full movie experience) then there are cheaper players that will "just play" Blu-Ray.
Pros:
-Loads quickly compaired to most other models (almost as fast as the PS3)
-Have had zero issues with playability of any of the discs I have watched.
-Upgradeable in a few months to BD Live
-Supports all the current audio and video codexes
-Small formfactor and silent operation
-Easy to use menus
Cons:
- Does not internally decode HD audio to PCM. It will require either a reciever that decodes HD audio bitstream (which I have and is not an issue for me) or it will send regular Dolby Digital to your receiver.
- Requires a USB memory stick for HD-Live (once it is available).
- Fast Forward is not extremely smooth and it does not perform single frame advance.
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This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
As many other reviews (including professional ones) have described, this is one of the best blu-ray players available in this price range right now.
I don't have much to add to those reviews, but will make two quick points.
(1) If you have a Bravia tv, the player and the tv work together well (e.g., you can use the remotes to control both, can have the tv automatically turn on and switch to the BD player).
(2) If you play a regular dvd in this, you will get upconversion (electronic conversion of the 480p video to 1080p video), but I found that my Oppo 981 dvd player's upconversion was noticeably better (sharper & clearer picture).
So I'd definitely recommend this player for blu-ray, but you might want to hang on to your Oppo for playing your dvd collection.
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This review is from: Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player (Electronics)
Until very recently, the conventional wisdom was that the Sony Playstation 3 -- primarily a video game console -- was universally the best option for those looking to get into Blu-Ray discs. Now with the release of the S350, and its late-September price drop, that is no longer the case. Which option is right for you?
As of this review (Oct. '08), the PS3, plus the remote which is sold separately, comes to about $420. The S350's suggested retail price of $299 undercuts that by $120. Both machines feature an ethernet port which allows it to be updated all the way to Profile 2.0, although the S350 will require a flash memory card to do this whereas the PS3 presumably uses the attached 40GB hard drive. Up to this point, Profile 2.0 features have not been very appealing, and you may have no desire to update at all. Both machines are capable of outputting 1080p at 24fps, to more accurately represent the frame-rate associated with American cinema, but you will only be able to make any use of this if you have a 120hz set. And of course both machines will function as upconverting DVD players.
The S350 seems to have eliminated the problems most reviewers were associating with the S300, Sony's previous entry-level model. There were reports indicating a higher than usual failure rate on the S300, but with the S350 on the market for a few months now it seems that this has been remedied. The load times, once a 2-3 minute inconvenience on the earliest Blu-Ray players, are barely noticeable on this player and are not much worse than the load time on a DVD. I have NOT noticed the drive being unusually loud, which another review mentions -- in fact, if I have A/C or a fan running, I can't hear the disc drive over that and the movie.
The S350 is a solid entry-level Blu-Ray player, with all of the Blu-Ray playback functionality of the PS3, but for more than $100 less. If you're interested in a Blu-Ray player, and you prefer the reliability of the Sony brand, but you have no interest in video games, the S350 should be your first choice.
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