Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player

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 ([...] 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.

I had previously sided with HD-DVD because of the HD-DVD add-on for my Xbox 360 was cheaper than anything else at the time, but we know how that turned out. I wouldn't switch to Blu-Ray until the prices came down so I have been waiting and watching. I bought a Sony BDP-S300 at Wal-Mart about 3 weeks ago because they were on clearance. The picture quality was superb and I was happy, but that player was profile 1.1, didn't have an ethernet or usb port, but I kept telling myself that it was all about the movies and I didn't care about the other features. However, I already had to update the firmware twice by burning it to a disk and waiting 20 minutes for it to update, it took a good minute to power up and I couldn't use some of the features on the Blu-Rays that I had. I checked Amazon, looking for movies, and saw that they had the BDP-S350 with 4 movies for the same price that I paid for the BDP-S300! I bought it at 4:30pm and chose standard shipping, not minding paying $15 for shipping, and it arrived on my doorstep at 3:00pm the next day. Not even 24 hours later! Kudos for Amazon, I was impressed with the deal I got and the unexpected fast shipping. I hooked the BDP-S350 up and plugged in the ethernet cable from my Xbox 360 and it immediately told me that there was an update available. I selected network update from the much cooler menus on this model than my old one and it did the rest. It updated to the current firmware, updated the player to profile 2.0 and I didn't have to do anything but watch it work. Start up time on this player is great. Old player, 45 seconds to a minute, this player 3 to 6 seconds with quick start. It powered on faster than my TV! The remote is better and easier to use than the old one, the BDP-S350 is half the size of the old player. I can now access BD-Live content, not that there is much on there to do, but at least I can do it. Even the load times on the disks seemed faster, probably because of the update to profile 2.0 which my old player couldn't do. Overall, great player, great price, Blu-Ray disks are coming down and if you have an HDTV, then you need to get yourself a Blu-Ray player today! People that say they can't tell a difference must seriously have some settings screwed up on there TV. Go Blu! Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player

Sony gets it right -- at last!!! This Blu-ray player finally realizes the potential that was only hinted at in earlier models: it starts up quickly, loads DVDs like a standard DVD player, and does a much better job of loading blu-ray disks than anything but the Sony Playstation. Menus are simple to navigate and setup is easy. Since my Onkyo pre/pro decodes every codec out there (including DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD), I don't need or want a blu-ray player with 7.1 analog outputs or internal decoding capability. If you need these capabilities, I would opt for the higher-priced Sony BDP-S550 coming out soon at $200 more list. The Sony BDP-S350 will output DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD (as well as all the other audio codecs) over HDMI, so if you have a receiver or pre/pro that can handle all the codecs, you won't need the higher priced player. The upscaling capability of any blu-ray player is important to anyone who has a substantial DVD collection and no plans to upgrade most of their movies to blu-ray copies (a major cost at today's prices). I use my Onkyo pre/pro to upscale the DVD movies I play in the Sony BDP-S350, but the player does a good job on its own in this regard. After watching several DVD movies using the upscale chip built into the Sony player, I was very impressed with its abilities to generate 1080p output from standard DVDs. While the Reon chip in the Onkyo pre/pro was a little sharper and had fewer artifacts, the Sony player held up quite well by comparison. All the recent blu-ray players do a good job displaying 1080p images from blu-ray disks, and the Sony BDP-S350 excels in this area (as you would expect from the developers of blu-ray). Check out the professional on-line reviews for in-depth details on this player. I think that if you buy it, you won't be disappointed.

I am just getting into the 1080p Blu-ray craze. After watching two movies (Casino Royale and Apocalypto) , I wonder why I never bought it sooner. The picture clarity was awesome. What's in the box? The BDP-S350 Disc Player RCA cable Power cable Remote control + Heavy Duty Batteries (AA batteries) Quck start guide and the instructions Setup Given that I was upgrading from my pre-existing DVD player with an HDMI cable, the set up was painless. If you don't have an HDMI cable, you don't need a high end cable by a major brand, since any cable would do (length appropriate, that is): HDMI Cable 2M (6 Feet) Startup from the off position was about 25-30 seconds. You toggle through the menus for language, cable type, video output resolution and aspect ratio. Design This is a tasteful low profile, simple design which helps with regard to minimalists. A power button, disc tray, front panel display, open close button, play/pause/stop button are on the front panel. The remote control is simple to use. The most important buttons are on the top (power, open/close). There is a 4 directional button that allows easy navigation through the menus with a central enter button. Navigation with the remote control is excellent. The unit is very responsive and toggling between the movie and menus is quick. Performance Start up time from resuming play or from placing a disc into the player is rather quick to me (about 20 seconds to 30 seconds). The picture quality is amazing. Slow motion is sharp and navigation through the various menus and movie scenes is quite easy. One of the nicest features is the Standard, theater room and brighter room adjustment that can be made on the fly - it is complementary to my current television's settings: Panasonic Viera TH-50PZ85U 50" 1080p Plasma HDTV Blu-ray picture quality is great. Standard definition movies look very good and appear to my eye, to be better than my previous DVD player. Overall, this is a simple, disc player with an easy setup and operation. For a minimalist, this unit will not disappoint you. I highly recommend this product, if you are interested into taking advantage of the 1080p resolution of your flatscreen television. You won't look at regular DVDs the same way again.

We needed a Blu-ray player to use with our new Samsung 7 series 52" LCD. I first tried a PS3 and liked the picture quality, but not the heat. Also, the PS3 is remote controlled by bluetooth, so it wouldn't work with the Logitech Harmony One IR remote we just added (see my review of this wonderful piece of gear!). So, the hunt was on for a BD player that performed as well as the PS3. We almost went for the new Samsung P1500, but it won't play DVD+Rs (which we burn on our Sony DVD Recorder). And, frankly, I figured that Sony should be able to make the better player. Then, the S350 came out and I waited a couple of weeks until the price dropped about $65 and I could resist no longer. It's installed now, and it works great - plays BDs just as well as the PS3, loads reasonably fast depending on content, is internet upgradeable, does all the cinema and sound stuff (but, no 7.1), upconverts DVDs nicely and plays well with rest of our entertainment system. Looks? Really, who cares? It's just a (small!) box of electronics that does what it's supposed to do. This one's in an enclosed, but vented cabinet, so it's practically invisible anyhow. But, for the record, I think it looks better than a PS3. So, am I dissing the PS3? Hardly! It's brilliant! All I'm suggesting is, if you just want to play BDs/DVDs and save almost $200 (remember, you still need a remote for the PS3) over an 80gig PS3, then I think the S350 is a good alternative. UPDATE: August 9, 2011 - We now own a "thin" PS3, but we still use the 350 to play DVDs and BDs, although the PS3 would be just fine. Of course, the Harmony One still won't operate the PS3. Although we use the PS3 primarily for games, we have found it to be absolutely fabulous for streaming Netflix movies. Better than new H-P laptop and much better than Wii console.

I'm confused by the raves in these reviews. It seems a bit like raving about a lamp because it puts out light. There's nothing especially crappy about this player, it seems adequate (but nothing beyond that). It does an ok job of playing blu-ray discs (although the first one I got had to be returned because it would only play half of the discs I put in it, and even those it only played half of the time). My biggest qualm is that this thing takes forever to process an operation. Sometimes you put in a disc and it just sits there for 15-20 seconds, loading. More amazingly, if you hit eject, it'll take up to 10 seconds just for it to do that. What on earth could be it doing between when you hit the button and when it ejects? I bought this as a gift for my parents. If this is the current pinnacle of players, I'll be holding off until a more mature line of blu-ray players arrives. new technology always takes a while to work the b.s. out of it. -------------------------------------------------- Updated 12/2010: I realize that this thing is old and no one is going to buy it now anyway, but I would steer people clear of buying Samsung blu-ray players in general. I just put in V for Vendetta, a blu-ray disc that's TWO YEARS OLD, and it skips the menu, won't let me get to any menu functions, and plays with the bonus view on and it won't shut off. So the movie is worthless. I checked and the firmware is "up to date" even though they haven't bothered to update it in more than a year. And guess what, I just put in another new disc, Fight Club, and it loads to a black screen. I guess I had hoped that an appliance like this would have longer than a two year lifespan.

I read all of these wonderful reviews of this blue ray, looked at it at Best Buy, and have a nice Sony full HD big screen TV with HDMI connections to connect it to, etc. I received this player at the beginning of December, 08 and put it to use immediately playing DVDs. It had a much better picture for the DVDs than the player I had before that was 8 yrs old (!). But as soon I got set up for BD the trouble started. This Sony BDP-S350 would stop after about an hour and would not continue when restarted. So I talked to Sony.They decided that it had to have the firmware upgraded from version 7 to version 10. This took three weeks to get the software disc. The upgrade went just fine. Now the BDP-S350 will stop playing after 15 Minutes!! The service people at Sony now want me to pay to send them back this BD player that has never worked. They will fix it or send me a REBUILT player. I bet this takes another 6 weeks or more!! This machine is going to end up costing me an extra $100 and it's going to take months before I can use it- if I'm lucky. By the way, they guess that the problem is with the fan- This is the same problem that Sony claims that they fixed when they started selling this version of the BD 350!! The good news is that I saved my eight year old Pioneer DVD that still works- even if the picture is not that good compared to the current generation... Rick O

It's understandable that some consumers are reluctant to pull the trigger on this purchase. With flat-screen sets under 50" no Blu-Ray player is capable of producing a dramatic "wow!" factor in visible improvement over an upconverted non-hi-def image that machines well under a hundred dollars are capable of producing. (My wife saw no difference in the image until I confessed I had switched players.) Side by side the difference is sure to be noticeable, but such logic is not a compelling reason to buy. Why purchase an item only because doing so would produce less satisfaction with what you already possess? Still, even though this Sony is $50 more than some of the machines that have cracked the $200 barrier, there may be good reasons to consider it worth a slight premium: 1. Not only did Sony develop the technology but they've ensured that this player matches the key dimension (width) of their upconverting equipment; 2. It's a solid yet trim-looking machine, devoid of any ostentatious ornamentation; 3. It indeed is seamless with any Sony flat panel set of the past 3 years (i.e. the sets employing the "X-Bar menu system"); 4. It includes a remote switch that, unlike that with the cheaper Sony DVD players, matches the color and style of the Sony Bravia remote but is wider, heavier and more "substantial" overall; 5. The Sony TV switch and Sony Blu-Ray switch are practically interchangeable, allowing total reliance on only one of the two switches to operate both devices (I find I prefer the remote that came with this player). 6. Like any Blu-Ray player it will handle conventional DVDs as well as Blu-Ray discs (your old DVD player, on the other hand, will not play Blu-Ray discs, even at the old resolution). 7. This player is capable of reproducing all of the nuanced shades and hues of the Sony 10 bit 10 panel processor (the current S, V, and W series use an 8 bit, 8 panel system). Advantage of the competition: several of the players by other manufacturers come with the device for downloading movies from Netflix and Amazon preinstalled (and even the floundering Blockbuster download device). The Sony does not, instead charging its customers an extra two to three hundred dollars for a "Bravia Link" that attaches to the back of the TV set and integrates with Sony's X-Bar menu system. Unfortunately, the box that Netflix sells to those who don't have the capability built into their player is less than half the price of the Sony "Link" and, according to most consumer reviews, is more effective at getting the job done right (while, unlike the Sony link, operating wirelessly). Bottom line: if you don't think you're likely to download movies, look for this player in the 250 range. If you think you might download movies but have no problem with spending a hundred for the Netflix device ("Roku"), the same holds true. If your TV is not a Sony, take a look at some other Blu-Ray player that includes a downloading device. If you have a Sony TV and think you might download movies, hang on a bit longer to see if the company eventually matches the competition with an included link (or wait for this player to drop in price in concert with an upgrade to the Bravia Link). [Note: I haven't hooked up the player's internet capability, which requires insertion of a memory card (not included--1 gig, minimally) in the back of the player. The idea is that spectator will have an opportunity to "talk back" to the DVD, which in turn will access and provide continually changing, up-to-date, "breaking news" about the movie and related matters. My hunch is that the concept, at this stage, is way ahead of available content.]

it's was for a friend, and he got it yesterday, he also seems very happy with his purchase, and he love it ! no comments from any of us. thanks .