I got this to replace an older, much more expensive BR player from Pioneer. That one slowly came to a halt and wouldn't work any more. I didn't want to spend another $400 on a player, so I'd been using my son's PS3 for BR Disks but I could notice subtle differences (I'm a very visual person, I can pick up on things like this well). The way I figured, if I didn't like this unit I could put it into my bedroom where I only have a regular DVD player now so that I could watch BR disks there if I wanted. I'm keeping this unit right where it is though, it's that good.
First off, it's a Sony. Sony has come a long way in recent years to get their name back up in the higher quality realms. They went south for a while....but changes within their company that I won't get into here I believe were good ones in the long run. Their quality of both video and audio have been climbing upwards for quite a while and I've gotten to trust them again.
Just so you understand what I'm viewing this on and testing this with, I have an LG 47" 1080p TV, a high quality Denon receiver and 7.1 surround sound speakers. Everything might not be absolute top of the line but they're all excellent for what they do.
When I took this unit out of the box, my son's first response was "Wow, it looks so much like my PS3!". It does, just a bit smaller. Not a large unit at all, so it looks lonely on the shelf where my old, massive Pioneer player was. Plugged it into the wall and used the same HDMI cable that went into the old one (it plus from there into the Denon Receiver, which controls the signal back to the TV).
When I turned it on the first thing I noticed is that it certainly is a Sony....the menu screens look VERY similar to those on the PS3. I appreciate that kind of consistency in a company. After going through their handy walkthrough setup process which asks you some general questions about how you are going to use the unit, and setting up the WiFi (yes, this is built in you don't require a cable but you could use one if you wanted), I did a little more fine tuning and exploring of the menus.
I use Netflix, I've been using the service through my TiVo (that's right, I have tons of electronics and gadgets...lol), but thought I'd try it through the Sony BR player instead. To set that up you have to go through the menu on the player first, and then it instructs you to go online to sign in. Do that, (took 3 minutes) and your BR player immediately works for Netflix. I'm sure this is the process for other services I'm not using. The best part is, I actually noticed that this player seems to work better than the TiVo - it gets to my movies and shows quicker, which probably means it's downloading faster over the WiFi. This is my new Netflix player as well now.
Although my Pioneer had amazing quality video and sound, one problem I had with it was that it was very slow to boot up BR Disks. It could be a few minutes from when I hit the power button to when anything would start playing on the TV. This was kind of annoying, even after years of use. First, this Sony unit boots up quicker as-is....but if you turn on the option to have it fast boot (which uses a small amount of more power because it's "always on", even though the lights on the machine aren't on - it's how it prepares to start up disks quicker), it is super fast. I'm really happy with this feature.
So as previously mentioned my Pioneer was super high quality for video and sound. Nothing else I tried ever matched it before, until now. Honestly, I can't tell the difference in picture quality or sound quality from this little unit. My sub-woofer rattles the windows just like it did before. My surround sound speakers have me looking over my shoulder at subtle times during movies, etc. Granted, I do have the Denon Receiver which helps, but if the quality coming out of the original unit isn't good, it would be noticeable (for example, with the PS3 which wasn't quite as good as this one). The picture quality is spot on, another thing I noticed was different about the PS3 - the video quality wasn't as good as the Pioneer. It was good, just not amazing. This unit is just as good as the Pioneer was, which overall was the most shocking discovery for me.
If I had to gripe about anything with this unit it would be the buttons on the front. They're pretty flush and hard to see what they are labeled unless you are close and there's a lot of light. This is really, really minor and unimportant for the most part, unless you're someone who uses the buttons on the unit as much or more than the remote.
In conclusion, I never expected this unit to be as good as it is. I'm very happy with it and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a BR player. It's so inexpensive for the quality you receive.
-D
| Brand Name | Sony |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 1 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 2.87 x 14.17 x 10.83 inches |
| Item model number | BDPS390 |
| Batteries | 2 AAA batteries required. |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color Name | Black |
| Special Features | Compact |
