Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony BDP-S300 - Blu-Ray Disc Player - 1080P Full HD

Like many other DVD enthusiasts, I have watched the Blu-Ray/HD DVD format war with growing frustration and impatience. For me, the tipping point came with Warner's decision to opt exclusively for Blu-Ray and the appearance of this Sony BDP-S300 at the excellent price offered by Amazon. This is still relatively new technology, and you need some incentives to go there. I am also very grateful to earlier reviewers; your opinions have undoubtedly had an influence.

I received this last Thursday, having finally come to a firm decision to order it on Monday, so well done to Amazon for getting it here so quickly. It's slightly deeper than some kit, so check out your storage dimensions, although this is not likely to be a problem. I have been using a decent Pioneer DVD machine which allows an HDMI interconnect and which is good at upscaling. Connection was, therefore, quite easy - in essence, plug and play with the AV receiver. Earlier reviews have commented on the slowness of the system, and it does take some time to power up on every occasion, but this really is no problem at all.

Initial setup is straighforward, but you might have to flick through the visual formats to synchronise your system. So much of this stuff is 'intelligent' and needs to find the right match to speak to other items. Nonetheless, pretty seamless.

What I did not expect was the staggering quality of both sound and picture. I'm fortunate enough to have a 42" Philips HD Pixel Plus Ambilight TV (and if that isn't an investment in future technology, I don't know what is!), which provides stunning images on Sky HD at 1080p. You can view HD films through Sky Box Office which are incredibly impressive, so the benchmark had to be to match these. Well, preparing myself with a few Blu-Ray discs, I have sat in amazement through one disc of Planet Earth, had a taster of Pan's Labyrinth and this morning blasted my way through Die Hard 4.0. Resolution at 1080p is breathtaking, and I am still recovering from the impact of Bruce Willis's hot little picture - actually two hours of mesmerizing mayhem with a fabulous soundtrack that will push your surround system to the limits and make the floor shake.

Upscaling on non-HD DVDs is very good; it will get the best out of the basic material, but again the sound is significantly improved. I have several classical music DVDs and, while picture quality is quite variable on account of the dates and origins of the recordings, the sound has been dramatically improved (Mahler 2/BPO/Haitink/Philips).

Yes, it meets and, in terms of audio experience, exceeds the best that Sky HD has to offer, so it steps beyond the benchmark. What a fantastic box of tricks! ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!

We've had this Blu-ray player for about five weeks. It's connected to a Sony Bravia TV and installation was extremely easy. We have watched several Blu-ray films (300; Die Hard 4; Reign Over Me; Black Hawk Down) and the analysis that follows is based upon watching those and several ordinary DVD films.

Firstly comments about the slow start up time/film load time are correct. It takes approximately 52 seconds to start and a further 40 seconds after inserting a film into the tray to be ready to play the film. However we haven't really found this to be a problem as if you know it is going to take a couple of minutes you start the process and then get yourself settled (drink to the ready). If you're watching a two hour film, is the extra two minutes such a big issue?

We've also compared the start up times to our existing DVD players (yes we have several accumulated over the years). As a comparison we've used Black Hawk Down as we have both the DVD and Blu-ray versions. On the Blu-ray player (BDP_S300) the times are stated above; on a Pioneer DVR-420H, start up takes five seconds and after inserting the film a further 17 seconds to be ready to play the film; on a Sony RDR-HXD560, start up takes 40 seconds and after inserting the film a further 19 seconds to be ready to play the film; on a ten year old Sony DVP-S325, start up takes two seconds and after inserting the film a further five seconds to be ready to play the film. The Pioneer DVR-420H and Sony RDR-HXD560 are both hard drive recorders as well, so that might have some bearing on the start/load times.

Viewing - well this is only our assessment. Again as a comparison Black Hawk Down has been used to reflect our views. Playing the original DVD through the Sony BDP_S300 which then upscales the film, yes it is better; crisper and better colour saturation. Playing the Blu-ray version is again a further improvement. However we are not sure that these improvements warrant an extra £250.

We haven't commented on sound as this depends so much on the individual set up, but again we did notice significant improvements with the Sony BDP_S300 using our set up (Denon Amp). Currently we haven't had any problems with films not playing correctly. The unit and the remote are well made but it is true that once a button on the remote is pressed it is slow to respond - which takes a little getting used to.

Conclusion - is it worth the outlay? Well if you need to replace an existing old DVD player and would like to take advantage of the higher quality output, yes we think it is. But the gains are marginal compared to the outlay. It might be better to wait as prices are bound to come down and hopefully choice of units and Blu-ray DVDs will become greater. It did come with both the Spiderman trilogy and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (via registration) which makes the package more attractive. We are happy to give the Sony BDP_S300 three stars in the current climate, but if the price comes down it would be a better deal.

I have had this player for quite a while now,and with the added benefit of multiregion modification,it makes sense to opt for this player. It looks just as good as the other top players out there now. The downside is the lack of features,but picture quality is out of this world!

After much thought and consideration I purchased this Blu Ray player from Sony. What a great choice I made especially as Toshiba have droped the rival HD DVD format. After setting the player up to my Sony Bravia HD TV & theatre system, I loaded it up with Casino Royale on Blu Ray. The Picture and sound blew my mind!!
Yes it's true to say start up is slow (about 1 min), but the wait is worth it.
I also downloaded the firmware from the sony web site and followed the instructions to update it. This was so easy and will make it compatable for future BD-R Discs.
Looks like I backed the winner and can't wait to see all future films released on blu Ray for a real high definition experience.

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!