BD-Live Ready / Full HD 1080p/24p and 60p AVC-HD w/x.v.Color Output / Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD / 1080p HD Upscaling / BRAVIA Sync / HDMI
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Maybe Apple Needs to Make a Blu-Ray Player?
Comment: I bought this player to complete my new $8000 Sony/Denon/Definitive Technology/Harmony One dream system. It performs as reviewed by the most-helpful reviews on this site, although of course the analog audio issues are moot for HDMI 1.3 users like me. I am using it in 5.1 mode and have watched Dark Knight, Spiderman III, Transformers, and Hellboy II on it - as well as player-upscaled DVDs. My only negative conclusions are:
1. The 45-90 second Blu-Ray start up time (to the root menu) is marginally acceptable in a consumer device. Each Blu-Ray title behaves a little differently and requires a different amount of time to load, depending on what BD-Live features it has, apparently. DVD titles load and play quickly.
2. All of the Internet-related BD-Live features and updates work fine, although I don't really have time to routinely use them. The only feature I really use that my Sony DVD player did not have is the Bookmark feature.
3. The remote control (and overall user interface) could really use refinement to make it faster and easier to use. It's probably no worse than any other player, but I would like the unit to automatically come up to the title root menu, rather than come up to the BD-ROM icon and wait for me to click okay before grinding away for up to another minute before getting to the root menu. I also would like to be able to jump between scenes and bookmarks much easier and faster, although this is more of an issue when benchmarking a system than it is when normally watching a movie.
4. On a 52" XBR6 LCD TV, the improvement from upscaled DVD to Blu-Ray did not overly impress me. It is significant, but not earth-shaking. Larger sets would probably benefit more. I did NOT notice the drop-off in subwoofer loudness relative to the DVD that some other reviewers noted when comparing Blu-Ray to DVD. I performed this comparison using chapter 17 of Transformers, which I recommend as one benchmark, at least for subwoofers. The other would be Russell Crowe's "Master and Commander" (the cannon battles).
Customer Rating: Summary: Average product, poorly packed by Amazon
Comment: This product is average compared to other Blu-ray Players on the market. Amazon did a horrible job of packing it in a very large and shabby box. I was surprised that the player was not damaged. I don't mind paying a fair amount for shipping if its packed properly.
Customer Rating: Summary: Breathtaking Picture Quality!
Comment: The picture and audio quality from this unit is unreal. It's pretty easy to use and navigate the menus to set it up. And i love that it has an ethernet port for online connectivity. I have only two criticisms. The first is a minor one: the power and open buttons are on a slant at the top of the unit. If youre stacking your units it a little bit of a hassle to hit these buttons. not much, but it would be easier if they were on the front. The second criticism is that the flash memory input is in the back of the unit. Not very helpful there at all! Why not put it in the front so people can get to it?
Customer Rating: Summary: It's awesome
Comment: This is my first blu-ray, it produces excellent picture and sound, it's fast to start and the illuminated remote makes it easy to use in a dark room. However, I have an upconverting DVD player connected to a high definition (1080) big screen projection TV (Mitsubishi, diamond series) through HDMI and really I can't tell the difference between the quality of the 1080i picture of my DVD player and blu ray's 1080p picture. It may make a difference if I had a plasma TV, I don't know. I would skip buying a blu ray if I knew this info before. Since I bought it, I watch all movies using the blu-ray format. The player itself is awesome like all other Sony products!
Customer Rating: Summary: Great Blu-ray player....Consider this player if you have a non-HDMI receiver...
Comment: This was a Christmas gift for the family. A GREAT Christmas gift. We already had a Samsung 37 inch 720p LCD, and Blu-ray looks tremendous on it. The colors pop off the screen unlike any up-converting DVD player. After watching 4 BDs so far, I really hope Blu-ray comes through. It is just like having your own theater in your home. Picture and sound are phenomenal.
As for the player... fast loading times, nice menu and easy setup process. IMPORTANT... If you have an old 5.1/7.1 receiver with no HDMI ports, this or the Panasonic DMP-BD55K are the players you should consider. The S550 has 7.1 analog out, so the player will both decode and output all the latest HD audio codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio) through the all-familiar red and white RCA cables to your receiver. You cannot listen to the HD codecs with just a fiber optical/digital coaxial cable...you will be stuck with just lossy Dolby Digital/DTS. Believe me... the HD audio is as impressive as the HD picture, if not more so. I highly highly recommend this player for anyone already with an HDTV but with an old 5.1 receiver. If you purchase this player, which at the moment is $60 more than the Sony BDP-S350, you do not have to go out and purchase a $200 HDMI receiver or a $400 HDMI receiver with HD-decoding capabilities. This is the main reason our family bought this player over the less expensive S350 or BD35K. With a non-HDMI receiver, you just hook up your player to the HDTV via HDMI and to the receiver via analog (and optical if desired...read ahead).
One negative... This only applies to those who would use 5.1/7.1 analog out for HD audio. If you choose to watch DVDs using fiber optical/digital coaxial, you can still hook up the player to the receiver with both analog and the optical/coaxial cable. Unfortunately, the player doesn't treat the two outputs independently. Therefore you have to make changes in the S550 menu under Audio Output Priority (Multi-out vs. Optical). You can always play the DVDs using analog out and therefore not need to make these setting changes, but some people prefer the digital cables for their DVDs.
This problem is nonexistent in the Panasonic DMP-BD55K. However, the Sony apparently has better picture quality, especially for up-converting DVDs. Our family had a preference for the Sony brand and the attractive blue front.
If you already have an HDMI receiver, I would recommend the less expensive Sony BDP-S350 or Panasonic DMP-BD35K.
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