After thoroughly enjoying my HDTV and the high-quality of video and sound associated with HD from my cable/satellite and DVD upconverter I was eager to upgrade to see my favorite films on blu ray. I waited for several things before purchasing my first blu unit...for a couple of features I wanted to be available at my price point, for the blu ray/HD DVD battle to be settled and for the versions of firmware to be more universal. Once that was done all of my needs pointed to this unit and I have been happy since.
Up front I will say there are several things that drew me to this unit. One was the Sony brand (I am a loyal Sony user but I am also not a blind follower). Second was the fact that I also needed a new sound system to handle the quality of the blu ray sound and this Sony blu ray player was a companion to the Sony sound system I wanted to get (the HTSS360). The two look great together with identical black color, faceplate size and design. For both the blu ray player and the sound system for under $500 it was an easy sell.
The one other very important feature this unit had for me was the on-board processing of the True Dolby HD and HD DTS soundtracks. Having the blu ray player itself process these means you do not need to have the HD sound processed by your sound system-you can have these sent through the PCM channel and they are a definite upgrade from the regular 5.1 soundtracks. To explain, it's like the difference between a HDTV that is HDTV 'ready' and one that has a built-in tuner. In this case the receiver or sound system (with the PCM) is 'HD sound ready' and the blu player acts as the tuner. So you do NOT have to have a receiver or sound system that specifically processes HD audio to enjoy it.
This player was simple to set up with the connection of the HDMI cable and the nice-looking, user-friendly, on-screen menu it offers. The on-screen menu is used for a quick set-up and can easily be accessed to make any changes to your settings.
As for performance, the loading time for this unit is much quicker than I expected as a first-time blu user. It takes just a couple of seconds longer than my DVD upconverter but the video and sound quality are worth the wait of 2-3 extra seconds. Other people who have earlier blu models say the loading time on this unit is pretty quick comparatively. As I said, the picture produced and the HD sound are spectacular and make me very happy making the blu upgrade.
Other thoughts:
Yes, as others have mentioned there is no 'eject' button on the remote and it would be nice to have one. Otherwise, the remote has every function on it I would want. I love being able to pull up menus for the discs while the film is in progrss rather than having to stop playback to get to the menu.
It does not have the built-in wi-fi that is now available on other units but firmware updates can be done by connecting an Internet connection (or you can even download updates from Sony's website and update the player with a disc). I almost spent the extra money on the S560 player with the built-in wi-fi but from what I have heard it does not support streaming Netflix (which would have been my main reason for wanting the built-in wi-fi to begin with). I have not seen any BD live content that seems (to me) worth connecting to the Internet for.
So far every disc I have watched (both new releases and older ones) loaded with no problems and played seamlessly and without any problems.
This unit does indeed upconvert DVDs but I didn't see any improvement over the Sony 5-disc upconverter I already have and plan to continue to use the upconverter for my DVDs and just use the blu player for the blu discs.
I do wish there was a 5-disc changer available but as of yet there is not one to my knowledge. I planned to wait for a 5-disc changer but with blu ray you don't normally have a movie split over two discs as you did with standard DVDs so I decided to go ahead and purchase this blu unit and I have thoroughly enjoyed it and have no reservations in recommending it. Get more detail about Sony BDP-S360 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player.
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