Sony BDP-S300 Standalone Blu-ray Player $199.98 shipped

[Shawn]

It's one of the older profile 1.0 players, but the latest firmware has decreased load times and added TrueHD decoding. So if you don't care about Bonus View or BD Live and want a standalone blu-ray player this is a pretty good deal. It now has TrueHD decoding which means you can get high def audio using the 5.1 analog outs.

Link

 

[skywhr]

nice

 

[manimal]

Nice price OP! I bought one of these from a BB here locally for 30 bucks more than that and asked them to update the firmware for me a few months ago. Getting one at this price is fantanstic! BDlive is a complete joke for the most part but may be useful if you have 10-14 year old girls at home.....

 

[angry hampster]

What is BD live?

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
What is BD live?

From wikipedia:
BD-Live offers a variety of Web-enabled features, from downloadable trailers to chat and instant-messaging functions.

It's pretty much worthless.

 

[hddvd]

i just have a quick question. So when the new standard for blu-ray come out (2.0), will movies in the future work with this player as well?

 

[abaez]

Very unlikely.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: abaez
Very unlikely.

That is completely incorrect. There are already profile 2.0 movies out and they work fine. All that happens is when you try to use a profile 1.1 or 2.0 feature it'll just say "Your Blu-ray player does not support this feature." The main title and most other special features should work fine.

I now have a profile 1.1 player, but when I still had my profile 1.0 player I put in the movie Jumper which has Bonus View and while I couldn't view the commentary as an overlay (PiP) it still gave me the option to watch it separately.

 

[SimMike2]

This is a good player as far as picture quality and everything, but it is very slow to initialize. We're not talking just seconds, but minutes.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: SimMike2
This is a good player as far as picture quality and everything, but it is very slow to initialize. We're not talking just seconds, but minutes.

Load time has improved with the latest firmware update. Boot up time should be less than a minute now.

 

[craftech]

No ethernet port means you have to download the firmware and burn it to a disc to update the firmware. Firmware updates are absolutely necessary on this unit due to all the problems. Read the user reviews at Amazon.

John

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: craftech
No ethernet port means you have to download the firmware and burn it to a disc to update the firmware. Firmware updates are absolutely necessary on this unit due to all the problems. Read the user reviews at Amazon.

John

Most of the negative reviews of this player are old. Like many of the other early blu-ray players this one had it's problems, but it was nothing a firmware update couldn't fix.

 

[erwos]

If you have a receiver which can handle decoding TrueHD and DTS-MA, plus a TV that can accept 1080p24, I would actually consider the Insignia player a slightly better deal. Still, this isn't bad at all!

 

[nyker96]

allthisBD tech and player specs kinda confusing to me, probably will wait for the 2.0 version come out then reseach for a nice player//burner or at least player. probably have get a new 1080p TV as well to take advantage of the player full.

 

[Lurker1]

all your PC based player/burners should operate just fine with any future releases that are within the technical spec (ie, # of supported layers, etc)

But I'll be waiting quite a while before buying a standalone player with the PC based ones already under $100.

Edit: oh, and I should mention that last weekend these were sale priced $299 @ Frys, so this is still a good deal as far as the price for the player goes.

 

[Shawn]

price lowered to $199.98 shipped

 

[Greg04]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: SimMike2
This is a good player as far as picture quality and everything, but it is very slow to initialize. We're not talking just seconds, but minutes.

Load time has improved with the latest firmware update. Boot up time should be less than a minute now.

Even with the latest firmware, the player is glacially slow. Buy another model. SONY Lemon.

 

[rockyct]

Nice, BD is starting to get more reasonable. The disks are still too expensive though. This week I saw a BD/HD DVD computer drive for $140. That's pretty tempting.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: rockyct
Nice, BD is starting to get more reasonable. The disks are still too expensive though. This week I saw a BD/HD DVD computer drive for $140. That's pretty tempting.

I've never paid more than $20 for a BD. I usually get them used for $15 on Amazon.com. They have a scratch proof coating so it doesn't make sense to not buy used.