Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player

mine just died tonight after so many issues with it recently for the past month, volume had to be on 70 to hear it with blue ray movies but regular movies were fine.so tonight went to put the movie in crank 2 blue ray and the little window was so tiny i could hardly see it,and then it would not play and then i played the movie and then screen was so tiny,i mean very tiny,so i tried to eject it and there was issues with it,i tried everything. I even hooked it up compnent cable and that did not work,so needless to say,its time for the grave for this sony blue ray player. it did last 2 years but still,i took care of very well .I paid 400.00 plus tax for mine almost 2 years agop,so i used it alot,but come on..ridicouls.so never again with sony,never ..anyhow i would not buy this product,it does not have new updates and no netflix etc.well sadly enough to admit time to go back to my regular dvd player,good thing i did not sell old one LOL..

I've had my BDP-S350 for about a year now, and in that time I've used it infrequently at best. It now, inexplicably, refuses to recognize any Blu-ray disc I put in. Standard DVDs play fine, but BDs do not, and it's a problem I found is documented on AV forums and the reviews on Sony's own site. Most guesses are that the blue lasers are unreliable, as it seems to be a problem consistent across multiple firmware updates. Additionally, I didn't change my firmware between when I last played a BD disc and now.

For a player as expensive as this one, it seems to have an incredibly short lifespan. If you waste your money on this, expect to be buying a new player soon after.

This player is great value for the money. I have owned mine for a little over a year now and it has worked flawlessly as far as playing regular blu-ray and Dvd movies is concerned. My only gripe is that despite repeated firmware updates the player still cannot seem to decode the so-called BD-Live contents even when the disc menu clearly shows it is available. I hooked mine permanently to my DSL Modem and it downloads and installs updates automatically whenever it is available. It even recently downloaded updates for my Sony Bravia LCD TV. When I purchased it from Best Buy I was told that it would be BD-Live capable with future firmware updates and the manufacturer's description clearly promised this too but alas it seem like a bogus claim. Another thing is that it sometimes 'forgets' where it stopped playback and starts from the beginnning unlike my regular Sony RDR-VX560 1080p Tunerless DVD Recorder/VHS Combo Player which always starts from where it stopped the last time. Minor gripe

So if you're buying this for playback of regular movies then go ahead but if you plan on viewing BD Live contents over the web try another model.

Sony BDP-S350 vs. Panasonic DMP-BD30K: I HAVE HAD EXCELLENT EXPERIENCE WITH THIS PLAYER SINCE LATE 2008. GREAT UPGRADE CONVERSION AND DOESN'T TAKE LONG TO LOAD.

The unit worked fine for 13 months (12 month warranty of course). I decided to upgrade to firmware v20 to maybe get some additional features/functionality. Now when I put in a Blueray disc, the player says "unknown". I spent 2 hrs on the phone with Sony to no avail. Now I have an overpriced DVD only player!
Sony just lost a loyal customer.

I expected better from Sony. In fact, my original DVD player bought from Sony about a decade ago was superior in terms of the remote and features. This current machine doesn't allow frame by frame advance or offer the many on screen readout features of that original player. WTF!?

Also, if you play a conventional DVD of an older movie, it stretches the 4:3 format to fill the wide screen of my TV instead of allowing me to see the film as intended by its makers. This is incredibly annoying, and I can't find a way around it. The Blu-Ray picture is beautiful, but the other annoyances lead me not to recommend this player.

This player produces beautiful pictures and sound from Blu-ray disks. It even does a very nice job of upscaling regular DVDs. Just two little complaints. First, loading and start up are slow. I suppose this is common for Blu-ray players, but it has to get better. Second, the player would not connect to my network correctly until I tried setting a fixed IP address. If this isn't something you're comfortable with, you may be spending some time on the phone.

On the other hand, it may not be worth bothering with the BD-Live functions. After installing network cable, working around the DHCP issues, buying extra memory, and waiting for downloads it turns out that the much vaunted extra content is mostly ads or requires nonsense like creating accounts. This isn't the fault of the player of course - blame the studios.

This Sony Blu-ray player is easy to hook-up to almost any HD-TV,it takes about 5-10 minutes tops. Use is not very different from your standard DVD player,except, loading my take a minute or two and there is no ejection button on the remote. There are also multi-color buttons for Sony's special BD-Live function which allow Internet access to additional content related to the movie in Blu-ray. The picture quality of the Sony BDP-S350 is excellent in HD and standard DVD; a very sharp and clear picture especially if you have a Sony HD-TV (everything is in Sync.) A good buy for anyone looking for the best HD entertainment out there.

Guys, even if I were an American guy I would not knew how to exactly say this, but let's go: Each DVD or Blu-Ray Player has its own timing, its own fastness and agility to go back and forth, to rewind and fastfoward a disc since you press the RW << or the FF >> button. Take my DVD player, for instance: I barely press the RW or FF button and the disc goes back or forth, the player response is immediate, the rewind or the ff is fast, quick, and is seems to goes frame by frame of the movie, I can watch almost every frame and scene during the rewind for example. I got total control over the RW or FF timing, points and scene, to get to the exactly time I want to, and it's really fast. On the other hand, I got no control, no precision doing that in my Blu-Ray PLayer, a Sony S350. I press the RW button, it seems to take a whole second to just start to go back, the rewind skips lots of frames, I only can see pieces, flashes from the movie, and always stops beyond, further than I wanted to. This must be stupid, meanigless and maybe nonsense for you. However, since I live in Brazil and I use every movie and series to develop and improve my English, I go back and forth several times, watch some scenes over and over again, so, this feature is extremly important to me.
My question: Do you know what is it I talking about? What it takes for a Player to do this, how can I know if it has this feature, before I buy it, and, finally, is there anyway I can update or "fix" my BD PLayer so it can do this? Has this feature an specific name?

I already had an HD-DVD player, so I was familiar with the "next-gen" DVDs and their 1080p/24fps qualities.

After the death of the HD-DVD format, I was in the market for a simple BD player. I looked at the Sony PS3, but as I had already invested heavily in my Xbox 360, I could not justify spending even more money on a game console that did not have too much in the way of games that I enjoyed playing.

So, I went ahead and got a BDP-S350. It works as advertised. Great sound, picture and interface (just like the PS3's). The first movie I viewed on it was "Dark Knight" and it was everything I expected.

If you can find this player for under $200 (which is what it seems to be going at nowadays), get it. DVD players used to cost this much, and the improvement is significant over the older media.

As an aside, it is a great upconverter for older discs, so you can still hang on to those...:)

The player works great but I expected more out of Sony. The does does not have the option for slow motion or frame advancing. Other than that I quite pleased with the picture quality. Sony BDP-S350 1080p

Generally I'm very happy with this player. I got it at a good price at Best Buy a few months ago. I don't even have a hi-def TV yet, and I can already see a difference in the picture with Blu-Ray discs on a regular TV.

I purchased the Blu-Ray of "Amadeus", and even when viewed on a regular TV through the BD player it looks FABULOUS!

The remote is easy to navigate with, and the menu screens on the TV (via the player) are neither too complex nor overly-elaborate.

I don't have the player hooked up to an Internet cable yet for all the firmware updates, Blu-Ray Live features, etc, but that's not really my thing anyway. I just want the movies I watch to look cool!

The only drawback I see is that there is no frame-by-frame advance feature. I didn't see anything about that feature on any published or online literature for this model, so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. No luck in that department, I guess.

If you've read a lot of reviews of BD players, you've no doubt heard about various "start-up times", or how long it takes the player to read and start playing a Blu-Ray disc. Yes, it can often be slower than a standard DVD, but it isn't so long as to be a deal-breaker.

Overall, I'm very happy with this player's performance -- even if it doesn't have frame advance. You can REALLY tell the difference between standard DVD and Blu-Ray discs even if you don't have a hi-def TV yet.

Christmas is just around the corner. Think I'll buy me a plasma TV to go along with my S350. Bring some beer and you can come over and we'll watch some Blu-Ray movies! First up -- "Blade Runner" and "The Fall". And when and if "Jaws" ever comes out on Blu-Ray, be advised that I'm taking the phone off the hook when I watch it.

There are many reviews listed here that provides the virtues and shortcomings (not too many) of this player, so I will not get into the details. I've been using this unit for a week or so, and it's my first blu-ray player.

It has excellent looks, not too loud, amazing picture and sound. Working Ethernet (firmware updates) and USB ports. (I haven't had to download any firmware or code updates, but I'm sure it'll work fine.)

No fan noise, no noise while playing, but during menu & loading, I hear some track-seeking which is audible at 5 feet. Nothing too unpleasant. A great unit for the price.

Got it for an older friend who was a bit skeptical about the blu-ray technology. After he got it, he noticed a huge difference and is hooked. And if he's hooked, that's good enough for me, since he's a picky kind of guy.

The BDP-S350 is about a year old, and is showing no sign of slowing down at the moment. Thanks to the fact that all BD players are upgradable, the latest firmware upgrade for S350 has rendered it compatible with the most recent Blu-ray titles.

Although the loading time for S350 can't compete with a Playstation 3, it is probably one of the fastest machines in the market. Loading time for earlier BD titles is as fast as most DVDs, while newer titles takes less than a minute to play.

The picture quality of this player depends alot on the quatlity of the source, as most BD and DVD players, but from what I can see so far, the S350 performs the best 1080 upscaling for DVDs. Since my S350 was purchased in Singapore, the player is shipped without DVD region lock so I can put any DVD into the machine right out of the box.

When paired with the cosmetically matching HT-SF2300, the current firmware decodes every kind of audio stream into LPCM and feeds it straight into the SF2300. There is no option to turn this feature off at the moment, as in to output the original bit stream. This may be a turn off for some prospective buyers. The S350 also outputs a blank 5.1 LPCM flag when the source disc is in pause mode so the SF2300 doesn't switch to analog or idle mode when the S350 is in pause. Anyone who owns the HT-SF2300 or any low end Hi-Fi receiver knows it is quite annoying when your receiver goes idle and then tries to resume decoding when the BD/DVD player resumes playback. You tend lose a second or two of the sound.

The xcross graphic user interface is very pleasant to the eyes, and easy to navigate through. Too bad the xcross menu does not appear to be in high definition; the text and graphic look very soft under my 40" screen.

Highly recommended for speed and responsiveness, especially considering the price tag.

This is one of the cheaper models yes, but it's still a great machine.

I've been using it for about 4 months now. I've only had a few issues with the player, one, it wouldn't play the new Skynet version of T2. I ended up having to update the firmware and while the Blu-ray took a long time to load, it did eventually play the film. By doing so I realized that the firmware I had was one of the first updates available (I believe there's now over 20) so as soon as you get this hooked up you're going to want to update.

Second, the player seems to have an issue with DVD-R's. For some reason when I put a DVD-r that's not formatted to a DVD (meaning I've just dropped various video files onto the disc) it doesn't want to play it. The picture menu comes up, even though the files are all AVI. So if I want to watch a movie I've burned I have to format it to a DVD using the program "convertxtodvd." Not too big of a deal though.

These two issues are small and for me definitely do not detract from the score or quality of the machine.

I guess I do have one more complaint, but this concerns most players also, you still have to buy hdmi cables for the best quality picture, I think that these should be included.

Alright, done with the bad, now onto the good.

*It's easy to hook up and figure out.

*for most Blu's it's fast loading.

*it's hackable for those of you who want to play DVD's from other regions.

*the quality is great for being low priced it is IMO one of the better players that I've had the pleasure of using.

*It's very sleek looking. Looks great sitting next to my flat panel.

So there you have it. The good outweighs the bad. Very high quality machine, exactly what you'd expect from a brand like Sony. So what are you waiting for? Buy it!

Purchased the Sony BDP-S350 BD unit last Christmas, and it has generally performed reliably well, and with the high quality one comes to expect from this technology.

I give it a failing grade because of a few quirks. First of all, I noticed right away that this player does not have many features that have come standard in DVD players (and VCRs) for years, such as Frame Advance (i.e. slow motion). My guess is that Sony will add these features later on new models to justify one shelling out a couple of hundred again for those features in a new unit. I have not checked other models of different brands nor researched this subject so I may be mistaken here, and it may actually be a technological hurdle.
Secondly, the unit requires firmware updates to play some of the latest offerings (e.g. Terminator 2, Skynet Edition). For those of us who can't connect the player to the Internet nor burn the firmware update in a disc from a computer (most CD burning programs that come with a new computer lack image burning capabilities unless one purchases a software upgrade), Sony offers to send a free CD with the update, which may be ordered by visiting their website. I ordered mine two months ago, and I'm still waiting for it, oh should I say I am no longer waiting for it. Sony has just lost a customer.

Picture is excellent for the blu-ray discs. The most impressive feature is the upconvert of a standard DVD. Seems to increase them to about a 750p. Impressive. Starting up and setting is slow, you must answer 3 queries to get going. The picture quality is worth it.

Very satisfied with ease of installation via HDMI cable.
Only 3 HDMI cables between my Sat Receiver, Disc player, Surround Amp and TV. Great sound and picture.

Here is some background on my home theater equipment. I've got an older 1080i Toshiba 50H82 (Jan 2003), a Yamaha 300 (5540) surround sound, a solid Panasonic DVD player, the RP82 and a Directv DVR receiver. This has been an excellent over all system for watching movies and HDTV. It is a component type of system with the Yamaha 5540 having both a coaxial and optical audio outputs. The coaxial output is dominant which brings me to the Sony BDP-350 which contains both a coaxial and optical sound output.

When I first hooked up the new Sony DDP-350, I could see very little different with a standard DVD. I would give it a slight edge over the Panasonic RP82($210 about 6 years ago). However, we placed a blue-ray movie (Bedtime Stories) in the Sony BDP-350, and even with component connections, the picture was much better than the standard DVD movies. In fact, it was just outstanding. I did a little test yesterday with a Sony Bravia HDTV with a HDMI connection to the new blue-ray and our older system. I placed a blue-ray version of the Bourne Identity in the BDP-350 and a regular Bourne Identity in our older system. I played both movies in sync, and it just wasn't fair for the regular DVD. The Sony BDP-350 blew the socks off the older system. The color and quality of picture was far superior on the blue-ray. Don't get me wrong, the old system was of high quality and with a good picture and sound. But apples to apples, the blue-ray Sony was much better.

Years ago, when I decided to buy my Toshiba, 50H82, which upconverts standard DVD's to 480P, I was questioned about this decision since I would need a HD convertor for HD viewing. The salesmen at BB asked me, "do you like watching movies?" Of course I did and the system has functioned very well since. However, the same question can be asked now only on a much higher quality, that is, blue-ray. Sure, you need to play blue-ray movies, but that is not a problem with rentals and on-line companies which provide a vast selection. I am hooked on blue-ray.

One other note. Sony sent me a free firmware upgrade for the BDP-350 to profile 2.0. The player itself loads blue-ray discs almost as fast as my older DVD player. Out of the box the set-up was easy and there have been no problems. The Sony BDP-350 works great and I hope this review helps others with an older home theater system. I would highly recommend this blue-ray player.

ACT I:

Got this player at Best Buy nearly a month ago. One evening, out of the blue (no pun intended), the player started sliding the images right to left. I've never seen anything like it. Starting with the DVD's menu, it started sliding images at lightning speed, right to left. After trying a few things, I unplugged the player and plugged it back again. It seemed to reset itself.

ACT II:

All worked well for another day. Now, all of a sudden, it will not recognize the HDMI connection, graying out the option in the video settings (note that the option worked until tonight).

So, moral of this 2 act story: back to Best Buy tomorrow to return the player. Glad I got their extended warranty, chances are I will get refund or exchange. Do I want a replacement unit of the same model? Probably not.

The End

UPDATE:

Replaced this unit with the Samsung BD P3600. The machine died after 24 hours! Replaced it again with the LG BD390. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Loading times are lightning fast. Every disc I throw at it plays. Netflix streaming is impeccable (SONY BDP s350 does not offer this). HDMI connectivity is detected AUTOMATICALLY, so no need to make selections the player may decide not to allow. Allows for different audio and video resolutions. Overall, I will go with the LG over and over again.

We have been really pleased with this product. Easy to set up, great picture. Great product.

Blu-ray discs look and sound terrific in this player. Sound is quite nice and expansive, even through the TV speakers. Upscaling is only ok, though. Honestly, my cheaper Memorex MVD 2045 - DVD player - upscaling looks better. I was also disappointed that the player doesn't dynamically change the aspect ratio for 4:3 DVDs, the way my Panasonic DMR-ES35VS DVD Recorder / VCR Combo with DV Input does. TV shows on DVD appear in 16:9 stretch-o-vision, and I have to change the aspect ratio on the TV to watch the DVD. Still, these are nitpicks, and there are easy and inexpensive solutions. I got this primarily to play Blu-Ray discs, and they look and sound great!

There are many reviews listed here that list the various merits or shortcomings of the player, so I wont get deeply into those here beyond this:

1) firmware updates? plug it into your router, hit update. cake.

2) load times? not as fast as a PS3, but decent for Blu

3) disc compatibility issues, etc... see #1

What I want to mention is the S-350's ability to output bitstream audio via HDMI to an audio receiver. If you have a capable receiver (I use an Onkyo 805) that can decode the bitstream, you will be treated to audio that FAR surpasses what DVD ever could offer. 5 and 7 channels of uncompressed audio really shine. DTS-MA is incredible. Not every Blu player can do this, and its a major feature.

This players ability to output bitstream audio, and its built in network update ability, combined with DB standard 2.0 at this price point - yup 5 stars. This coming from a user who is decidedly NOT a Sony fanboy. I would have looked elsewhere if it were not for this combination of features at this price.

While everyone has features they "need" for their application (I have never used PIP on a TV for example) the audio options and ease of upgrade make this a winner.

I have to give it at least one star, but this is easily the worst electronics purchase I have ever made. There was a time, in the not too distant past, when Sony made quality electronics. My folks bought a TV back in the early seventies, and it lasted nearly 3 decades! Judging by the reviews, many folks have had a good experience with the Sony BDP-S350 player. Not me. For one thing, should you stop any Blu-Ray DVD, the player restarts play from the very beginning. I'm told by the friendly folks at the "Sony Style" store that it's hit-or-miss with Blu Ray disks as to whether they will resume play once stopped. Well, my experience so far is that it's been only "miss." Once you've hit stop with this player, it's back to the beginning.

But even more frustating, the player doesn't even play the regular DVD's well. On at least half a dozen disks I've rented (including brand, spanking new releases) the player will mysteriously freeze. You can't fast forward. You can't jump to the next chapter. You can't even go back to the main menu. Nothing. It's completely frustrating. This player works worse than the el cheapo piece o' junk player I have in the bedroom.

So, if you can't guess, my recommendation is...buy a different Blu-Ray player.

Unit arrived and works well. Up-converted standard DVDs look great. Haven't played too many Blu-ray, but the few I have look great. One complaint: it is very slow reading and initialing. Shipping was a day early.

After reading the reviews for this player, I must be on a different planet! While I admit the possibility of buying a lemon, I rue the day I purchased this product. It loads only about half of the Blu-Ray discs I've tried. Regular DVD's show color saturation that requires a TV adjustment. I purchased the player at the end of '08 and though it is less than 4 months old, it is back in Sony's shop for the second time.

A real surpise from Sony, following my thorough research before purchase.

This is my first blu ray player and the Sony BDP-350 is an excellent buy. Blu rays look and sound amazing and dvds look great as well. Connection to the internet was a little bit of a pain, but otherwise no complaints.

i like the unit. only thing is that it takes a little long to load a disc.

bought my first sony blue ray and it never worked. brought it back to the store and got the s-350 model. that lasted 8 months and it konked out and i had to pay to ship it back to sony for repair. whatever happened to sony quality? very disappointing.

I bought my boyfriend this player as a gift and because he is electronically challenged I had to set it up. After taking it out of the box I think it took two minutes. It loads quickley and the picture is fantastic. I recommend this product to everyone!!!

Outstanding product. Once I figured out how to use my whole system - Sony 46" Z4100 TV, Onyko 7.1 surround sound system and this Blu-Ray player, it was great. Hooking everything up wasn't too bad but getting everything to play properly took some doing. Drove me nuts that our first Blu-Ray dvd - Dark Knight - was playing at 480P. Finally, after severall hours, got all the settings correct so we were seeing it correctly.

This player is one of very few older models that is upgradeable to Blu-ray Profile 2.0 (aka BD-Live), making it a very attractive buy for first-time Blu-ray owners looking to get an up-to-date player without the higher price of newer models like the S550.

It has an Ethernet port and 1 USB slot, which many older BD players lack. All the hardware is present for 2.0 compliance and all you have to do is connect it to the internet to do a firmware upgrade. You do not need a computer to upgrade it. It directly accesses the internet and you can upgrade it from the on-screen menu.

Setup is easy and takes 1 minute. You can use the supplied RCA plugs, but do yourself a favor and buy an HDMI cable ($5) in order to get the maximum enjoyment and quality. I also purchased an optical cable ($5) and outputted the sound to my home theater surround sound system.

The player's interface is nice and attractive, using intuitive Sony's Xross Media Bar (XMB), a featured shared by some higher end Sony devices, like the PS3 and PSP game systems.

One MAJOR gripe is the remote control. The buttons are very small and hard to find/push. Particularly bothersome is the ring configuration of buttons in the middle of the remote, where most of the playback navigation happens. It is modeled like the PS3 remote, but lesser quality and not as good force feedback when the buttons are pushed. The inner ring is indented and I often pushed the HOME button by accident instead of the DOWN control, throwing me out of the movie and back to the player's XMB.

If you have big thumbs, you'll have a problem. There are just too many controls packed into this tiny piece of real estate, a problem worsened when you're in a darkened room (say when you're watching a movie). 10 controls are packed into this small space (pic here: [...] ). I have small hands, and I still have an issue with this.

Another potential design issue for you is the location of the USB slot. Sony should've put the port in the front of the unit. It is in the back and recessed, so you'll need a slim USB stick. The location may be inconvenient for some people, as it causes the stick to jut straight out. If you have it in a cabinet, accessing the stick will be a problem.

Any standard USB stick will do. The manual recommends, of course, Sony's stick, but any brand should work.

Overall a good player with 2 annoyances. 4.5/5.

I've owned this DVD player for 1 and a half years and in the last few months I have not been able to view some DVD's. The discs are fine, but will not load into the player. I tried to download a blue-ray update from Sony, but they ONLY provide upgrades for people who have the Windows operating system. I have a up-to-date Mac OS X. The player doesn't care what computer I own, but Sony will only provide a download that must then be run on the Windows machine to create the upgrade. This is idiotic. I will never trust Sony again.

First I bought a 42LG70 LCD then I ordered two HDMI cables through AMZN seller for less than $10 each to pass the expanded bandwidth and then after watching std DVD movies on my upconverting 1080i Sony player bought this S-350 when AMZN put them on sale at $292 ... now even cheaper! Well all I can say is it is everything every positive review claims. This past weekend I watched "The Wild Bunch" filmed in 1968 on my std DVD that has been remastered from the original VHS version, just like the 1970's "Godfather" has, also watched that on this S-350. I find absolutely no need to replace those two favorite great movies on Blu Ray because the S-350 upscales them to HD just fine! This IS an amazing player!!!

Overall, I am satisifed with my purchase of the BDP-350. I love the sound and video quality that comes from Blu-ray discs over my average AVR/speakers setup.

I haven't been as satisfied when playing regular DVDs. I notice that the upconversion isn't perfect on my tv, but it could be because I only have a 1080i plasma tv. It could also be the individual discs that don't upconvert as well. I have also had issues with some BR discs not playing correctly in the player. It seems like BR discs that even have a little scratch can be problematic. Not sure if that is a disc or player issue. I know my past DVD players handled scratches better than this player. I am realizing that the technology is still new and has some bugs to work out over time. The player does start pretty quickly (less than 1 min.) after I put in a disc, although there is some variation. I am glad I bought this player around X-mas, because it was much cheaper ($220) than what it is selling for now.

Our old DVD player finally gave it up at the same time were finally ready to buy a HD Sony Bravia - after reading the reviews I bought the Sony Blu-Ray to go with it and what a great choice.

Hooked it up and no looking back - everything was super easy. It is incredibly easy to use - it takes you right through the initial set up with prompts and it was amateur proof. Movies are amazing but it will do any number of things that I never even thought of before (games, pictures etc.) - best of all the regular DVD's are still viewable but better. A terrific buy.

I want to buy a decent Blu-Ray player to replace my aging DVD player, however after I read the manual of this player, I am hugely disappointed.

Where is the MP3/WMA playback capability? Such capability exists even in cheapest DVD player, yet missing here. I have a library of MP3/WMA CDs that just can not work there. Given the price of this player, this is almost inexcusable.

The remote is also not tailored for playing music - it does not even have a REPEATn key. Can't believe it.

This is a really great DVD player in so many ways. I just want to echo one point about the phenomenal up convert feature of this player. It will make a regular DVD look so good that if you are 10 feet back from your TV you will find it almost as good as a blu ray disc. This is great news. I highly recommend this player.

I had done my due dilligence and waited for the 350 to be released with the Live features I wanted and bought one. It worked brilliantly and the output is stunning. I was thinking about keeping that one for the bedroom and getting the 550 for the living but the 350 was so good and the 550 was not worth twice the price so I bought another 350. The only issue I have had is in that I set up the unit on an HDMI TV and when I bought another I moved that one to a TV with component cabling. No image and no menu. Call me crazy, but I don't think any setting you make should render the menu unviewable. I consider that a design flaw. But it's easy to rememdy, simply hold down the stop button on the face of the machine for 10 seconds and voila! It resets the resolution back to the lowest setting.

This is definatly worth getting. The picture is amazing and as always I found the best deal for it on Amazon. Its well worth the money spent on the player and every blu ray dvd that I buy for it. I would definatly recommend this for anyone who loves best picture and sound for any movie especially the action ones where everything is so much better to watch on blu ray rather than dvd.

Great picture, no major complaints. Ran the software update from the web. Only complaint is that the player runs a little slow in loading the disc. It might take between 1 -2 minutes to get to the movie menu. Otherwise, great player at a good price. I paid $260 last October from Electronics Expo.

I just bought this BDP player and i'm enjoying it. The main thing i wanted to touch on is the update. I was trying to figure out how to update this thing. I read other reviews saying they used a disc and burned the update to it, but i tried that and the player didn't recognize the disc. Then i was looking at the manual on how to connect the player to a router and pc and it got a little confusing. So i then just unplugged the Ethernet cable from my laptop and plugged it in the back of the player. I then grabbed my remote and used my "photographic" memory and went to the network update. I didn't have it connected to a tv or anything, so like i said i pressed the left arrow 5 times to make sure i was on the settings option and then selected the center button twice and the updated started up from there. I hope this is easy to understand or maybe you just understood how to hook it up by way of the manual.

I am very satisfied with my purchase. Contacted Sony about Firmware Updates and was sent a Disc to load updates. Received within a week of my request. Sony has always made 1st class products and continues to do so,

This blue-ray player is excellent. I did not want to spend a fortune on a blue-ray player. I purchased for $300 at Wal-Mart. The picture with my 1080 Sony TV connected with an HDMI cable is outstanding. Even regular DVD's look incredible with this player. I highly recommend this player.

First of all - I am no expert on blu-ray players. If you want an expert opinion then move on. If you are a normal user, then read on.

This is my first blu-ray device. It was easy to set up - I refuse to read directions and yeah, I got it working fast. I had to do a little experimenting because some of the set up terms were not familiar but it was really easy to figure out.

Using the video cable that came with the player...well, it wasn't that great. First advice - buy a good HDMI cable (assuming you have a HDMI-ready TV). This improved the picture quality by a huge factor. Even with the basic cable, the picture was better then I had ever seen using DVD. Now with HDMI - OMG. The picture is stunning. Funny thing, I can read the warnings from 20 feet away now... I used to just see a blur.

Now for the really good part. So far the stunning pictures are off of DVDs I already own. I haven't recieved my first blu-ray discs yet and can't wait to view them - but I have hundreds of DVDs so they are actually more important to me for now.

Network connection - I haven't had any problems with the current version of code so I haven't upgraded it (don't fix what ain't broken).

Music - My daughter was thrilled when she discovered a copy-protected music CD that won't work on her computer would play in the blu-ray (No, I don't know why this was thrilling, I just report what I see :-) )

Great product, no trouble, really pleased.

It's understandable that some consumers are reluctant to pull the trigger on this purchase. With flat-screen sets under 50" no Blu-Ray player is capable of producing a dramatic "wow!" factor in visible improvement over an upconverted non-hi-def image that machines well under a hundred dollars are capable of producing. (My wife saw no difference in the image until I confessed I had switched players.) Side by side the difference is sure to be noticeable, but such logic is not a compelling reason to buy. Why purchase an item only because doing so would produce less satisfaction with what you already possess?

Still, even though this Sony is $50 more than some of the machines that have cracked the $200 barrier, there may be good reasons to consider it worth a slight premium: 1. Not only did Sony develop the technology but they've ensured that this player matches the key dimension (width) of their upconverting equipment; 2. It's a solid yet trim-looking machine, devoid of any ostentatious ornamentation; 3. It indeed is seamless with any Sony flat panel set of the past 3 years (i.e. the sets employing the "X-Bar menu system"); 4. It includes a remote switch that, unlike that with the cheaper Sony DVD players, matches the color and style of the Sony Bravia remote but is wider, heavier and more "substantial" overall; 5. The Sony TV switch and Sony Blu-Ray switch are practically interchangeable, allowing total reliance on only one of the two switches to operate both devices (I find I prefer the remote that came with this player). 6. Like any Blu-Ray player it will handle conventional DVDs as well as Blu-Ray discs (your old DVD player, on the other hand, will not play Blu-Ray discs, even at the old resolution). 7. This player is capable of reproducing all of the nuanced shades and hues of the Sony 10 bit 10 panel processor (the current S, V, and W series use an 8 bit, 8 panel system).

Advantage of the competition: several of the players by other manufacturers come with the device for downloading movies from Netflix and Amazon preinstalled. The Sony does not, instead charging its customers an extra two to three hundred dollars for a "Bravia Link" that attaches to the back of the TV set and integrates with Sony's X-Bar menu system. Unfortunately, the box that Netflix sells to those who don't have the capability built into their player is greater than half the price of the Sony "Link" and, according to most consumer reviews, is more effective at getting the job done right (while, unlike the Sony link, operating wirelessly).

Bottom line: if you don't think you're likely to download movies, look for this player in the 250 range. If you think you might download movies but have no problem with spending a hundred for the Netflix device ("Roku"), the same holds true. If your TV is not a Sony, take a look at some other Blu-Ray player that includes a downloading device. If you have a Sony TV and think you might download movies, hang on a bit longer to see if the company eventually matches the competition with an included link (or wait for this player to drop in price in concert with an upgrade to the Bravia Link).

Do not buy this player. I have one and the picture pauses for about 5 seconds and then starts again. Do not make the same mistake as I did, but something else. I am going back to watching DVD's on my old DVD player.

Note I have an up-scaling Sony DVP-CX995V DVD Player connected via HDMI that does a very nice job of up-scaling DVD's on my Sony KDS60A2000 TV.
It does the up-scaling so well that I have held off getting a Blu-Ray player because I couldn't see any reason to support a new format that IMO offered little difference to the end-user.

My first impression while watching Iron Man, was that I could not see any real difference.
After poking around on the web regarding TV settings, I was reminded that my TV was reset to default settings when my `little one' got the remote a few weeks ago.

After tweaking the settings, there are quite a few on my TV, I was willing to give it another spin.
(Bumped up the color, sharpness, contrast, black level and some of the advanced settings like image stabilization etc)
I have the full blown AVIA DVD to set up the theater but used the quick THX optimizer that is included on many DVD's to check some of the settings for performance.

I was now ready to go, so I watched a few of the scenes from Iron Man again and WOW - what a difference.
When Iron Man lands in the desert village the first time, it looked like you were literally part of the movie set.
This is a very grey scene and with my out-of-the-box factory TV settings it seemed `very grey'.
With everything set for Optimal HD viewing, the colors popped.
The red and gold of the suit were amazing. The finest details were sharp end very visible.
Motion was incredibly clear and smooth.

For reference, I put the standard Iron Man DVD in my DVP-CX995V player with the settings now adjusted on my TV.
There was still a very distinct and sharp difference.
Colors were brighter and richer on the Blu-Ray version.
Images were sharper and had more `depth' on the Blu-Ray version
Motion was much smoother without the `jaggies' or motion blur.
Overall - a very noticeable difference.

Also watched:
I Am Legend: Excellent - the opening scenes were so brilliant; I thought I was watching out my window as Will Smith raced that Cobra SS around my block. A nice feature was the ability to watch the movie with the alternate ending as part of the viewing instead of just as an extra.

300: I am not a huge fan of the Film Grain effect that is used in this movie, but I purposely rented this for that reason. The imagery seemed more 3 dimensional than on the standard version - so even with the film grain, it's a thumbs-up for the depth improvement on Blu-Ray.

Independence Day: Sorry! Maybe it's because the cheesy-feel-good action genre that this comes from has been the beating-dummy for so many spoof movies... I don't know. Overall I wasn't impressed with anything `Blu-Ray' about it. But keep in mind it this title is a few years old and I think that current and future action movies will be better served by Blu-Ray than some of the older/existing titles.

The BDPS350 is 2.0 Compliant which gives you all the BD live and Internet Capabilities.
To me I don't need all this, but the Ethernet port does make upgrading firmware a snap.

My overall concern with Blu-Ray is still underlying -
The format is a better value to the studios that were losing money on pirated DVDs and Blu-Ray puts the advantage back in their favor as it is not cost effective for people to pirate Blu-Ray.
Studios can re-release movies again to get an extra Cha-Ching out of the public for titles they already own on standard DVD.
IMHO - right now you will see lots of effort on the studios part to bring quality product to Blu-Ray - Great Transfers or enhancements to previously released titles, and extras on new releases that aren't available on the standard DVD version.
However - Yes here is my BIG GRIPE - the studios will eventually stop doing this and then just puke out their libraries on Blu-Ray with crappy transfers and little thought into the extras. Look at the standard DVD versions of films like the Godfather or Goodfellas - crappy transfers. Deleted Scenes are extras and rarely part of the movie, studios should offer the alternate versions or director's cuts as a full viewing option with all the space available on Blu-Ray - as was the case for I Am Legend. But again, I fear that few studios will continue this effort once the format becomes the standard for everyone.

Bottom Line - Blu-Ray amazed me and made a believer out of a non-believer. Note to the studios - put the effort into quality transfers and worth-while content and you can keep people happy - don't be cheap-arses!

The Sony "BDP-S350" is just an amazing Blu-Ray player. The playback quality is exceptional for Blue-Ray discs, but the upscaling is a bit hit and miss on standard DVDs (I expect this is a due to the DVD quality, not the BDP-S350).

We are using the BDP-S350 with a Sony Bravia KDL-46S4100 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV Television and are completely pleased with the picture and performance.

My only complaint is that it did not come with ANY cables at all. You must buy your own cable(s) to match your HDTV's input.

Highy Recommended!