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Product Description
Manufacturer's Description
| Whether you are watching movies, listening to music, playing games, recording and storing content or all of the above, Blu-ray Disc™ makes your High Definition world come to life. Sony products with Blu-ray Disc™ technology take High Definition further than ever. |
 | Blu-ray Disc™ Blu-ray is the next generation optical disc format which uses blue violet laser to deliver unsurpassed storage and interactivity and unlocks the potential of HD TV and HD gaming. |
 | 1080p - The Ultimate Picture Quality Remember the first time you saw how DVD pictures looked fantastic compared with ordinary television transmissions? That’s because DVD uses a higher bit-rate than conventional TV broadcasts, and more digital information means better picture and sound quality. |
 | High Capacity Blu-ray Discs™ (BD) are exactly the same diameter (12 cm) as Compact Discs and DVDs. The big difference with BD, however, is loads more storage capacity to hold High Definition content such as videos, pictures, sound and more. |
 | The High Definition Audio Visual Experience People sometimes think that High Definition is all about great-looking pictures. They’re right, but it’s important not to underestimate just how important audio is too. |
 | Interactivity Aside from breathtaking picture quality and digital multi-channel surround sound, the other thing that has really excited the studio business is Bluray’s interactive possibilities. |
 | Industry Support The good news is that right now, six out of eight major Hollywood studios have committed to support Blu-ray Disc™. |
 | Movies The best names in the movie industry and indeed, entertainment have offered their backing for Blu-ray Disc™. |
 | Music |
 | Gaming Blu-ray simply takes gaming to new heights. A whole new world of gaming has been unlocked by Blu-ray technology. Immerse yourself in unbelievable life-like experiences, fantastic visuals and interactivity. |
| BDPS300 Blu-ray Disc™ Player With the BDPS300, you can experience superior 1080p High Definition video and audio content and advanced interactive features of a Blu-ray Disc™. |
 | 24p True Cinema Until now, TV broadcasts and home video media like DVDs and VHS tapes have shown films faster than they were recorded due to limitations in the processing of films to the PAL (50Hz) format. |
| 7.1 ch Surround Sound Uncompressed audio, in up to 7.1 ch surround sound, delivers sound beyond anything you’ve experienced before. |
 | x.v.Colour x.v.Colour is the new standard which realises more colour in High Definition. |
 | BRAVIA Theatre Sync You can start your home cinema experience at the push of a button with BRAVIA Theatre Sync. |
 | Blu-ray and HDMI Both the PLAYSTATION®3 and BDP-S300 feature a Blu-ray Disc™ player and HDMI ports for connecting to any HD Ready TV. This means that both products can output High Definition video in the currently highest possible resolution of 1080p. |
| ‘Sony’, ‘x.v.Colour’, ‘HD1080’, ‘BRAVIA Theatre Sync’, ‘like.no.other’ and their logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sony Corporation, Japan. All other trademarks acknowledged. |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
108 of 114 people found the following review helpful
My BDP-S300 arrived very quickly and I am thrilled by it.
I plugged it into our Bravia TV and it just worked. No setup just plug in power and HDMI, insert the BD DVD (youll need to buy this in advance - no playable content is provided), and go.
Picture quality is terrific - I have only tested it with 'Into the Blue' which showcases the Hi Def very well.
Register the player and get the Spiderman trilogy free.
The player itself is quite slim but quite wide and deep. It looks OK - nothing to write home about in my view.
You ll need to buy 2 HDMI cables and a splitter (not a switcher) if you only have one 'HDMI in' on the TV that is already in use. I got 2 HDMI cables a four way splitter and a HDMI DVI converter and change out of £50 - its worth shopping around!
The manual is clear enough but havent had a chance to check it all out yet. The remote is a little big but operates the (Bravia) TV out of the box.
I thought the DVD started playing in a reasonable amount of time - some reviews have said this could be slow.
The player plays most formats but not DVD-RAM. It upscales normal DVD's. It outputs sound upto 8 channels.
£300+ still feels a lot compared to £30 for a normal player but this is the first mass market Bluray player - my guess is this will sell very well - especially with the ongoing dearth of broadcast HD - there's just no reason to wait anymore.
This isn't meant to be full blown technical review - its just a consumer view but I hope it helps. I'm sure more detailed critiques will follow.
I plugged it into our Bravia TV and it just worked. No setup just plug in power and HDMI, insert the BD DVD (youll need to buy this in advance - no playable content is provided), and go.
Picture quality is terrific - I have only tested it with 'Into the Blue' which showcases the Hi Def very well.
Register the player and get the Spiderman trilogy free.
The player itself is quite slim but quite wide and deep. It looks OK - nothing to write home about in my view.
You ll need to buy 2 HDMI cables and a splitter (not a switcher) if you only have one 'HDMI in' on the TV that is already in use. I got 2 HDMI cables a four way splitter and a HDMI DVI converter and change out of £50 - its worth shopping around!
The manual is clear enough but havent had a chance to check it all out yet. The remote is a little big but operates the (Bravia) TV out of the box.
I thought the DVD started playing in a reasonable amount of time - some reviews have said this could be slow.
The player plays most formats but not DVD-RAM. It upscales normal DVD's. It outputs sound upto 8 channels.
£300+ still feels a lot compared to £30 for a normal player but this is the first mass market Bluray player - my guess is this will sell very well - especially with the ongoing dearth of broadcast HD - there's just no reason to wait anymore.
This isn't meant to be full blown technical review - its just a consumer view but I hope it helps. I'm sure more detailed critiques will follow.
86 of 91 people found the following review helpful
By Hedgehog
Like many other DVD enthusiasts, I have watched the Blu-Ray/HD DVD format war with growing frustration and impatience. For me, the tipping point came with Warner's decision to opt exclusively for Blu-Ray and the appearance of this Sony BDP-S300 at the excellent price offered by Amazon. This is still relatively new technology, and you need some incentives to go there. I am also very grateful to earlier reviewers; your opinions have undoubtedly had an influence.
I received this last Thursday, having finally come to a firm decision to order it on Monday, so well done to Amazon for getting it here so quickly. It's slightly deeper than some kit, so check out your storage dimensions, although this is not likely to be a problem. I have been using a decent Pioneer DVD machine which allows an HDMI interconnect and which is good at upscaling. Connection was, therefore, quite easy - in essence, plug and play with the AV receiver. Earlier reviews have commented on the slowness of the system, and it does take some time to power up on every occasion, but this really is no problem at all.
Initial setup is straighforward, but you might have to flick through the visual formats to synchronise your system. So much of this stuff is 'intelligent' and needs to find the right match to speak to other items. Nonetheless, pretty seamless.
What I did not expect was the staggering quality of both sound and picture. I'm fortunate enough to have a 42" Philips HD Pixel Plus Ambilight TV (and if that isn't an investment in future technology, I don't know what is!), which provides stunning images on Sky HD at 1080p. You can view HD films through Sky Box Office which are incredibly impressive, so the benchmark had to be to match these. Well, preparing myself with a few Blu-Ray discs, I have sat in amazement through one disc of Planet Earth, had a taster of Pan's Labyrinth and this morning blasted my way through Die Hard 4.0. Resolution at 1080p is breathtaking, and I am still recovering from the impact of Bruce Willis's hot little picture - actually two hours of mesmerizing mayhem with a fabulous soundtrack that will push your surround system to the limits and make the floor shake.
Upscaling on non-HD DVDs is very good; it will get the best out of the basic material, but again the sound is significantly improved. I have several classical music DVDs and, while picture quality is quite variable on account of the dates and origins of the recordings, the sound has been dramatically improved (Mahler 2/BPO/Haitink/Philips).
Yes, it meets and, in terms of audio experience, exceeds the best that Sky HD has to offer, so it steps beyond the benchmark. What a fantastic box of tricks! ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!
I received this last Thursday, having finally come to a firm decision to order it on Monday, so well done to Amazon for getting it here so quickly. It's slightly deeper than some kit, so check out your storage dimensions, although this is not likely to be a problem. I have been using a decent Pioneer DVD machine which allows an HDMI interconnect and which is good at upscaling. Connection was, therefore, quite easy - in essence, plug and play with the AV receiver. Earlier reviews have commented on the slowness of the system, and it does take some time to power up on every occasion, but this really is no problem at all.
Initial setup is straighforward, but you might have to flick through the visual formats to synchronise your system. So much of this stuff is 'intelligent' and needs to find the right match to speak to other items. Nonetheless, pretty seamless.
What I did not expect was the staggering quality of both sound and picture. I'm fortunate enough to have a 42" Philips HD Pixel Plus Ambilight TV (and if that isn't an investment in future technology, I don't know what is!), which provides stunning images on Sky HD at 1080p. You can view HD films through Sky Box Office which are incredibly impressive, so the benchmark had to be to match these. Well, preparing myself with a few Blu-Ray discs, I have sat in amazement through one disc of Planet Earth, had a taster of Pan's Labyrinth and this morning blasted my way through Die Hard 4.0. Resolution at 1080p is breathtaking, and I am still recovering from the impact of Bruce Willis's hot little picture - actually two hours of mesmerizing mayhem with a fabulous soundtrack that will push your surround system to the limits and make the floor shake.
Upscaling on non-HD DVDs is very good; it will get the best out of the basic material, but again the sound is significantly improved. I have several classical music DVDs and, while picture quality is quite variable on account of the dates and origins of the recordings, the sound has been dramatically improved (Mahler 2/BPO/Haitink/Philips).
Yes, it meets and, in terms of audio experience, exceeds the best that Sky HD has to offer, so it steps beyond the benchmark. What a fantastic box of tricks! ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!
118 of 126 people found the following review helpful
By J. Skett
Amazon Verified Purchase
We've had this Blu-ray player for about five weeks. It's connected to a Sony Bravia TV and installation was extremely easy. We have watched several Blu-ray films (300; Die Hard 4; Reign Over Me; Black Hawk Down) and the analysis that follows is based upon watching those and several ordinary DVD films.
Firstly comments about the slow start up time/film load time are correct. It takes approximately 52 seconds to start and a further 40 seconds after inserting a film into the tray to be ready to play the film. However we haven't really found this to be a problem as if you know it is going to take a couple of minutes you start the process and then get yourself settled (drink to the ready). If you're watching a two hour film, is the extra two minutes such a big issue?
We've also compared the start up times to our existing DVD players (yes we have several accumulated over the years). As a comparison we've used Black Hawk Down as we have both the DVD and Blu-ray versions. On the Blu-ray player (BDP_S300) the times are stated above; on a Pioneer DVR-420H, start up takes five seconds and after inserting the film a further 17 seconds to be ready to play the film; on a Sony RDR-HXD560, start up takes 40 seconds and after inserting the film a further 19 seconds to be ready to play the film; on a ten year old Sony DVP-S325, start up takes two seconds and after inserting the film a further five seconds to be ready to play the film. The Pioneer DVR-420H and Sony RDR-HXD560 are both hard drive recorders as well, so that might have some bearing on the start/load times.
Viewing - well this is only our assessment. Again as a comparison Black Hawk Down has been used to reflect our views. Playing the original DVD through the Sony BDP_S300 which then upscales the film, yes it is better; crisper and better colour saturation. Playing the Blu-ray version is again a further improvement. However we are not sure that these improvements warrant an extra £250.
We haven't commented on sound as this depends so much on the individual set up, but again we did notice significant improvements with the Sony BDP_S300 using our set up (Denon Amp). Currently we haven't had any problems with films not playing correctly. The unit and the remote are well made but it is true that once a button on the remote is pressed it is slow to respond - which takes a little getting used to.
Conclusion - is it worth the outlay? Well if you need to replace an existing old DVD player and would like to take advantage of the higher quality output, yes we think it is. But the gains are marginal compared to the outlay. It might be better to wait as prices are bound to come down and hopefully choice of units and Blu-ray DVDs will become greater. It did come with both the Spiderman trilogy and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (via registration) which makes the package more attractive. We are happy to give the Sony BDP_S300 three stars in the current climate, but if the price comes down it would be a better deal.
Firstly comments about the slow start up time/film load time are correct. It takes approximately 52 seconds to start and a further 40 seconds after inserting a film into the tray to be ready to play the film. However we haven't really found this to be a problem as if you know it is going to take a couple of minutes you start the process and then get yourself settled (drink to the ready). If you're watching a two hour film, is the extra two minutes such a big issue?
We've also compared the start up times to our existing DVD players (yes we have several accumulated over the years). As a comparison we've used Black Hawk Down as we have both the DVD and Blu-ray versions. On the Blu-ray player (BDP_S300) the times are stated above; on a Pioneer DVR-420H, start up takes five seconds and after inserting the film a further 17 seconds to be ready to play the film; on a Sony RDR-HXD560, start up takes 40 seconds and after inserting the film a further 19 seconds to be ready to play the film; on a ten year old Sony DVP-S325, start up takes two seconds and after inserting the film a further five seconds to be ready to play the film. The Pioneer DVR-420H and Sony RDR-HXD560 are both hard drive recorders as well, so that might have some bearing on the start/load times.
Viewing - well this is only our assessment. Again as a comparison Black Hawk Down has been used to reflect our views. Playing the original DVD through the Sony BDP_S300 which then upscales the film, yes it is better; crisper and better colour saturation. Playing the Blu-ray version is again a further improvement. However we are not sure that these improvements warrant an extra £250.
We haven't commented on sound as this depends so much on the individual set up, but again we did notice significant improvements with the Sony BDP_S300 using our set up (Denon Amp). Currently we haven't had any problems with films not playing correctly. The unit and the remote are well made but it is true that once a button on the remote is pressed it is slow to respond - which takes a little getting used to.
Conclusion - is it worth the outlay? Well if you need to replace an existing old DVD player and would like to take advantage of the higher quality output, yes we think it is. But the gains are marginal compared to the outlay. It might be better to wait as prices are bound to come down and hopefully choice of units and Blu-ray DVDs will become greater. It did come with both the Spiderman trilogy and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (via registration) which makes the package more attractive. We are happy to give the Sony BDP_S300 three stars in the current climate, but if the price comes down it would be a better deal.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pukka piece of Equipment
A great piece of equipment and works extremely well with my Panasonic TV and Sky equipment. Sony as always deliver quality goods.
Published 4 months ago by WAYNE HARDING
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disapointed With Sony BDPS300
I played Night at Museum 2 a couple of weeks ago and it was jittery and kept freezing,but it played the normal version ok. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2009 by Mr. M. Jenner
2.0 out of 5 stars
I did really want to like this
I wanted to like this device but I just can't.
It takes almost a minute to start up, which is completely needless, when plenty of technology exists to make this a much... Read more
It takes almost a minute to start up, which is completely needless, when plenty of technology exists to make this a much... Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2009 by M. Simms
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great set
Bought this in December and a great Bluray it is. Got wired to a Sony 40Z4500 and the picture and sound is great. Only issue is i thought it was multiregion when i bought it. Read more
Published on 29 April 2009 by J. Mckean
1.0 out of 5 stars
Well done to Sonys customer services.
I was pleased with this player untill I updated the firmware from the Sony site to ver0440 it has stopped working after watching one dvd. Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2009 by J. T. Spratt
2.0 out of 5 stars
Cheap, great name, looks nice, but sooooooooooooo slow...
The gist is that I needed to buy an additional bluray player and thought what better machine to buy than a Sony bluray player! Read more
Published on 2 Dec 2008 by T. Walters
3.0 out of 5 stars
No PIP but who cares ?
I've owned this player for almost a year and there's nothing wrong with it. However Blu-Ray has now moved on to include Picture-In-Picture DVD commentaries. Read more
Published on 10 Nov 2008 by cosmetic punk
3.0 out of 5 stars
Is HD All That Good ?
This player did really well upscaling my DVD's but the leap from that to HD films on Blu Ray wasn't so big. Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2008 by Murray Mackay
4.0 out of 5 stars
slow start up,still no free movies
superb picture and sound .very good value for money.
Very dissapointed with Sony one of the key attractions was the 4 free dvds promised in 28 days (Ha Ha) . Read more
Very dissapointed with Sony one of the key attractions was the 4 free dvds promised in 28 days (Ha Ha) . Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2008 by Mrs. Margaret Nolan
3.0 out of 5 stars
HD?
I've had this BDP S300 for a few weeks now & over all it's an ok machine. Yes it is slow to power on & load Blu Ray discs but I think this is a problem not unique to Sony machines. Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2008 by Philip ODea
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