Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony BDPS350 Blu-ray Disc Player 1080p Full HD

As my first Blu,Ray player the S350 holds up very well. The design is sleek, slender and very attractive to look at and the picture quality is terrific. Load times are minimal and the DVD upscaler is impressive.

However, the rewind and fast forward are slow to respond, and when the functions are activated they are particularly slow working. For those audiophiles who need it, there is no on-board decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio. The unit can decode all the regular and HD audio formats into LPCM inside itself, aside from this one, which can only be decoded to a regular DTS track, at 1536kb/s. However, it will stream DTS-HD Master Audio as a bitstream over a HDMI lead.

The unit plays regular DVDs and can be easily and harmlessly multiregioned to play DVDs from all regions out of the box using a 4-in-1 One4All remote. The sequence is as follows:

**BEGIN BY TURNING YOUR S350 ON WITHOUT A DISC INSIDE AND WAIT FOR 'HOME' TO BE DISPLAYED ON THE FRONT PANEL**

1. Press the DVD button on your One4All remote
2. Hold the Magic button until it flashes twice.
3. Press 0533

4. Hold the Magic button until it flashes twice.
5. Press 994
6. Press Magic Key (don't hold)
7. Press 00189 (if your One4All remote uses 4 digit or 3 digit codes, use less leading zeros)
8. Press 1 (the red LED flashes twice)

9. Hold the Magic button until it flashes twice.
10. Press 994
11. Press Magic Key (don't hold)
12. Press 00255
13. Press 2 (the red LED flashes twice)

14. Hold the Magic button until it flashes twice.
15. Press 994
16. Press Magic Key (don't hold)
17. Press 00095
18. Press 3 (the red LED flashes twice)

19. Hold the Magic button until it flashes twice.
20. Press 994
21. Press Magic Key (don't hold)
22. Press 00221
23. Press 4 (the red LED flashes twice)

24. Hold the Magic button until it flashes twice.
25. Press 994
26. Press Magic Key (don't hold)
27. Press 00079
28. Press 5 (the red LED flashes twice)

The remote is now programmed and ready to use. To make the BDP-S350 region free, put it into standby using the Blu-ray Sony remote, and continue thus:

1. Use the Blu-ray remote that came with the player to bring the player out of standby. Wait for HOME to be displayed on the front of the S350.
2. Press 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on the oneforall remote. The 24p light on the Blu-ray player will start flashing
3. Put the player back into standby with the Sony remote
4. Next time you turn on the player it will be region free for DVD playback. Even when the power is disconnected.

All in all, a very nice player for a person wishing to join The Blu-ray Revolution. It's not perfect, but for £150 it is a darn fine unit, especially once it is multiregioned for DVD playback.

I purchased this machine after a through search and review on this model & the bd35 which is also the latest model from Panasonic, That is going head to head with the Sony bdps350.
Both models are getting very good reviews in the press, But what won me over to the Sony was simply the value for money & the very neat styling of this machine. It has a solid build about it and it is about £100 cheaper than its rival with 2 free blurays that you get once you register the machine with Sony online.
The picture quality is superb and once you setup the sound from the menu within the software that is in the player i.e. bitstream, dts or dolby digital you get great sound as well. It has hdmi 1.3a out so you can output your picture & sound through the hdmi port to a suitable amp and the windows will be shaking if you crank the dial up. Great Fun.

Other reviewers here have gone in to fine details about the features of this player. There has been a complaint about the remote - I find it very intuitive and easy to use; I would rate it as a plus feature. The picture quality is superb, build quality is excellent. I have been using the player for a month with no problems or glitches of any sort (unlike the Samsung BD P1500 which had to be returned). The player is a joy to use and I would certainly recommend it.

Superb. Stylish, good quality and the remote is fine. I use Bravia Sync through my 46" Sony Bravia TV and it works really well. Load up time is anything from 5 to 15 seconds depending on the amount of content on each disc I guess so not bad at all. Very pleased with the build quality.

Standard definition DVD's look incredible - not quite Blu Ray which is mind-blowing but very close. I've tried Stardust, Lord of the Rings, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk so far on normal DVD's which I think is a pretty good mix of light and dark and even on a screen the size of mine the picture quality is a huge improvement. Very dark scenes which used to show a lot of pixelation are so much better and sometimes I am quite honestly hard-pressed to tell the difference from Blu Ray...but I can because BR is frankly stunning. Nice rich sound, incredible picture clarity and wonderfully vivid color almost to the point of feeling 3D sometimes.

Well done again to Amazon for excellent delivery times as well as a special mention to Sony - register your player online (get the serial number of the back before you plug it all in!) and Sony send you Casino Royale and Batman Begins on Blu Ray - excellent movies and they look incredible. I received mine in 2 days which took me completely by surprise as they say to allow up to 28 days for delivery. I know everyone hasn't had them as quickly but you never know, maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones.

So - I can highly recommend Amazon, Sony, this BR player and watching both DVD's and Blu Ray movies on it.

First of all, the fast service from Amazon was very impressive. I ordered my blu-ray player at roughly 3pm on 23/09 and at 7am the next morning was running down the stairs in my undercrackers to get to the door before the CityLink driver drove off with it!! Very fast service. The only complaint I do have is that they sent the HDMI cable seperatley so I had to wait an extra 3 days for that. Even though the parcel was plenty big enough to fit them both in together! Seemed a bit pointless to me, but never mind.

But onto the player. Having recently been watching DVD's on a 26" HD TV, pretty close up (i'm only in my small bedroom), I've noticed a lot of loss in quality as the picture has been enlarged, such as pixelation and dull colours. With the blu-ray player you get none of that. The picture is as sharp and bright as if you were there yourself seeing what the camera was seeing. The first disc I played was 'I Am Legend' and I was stunned that I could see every single pore in Will Smiths face, every single drop of sweat and every individual hair! The quality was mind blowing. Next disc was 'Sweeney Todd', It's a dark film, and usually on normal DVD's you'd get a lot of pixelation in dark scenes, blocks of different shades of black scattered around the screen. Now that's all gone with the blu-ray as the colours are bright and sharp with no pixelation in the slightest.

I can't comment much on the audio quality, as I can't have the benefits of surround sound in this little room, but normal stereo sound through the HDMI port does already sound much clearer and gives a bit more of an atmosphere during your movie experience, so I can only guess that surround sound would sound amazing!

It is a little slow at loading discs, but that's not a big worry.

Being a 22 year old student, it was an expensive toy to buy myself (though I did get in with birthday money), and blu-ray discs are still pretty pricey, so I won't be buying films as often as I did on DVD for the time being, but at least I have a couple to keep me going and it's good to know that i've future proofed my movie watching experience :)

Overall, a fantastic machine which will simply blow you away. You won't be disappointed!