Sony BDP-S300 - Blu-Ray Disc Player - 1080P Full HD

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Customer Reviews:

• 
  2008-05-17
  By Mr. A. E. Wake, UK
  I got this when HD DVD ceased to be supported (I already have a top HD DVD player). I picked this because it can be chipped to be an all region player. This was essential if I was to remove the standard DVD player from the ever growing tower of devices below my TV. The picture compares favourably with the Toshiba but the technical details here (and on many other sites) say:
  
  Dolby digital plus, DTS-HD & dolby truHD digital out & decoding capability
  
  DD+ is supported but the others are output as plain DD and DTS. If I had realized this I may have went for the 500. Very annoying when you have a receiver with HDMI in.
  
  
• 
  2008-06-24
  By Kaby, West Yorkshire, UK
  I've had this machine since end May and agree with most of the positive reviews. I'm pleased I was warned about the slow startup times otherwise I would have thought it was just my machine, it really does seem like an age from switching on, although I have noticed that my ordinary DVDs load up more quickly. I haven't updated the firmware, on the basis that 'if it aint broke, don't fix it', so will only do this if I find a Blu-ray disc that won't play.
  One problem I did have was in registering with Sony for the free movies. The registration disc that came with the machine took me to their site, but kept rejecting my application, it took an age to be able to actually write a query to Sony support, and when they replied, they said the offer had expired - it took a lot of persevering, but they do say that I will receive them in 28 days. Like previous reviewers, I've been knocked out by the quality on my Sony Bravia, and I never used to watch movies anywhere except at 'the picture house'!
  
  
• 
  2008-07-07
  By Eolake, Lancashire, United Kingdom
  I have a Toshiba HD-DVD player, and this Sony Blue-ray player. Both of them have left me with the impression that HD technology is very immature yet.
  
  In short: SLOW. It takes at least a couple of minutes to start up and load a disk, sometimes several minutes. (Ratatouille: SIX minutes!)
  And it takes a second or two, at least, to react to every button press.
  And this machine freezes if I use the rewind and play button too fast after each other.
  
  If I was in Hardware in these companies, I'd be embarrassed.
  
  
• 
  2008-07-16
  By Stephan Klose, Vienna, Austria
  Granted, this player has a pretty decent picture. The Handling is nice. The Sound is not bad. Sound? Yes, but only if you enjoy the regular DTS or DD Tracks.
  
  If you want to take advantage of one of the most important features of Blu Ray. The HD Sound. (True HD, DTS HD Master), which has about 30 times as much information and therefor quality as regular DD or DTS sound this player would be a bad decision. Why? Because it can't decode it internally or even bitstream it via HDMI.
  
  So if you ever planning of taking advantage of HD Sound, (Which is featured on ALL new discs) you need to buy a player that can handle it.
  
  There are 3 good candidates. 1.) Samsung BD-P 1400, 2.) Samsung BD-P 1500 3.) Panasonic DMP-30
  
  Those players can do both. They can decode the sound internally, so that you can even play it back with older receivers that have HDMI input. Or they can bitstream it via HDMI to your Receiver (like the Onkyo 605).
  
  Trust me, you'll notice the difference. It's like comparing a mono VHS Tape with a THX certified DVD.
  
  Personally I can't understand why Sony, the inventor of Blu Ray can't produce a decent player.
  
  There are 4 new audio Codecs. 1.) Dolby True HD 2.) DTS HD Master 3.) DTS HD High Resolution 4.) Dolby Digital Plus (for that one this player actually has a decoder, but sadly there are practically no Blu Ray's out there which utilize this outdated codec).
  
  My advice= Go with one of the 3 players mentioned above. Don't waste your money on one that will become obsolete once you buy a new receiver!
  
  
  
  
• 
  2008-08-11
  By Philip ODea, London
  I've had this BDP S300 for a few weeks now & over all it's an ok machine. Yes it is slow to power on & load Blu Ray discs but I think this is a problem not unique to Sony machines. The picture is indeed sharper with richer colour but I'm not sure that it's the 5 times quality of DVD often used to describe Blu Ray or HD. I think where you notice the picture quality differance most is with lots of detail in big wide shots, on DVD compression started to kick in and cause break up or softness of the picture. The other plus is the HDMI out if you have an LCD which does away with any analogue colour bleeding. But I still not sure if it was worth paying out nearly £200 for these few niceties. My advise is if you've got a high end DVD connected via SCART stay with it until it starts playing up, then you might as well upgrade.