Sony BDP-S500 - Blu-Ray Disc Player - 1080P Full HD

I decided to acquire a BD player that was able to decode HD Audio like Dolby True-HD. I therefore traded in my BDP S300 and exchanged it for the higher end model - the BDP S500.
Despite preferring HD DVD formatwise, I really wanted to be able to experience the best of all films in Hi Def and that meant going purple and getting both formats.

The drawbacks of the BDP S500 are primarily that it is a Profile 1.0 BD standalone player. Blu-ray is an incomplete format, rushed onto the market so as not to be left behind by HD DVD which is a completely finished Hi Def format.
There are two further Profiles that are forthcoming for Blu-ray players (there may even be a profile 3.0 but that remains unconfirmed):
Profile 1.1 sees the introduction of extras such as picture in picture etc that are available on HD DVD players but are not available on Blu-ray until very recently, with the introduction of a few players like the Panasonic DMP BDK30.
The other is Profile 2.0 which has not yet been introduced and at this time there are no signs of any players appearing enjoying that profile.
This profile features full internet connectivity via an ethernet connection, another function enjoyed on HD DVD players but completely missing on BD Players.
Obviously being Profile 1.0, the BDP S500 enjoys none of the features that will be available in Profiles 1.1 or 2.0 nor is it possible to upgrade this player to incorporate these features. As a result the arrival of Blu-ray discs that have these features will simply be a case of playing the film only for the BDP S500 and its fellow Profile 1.0 players.
- Another drawback to the BDP S500 is that it does not decode DTS-HD Master Audio. Therefore, any discs in that format will be decoded as normal DTS.
It is rumoured though that Sony are going to provide a firmware update which will allow DTS-HD Master to be decoded via this and other Blu-ray players. The sooner the better frankly.
- Like all BD machines, the BDP S500 is limited as to what CDs and DVDs it can play. Anything outside of a conventional CD or DVD eg a CD-R or DVD-R etc will not be able to play.
My last criticism of this BD player is the clunkiness of the Java menus and the time that they take to load, particularly when playing a 50GB Blu-ray disc chock full of extras eg Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
That said this loading time and overall Java interactivity has been helped though by Sony's recent firmware update 3.50 for the BDP S500 which I recently I applied to my player.

So what is good about the BDP S500?
- It decodes Dolby True-HD superbly, giving a deep and very rich sound indeed when played back via my Onkyo HDMI Amp. Films like Close Encounters and The Fifth Element are simply superb, sound is beautifully clear across all channels with no distortion whatsoever. Surround sound is amazing and is never intrusive.
- Despite not(yet)being able to play back DTS-HD Master, the BDP S500 can play back DTS-HD and conventional DTS sound. Both are superb and give an incredible audio experience.
Ditto for its ability to playback Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus.
- Visually the BDP S500 plays back a stunning 1080p Hi Def picture and this fantastic picture is really what the Hi Def experience is all about.
- Lastly the build of this machine is really good - it looks and feels well made, and I just love the the robotic front fascia that lifts up and down prior or after the disc tray opening and closing.

So there you have it, a mixed bag. I bought the player for its strengths and was fully aware of its aforementioned limitations. It has not disappointed me in my expectations of it but just be aware of the Profile 1.0 concerns and others that I have outlined. If like me, you can do without those features then go ahead and pick one up because this is a fine Hi Def player which will be even better if it gets its rumoured firmware update to be able to decode DTS-HD Master Audio.

OK, so the major drawback is that this is a profile 1.0 player but the sheer quality of the picture makes up for that. Vibrant colours and three dimensional pictures sealed it for me. If you're not bothered about the picture in picture extras that profile 1.1 provides, this is an excellent choice.

I was first in line for a PS3 simply for the blu ray capabilities. Bought that and marvelled at how wonderful it was... but it was just too noisy, too hot and too power hungry.
I ebayed that, in order to get a standalone player so I could watch a movie without the washing machine noises of the PS3 fan in the... foreground actually.

For the same money I spent on the PS3 with all that computer power and all those other functions, I bought this BDP S500. Firstly I was unimpressed by the pointlessly huge, hollow, lightweight plastic housing of this thing. Not even a hard drive in there, so why make it so chunky? and I'm also unimpressed by the sliding front mechanism because I know one day, another gimicky moving part to go wrong and stop me from using it for the use it's intended for: playing movies, not being a plastic robot.
The menu is painfully slow, I would almost say it had been dropped on its head as a baby. When it's off, you press eject, walk off to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and when you come back into the living room you almost drop the tea because you'd forgotten you pressed it and suddenly the front drops and the tray projects out.

Pop the disc in, another few painful moments of loading up.
God help you if you need to use the menu function while a DVD or BD is playing because it definitely does not have the processing power. You press the menu button. 5 second later you press again because you think it didn't work. 5 seconds later it pops up the menu then pops off the menu because you pressed twice. Grrr.

But.
The reason I have not sent it back is because the picture and sound quality is amazing. Superior actually to the PS3. It's so good in fact, that I need to rewatch movies I've seen on the PS3.

Also I like the purity of a simple stereo amp. Not a fan of surround. This player has a setting for a 2 speaker setup which is great, because now I can hear the dialogue in movies! my 2 stereo speakers have dedicated mid ranges which went pretty much unused with the PS3, and what was aimed at being for the centre speaker was lost on the PS3 when connected to 2 speakers. Example, The Departed, you can not hear all the slurring speech on the PS3 (regardless of audio settings) and on this player, you can hear it extremely clearly and it is more in the foreground too. Before you would need the volume up so loud just to hear the dialogue, and then suddenly an "action" sound would give you coronary failure (probably much to the delight of the director).

Also this player seems to freeze up when I change channel on the TV or change the aspect ratio on the TV. Remote or buttons on TV itself. It's like it's getting feedback on the HDMI cable. Philips TV by the way.

Oh and what I thought was a problem of my TV, where motion became jagged on slow horizontal panning, was actually a problem of the PS3. BD movies don't do that on this player.

In summary: beautiful picture and sound, it does what it should do and does it very well. But it's a bit dumb and large and Sony has become too fond of plastic.