My Review of the Sony Blu-Ray BDP-S1

[beatboy77]

Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to attend a special showing of the Sony Blu-Ray BDP-S1 at Listen Up in Colorado Springs. I went to the 7 p.m. showing .The Blu-Ray took about the same amount of time to load as the Toshiba HD-A1, so that was a bit frustrating. As compared to the HD-A1, the BDP-S1 has a very similar picture quality. I really could see no difference between the two for the most part. The BDP-S1 did stagger a bit with motion or movement based scenes, which for me was a negative, since I am a big fan of action movies. The HD-A1 was deffinately better at this. The BDP-S1 also had an ever so slight delay when going from chapter to chapter on the Blu-Ray DVD. I have not experienced this problem with the HD-A1. By the way, I own the HD-A1 and plan on buying the Play Station 3 for gaming and Blu-Ray playback. During the QA, the facilitator said the PS3 would not be capable of outputting in 1080p for Blu-Ray movie playback. Is this true? He said it would be limited to 1080i due to the amount of pins they are using in the HDMI output. Performance-wise I see little to no difference between the BDP-S1 and the HD-A1, with a slight advantage in PQ to the HD-A1 due to its ability to handle motion/movement scenes better. Eitherway though, both are a huge improvement over SD DVD.

~Josh

 

[charper1]

Did anyone make a verbal comment about the "stagger" and "chapter delays" to the facilitator? If so, any explinations? If not, why not?

I ask because the other 2 reviews I have read (supposedly at the same location) failed to mention these facts.

EDIT: I also LOVE that the demos are being done on 100"+ FPTVs.... They really do know what user are slowly learning, FPTV really is the best movie like display! AND better bang for the buck!

We should all laugh at a tiny 70" display!

 

[beatboy77]

I spoke to him after the presentation and he basically said he had noticed that too, but that is how it is. He really didn't explain why that happened. He mentioned "most" people do not notice/complain about it, but some do. I think it has something to do with the MPEG-2 processing. The Toshiba HD-A1 is definately better then the Blu-Ray in this respect.

~Josh

 

[charper1]

I spoke to him after the presentation and he basically said he had noticed that too, but that is how it is. He really didn't explain why that happened. He mentioned "most" people do not notice/complain about it, but some do. I think it has something to do with the MPEG-2 processing. The Toshiba HD-A1 is definately better then the Blu-Ray in this respect. ~Josh

So NO ONE in the entire demo said anything up front and out loud about it? Thats seems real odd to me.

 

[navychop]

Pin count limiting 1080p? Doubtful.

 

[teamerickson]

Interesting!

 

[beatboy77]

So NO ONE in the entire demo said anything up front and out loud about it? Thats seems real odd to me.

Actually the amount of time allotted for Q&A was quite small due to the late hour. The main questions being asked were about availability fo both the BDP-S1 and the PS3 and also about the PS3 in general. There were also questions about Blu-Ray movie availability. When I spoke to him one-on-one after the Q&A, several other brought up similar observations about movement/motion imperfections and the chapter changing delay.

~Josh

 

[jgantert]

I spoke to him after the presentation and he basically said he had noticed that too, but that is how it is. He really didn't explain why that happened.

Does this guy work for Comcast? Geesh!

BTW, good review. I wonder if the production units will be different from the unit you saw demo'd.

-John

 

[vurbano]

Both machines sound like losers to me at this point. Wait for the next generation or build your own.