Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player

Revel in astounding HD clarity with the BDP-S350 Blu-ray Disc player. The most noticeable additions to this year's model are the Ethernet port that lets you download firmware updates directly to the player, and -- with one of those firmware updates -- access web contetent encoded to Blu-ray discs via BD-Live, compatibility with the Bonus View feature of select Blu-ray movies, and a USB port that allows you to add more storage to access the growing number of special features that will be available given the immense storage capacity of Blu-ray discs themeselves. This player also outputs a Full 1080/24p True Cinema picture, and upscales your existing DVD collection to 1080p when using an HDMI connection. Dolby TrueHD capability delivers lossless sound that is true to the original studio master. Bringing it all together is the new icon based Xcross Media Bar, which provides simple navigation of the player's menu system.

Key Features

* True 1080p Output
* Dolby TrueHD compatible
* Ethernet connection for BD-Live Compatibility and firmware updates
* USB Port Allows More Storage for Access to More Special Features, Like Bonus View
* Higher Bit Rates mean less video compression
* Emmy-Award Winning Xross Media Bar Interface
* Bravia Sync for Easy Connectivity



Specifications
Audio Features

* Dolby : Dolby Digital (Decoding): Yes (HDMI bitstream out)
* Dolby Digital plus Decoding : Yes
* Dolby TrueHD Decoding : Yes (HDMI™ bitstream out)
* LPCM : Yes (multi-channel decoding): Yes (HDMI™ bitstream out)
* MP3 Playback : No
* dts Decoding : Yes (HDMI™ bitstream out)
* dts Output : No

Video Features

* BD-R/RE Read Compatibility : Yes (BDMV and BAAB format)
* DVD+R Read Compatibility : Yes
* DVD+RW Read Compatibility : Yes
* DVD-R Read Compatibility : Yes (Video Mode AVR Mode
* DVD-RW Read Compatibility : Yes (Video Mode AVR Mode
* JPEG Playback : Yes


Customer feedback:

1. This one loads pretty fast. From what I read it is much faster then older models. I was upgrading coming from a Sony 5 disc up converting DVD player and that thing was slow so I'm very satisfied. The picture is awesome and the audio is great too. I don't even have it connected to a amp that does Dolby Tru-HD or DTS-MA. That will be my next purchase.
There is only one thing that I'm disappointed with the player has the Bravia Theater Sync feature. Which works great with my Sony amp. But for some reason the DVD remote will only control the volume for the TV not the amp. So I still have to use a second remote for volume on my Sony amp. This makes no sense to me.

2. This is my first BluRay player. So far so good. The setup was very straightforward and I did appreciate the simple set up walk through the minute I turned it on. After setting up - I was a bit surprised (all right - fricking shocked) when sound played through my TV speakers because I specifically set it up to play through the digital audio output. Not a big deal - I can just mute the TV, but I did fear it was going to blow out the speakers.
So after the unit was set up (less than a minute with an HDMI connection and a digital audio out) I popped in my first disc. Granted, I did not test with a BluRay DVD, but the load-time was a pleasant surprise. I found it just as fast as the el-cheapo model DVD player that occupied the space before it. All the nightmares I have heard about ridiculously slow start-up times seem to have been for not. No problem with loading.