- Bonus View & BD-Live (Profile 2.0) w/1GB flash memory for local storage
- Full HD 1080/60p & 24p True Cinema Video Output
- Dolby? True HD/DTS?-HD decoder built-in with 7.1ch out. Quick start up mode.
- Dolby? TrueHD & DTS-HD bitstream out over HDMI? (V1.3)
- x.v.Color? for AVC-HD
COMPARISON
This is the "big brother" of the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player. What are the differences (Apart from more than $100 at the time of this writing)? One big one (for some) and two minor ones:
It does 7.1 ANALOG Audio out. (Big deal for some people, like myself.)
It decodes ALL next-gen audio formats (the 350 does not decode the one that is not used much, and I am reading that they will upgrade that via firmware, so minor difference).
It is BD 2.0, which is the newest and for now final Blu-Ray format. (The 350 can be upgraded to it by buying and installing a memory card, so also only a minor difference.)
The last two are nice if you want a player that is future proof without you actualy needing to fiddle around with it. Unless you really hate doing things like firmware upgrades, I don't think they are worth the price difference between this unit and the 350, though.
The real difference is that this player does 7.1 ANALOG Audio out (see my experience below). So IF you have a receiver that cannot be connected via HDMI, but that is otherwise so good (was so expensive) that you do not wish to switch it out, and it has 7.1 ANALOG Audio in (often called "External In" or "Pre In"), you can connect this player via 8 (yes, eight, not a typo) analog audio cables to the receiver, and still receive all 7.1 channels of Audio. I, for instance, own a Denon 5805 receiver (original cost several thousand dollars), which I do not want to switch out. By spending the additional money for this player, I can have pretty much the same experience as if I had an hdmi capable (newer) receiver. So mostly, this only applies to people who are willing to spend a lot of money for a perfect audio experience. One thing to note: You can not get the full 7.1 Audio via either optical or normal digital connection. The audio quality will be downgraded to accomodate that those cable formats can't transport the data fast enough for the full quality. Another thing to note: This does not concern the actual picture quality, just the audio.
BOTTOM LINE: IF THIS IS A GOOD UPGRADE OVER THE 350 DEPENDS COMPLETELY ON YOUR RECEIVER, and is more likely if your receiver is older and was expensive. If it wasn't I would get the Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player.
IMPRESSIONS
So, how does it actually work. I have it connected to a 720p TV via hdmi, and a Denon 5805 receiver via 7.1 analog (I have a 7.1 speaker system).
Installation
Installation was pretty hassle free, except for fiddling with the audio to get it to work just like I wanted it to (took about 1-2 hours, which is normal if you add this kind of component to a system like mine). The non-audio setup was only 5-10 minutes (take it out, plug it in, press a few buttons, ready).
For the analog audio, you can tell the unit which speakers (up to 7.1) and speaker sizes (small, large) you have, how far they are from the listener (in feet, fronts and the surround pairs can only be configured in pairs, hard to configure if your sub or surrounds are far away for some reason), and finally speaker level (per each speaker, front and surround pairs can be seperately configured here). It also provides a test tone. Apparently the bass management is done through how you configured the size of the other speakers, and if you tell it small for all you have to have a sub. I am running configured through the unit so far, even though I have a receiver that can redigitalize the analog audio inputs (which I will probably try in the future once I have listened to it like this for a while, so I can compare better). So my impressions below are for having the Sony do all the processing.
Operation
The unit comes on relatively quickly, and starts playing a Blu-Ray disk in about 30 seconds or so, which was a positive surprise after having read the horror stories about waiting times for the last generation of these players. Still noticable slower than a standard DVD player for DVDs. DVDs start faster in this player, though, and can be upconverted. The user interface is mostly graphical, kind of like the PS3s, and you get used to it quickly.
Video / Audio Quality
I was very positively surprised about the video and audio quality produced by the unit, both for Blu-Ray and DVD. The Blu-Ray picture was sharp with great colors and color gradients, and I did not spot any conversion artifacts in 720p (I had the unit do the conversion). In short, the picture is what true HD picture should be. The sound was amazing. Even though right now the movies I played still have no "real" 7.1, but 5.1, I thought localization was fantastic, and the quality crystal clear. The surround was well defined without drowning out the voices. Caveat: I have only played a few movies at this point, so this might be due to fantastic sound engineering. I was not used to the bass management, though, the Denon does that different (it has automatic room correction), so if your receiver does not redigitize the analog signal to apply its own bass management, etc., you might run into a little bit of a problem here (I thought it still sounded great, but then I am not a bass fan). In the end, the unit does not come with automatic room correction, and the bass is one point where that could make quite a difference depending on your setup / room. (This last part applies more to the audio-nut community, for whom it might be a big deal, though, and who are a large part of the target audience for this player as far as i can tell.)
DVD upsampling looks like a "fuzzy" HD picture. I did not spot any abvious artifacts, but then I only took a quick look (I did not buy the unit for DVD playback / upsampling, but for Blu-Ray). Sound was good for DVDs as well.
BOTTOM LINE: Great unit, better than I thought in both picture and audio. If you need 7.1 analog, and can't/don't want to spend 2G on a Denon or Oppo, buy it. You will get 7.1 analog with good basic configuration options, but don't expect automatic room adjustment level results.
Buy Sony BDP-S550 1080p Blu-ray Player Now
Let me first start out by stating that I'm living in an analog world. I'm using component video and 7.1-channel RCA connectors for audio. This ability, combined with Profile 2.0, was the primary reason I waited for the Sony BDP-S550.Out of the box, the unit is surprisingly small. It's full-width, but only half the depth of every other component I have in my rack. This all but guarantees the new Blu-ray Disc player will sit proudly at the top of my six-and-a-half foot tower of electronics. It's a pretty unit with a slight bluish black complexion so I don't mind, really. I was just surprised. My previous foray into Sony disc players was the DVP-S9000ES which was a 40-pound, brass-plated monster.
The initial setup was a breeze. I like the matrix-like setup menus. The only tweaks I had to make were to set the Audio Output Priority to multi-channel analog and [eventually] to set the BD Audio Setting to "Direct". This last item was critically important and almost made me return the unit. By allowing menu-based sound effects to be mixed into the BD audio, it introduced a ~150ms audio delay in watching Blu-ray Discs. I was horrified until, on a SWAG, I changed this setting. Phew!
After playing a few minutes from every Blu-ray Disc I bought, I threw in a few reference quality DVDs. The upconversion from 480i to both 480p and 1080i (via component video) was excellent. It was almost too good, showing the limitations of some of my lesser DVDs. Film grain in the recently remastered "Dirty Dancing" DVD [Disclaimer: this is my fiancee's disc] was more obvious on this player than I've seen on any of my other DVD players. There are extensive noise reduction settings available in the player, but the film grain was more a testament to the clarity of the player rather than distracting.
I also tested 4x3 (1.33:1) DVDs and audio CDs, just to be sure the player could be my end-all, be-all player. Initially, the player stretched the 4x3 DVD to fit my 16x9 screen, but I eventually found the Screen Format video settings, which when set to the non-intuitive value of "Fixed Aspect Ratio", displays all DVDs in their proper aspect ratio.
In conclusion, the video on my 1080i RPTV is pristine; the best I've ever seen. The player-decoded 7.1-channel audio is also crystal clear. I didn't expect to hear an improvement over optical DTS-ES or THX-EX, but the difference is amazingly obvious. The player *does*, unfortunately, suffer from the -10dB subwoofer output limitation, which is very irritating (and the cause of only 4 stars). Relative to all the other channels, the line-level subwoofer output is over 10dB too low. This causes a major disparity in perceived output between the seven main channels and the subwoofer. I'm hoping and praying Sony will release a firmware upgrade to fix this in the very near future. Until then, I've got all the other channels set to -10 to -12dB with the subwoofer set to 0dB, which is almost close to the correct value for my home theatre.
If you can live with or compensate for the very low subwoofer output, or use HDMI for audio and video, then I do not hesitate in strongly recommending this player to anyone looking for an excellent, user-friendly, fully-functional and surprisingly inexpensive Blu-ray Disc player.
Read Best Reviews of Sony BDP-S550 1080p Blu-ray Player Here
I have owned the Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray player for about three weeks. It is my first Blu-ray player. With the right Blu-ray program material, the audio and video quality is as good as all the positive reviews here attest. The audio is the tricky part to set up, but I worked it out in about ten minutes. I set the audio mode to "Direct" instead of the default "Mix" to ensure that the player outputs lossless audio (when such a soundtrack is available on a disc) instead of lossy Dolby Digital or DTS core. I connected the player to my non-HDMI Denon receiver equipped with 5.1 analog inputs using three pairs of RCA audio cables. The player's rear surround left and right are left unused in my case. If you don't have a 7.1 channel receiver, you can set the S550 to down-mix 7.1 soundtracks to 5.1, and output lossless audio to the analog outputs. The results are incredible, I never knew my sound system could sound so realistic and dynamic. I didn't need to adjust subwoofer level compared to my previous DVD player.Next, I want to note some features that are lacking, which I thought should have been included, as well as other nit-picks. None of these major flaws in my opinion, but here they are:
1) The S550 does not have frame-by-frame advance. Only pause and play.
2) No slow-motion.
3) No zoom feature. It would be useful for letterboxed widescreen material in a 4:3 format. You would have to use your TV's zoom, if available.
4) The S550 does not display what chapter you are viewing, neither in the unit's front display nor the on-screen display. Only when you press the chapter back/skip buttons does it tell you the chapter number on-screen. But then you are at a different point in the movie.
5) The USB port cannot be used to play music or view pictures off a USB flash drive. To my knowledge, the USB port only serves as a place to insert the external memory for BD-Live functionality. At least Sony provided a 1-GB USB flash card for that purpose.
6) Fast-forward and rewind are quite sluggish.
7) The display button only reports the video resolution that the player is outputting, such as 1080/24p or 1080/60p. It does not tell you the video resolution of the program material on disc, which may be 1080i, 480i, or other in the case of bonus material.
I do like a few nice touches on this player:
1) BD-Live functionality works great, granted I've only tried it with "Transformers." I hooked the player up to a cable modem directly, and I could download the features in mere seconds.
2) Besides regular fast-forward, rewind, and chapter skip buttons, the S550 has advance or reverse buttons take you forward or back in 10-15 second increments. Press the button multiple times to increase the time jump. It's very useful when you want to catch a mumbled piece of dialog again, or to see an instant replay of an action sequence.
3) The player will resume where you last stopped a non-BD-Java enhanced disc if you power down the unit, as long as you don't eject the disc.
4) The display button puts on-screen the time elapsed or remaining in a movie, audio codec (such as DTS HD Master) with sampling rate and number of active speakers, and video codec with instantaneous bit rate. When playing an uncompressed LPCM track, the display tells you the bit resolution as well (16-bit, 24 bit, etc.).
5) The player allows you to change audio tracks on the fly with every Blu-ray disc I have tried. This might just be a general Blu-ray feature, but I appreciate it because with DVD, some discs locked you into a particular audio track, and you would have to return to the disc menu to change it.
This is a solid player all-around. Despite a few nit-picks, I highly recommend the Sony BDP-S550.
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I just received this unit. It took just a few minutes to plug it into the HDMI port on my Sony Bravia TV and use the quick start menu. The Blu-Ray disk playback is amazing. The older DVD's I have tried look better than my 3 year old Sony DVD that was also connected to the HDMI port. I moved that unit to component video for a backup.It was nice to have everything go smoothly and have such great quality now.
I was worried buying the unit without seeing it in the store first after all the complaints about slow boots and loads with last year's models. However, this unit appears to be as quick as my old DVD player when loading either standard DVDs or the one BluRay disk that I have.
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