Product Description

When it comes to appreciating the resolution gains of HDTV screens, standard DVD just doesn't make it. What you need is Blu-Ray high-definition discs. With the Sony BDP-S301, your high-definition home-theater system can output video in ultra-high-def 1080p resolution for extraordinary depth and detail with compatible TVs. Display images at 24 frames per second for your favorite movies. The S301 also has a built-in decoding for Dolby Digital Plus for richer, more dynamic sound. Use Bravia Theatre Sync HDMI-CEC to control your compatible Bravia TV and AV systems with just one remote. See and hear a whole new world of high definition with the incredible BDP-S301 Blu-ray Disc Player. It is also backward compatible and can play DVD and CD discs at their original, respective resolutions. Full HD 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema Video Output Standard DVD Upscaling to 1080p via HDMI connectivity Bravia Theatre Sync HDMI-CEC Cinema Tuned Picture Presets Uncompressed Multi Channel Linear PCM Audio Output Dolby Digital Plus decoding capability to experience surround sound through your home-theater audio system Dolby Digital and dts 5.1 channel Output Multi Channel 192KHz/24bit Audio D/A Converters Analog-to-Digital Converter - 192KHz/24bit Popup Menus for simple control and use Quick Set Up FL Display has selectable Off and Dimmer modes MP3 and JPEG Playback from DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW MP3 Player - Content must be in DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW format / CDR and CDRW Outputs - HDMI Connection, Component Video (Y/Pb/Pr), S-Video, Composite Video, Optical Audio, Coaxial Audio Digital & 2-Channel Analog Audio Dimensions - 17 x 3 1/8 x 14 7/8-inches (430 x 79 x 375mm)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1731 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: BDP-S301

Features

• Full HD 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema Video Output
• DVD Upscaling to 1080p via HDMI
• BRAVIA Theatre Sync (HDMI-CEC)
• BD/DVD/CD playback(4) and AVC-HD with x.v.Color output
• Multi-channel Linear PCM & Dolby Digital Plus Decoding

Customer Reviews

If it's not Scottish, it's crap!
Possibly the crappiest Sony product I've ever owned! The picture quality is indeed amazing, but the drawbacks to this first generation BD player is that it sucks. I remember purchasing a cheap Akai DVD player in 1999 and thinking "Damn, the latency from pressing the button to actually having something happen on the player is terrible!" I can say the same for this second-rate product with a first-class name. Every now and then the player will freeze. I've watched a great deal of BDs on here, courtesy of Netflix. It worked fine for awhile, but then for some reason the BD movies started freezing and I thought it was the discs. Turns out it was the player. Long story short: It's not worth the money yet. Wait to get it second hand if you really need a BD player, or wait until better, newer players come out!

Sony BDP-S300
I have been a dedicated Sony customer, purchasing Sony products for most of my AV requirements. As a rule Sony products are very good performers for the price paid.
I recently purchased the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray player, along with a Toshiba HD-DVD player (HD-A30).
When the Sony works, it's night and day between Blu-Ray and watching DVD's on our old DVD player. We have a very respectable sound system which pushes the audio through the full compliment of all the Klipsch Synergy III, -3 series speakers. It would be nice if we could hear the true audio that is encoded on the Blu-Ray. Strange that Sony has the concept but makes players that don't support it.
And to make matters worse, this 4 month old player began to sporadically freeze up after watching about 1 hour of select, various movies. As of this time, I'm unaware how to unfreeze it other than to turn the player off, then back on, then find where we left off, and hope it begins to play without additional issues. That timespan is usually around 7-10 minuutes, waiting for shutdown, power up, loading the DVD and finding where we were. By then, one has almost lost interest in watching the movie altogether.
In researching the web, many have the same issue, no one has the solution other that what we are already doing.
But this problem isn't unique to just the Sony Blu-Ray. Our Toshiba HD-DVD player does the same thing, fixed by the same process.
Some DVD's play all the way through, most don't. We have returned and replaced a number of HD-DVD's only to get replacements that reproduce the same problem.
I'm almost thinking that the commercial Blu-Ray and HD DVD's are dual layer, as both units freeze (when they freeze) at about the 1 hour timeframe. It almost appears than when they try to begin reading the second layer, they lock up making that transition. When you stop, reboot and reload, you usually go past the layer shift, thus playing the second layer all the way through, along with missing segments of the movie.
I have contacted both manufacturers concerning this, neither have responded.
I never had much experience with Toshiba products, and based on the lack of their customer support (even though it's a discontinued product, it should still be supported under their warranty), it is doubtful that I will ever look to them for consideration of purchasing any of their other products. As far as Sony is concerned, I am genuinely surprised at their lack of support to a problem which is obviously becoming more and more prevalent on a product line that is becoming more and more popular.

Great definition! Poor design and operability
I have had this player for over a month. There is no question that the upscaling to 1080i is worth the time, effort and money. The increased definition (whether from Blu-Ray discs or upscalilng old DVDs) provides at least double the resolution of old players. It is like watching your DVDs all over again for the first time. So much more of the background, and, the director and art director's details in the film appear at these high resolutions.

This review, however, is not about Blu-Ray or 1080i. It is about the poor design and operation features of this unit. First, this unit is built very, very cheaply. It is light (+), however, it is not a unit you can have around with younger children(-) or at risk for any movement once it is installed. It is essentially made out of cheap and thin plastic, and, sheet metal that is so thin you could dent it with your bare hands, by accident, simply from gripping it too hard.

I agree with the reviewers who say that the loading of the discs takes too long. There are other features which are also poorly designed and take too long to operate. For instance, if you want to eject a disc in the unit, it will power on (takes about an entire minute), then, will take about another 15 seconds to eject the disc. You are stuck waiting in front of it for over a minute, waiting for simple functions like eject, load and play to activate.

Often, the wait time is so long that you will find yourself repeatedly pushing the remote control to make sure the machine has received the command. The result is that once the machine (about a half minute later) begins to respond, it will serially execute all of the cumulative commands. The point is, you don't know if the remote is working, or, whether the IR remote received the commands, until after a long time. I found myself cursing this machine, and, continuing to curse its non-responsiveness.

The command response is so slow that I find myself walking away from it waiting for a disc to eject. Then, when I get back, the tray will have automatically closed, making it necessary to sit in front of the machine until it opens again and grab the tray and hold it so it doesn't close automatically before you can manipulate the discs (remove and replace). This is a collosal waste of time when you are trying to relax, and, takes much of the enjoyment out of having a machine like this.

Response time on remote commands such as play, search, skip, etc., are almost as bad. The unit requires sequencing of commands to accomplish even simple operations such as fast forward or reverse and the operating system of the unit responds so slowly that you can easily spend a couple of minutes trying to get the right sequence of commands.

This machine was not designed with the consumer in mind. It was designed to accomodate a cheap operating system with little responsiveness to the user, and, obviously, to avoid the expense of testing on real consumers before it was marketed.

I regret spending the money on this machine. I should have just bought a Sony upscaling DVD player (about $80.00) and blown off the Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray doesn't offer a lot more than simple upscaling in the way of features and definition.