Slow But Steady Doesn't Always Win

We waited impatiently for the HD versus Blu-Ray war to end before upgrading our original DVD player. When Blu-Ray was declared the winner it seemed to make sense to buy a Blu-Ray player from the father of Blu-Ray. As far as picture and sound quality the decision was fine. But for all but the most patient there are better choices.

Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray Player

We got this at our nearby Target store. It was a reasonable price compared to the limited selection and since it was by Sony, a name we have come to trust, we took it home.

In the box

The player is a pretty plain black box of average A/V equipment size. Also included are a decent manual, a remote and batteries, and a couple of cables for hookup and power. The front has a row of buttons along the top right, a display screen at the lower left, the DVD tray in the center near the top, and, for some inexplicable reason, the power and eject buttons on the top near the front.

The back panel has the expected assortment of audio and video output connectors. There is HDMI, S-video, A/V, RGBY, and both standard and optical audio. It is ready to connect into nearly any level of A/V system. We use an HDDMI cable direst to the 42 inch 1080i TV.

Picture and sound quality

The picture with a Blu-Ray disc is right in your face with clear colors, no noticeable artifacts, and just plain awesome. The sound, we expect, will be just as great if connected through a high-end audio system. We use the TV.

The Sony BDP S300 will also play the usual assortment of lesser quality discs, including CD for sound or pictures. With regular DVD movies, it tries to do an up-convert to HD quality with generally pretty good success. We do see an occasional artifact or two that aren't on the disc in a regular DVD player.

Performance

Here is where the title comes from. I remember the days of trying to run windows on an early generation PC. It ran but it was slow. The software/firmware performance of the Sony is similar. Just over a minute from tapping the power on switch you can open the shuttle door. The door opens and closes pretty quickly, but then it chews on the DVD for anywhere from twenty seconds to over two minutes before you get the first real picture on your TV screen. It is better for regular DVD discs, but still slower than even the cheap regular DVD players available now. Searching for a particular scene is equally slow. Once the playing starts, the picture is great and there is no noticeable lag.

One of the first things we had to do was install an update of the firmware. You will need a computer that can burn a CD for this task. You download the update from the Sony site and burn it to a CD. You turn on the Sony and wait the minute or so until you can insert the disc, insert it, and in its own sweet time it will read it and update itself. You are warned not to interrupt the process and it takes several minutes with no indication of progress. It does work, though, if you remember to close the CD after you burn it.

Recommended?

I believe there are better and faster machines out there. If you want something that encourages you to get the bathroom duties done and make a snack before you watch your Blu-Ray movie, the Sony will certainly work for you.