Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Sony BDPS1700 WIRED Streaming Blu-Ray Disc Player (2016 Model)

Top positive review

193 people found this helpful

The child lock problem/ can't open disc tray problem has been fixed!! hooray!!

ByDorian Lopezon July 24, 2016

I just wanted to write this small review to let everyone know that a longstanding plague on this model of sony blu-ray player has finally been fixed.

Here is my story: I was looking for a blu-ray player for the living room. I have a PS4 in my bedroom and it has always played blu-rays without any problems, but there was a need to have a blu-ray player in the living room for the whole family as the dvd player we had owned for a long time finally gave out. I went to my local target and picked this blu-ray unit up for $67 (it was on summer sale during " summer movie rush", normally it retails for about $150). This is the model that needs an ethernet cable not the one that has wifi. But I figured we dont need all that streaming stuff, all i needed was a good box that can play a disc. I took it home and it worked for 1 day. Then i turned it off and didint use it again for about 10 days. When I went to use it again on sat night all of a sudden i couldn't get the tray to open. Every time i pressed the open/close key on the remote or on the box itself i would get a message saying that the child lock is on and the eject key is disabled. When i would press the 3 keys to disable child lock (STOP-HOME-TOP MENU) it would say on the screen that the child lock had been disabled but then when i would hit the key to open the tray i would once again get the "child lock has been enabled" message. In effect, the bluray player was trapped in a vicious loop and what it meant for practical purposes was that i had spent my money a paperweight instead of a bluray player because there was no way to get a disc into the player. I tried re-setting to factory settings several times and it still did not work--the disc tray remained locked. Given the fact that i had barely used the blu-ray player i was very upset.

I went online to research the problem and found that many people had experienced the same problem that I had and there was a lot of anger in the sony users forum and other places where the problem was discussed. I had spent over 5 hours trying to fix the problem and had come to the conclusion that the unit was a piece of junk. I had come to the decision to return it to target and buy a samsung blu-ray player instead (they are much more expensive), when i noticed one thing that i had not yet tried. I went to check the firmware update. On user forums online people had said that earlier firmware updates to this unit had not even addressed the problem and that it was a waste of time. When i went to the sony website to check on the firmware update I saw that the latest update was only a few days old. THE LATEST UPDATE WAS DATED JULY 12th, 2016--only a week old!! And among the various notes for the update one of the bullet points said "fixes a recurring issue with the child lock feature." This was vague, but i figured i had nothing to lose since the worst that could happen was that it wouldnt work- in which case i was no worse off than i already was, and i would return the unit to target.

I followed the directions for installing the firmware update to the letter. I downloaded the file from the website and then unzipped it on my computer and transferred the unzipped update folder to my usb memory stick. the memory stick was then plugged into the usb socket in the front of the unit and i started the update process via the bluray player's menu. You may need to run it more than once. The first time i got a message saying the update had failed and to try again. The second time i tried the update went smoothly, with no problems at all. After checking the firmware version on the blu-ray player to make sure that the new firmware was in place i decided to put the blu-ray player through the wringer.

After close to 3 hours of testing, putting in different discs (both dvd and blu-ray), stopping the movies in the middle and ejecting, turning the unit on and off, pressing the open/close key several times in a row with no disc etc. i am glad to say that the tray did not lock even once. I can now open the tray and successfully load and unload discs every single time. The problem now appears to be fixed for good.
If the problem recurs, i will update this review.

The unit came with the extremely buggy firmware M30.R.0040 out of the box. The firmware must be updated to version M30.R.0306
Important--After you download the new firmware file onto your computer be sure to check and see that it is 147,379,972 bytes before attempting to transfer it to your bluray unit. If the file is not the amount of bytes specified then you have to download it again. In order to get the info on a pc you can right click on the downloaded zip file,or on a mac you can control click and then choose "get info."

The unit itself is very compact (anything that saves space is great in my book) and is excellent for what it is--a barebones blu-ray player with excellent resolution and colors. It will also upconvert your dvd's. This will not play 3d blu-rays nor will it play 4k material. If you want those functions then you need to get a different model blu-ray player. Also please be reminded this is the ethernet version of the player---this means that if you want to take advantage of the internet capacity on this blu-ray player to access some of the streaming functions you have to run an ethernet broadband cable from your internet router/hub to the back of this unit. This unit DOES NOT have wi-fi capacity. If you want your bluray player to connect to the internet via your home wireless network then you have to buy the next model up in the chain. In my house our internet router for cable tv and internet is in our basement, so we use this bluray player strictly as a box to play discs. Again--it is a very good player for what it does and I feel that it has a lot of punch for such a small device. It does get a star off however because no owner should have to go through as much aggravation as I did in order to get such a basic function as opening the disc tray to work properly. Sony should have these units with the updated firmware right out of the box.

The sony firmware website for this model bluray player is [...]

I hope this posting has been helpful and happy blu-ray watching to all!!

Top critical review

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4 people found this helpful

Player defective

ByEmily Barbaroon March 28, 2017

We bought this Blu-ray player in mid-November as a replacement for another Sony Blu-ray that had failed. The original player stopped producing the audio on many of our non-Blu-ray discs. Then this is replacement player would not play the audio on many of our non-Blu-ray discs as well. Since the problem with both players was identical, we thought it might be disc deterioration.

Those discs we thought were deteriorated we found played perfectly on an 20-year-old Pioneer non-Blu-ray player.

We finally contacted Crutchfield; and, from the explanation we provided them, they were immediately certain we had a defective Sony player. We bought a Samsung player from Crutchfield, and it works perfectly.

We're going to attempt some compensation from Amazon, and will update this review.

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Showing 21-30 of 448 reviews(Verified Purchases). See all 484 reviews

It works perfect! every single Blu-Ray DVD plays now

ByDMHon October 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

I'm from Brazil, and every time I go visit my family, I always buy some DVD and Blue Ray in Portuguese to help my bilingual son with his Portuguese. But some of them just doesn't work on the Xbox. Finally I decided to buy this Blu-Ray, which was supposed to be universal region. It works perfect! every single Blu-Ray DVD plays now!

11 comment 9 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

DO NOT BUY Painfully Slow

ByRich D.on June 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

Horrible, do not buy! It is terribly slow, difficult to setup and has so many issues I cannot list them all. This is just another piece of worthless hardware from Sony. I have had two players from Sony in the past and this one is the worst. The last one was slow and eventually died a slow and painful death, no more updates for it and it wouldn't play Youtube videos in the end. This one is not near as old and after the last firmware update it wants me to re-enter all of my customer information for, Netflix, Hulu and YT. No Way! It is painful and I will not do it. This one is going into the garbage. Please DO NOT if you want to maintain your sanity. Never again!!!

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Child Lock

ByLibbyon January 12, 2017

Verified Purchase

I purchased this model because the other Sony options all had reviews about an issue with the Child Lock randomly activating and being unable to remove discs. I hoped that since this model had no issues reported here I would be safe. Not so lucky. It started acting up today, less than a month since I started using it. I was able to remove the disc (using the forced eject instructions) and luckily I have been able to use the instructions to successfully reset the child lock. I'm dubious as to whether that luck will continue. In hind sight, I should have gotten the other brand.

11 comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

BIG WASTE OF MONEY

Bytennismomon February 11, 2017

Verified Purchase

PLEASE don't waste your money!!! We have had nothing but problems with this player. Unfortunately I purchased this for my husband for Christmas in November. So it sat under the tree for a good month and a half. (note to self: don't buy electronic gifts early for Christmas!!!) I hooked it up the first week in January and we noticed that using the Hulu and Netflix was a lot slower than our Roku had been, but we didn't give up on it right away. But by February we are noticing that when choosing a program it would take two minutes of playtime before a picture would show up. We could hear the audio playing, but the loading ring would be present in the corner for a good two minutes before the visual video would start to play. 2nd week in February and we cannot even get a home choice page to come up. This thing is worthless, and the worst part is that I cannot return it to Amazon and the Sony warranty is for parts and labor. I don't want the thing, I just want my money back, but hey I guess things aren't always fair. So the best I can do is warn potential buyers that the risk isn't worth it. I am not tech savvy but I know enough to know that this is a big waste of materials, time and money!!!!

11 comment 11 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Sony should be embarrassed

ByEmilyon April 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

Japanese electronics used to be on the forefront of technological advancement. Not so much anymore. It is hard to believe that this product was made in 2016. The user interface is rudimentary and looks like something from the 90s. It is very slow and only has a limited selection of apps. It does not have HBO or Showtime. This product is worth $20.00 at the most.

11 comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Appears to have a defect on 2 units I used. Mechanically locks up, and displays nothing.

ByChrison November 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

The youtube feature works great, but after watching about 5 DVDs, the unit mechanically locked up. It does not display anything, except make a whirling sound for 3 seconds on power up.
Sony replaced it with a new one within 2 weeks, but the same issue occurred after watching 1 DVD on the new unit.
I opened the unit up, and saw the drive unit is nearly all plastic components. The internal bluray drive itself is extremely light and flimsy after removal. Maybe something is warped causing it to lock up. The tolerance between parts is very close.
I see the whirling sound is the head moving up and down on powerup, but then it stops moving and the unit is locked up.
When the unit is locked up, it is very difficult to open tray which I had to do because I rented a movie that was due. I have to use a flat head screw driver to pry it open about 1/2", and then use about 10 pounds of hand force on the tray. It makes a terrible grinding sound as it is being pulled all the way open.
I tried all the tips and tricks online and special unlock code, but nothing happens. It does not even display anything, so I do not think it is even responding. It appears to be a major manufacturing defect or could be a software problem that is not user fixable.
I will just buy a new, (different) player.

11 comment 7 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Piece of crap!!!

ByKaton July 16, 2017

Verified Purchase

We got this blu ray player despite the other negative reviews because we were only planning on using it as a blu ray player not a streamer. While after about a month it wouldn't turn off unless unplugged and will not open. We cannot get the movie out of the player. So frustrating.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Nice inexpensive Blu-Ray player

Byrcktpwrdon March 8, 2017

Verified Purchase

Sony BDPS1700 WIRED Streaming Blu-Ray Disc Player (2016 Model)

Works perfectly for our needs. We don't do all the streaming and what not, so WiFi wasn't needed. I just wanted a good basic, inexpensive Blu-Ray player and this fits the bill perfectly. It is a nice compact size too. We have watched several movies and they look great. I have the player connected to the TV with a HDMI cable.

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Very nice little player

ByDonald Grahamon May 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

Within a couple of weeks after setup I started to notice a distinct wobble of the disks when playing a movie. I was unhappy and assumed I would be returning this unit.
I decided to contact Sony support, assuming I'd go through their routine and get this thing replaced. I went through the steps as instructed. Amazingly, the player has been perfect since.
This unit clearly outperforms the LG I had before.
I would definitely recommend this pound for pound and dollar for dollar.

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I bought this one and I am well pleased. As a new Amazon Prime member

ByTroy L. Blackwellon April 26, 2017

Verified Purchase

After two units I bought off an auction site didn't work, I bought this one and I am well pleased. As a new Amazon Prime member, I wanted a DVD that offered the Amazon app so I could take advantage of the videos on Prime. This unit performs flawlessly. And the remote worked everything on my TV right out of the box without me having to set up anything. Awesome! A very good streaming DVD for the price. I highly recommend it.

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