Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player

I love it. Not only does it play Blu-ray discs and standard DVD's, but it also plays AVCHD discs I create from my Canon HD camcorder.

I have a PS3, so I'm already knee deep in the blu-ray experience. I wanted to get a standalone player for the bedroom, so I did a great amount of research. I had it narrowed down to 2 players: The Panasonic BD35 and this player. In the end I picked the Sony because of the price ($189 black Friday) and I'm glad I did. The player is sexy, 2.0 compliant, BD-Live ready (with latest firmware update), and it supports all the new audio codecs...all that one could want in a new BD player.

So far it has played every movie I've thrown at it flawlessly (Spiderman 3, Doomsday, I Am Legend, Rambo, Harry Potter...Phoenix, and Indiana Jones 4). The load times are a tad slower than the PS3, but not much at all. Lastly, the picture is phenomenal, edging out the PS3 even.

So if your researching players like I did, the Sony BDP-S350 is a winning choice.

I've only used my new Blu-Ray player a few times so far, so I can make no comments on durability.

Set-up is extremely simple, although I have to down-rate the poorly written instructions. Step 7 in the Easy Setup menu has you select output resolution and then you're supposed to see an image; if not you have to go to a lower resolution. I saw no test image at any resolution setting. "Auto" mode nevertheless produced beautiful picture quality on my 40" Mitsubishi LCD HDTV via HDMI cable.

I played a standard DVD and found the 4:3 ratio picture stretched to fit my 16:9 screen. The video settings menu offered misleading Screen Format choices of "Original" or "Fixed Aspect Ratio"; "original" mode distorts the original program source to fill a 16:9 screen while "fixed aspect" keeps the original format of the program source, displaying 4:3 content and 16:9 content correctly.

Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player
I purchased this item on 26 October 2008 and you can not believe the difference it makes when you play a Blu-Ray Vs a Plain DVD. On a Big 42" Screen 1080p with a Sony HT-SS2300 5-1 Speaker System attached...the room becomes a theater...The picture and Sound to include it's effects are top of the line which makes theater going a thing of the pass when you can enjoy a good blu-ray movie at home now. Thanks SONY...for making this possible...a boy that has CP thanks you as he can now enjoy his children movies on a big screen.

I have been a fan of blu ray technology for many years before the technology was even available. And, the picture produced by Blu Ray discs is phenomenal. So, its sad that Sony produces such pathetic quality blu ray players. At this stage, my player, which is the unit which preceded this model, does not play 70% of the blu ray discs I load into it. Not only that, it takes around 15-20 minutes before I can tell whether the disc will actually load and play, or tell me "Cannot play this disc." For those of us who use Mac only computers, there is no firmware update available, and frankly, you shouldn't have to update your firmware to simply play a blu ray disc with a blu ray machine that is 1 year old. Frankly, you should look elsewhere. Until Sony produces a top quality machine at a reasonable price, either look for something inexpensive that works, or look at a higher end machine like a Pioneer Elite, or a Marantz that might actually play a movie.

the player is ok. its not that great. and the price dropped more than $100 on amazon's website in less than a month and they won't refund the difference. i am sending mine back. my dvd player works just fine.

Bought this today and tested it with 5 BDs. Loads fast and has a great picture. Worth every penny I paid on a BF sale. Very small case and the live function works as advertised.

I bought my BDP-S350 a couple of weeks ago when the price dipped to $219. I've been researching Blu-ray players for several months now and I'm glad I waited.

The BDP-S350 is *not* slow like it's predecessor. It loads BDs and DVDs faster than my previous upconverting Philips player. Does a better job upconverting than the Philips did too.

If you want the best picture for the best price for the best hardware bang-for-your-buck, get the Sony, and upgrade your firmware. It works fast and well.

I did a side by side comparison with the PS3. The PS3 loads disks more than twice as fast. Plus some newer Blu-ray disks wouldn't even work on this model. The PS3 also has a great system for storing pictures, videos, and music. Don't waste your money on this...get the PS3 even if you don's play games.

I did my fair share of searching for a decent Blu-ray player for a good price. After searching for a couple of weeks, I came across this Sony WITH the HDMI cable included; after seeing this deal I had one word - SOLD!

Received the player within a couple of days after ordering, plugged in two wires (HDMI and power cord) and a few color adjustments and five minutes later it was up and running. Good purchase.

Great product, so much better than the BDPS-300. Loads in 5 seconds and does not freeze. Shipped quickly and arrived on time. Highly recommend to everyone.

I just ordered my fifth BDP-S350, as I slowly upgrade all of our DVD players to Blue-ray. We're not into the super techie stuff, we were just looking for a reliable, reasonably priced player. We found it. I currently am using this player with a Dwin front projector, a 40" Sony Bravia 720p and a few things in between. Even with standard DVD, the picture seems deeper and more crisp. Our experience has been nothing but positive. I paid close to the list price for the first two players and the price has been dropping slowly since. At the $243 price, it would be hard to beat.

I can't compare to other players because I have nothing to compare to but for people wondering whether blu-ray players really are an improvement over regular dvd all I can say is wow, what a picture! Blu-ray is awesome and I highly recommend this player. I also bought an hdmi cable Mediabridge Ultra-High Speed HDMI Cable - 6ft - Version 1.3b Category 2 - 1080p - PS3 - Blu-Ray here on Amazon and it is so easy to hook this player up. Awesome!

I'll keep it short:

1 - Picture is not as sharp. (Ex: I have a Toshiba HD-DVD connected to the same TV and THAT'S what HD should look like. This machine looks like a slightly sharper regular DVD player)

2 - broke after 6 months, had to replace

3 - Cannot upscale regular DVDs to save it's life.

4- takes too long to start up

5 - remote control is sluggish

I bought SONY because they invented the format. Going to purchase Panasonic next.

I got this as a deal with the SOny Bravia 1080p LCD 52 inch TV. I thought whats the big difference. But I was wrong...I was totally blown away by the picture quality...I still dint know if it had to do with the TV more or the Bly ray player more. But when the I compared the blu ray player with my philips dvd player...I realised what I had been missing out on. The only drawback BLU RAY discs as lil expensive....Either ways!!!!!!! Love it Love It Love It!!!!!

The Good:

Excellent picture quality, loaded with deep blacks and excellent contrast and color richness. Wonderful upscaling of normal DVD's too, the best I have seen, even better than the Oppo. (I have 3 Oppos) Blu-Ray quality is outstanding. Spin up times for discs is lighting fast, same as a normal DVD.

The Bad:

No slow motion. No frame advance. No clear forward or backward search feature. The picture skips in 4 second bursts or 8 second bursts and so on the faster you search forward, so it is agonizing to watch TV shows on this player and try to search through the commercials. Also if you want to see a scene over again or slow things down to understand what happened in a fast or complicated scene, forget it, this player has no such capability, it is just a "player only."

The Ugly:

The USB port that you are supposed to plug a micro drive into so you can take advantage of BD is so recessed into the back of the player and the opening so narrow that no micro drive I have found is narrow enough to fit into it. The only way to plug into the slot is to buy an additional "extra narrow" extender cable to plug into the slot, then you have to plug the micro drive into the extender cable. Pretty bad design flaw. Duh, Sony!

Conclusion:

If you want top notch Blu-ray quality with superior upscaling of normal DVD's and are willing to accept that all this player does is play discs, you can do nothing more, and if you are willing to accept that you will have to buy accessories to get a micro drive to work on this player so you can use the BD feature, then for the price, this player is impossible to beat. But if you want a full featured player that can let you have full control of your DVD's then you will need to look elsewhere, this is a "player only."

This is my first Blu-Ray and I love it. Boots a little slow but I expected that. Picture and sound are awesome. I used HDMI connection so there is nothing to hooking it up.

The first unit I ordered was delivered well short of the time I expected. When I opened the box I noted the original packing carton appeared to have been dropped as one corner of the box was damaged. When I opened the carton, the plastic cover on the front of the unit had been broken off. I got on-line for return instructions and the unit was picked up the next day. A few days later, the replacement unit arrived. No damage to the carton (original packaging) this time and the unit works perfectly. I have been very pleased with the upconvert ability for standard DVD's as the playback has been fantastic. Aside from the damage to the first unit, I am very pleased with both the player it's self, and the expediant way Amazon handled immediately shipping the replacement unit. I would have no problem recommmending this unit to others.

Unit failed after 2 hours of use, with a fan failure.

The only positive thing, was the outstanding response from Amazon. The return process was simple to follow and very efficient.

Just got this yesterday and set up last night. Be aware that if you are not setting this up with a wired internet connection, you'll have some extra work.

- The firmware upgrade on the unit I received was required. Without a wired internet connection next to the unit with the TV monitor for the on screen menus, you will need to create a firmware update CD from the sony support site and then load the update via disk. Didn't take much effort, but could be challenging if you are not comfortable burning CD's, navigating software support sites, etc.

- This unit lacks a wireless network adapter - why, I have not idea. Does Sony think that every house has a wired internet connection every place you might want to plug in a DVD player? Wii ships with a built in adapter. So if you want BD-live content or to do firmware updates over the internet and don't have a wired connection at your TV, you need to purchase either generic wireless bridge or a wireless game adapter - each about $100. Very dissapointing. I waited for this generation of Blu Ray specifically for the internet connectivity, and they left off a pretty basic and inexpensive feature to enable it.

- BD-Live content requires flash memory, which you need to purhcase and plug in to the back. I wasn't expecting that either. I had a USB jump drive that worked, but rather than have the USB flush to the back of the panel as you would see on a laptop, it is set back about 1/4", meaning some types of USB drives won't fit. Sony makes one that seesm to be specifically designed for this spot. The user manual even gives you the part number to buy.

All in all, the picture is beautiful and I probably could use this without the firmware update and the internet connectivity and never notice a difference. Stumbling across all these little gotcha's on the setup is frustrating. If you put together everything that you need to really get this set up (without a wired internet connection), you've got the Wireless Bridge (~$85), USB memory (~$25), and of course the HDMI cable that is not includes (~$25 for a cheap one). All of which, given BluRay's selling points, should be in the box. Price this thing appropriatley and give me the stuff I need in the box - it makes for a very annoying experience.

With past standalone Blu-ray players, Sony has been its own greatest competition. Their PS3 provides excellent Blu-ray Disc playback, network upgradability, and a comprehensive Blu-ray feature set including BonusView and BD-Live. Previous Sony players were lacking in these areas, or were prohibitively expensive. But this is no longer the case with the BDP-S350, a solid budget Blu-ray player that has the features and performance that most Blu-ray buyers are looking for, at the lowest price yet of a name brand player.

The PS3 is still a little faster to boot up and to load, but the latest generation Sony player is catching up even on this front, and the BDP-S350, with its CE component-style design and Infrared remote capability, integrates into a home theater system more easily than the PS3. Also, with the inclusion of a network port, the BDP-S350 can enjoy the same kind of firmware upgradability that the PS3 offers, as well as support of BD-Live interactive features (don't forget to pick up a USB flash memory card as you'll need it in order to use the BD-Live features).

The Sony's closest competition in price and functionality, Samsung's BD-P1500, doesn't quite match the Sony player in its DVD upconversion or reliability. One area where the BDP-S350 is slightly bettered by other competitive players (notably, the Panasonic DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55), in its video performance, both on DVD upconversion and BD playback. Subtle details in color and complex handling of things like moving diagonal lines are handled by the newest Panasonic players better than on the Sony, but these differences only become apparent on larger screen sizes such as large flat panels and massive front projection screens.

But on 3:2 cadence detection from DVDs (where the player optimizes the picture for movies, by detecting the inherent 3:2 cadence of film-based material), the BDP-S350 performs flawlessly, eliminating artifacts like moire patterns that can plague some lesser players. And, based on the current Amazon prices, the Panasonic players are slightly more expensive than the Sony, so this does merit some consideration, particularly with the economy the way it is right now.

The player's handling of next generation surround sound formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) is pretty typical for the current entry-level players - bistreaming these soundtracks over HDMI for decoding in one of the latest home theater receivers with HDMI 1.3 support. But the S350 offers neither multi-channel analog outputs, nor on-board decoding of DTS-HD sountracks to PCM. These shortcomings will make a difference if you have an older home theater receiver without on-board DTS-HD decoding and you want to get the best possible sound. If this is the case, then either of the new Panasonic players or Sony's own BDP-S550 player may be a better option. But if you've got the latest home theater gear, then the S350's bitstreaming of DTS-HD over HDMI is perfectly fine.

If you're a Sony brand fan, the BDP-S350 will give you a lot to be excited about, at a price that would have seemed impossible just a few short months ago. Pick one up for the holidays and you'll finally get to see what your HDTV and home theater system is really capable of.

A more detailed review of the player is available at Big Picture Big Sound.

I have had this player for a couple months now, and love it. The value of the features for the price was the best I could find when I bought it. And believe me, I've been researching this out for a couple years.

It does a super job playing back my BluRay's. Even my wife, who was a little skeptical that it would be any different than DVD, couldn't believe the picture when we put a movie in. Especially some of the PIXAR animated movies. They just pop! DVD's on a large screen have always left me wanting, but even they look better now. I've always been leary of the DVD "upscaling" promise, but I could definitely tell a difference and was impressed with it's ability there too. Playing DVD's on this the Sony is MUCH closer to the picture quality of BluRay's that it was on our old DVD player.

The only reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5, is that it doesn't have an easier way to connect to the internet. Instead of having a USB port option, it's only option is a CAT5 Ethernet port. That means for me, I've got to buy a wireless bridge, since I don't have a hard-wired internet option close by. Running a long cable or dropping something through the wall isn't an option. So to get the benefit of the BD Live options, I'm forced to spend another $75 for a bridge. I haven't connected it up to the internet yet, so I can say how well the BD Live features work.

Bottom line, even with the hassle of the internet, I would still buy it again.

I made the mistake of going with HD-DVD last year and had been holding out for a reasonably priced blu-ray player. The BDP S350 has exceeded my expectations. The picture and sound are fantastic when hooked up by HDMI through my Sony STR dg910 receiver. The start up time is very fast when the quick start option is selected during set-up. I upgraded the firmware after downloading the update from the sony website and burning to a CD. The setup and upgrade process went smoothly and took less than an hour to get everything optimized. As with previous reviewers I recommend reading the manual thouroughly because there are a lot of features and settings that can be optimized. If you're still holding out for the perfect blu-ray player, stop waiting and buy this one!

Really smooth set up but you do have to be patient and READ the manual to get it squared away. This is due to the enormous number of options allowing it to be configured for most any TV/AMP/Home Theater. I have this player connected to a Vizio 42" HD LCD 1080i. Using standard DVDs there is a significant improvement over the one year old Panasonic player this Sony replaces. Using an HDMI connection, both units "up convert" standard DVDs to improve the picture quality on an HD screen but he Sony is much, MUCH better at it. The resulting image approaches HD quality. I can detect no sound difference but then again, I'm allowing my Sony digital receiver to handle the sound decoding rather than the player. The picture quality when playing a Blu-Ray DVD is truly exceptional. It is impeccably clear, bright and detailed to the point of appearing almost three dimensional at times. No pixilation, fade out or blurring. I have heard and read of complaints over earlier HD and Blu-Ray players having impossibly slow start up and shut down times. Not so with the BDP-S350. It is equal in speed to my Panasonic standard player. The price is right, the functions are all there and the play back is exceptional. I would strongly recommend this unit just for what it can do with existing DVDs. It's that good at the up-conversion. Add in that the BDP-S350 takes it up two or three full notches with a Blu-Ray Disc and this becomes a true "gotta have" for any movie fan. Did I remember to mention the outstanding up convert capabilities this has?

Great image quality for Blu Ray and for video-upconverting regular old DVDs. My only wish is that the load time were faster. This is better than the old Sony 300, but is still slow when compared to regular DVD players.

The player was outstanding.The color and sound are great.I!ve got a good price from Amazon.The set-up and connection are very useful thru the manual.

I chose the BDP-S350 because it was the first low price player that met the profle 2.0 standard (with a firmware upgrade), was reviewed to have good Blu-ray playback performance and better than average DVD playback performance. Compared to the newer BDP-S550 it is missing only the internal decoding of the DTS-HD codec. For me this was OK since I have a new generation A/V receiver which decodes all bitstream outputs over HDMI. I have since learned that for a true BD-Live experience, it is best to have all the internal decoders as well (player can't output both streams simultaneously) - so if this is important, go with the S550. On the other hand, I haven't come across any BD-Live discs yet. Some critics cite the hard-to-access USB port - easily solved with a simple USB cable extender. Bottom line: great performance, quiet, fast, works just as you would expect.

This unit does NOT support slow motion play back nor frame by frame advancing. Don't believe me? Don't blame you, the 5 or 6 "official" reviews I checked all fail to mention it. Go to esupport.sony.com, enter the model number, on the left side of the screen select FAQ, in the box enter "slow motion", click on the question to see Sony's answer. I am returning the unit, very disappointing.

Initially I was put off by the few negative reviews I saw on here and I was planning to get a Panasonic instead... then the local Sony distributor advertised a "special", this player along with 6 Blu-ray movies included.... and I thought, "good way to jump-start my blu-ray collection" because the titles are good.

I am glad that I bought this product.... it does NOT have a "long loading time" even when the default "normal" start is selected... although you can set "quick start" in the menu... then the player does not completely "turn off"... it remains warm and consumes power... and starts up quicker... although this was what I set initially, I found the "normal" start wait to be quite acceptable and soon switched it back to normal.

The crossbar is intuitive and easy to use and I cannot see why anybody would be unhappy about it.

Contrary to what some spec sheets on internet suggest... the product has
TOS link (optical) as well as coax digital output jacks.... although these only work up to 5.1 Dolby it is not a problem for me... because my surround system is 5.1 anyhow.

The unit is quiet in operation and can hardly be heard.

This is a great product with super picture and sound quality.... I can only conclude that the few people who gave this product a low rating must have got defective units.... which they should exchange as soon as possible.

Sony has done it again.... and you can buy this product with confidence... start watching blu-ray quality today...

Best Wishes, Stephen

A great stand-alone blu-ray player and a great deal, less than a Playstation and much quieter. Quick load times, the menus and options are easy to follow and set up is a breeze. Connected to my network and found a firmware update upon first power up, zero configuration needed. Like the slim profile, looks good and performs as it should. The remote is easy to use, wish it were able to change channels on my TV but it's not supposed to. Blu-Ray movies look awesome, I suspect they would look much better than on my 42" plasma at 1080i, but it is an investment with plenty of future potential. I'm glad I waited for this second generation player and not been an early adopter of those Profile 1.0 players. This is a solid performer that I would recommend to anyone considering entering the blu-ray arena.

That's a great Blue-ray player, upgrade online, play all movies perfect, I'm in love !....

I have had it for one week. Great features, great picture, great experience. On the downside, I connected to my network, it recognized there was an update, but could not download it. I tried many times, it maybe because I have satellite Internet versus DSL or Cable. However I downloaded the update from Sony, uncompressed it, burned an image CD-R, and it installed flawlessly. It would have been better if it could have done it itself over my network, but the 1080p was worth it.

Mine was defective. Audio problems. So I did not get to try all of the features.

I take my home theater hobby pretty seriously, that's why when it came time to invest in a Blu-Ray player (finally the wait is over!!!), I did a ridiculously great amount of research. I was willing to spend much more money on a blu-ray player, but the prices have come down so much, you don't have to! I narrowed down my extensive search for the right player to the Panasonic DMP-BD35K and the Sony BDP-S350. **I BOUGHT THEM BOTH AND DID A SIDE-BY-SIDE TEST!**

I have some nice equipment, so I feel that the test was an excellent representation of the capabilities of these two players. My equipment includes a 100-inch Stewart screen with a 1080p Sony Pearl front projector, an Integra 9.8 DTC processor (with all the latest surround sound goodies), NAD amp, 7.1 Paradigm Signature speakers, and a dual M&K subwoofer.

I do understand electronics, but the Sony manual was really hard to follow. After only one call to Sony, I eventually got the player set up properly. After I set up the Panasonic, everything became much clearer. The Panasonic manual is so much better. But, who really cares about manuals? How do these two players perform side by side?

Audio for BOTH Blu-ray discs and standard DVDs: The Panasonic unquestionably has better audio. Compared to the Sony, the highs were much clearer. The 7.1 surround sound put me right in the middle of the "explosion" (my first test blu-ray disc was National Treasure I) when the Charlotte blew up. The biggest Audio difference was the bass. The bass in the Panasonic was so much better than the Sony. In fact, my old Sony standard-DVD player had better audio than the Sony BDP-S350. I'd give the Sony 3 stars with the audio. The Panasonic had outstanding treble, bass, and surround: 5-star audio!

Video for BOTH Blu-ray discs and standard DVDs: The Sony's video was ok, but the Panasonic's video was fantastic. The skin tones were more realistic and the colors were more vibrant with the Panasonic. The Sony seemed to have a thin gray film over everything -- like looking through a filmy-dirty window. The Sony had 4-star video, the Panasonic and its upscaling gets an easy 5 stars!

Both my wife and I did the side-by-side test by going back and forth between Blu-Ray discs and standard DVDs. We didn't discuss any of our thoughts until we each independently formed our own conclusions. After seeing and hearing both players, we were both in complete agreement that in every way the Panasonic DMP-BD35K was superior to the Sony BDP-S350.

By the way, the card slot on the Sony for BD-Live is very hard to get to. I do like Sony as a brand for some things, but not Blu-Ray players.

Also, to save you some research time, I've already checked out all of the professional reviews including the ones on CNet.com: The Sony is considered ok, and CNet liked the Panasonic so much that it is the first Blu-Ray player EVER to receive CNet's "Editor's Choice Award."

I have to go to the store now and return the Sony player that I bought. I'm keeping the Panasonic!! :-)

Hopefully you found this review helpful!

I have been quite pleased with the quality of the Blu-Ray player. I decided to take a plunge - upgrade my television and sound system to HD, and switch to Blu-Ray at the same time. Having been a user of old dinosaur equipment - this made a huge difference. The player is easy to use - even for a not so tech type guy like myself. Give it a shot. You'll love it.

Amazon was wonderful. I would have rated this 5 stars except for the HDMI output connection didn't work on the first player I bought. Amazon made it easy to return and sent me a new player before the original one was sent back. I had no trouble with the billing. It's great when you get someone from customer service who speaks English and don't have to push a dozen buttons on your phone to speak to someone. I rate Amazon 5 stars!

As I waited for the price to come down and now we are in our second generation of Blu Ray players I think the quality is much better and now the units are below the $300.00 mark it is well worth the move. I have friends that have PS3 and I think this is the same or just a little better as this unit is made for movies and PS3 is for games so it spinning all the time I hope it will have a good life as the Sony brand has a good reputation. I looked at a lot of others and I will purchase another unit for my Shop in a year or so when they will be at the $99.00 mark. And before long they will be $19.99 at Wal-Mart:) My option if you are wanting a great movie experience then it time to make the move.

I bought this bluray player yesterday from Circuit City and I love it,,,it has on screen instructions,,,easy setup,,and great picture,,,sharp,crisp and the sound is awsome,,,just don't know the difference between 1080i and 1080p,,,can someone explain it,,,thanks

I waited for this model to get cheaper and it's worth all the wait!! awesome picture quality and sound!! Loving it!!

I just upgraded from an old upconverting Sony DVD player to the Sony BDP350 and I just want to tell everybody that this thing is breeze to use. The new menu system is great and the picture quality is amazing for this price range even with regular DVD's . Another great Sony product.

Great product. easy set up. So far no complaints at all. Was worried about firmware updates but so far have not had to do anything but plug it in. This is the blu ray player to get....

Perhaps this is a fine machine and I just got a lemon. I could not get it to play any dvd. I did not have a bluray disk to try so instead tried 6-7 of my dvd disks. Not one would play. I spent 1 1/2 hours with customer support to no avail. At one point it would not reject the disk I put in. So, probably just a defective machine. I just expect things I pay $400 for to work. I am now afraid to try another one as hooking/unhooking anything from my home theater is a process I do take lightly as it is time consuming no matter what I do. I would probably give this a couple stars for fairness but I did not find the Sony tech person to be very helpfull.

The player is sleight in appearance, but solid in its construction and it feels sturdy, with a good amount of heft. It has quick load times, especially when the "Quick Menu" option is turned on. It bitstreams the advanced codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution & Master Audio) without any trouble and decodes TrueHD over HDMI flawlessly. The BonusView features work without any problems, but the player still has not received its firmware update to do BD-Live. Since the player doesn't decode DTS-HD HR or MA, any BonusView secondary audio that contains a DTS-HD mix will only be played back using the legacy DTS core.

More negatives are the confusing wordings of the player's setup menu, which make it somewhat timely to get the player to decode and/or bitstream and display the proper aspect ratios, etc. exactly as you want it to.

Other than that, it is nearly perfect, playing 1080p/24 material flawlessly, but it hiccups on interlaced material, failing the HQV tests on 1080i material, so if you have a television that de-interlaces 1080i properly, it is best that you allow the TV to do it rather than this player. Unfortunately, the player does not have a "native" mode that will automatically transmit the native resolution on the disc; you can only set it to output a particular resolution (i.e. 720p, 1080i, 1080p) so, you'll have to go into the menus and switch resolution outputs whenever you encounter a 1080i disc, assuming you have the player set to output 1080p.

Very impressed. Loads pretty quickly. Picture is great. set up was simple. It is good to see sony finally catch up to my A-35, like a year later.

I waited for a while for Sony to come out with a model that adressed the disappointments with the previous model. I believe that sony truly listened with this model by improving the menu, the remote and adding the ethernet port making flashing the player extremely easy. It is an excellent player made with the quality that I have come to expect from sony. Load time on discs may be a few seconds, but I have never truly noticed. It has played countless blue-rays and regular DVD's without a hitch. The image and sound quality is truly amazing!

Ok,my HD player of choice was HD DVD. I own about 100 HD DVD disks. These players were far less expensive than Sony Blu Ray. The movies were generally less expensive than Blu Ray. HD DVD had more features, easy to update on line, less expensive...easy choice. The dreaded evil Sony corporation was not going to get my business.

When Toshiba pulled their product after the major studios dropped them, I was shocked and annoyed. What did evil Sony do to get the others to drop them?

After the demise, Sony showed no signs of putting out a good play at a reasonable cost. I didn't want a bulky Playstation. There was plenty of HD DVD movies out there, and at bargain prices.

Then last month a crazy thing happened. Sony released the BDP-S350 to rave reviews. I held out no longer and bought mine from Amazon for 344, no tax, free shipping. I got it within a week.

I just set it up. Took about 15 minutes. It would have taken less but the audio set up confused me a bit. God forbid I read the instructions.

Anyway, I bought a single BluRay disk and played it.
The picture and sound were nothing short of wonderful. I'll buy a few disks as they are still way too expensive, and rent from Netflix or Blockbuster. I am very impressed with the quality of this unit, and consider me a convert.

I recommend this machine highly, and congratulations to Sony for finally waking up!

I purposly waited for this player to be released before I plunged into the Blu-Ray market. It has fast boot up times, Internet updates, and all the next gen features that you would expect. The picture and sound are amazing. I have it connected to my receiver using HDMI with no issues. Extreamly happy with my purchase.

Blu-ray DVD disc player connected with our new Sony Bravia HD TV & Sony Home Theater AMP provides pictures & sound beyond our expectations........
SIMPLY OUTSTANDING.....HIGHLY RECOMMEND !!!!

This is a great DVD player. Even my non blu-ray DVD's look better! Sony's theater sync is a huge convenience for me.

I purchased this product with hopes of finding out what all of the "blu-ray disc" hype was about. I bought the Sony BDP-S350 directly from Sony style and was anxious to see the HD quality that has been advertised with the blu-ray disc technology. I own several HD tvs and decided to match it up with my Sony Bravia. Of course, I hadn't invested in any blu-ray discs yet so I was eager to see how it would transform my current dvd collection into a near hd quality as advertised.

I immediately unpacked the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player, hooked it up and put it through my tests. My first complaint was it seem to take forever to boot up before the disc drawer would open. However, I waited patiently, eventually it opened and I put in the Transformers dvd. And to my delight it provided me with great hd picture quality. I then tried an old movie, "Get Shorty" that I recently purchased new! The results this time were quite disappointing. In fact, the picture looked more analog than digital. It resembled a tv picture using rabbit ears for an antenna.

I was completely baffled as to the difference in the two picture qualities. I figured to continue my test by playing a recently recorded dvd+rw disc. I went up stairs to get the dvd+rw disc, then to my disbelief my test came to an abrupt end. The disc drawer never opened again!! The Sony BDP-S350 only blinked the message "wait". I went away for 45 minutes, came back the the "wait" message was still blinking on the face of the disc player. I called Sony tech support and for 1 solid hour, the support person tried everything in his handbook and could not get the player's disc drawer to reopen! I even packed the player and then unpacked it the next day with hopes that the player would somehow reset itself over night. No such luck!

Did I have a defective machine, absolutely. However that doesn't account for its performance when it was working. I subsequently purchased a Panasonic DMR-EZ27 up conversion HDMI 1080p recorder and matched it up with my Sony Bravia. I immediately played the movie "Get Shorty" and was able to get the HD quality picture I expected to get with the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player. (Plus the Panasonic DMR-EZ27 gives me the capability to record).

In conclusion, I love my Sony tvs. However my past experience with the Sony DVD recorders and now the Sony Blu-ray disc player has been quite frustrating. Who wants a Sony dvd recorder that won't record an HBO movie because it can't distinguish "protected" content from an ordinary home recording?? And as far as the "blu-ray disc hype", I've lost my inquisitiveness.

I give the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player "1 star'. The star is for it being a Sony. Usually, I love my Sony products but MY ADVICE IS SAFE YOUR MONEY, THIS PRODUCT HAS FLAWS!