Sony BDP-S550 Region B UK owners thread.

[losslessman]

the hdmi settings allow a picture at 1080i and 720p, but no image (obviously) at 1080p, the screen goes blank.

Would it be better to choose 720p, or 1080i?

Thanks again!

[nwgarratt]

Originally Posted by losslessman

the hdmi settings allow a picture at 1080i and 720p, but no image (obviously) at 1080p, the screen goes blank.

Would it be better to choose 720p, or 1080i?

Thanks again!

It is up to you on what you think is the best but I would try 720p otherwise with BD, you are going from 1080p on the disc to 1080i and then to 768p. You will still be going 720p to 768p but it isn't a lot and must be better than interlacing and then deinterlacing a second time.

[losslessman]

ok that's grand - thanks a lot for that, will set it and see how it compares

Now I just have to decide whether a 32" 1080p with true 24fps is worth it

[edbrandrick]

Just got what hi fi awards 08 mag. THERE IS NO REVIEW ON S550 which I was lead to believe. It will be appearing on their site in a day or so.....
How they can say the panny is better and has won when they havent even printed a review of s550 is beyond me....

[Butters]

maybe they spend more on advertising in the magazine???? ohh how cynical can a man be

[mentasm]

Someone asked this on their forums earlier:

Would the sound aspect matter if I'm sending the audio to my receiver to decode via hdmi?

The answer was this:

in response to your question - yes, the BD55 does sound better than the S550 over HDMI.

Would there even be a difference if the amp is doing the decoding? Does the Panny 'bitstream' the audio in a superior manner?

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by mentasm

Someone asked this on their forums earlier:



The answer was this:


Would there even be a difference if the amp is doing the decoding? Does the Panny 'bitstream' the audio in a superior manner?

Hi mate.
Bitstream HD audio to the amp? then the different results will be down to the receiver........surely?
Same as decoding internally as some amps don't handle LPCM too kindly.
All the best.

[mentasm]

That's what I was getting at. I'm hoping the What Hi-Fi bloke misunderstood the question, because they're supposed to know what they're talking about.

[Liam @ Prog AV]

Bugger. Just clicked onto this thread and remembered I totally forgot to book my delivery in yesterday, won't get it until Monday now But when I do it's going up against the BD50 in the analogue audio department! Will feedback net week, guess I'll have to spend the weekend playing with the 600M, Radiance and EDGE instead

[Black Adder]

I've had my S550 for nearly a week now but think I've made a major error of judgment in buying it, not that it's a real problem as Amazon returns are fairly easy.

I thought that the 550 had had the onboard 1GB storage for Profile 2.0 and that the 350 did not have this, but it seems I may be wrong. Apparently the 350 does have the flash socket for an extra 1GB of local storage but doesn't actually come with the cheapo flash drive to plug in to it, you just buy one, whereas my 550 does come with this external flash drive.

So it seems that the only differences between the 350 and 550 are that (and having to update the 350 by F/W to Profile 2.0) and the 7.1 audio out which I don't need for audio.

Does anyone know if the components and chips are the same as the 350, and therefore the PQ? This is what I'm assuming?

Also discovered this review of the 350 after I bought the 550, which PQ wise should be exactly the same as the 550? The review is quite critical of the Blu-Ray playback saying that only 50% of the picture is processed properly for Video material with SD being only 'fair'. Not that we should expect much out of a non-Reon/Realta unit anyway.

The review is saying to forget the 350 and go for the Panasonic 50 (let alone a 55) which wins hands down for PQ and other things. They are comparing a 350 with a BD50 together and if the PQ is identical for the 350 and 550 I've made a bad choice and may as well save a packet by buying the 350.

From HDGuru review:

""Blu-ray performance with 1080p/24 Hz content was superb with the player. I rate the BDP-S350 HD performance excellent when viewing 1080p/24 content (movies). With native 1080i content the BDP-S350 performed poorly due to its inability to properly deinterlace and displaying only 50% of the detail at any time. SD DVD upconversion quality is “fair”.""

First Review Of Sony’s Latest Blu-ray Player-Exclusive Sony BDP-S350 vs.Panasonic DMP-BD50 » HDGURU.Com

In answer to a previous poster further up about why Hi-FI has awarded the BD55 best player for it's price range, I guess it's because they don't need to test the 550 as it's the same PQ as the 350?

Generally tho I'm very pleased with this 550. The Blu-Ray playback seems excellent to me and the SD not TOO bad, but with jaggies everywhere compared to the same DVD playing at the same time in a Reon equipped Toshiba XE1 (beautiful machine).

The S550 is nice and compact and COMPLETELY quiet fan wise too Remote is nice looking but poor to use due to floppy buttons and poorly placed buttons, but most ppl have universals anyway.

So as I don't need the 7.1 audio I may as well buy the 350 if the PQ is the same and a cheap USB flash for it? Would appreciate any comments anyone has about all of this especially Kingfats who has a 350 What do you think of the SD comparison between your XE1 and 350?

Thanks for any input.

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by Black Adder

So as I don't need the 7.1 audio I may as well buy the 350 if the PQ is the same and a cheap USB flash for it? Would appreciate any comments anyone has about all of this especially Kingfats who has a 350 What do you think of the SD comparison between your XE1 and 350?

Thanks for any input.

Hi mate.
I love the 350 excellent BD player.
DVD playback is not as good as the XE1 but that's expected i'm afraid.
All the best.

[woolz]

dont forget the 550 decodes dts hd master audio which the 350 does not. 550 also has a backlit remote,

[Black Adder]

Originally Posted by kingfats

Hi mate.
I love the 350 excellent BD player.
DVD playback is not as good as the XE1 but that's expected i'm afraid.
All the best.

Hiya KF Do you know if the PQ is the same for the 350/550 using the same electronics for Blu-Ray & DVD?

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by Black Adder

Hiya KF Do you know if the PQ is the same for the 350/550 using the same electronics for Blu-Ray & DVD?

For 1080p BD playback i would say yes they use a different chip in the 550 over the 350 (am i right?) so not sure if this has improved deinterlacing at all.
Cheers.

[Black Adder]

Originally Posted by woolz

dont forget the 550 decodes dts hd master audio which the 350 does not. 550 also has a backlit remote,

Yep true, but I don't use Dolby anything. Prefer to stick with 2 channel through a high end Hi-FI from two speakers. LOLZ @ the backlit remote. Yep true too (it's really naff), and will use a universal remote anyway.