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

I bought this Blu Ray player (Sony S350) for Christmas. The bonus was I got 2 free blu ray disks - (Batman Begins and Casino Royale) which isn't advertised on Amazon. I even contacted Amazon customer service (because I heard about these Sony promotional offers) to which Amazon replied, there's no promotional offer and you don't get 2 free blu ray's. Well guess what Amazon I did! You get a cd-rom with your blu ray player, which then links you to Sony's website, fill in the registration form and voila, you'll get sent you're 2 free blu ray's.

I am very impressed with the quality and sharpness of the blu ray disks I play. I have tried it on both a Samsung TV and a Sony Bravia TV. The high definition was good on both, however it seemed that little bit better on the Sony Bravia, and also because the sound quality was much better coming through the Sony Bravia TV speakers. An example of quality was on the Mamma Mia Blu Ray, where the sea is absolutely stunning and the Greek island very picturesque (making you long even more for a holiday!) Sometimes it seems the characters are in the actual room with you, it's that good.

I don't know the technical facts, but I was in the cinema yesterday and looked at the sharpness and overall clarity of picture. I reckon this Sony Blu Ray disk player produces a better quality picture than the cinema. However it's a shame I don't have a cinema size tv at home, or the surround sound speakers to go with it!

The Blu Ray Player is a nice looking unit, however the light that is illuminated on the front is white. Considering it is BLU-RAY, I was hoping the ray would be blue if you catch my drift! The main problem I have with the unit though is that it seems to take forever to load up a blu-ray disk. The time does vary from one blu ray disk to another though for some reason. Once it has loaded you can't go immediately to the menu. You have to sit through various things at the beginning (anti-piracy etc) before you can get the menu up. Once you finally get the menu up, you then press play film and then you have to wait again for it to load!

I noticed in an earlier review (Chris White's) he mentions you can't stop the blu ray disk and then resume watching at a later time. I've had no problems with that function. I just press stop once, and then press play and it will always pick up where I left off, as long as I haven't pressed eject at any time (obviously).

Setting up was a doddle, so much easier than setting up my Sony DVD Recorder when I had to call in a TV engineer as it was so complicated (even he struggled), but I guess that was because it was a fairly new concept when I bought it years ago.

Remember you will need to buy an HDMI to HDMI lead if you've got a HDMI compatable TV, because its not included. Alternatively if you have an older tv, you'll have to check the manual but I think its an HDMI to DVI lead. You shouldn't have to pay any more than £10 for either though.

Ordered this device following a wait whilst
1. Format war was sorted and
2. This 2nd Generation device came on the market.

I set it up as 720p output onto a 768 line LCD panel expecting a small increase over DVD but was astonished by the jump in quality, with a picture that massively exceeds that of DVD in every way - cleaner, clearer, brighter, more detailed etc. It is possible to view a blu ray film at close quarters with NO pixellation or scaling artefacts present. The picture quality is best described as similar to that of a good quality JPEG image viewed on PC monitor. Motion tracking proved faithful also, with non of the judder that is reported when not playing blu rays at 24FPS. I suspect that a big 1080/24fps telly and/or a better HDMI cable would offer an even greater viewing experience, though I find it difficult to see where the picture could be improved. Top marks to Sony and buy with confidence (especially at the price quoted).

I bought this early as I am working overseas and wanted to avoid any mailing problems as this is my Xmas treat. My only slight disappointment is it has fallen by another £10 from the £175 the wife kindly paid.

I also ordered a 1gb sony memeory stick to enable the BD Live facility.

Anyway it arrived and connected to my 40" Sony Bravia and DSL LAN, and after a few easy steps it was updated to profile 2 and I had a quick peek at the BD live bit on the Iron Man BD disc. As for picture quality it was superb (pores on faces individual hairs showing, hugely greater clarity etc) and the sound through my lower end Pioneer dvd/amp was excellent, although could only hook up by stereo analogue so no surround sound. Will have to save for a 7.1 HDMI system.

The remote is similar to the Bravia TV and it was instantly dual functional.

Anyway it is now packed away and will not come out until Crimbo.

I also registered the product and Sony are to send Batman Begins, and Casino Royale - a true bargain and all for £165 (not complaining too much on the price I was refunded VAT).

This is the entry level Blu-ray player from Sony, it's been superseeded by the BDP-S360 which is basically the same, but has the internal memory upgraded. So plus USB stick in the back of this model, upgrade the firmware and you're got something as good as the later model (but hopefully with a big discount).

Out of the box it won't play some of the more recent titles, but upgrading the firmware it easy (either connect it to a broadband connection, or download a file, burn it to a CD, then power the unit up with the CD in it). With the later firmware, and a 1G or bigger USB stick in the back, it's fully Blu-Ray-Live compliant (for which you'll need a broadband connection to it).

If you really want to use the blu-ray-live content, and don't have a wired ethernet connection nearby, then consider the BDP-S550 or BDP-S560. The S560 has Wi-Fi built in, and the S550 will use certain Wi-Fi USB devices to give Wi-Fi connectivity.

It works well, and the setup menus are simple.

If you google around, then there is a remote control hack which allows the DVD side to be made multi-region.

It will down sample as well as up sample, so you can take connect this to your low-res 2nd TV and watch Blu-rays in low-res, which some machines won't allow you to do.

If you're using component video (C-Y) cables, then the later models have better DACs but otherwise they offer few advantages, and the older models have good discounts at the moment.

If your TV supports 1080-24P then you can use that with Movies to massively reduce the motion artifacts.

Firstly I have little to add to the other reviews of this player. Frankly at the price its a fantastic bit of kit. But the first one I received proved to be faulty and I'd just like to say something of Amazon's after service.

I bought this for my parents for Christmas, who had just bought a new Sony 1080p TV, but hadn't got anything HD to attach to it. It worked for two days till we did the software update over the internet. The update was painfully slow, and afterwards the machine would shut down after a few minutes (playing a disc or not).

I thought returning the player would be a chore, having never had to return anything to Amazon before, but I was pleasantly surprised. The process was incredibly simple, and we had a new player in a matter of a few days no questions asked.

I honestly think we were really unlucky with our first player. The new one has been flawless. But knowing how great the after service is, is just another reason to shop at Amazon.