Sony BDP-S350

[HT Junky]

I went to the Magnolia Home Theater at my local Best Buy yesterday. I'm there so much that they know me now.

I inquired about the S350, but they had not had a chance to even demo it. The guy who is the manager of the department offered to open one up and wanted me sit down with him and evaluate it.

We compared it to the Panasonic BD30 and the Denon 2500 transport on the Pioneer Elite Kuro and Samsung ToC displays. We also compared it to the Sony S300.

The S350 was a disappointment. The S350 loaded in half the time of the S300, but it still took almost twice the time for the disc to load than the Panasonic BD30 or Denon. We also looked at the picture, and it was the same as the S300, but still not as good as the the Panasonic or Denon.

The S350 does have a significantly smaller footprint. It is roughly the size of the Pioneer Elite DV-45A DVD player, if you remember back that far. It, however, has substantial weight to it.

The manager at the Magnolia Home Theater said he won't be recommending it anyone. He also said they dropped the price of the BD30 to $399, which is the exact price that the S350 is selling for.

If you are considering this player, I would not just buy it on blind faith. Make sure you look at it, comparing it to similar priced players.

[rex]

Sony, the industry's leading Blu-ray player manufacturer's third generation, state-of-the-art, flagship player, the BDP-S350 can not pass the most basic deinterlacing test on Silicon Optix BD HQV test disc. Instead of correctly combining odd and even lines for progressive output, the BDP-350 merely doubles the lines, thereby losing 50% of the detail in a frame! Another sad disappointment in BD players!

http://hdguru.com/first-review-of-so...-dmp-bd50/256/

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by rex

Sony, the industry's leading Blu-ray player manufacturer's third generation, state-of-the-art, flagship player, the BDP-S350 can not pass the most basic deinterlacing test on Silicon Optix BD HQV test disc. Instead of correctly combining odd and even lines for progressive output, the BDP-350 merely doubles the lines, thereby losing 50% of the detail in a frame! Another sad disappointment in BD players!

http://hdguru.com/first-review-of-so...-dmp-bd50/256/

If this guy thinks the 350 is Sony's "state-of-the-art, flagship player" then I have to seriously question anything else he has to say!!
The BDP-S350 is Sony's entry level standalone player, a long way from flagship!!

[wes]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

If this guy thinks the 350 is Sony's "state-of-the-art, flagship player" then I have to seriously question anything else he has to say!!
The BDP-S350 is Sony's entry level standalone player, a long way from flagship!!

I would agree this is an ok player but very far from flagship!!!!

Try the Denon 3800BDCi

[rex]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

If this guy thinks the 350 is Sony's "state-of-the-art, flagship player" then I have to seriously question anything else he has to say!!
The BDP-S350 is Sony's entry level standalone player, a long way from flagship!!

I thought the sarcasm in my comment was clear? The S350 is a lousy player, like its predecessor the S300. My point is that after 3 generations of players there is still no decent player at a reasonable price. We'll have to see what the new Samsung BD-P2500 is like in a couple of months. I am not fond of the PS3 as a movie player; but I have to admit that so far, it is really the best player available.

[rex]

Originally Posted by wes

Try the Denon 3800BDCi

I agree this was/is a decent player for 2,000 bucks, at least it decodes all of the audio ; but by now we should have faster, better, cheaper, 2.0 players than what is available for mass adoption of the format.