- BRAVIA Internet Video , Access movies, music, videos and more.
- Built-in Wi-Fi and Blu-ray 3D playback capability.
- iPhone , iPod touch BD Remote.
- Quick Start , Load to watch movies faster than ever.
- DLNA wireless streaming of photos, videos and music
Buy Sony BDP-S570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player Now
A week or so ago I replaced my Sony BDP-S300 Blu Ray Disk player with a new model, the BDP-S570. The S570 is one of Sony's newest players, and in the middle of their consumer line as far as model lineup. It was amazingly low priced at $249.I decided to upgrade from the S300 for two main reasons. First, the load times on the S300 are excruciatingly slow, and second it cannot bitstream the newest audio codecs so I was forced to use its on-board decoder and analog output. With my new Emotiva prepro I wanted to reduce cable complexity and use HDMI only.
I started doing some research into the newest crop of BRD players and was convinced I would probably get the Oppo 83. But a few reviews on CNET and elsewhere said the S570 had "the fastest load times ever tested" and they ranked it as faster than and 83. It also has some of the new whiz-bang stuff like wifi, SACD compatibility, Netflix and Amazon streaming, Profile 2.0, 1Gb internal memory, HDMI 1.4 and 3D capability. So I looked up the Sony and found it was half the price of the Oppo, and decided to go for it. I figured that for $250 if I hated it I could send it back or pawn it off onto someone else.
Impressions of the Sony S570:
If you are an equipment snob like me and want your gear to feel substantial, like a quality device, this machine is NOT for you. I thought the box was empty when it arrived. The machine feels like it weights a few ounces (actually it weighs 2Kg or about 4 1/2 pounds.) Upon opening it, I was even more disappointed. this thing is super cheap feeling you know how some plastic feels "good" and other plastic feels "cheap" and flimsy? This feels cheap. The buttons on the front are almost repulsive little Chiclets about the size of the buttons on my cell phone and remind me of some kind of toy made by Coleco. The disc tray feels like I will break it if I push it in. At least the remote is pretty nice so I won't have to touch the cheesy buttons. If just feels cheap. The power cord is molded into the chassis. The chassis is a non-standard size, which always drives me mad. It is almost a standard rack width at 17" wide, but it is only 8" deep, meaning it is too shallow for any other piece of gear to sit on top of it. I had to rig some rear "feet" for my DVR to sit it on top the Sony. Initial impressions were not good at all and I thought I had made a mistake buying this thing. At least once it is in the rack it doesn't look cheap. The all-black front is not as nice as the blue tinted plastic on the S300, but it looks like it belongs in a good equipment rack. Just don't touch it.
The connectors on the back feature a single HDMI jack, component and composite video, stereo analog audio (that goes with the composite video), Ethernet, digital coax and optical, and USB. There are no multichannel analog audio outputs if you need these, and I found it odd that it would offer legacy video outputs but force anyone using those to only use digital audio or HDMI for high-resolution audio. The USB connector is interesting as it allows the user to connect a memory stick (and the promise later a hard drive) for storing downloaded video. There is also a USB connector on the front and the machine can display a variety of digital image formats and play back a variety of digital audio formats directly from the USB connections, or via its networking capability. So while I probably won't use it as such, the machine has the ability to serve as a media hub. That's pretty nice.
I plugged it in and connected via HDMI to my pre-pro. The remote codes were in the Harmony database. I fired it up and went through the very logical and intuitive setup routine on-screen without having to refer to the owner's manual. I connected it to my network wirelessly (it has 801.n wireless built in) and had it check for a firmware update. There was one, so before I could try it I let it download and update which took about 15 minutes to complete. After it rebooted, I started exploring.
The user interface looks exactly like the PS3. This is not surprising since this box is pretty much the PS3 without the gaming capability or any on-board hard drive. It was intuitive and easy to navigate. I went to the setup screens and went through all the settings to see if I needed to adjust anything. Then I popped in a Blu Ray disc (Up.)
Wow. I was shocked. Where the old S300 would give me several "loading" screens and I could almost walk the half mile to the nearest Starbucks, get a latte and walk back before a disc was ready to play, this thing flashed the screen a couple of times and boom, it was ready to go. It was literally the fastest load I'd ever seen, faster than the CD player in my car can load a CD. Very impressive. The picture quality was also outstanding, as I expected. The sound, however, was not right.
"Up" has a dts-HD soundtrack, and the Emotiva processor told me the Sony was sending it multi-channel PCM. Hmm. I went back into the setup screens and it said dts was set to output as dts, but there did not seem to be any settings associated with the HD codecs. Hmm again. So I stopped the disc and thumbed through the owners manual. No mention of anything special I need to do. Time to hit up Google. Nothing obvious came up. Back to the owner's manual and I notice in the troubleshooting section a problem called "Dolby True HD and dts HD bitstream does not work." Aha. It seems one must set a user setting called "BD Audio Mix Output" to "OFF" and then the high def codecs will bitstream. Oh really? So I did this, and boom the Emotiva told me the sound track was dts-HD. There is no where other than this troubleshooting guide that mentions this, and the setup information says the "BD Audio Mix" function has something to do with the secondary audio tracks.
So, if any of you purchase this box or it's siblings, be sure to set this function to "OFF" if you have a pre-pro that decodes the new codecs.
After enjoying "Up" I tried the Netflix streaming function and cued up "The King of California." It came up on the screen surprisingly quickly, and the video quality was not HD but acceptable for casual viewing. It did seem to have to re-buffer too often, but perhaps adding a nice big 32G memory stick to the rear USB port will help this.
Next I tried playing back an SACD (Madman Across The Water.) The S570 outputs SACD as either Multi-PCM or Multi-channel DSD. I had set it to DSD, but the Emotiva will not accept a DSD input. The Sony detected this via the HDMI handshake and output the music as multi-channel PCM. It sounded pretty darn good.
Bottom line, my bias against cheap-feeling gear was wrong and I love this box. I didn't think I'd ever use the Profile 2.0 BD-Live features or something like Netflix streaming but I was wrong, I had a good time checking it out. I still think I'll never use the 3D features but who knows. I am happy I bought this and feel it is one of the best bargain buys I have ever made for my HT.
If however it really is as cheap as it feels and it breaks down after a few months, I'll be sure to let everyone here know.
Read Best Reviews of Sony BDP-S570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player Here
OK , got my S570 and tested everything I could. This is not a professional review since I'm not a pro.-UNPACKING AND INSTALLING:
The box is very small, half the size of the 460 box. The player is also much smaller than the 460. The installation was a breeze because I basically removed my 460 and replaced it with the 570. I don't need the wireless, just hooket it to my Ethernet switch and set a fixed IP address like I do on any device I have.
The eject button on the player is almost impossible to find. Bring the remote.
The activation of both Netflix and Amazon can be a real pain and I had to register both again.
I changed the following settings from the default:
.Audio Mix to OFF
.Gracenote to AUTO
.Network settings to manual IP address.
.SACD to DSD
.IP Noise Reduction to zero
As soon as I turned the player on, a firmware update came up and its now version 315.
-BLURAY/DVD PICTURE QUALITY
Nothing new here. Bluray is great as it is with any other player and DVD is OK, nothing to brag about but decent. Professional reviews will give more info about cadence and other things, I spend my time watching movies not calibration disks.
Only thing new is the Gracenote that gives some info on the title but will interrupt playback and return the movie to start position.
-AMAZON/NETFLIX
If you know the 460, the interface is the same (very basic) but with an interesting difference on the audio side. With the 460 I can get DD 5.1 from Amazon and only get audio from Netflix if I set HDMI AUDIO to PCM. With the 570, all the streaming comes in PCM even if HDMI AUDIO is set to AUTO. I think it's a bug with the 460 that happens only with few receivers (no audio unless PCM is set) that is now fixed with the 570. I know, a little confusing.
There is an IP video noise reduction that defaults to 2. I set it to zero because I hate any kind of NR. Picture gets softer in most cases.
Picture quality with Amazon is good and so-so with Netflix but nothing that can be blamed on the player. BTW, my Internet connection is good, 18 Mbps hard-wired.
Gracenote doesn't work with Netflix or Amazon, but you don't need it.
-OTHER WEB SERVICES
There are 1 or 2 services not present on the 460 and few "coming soon". The most important is the Qriosity, from Sony, that promises to rival Netflix/Amazon. There is a Qriosity icon as a placeholder on the menu axis. More info here: .
-DLNA
Doesn't exist. Firmware upgrade ? Shame on you Sony.The Sony website is now updated and has a footnote about the upgrade but it wasn't there when I bought the player.
-USB DISK AND FILES SUPPORTED.
I used a pendrive to test quite a few file formats. Here is the result:
.M2TS Both movies recorded from my Canon Camcorder and the Hauppauge HD-PVR played perfectly. Great !
.MPG No problems, as expected.
.WMV Played without a glitch.
.MKV The video recorded with Makemkv didn't play at all (msg about corrupted file). The video recorded with Handbrake played but with a lot of pixelation.
.M4V Same as above. Also created by Handbrake.
.ISO Not recognized at all. Didn't show up on the playlist.
.MOV Same as above.
.AVI Same as above.
I think the only good news so far is the flawless playback of the 2 M2TS files.
-SACD
This is the Grand Finale: Absolutely fantastic . My Pioneer 94 can take DSD direct (no PCM conversion) and the sound is great. I set the receiver to "pure direct" and the sound was warm, tube like, beautiful. Obviously the receiver plays the big role here but the 570 did everything you could expect.
MY SETUP:
.Panasonic P65V10
.Pioneer 64 receiver
.Sony BDP S570 player
.U-Verse 18 Mbps Internet Service
.Everything through HDMI links.
I hope I gave you some highlights on the 570. Overall it's a great deal and a bargain considering what it can do. Let's hope the DLNA upgrade comes soon and works as expected.
Want Sony BDP-S570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player Discount?
First, a little background. I purchased a Sony BDP-S300 (one of the early Sony BD players) three years ago to use with my home-theatre setup. It was always a great player, just a basic machine with no frills. Not a lot of advanced features, but it always had superb picture quality and it played anything you could put in it.Anyway, in mid-2009 I started looking for a new BD machine to replace the aging S300. The S300 had wonderful picture quality, no doubt about it, but it was becoming troublesome with long waits for load times, sometimes taking up to five minutes to start playing a Java-enabled Blu-ray disc (from cold power-on to disc main menu). In the process of "auditioning" new machines, I tried out a Samsung BD-P1600 and a Sony BDP-N460, both of which were returned to the store for one reason or another.
Well, my good friends, it appears as though my long wait for a replacement for the S300 is over. I purchased a Sony BDP-S570 on Thursday, March 4th 2010, and I could not be happier with the results.
Now let me say that I am looking at players for playback quality alone. I am not interested in connecting the machine to the Internet -which may put off some of you. I am only concerned with load times, wait times, picture quality, sound quality. All else for me is a moot point because I connect my television directly to my Windows XP Media Centre PC for things such as Netflix, Youtube, Pandora, etc. So this review and comments are only in regard to video playback of various discs on this machine.
Upon removing the BDP-S570 from its box, and connecting it to the television via HDMI, I loaded our first "test disc", the 2009 Java-heavy Paramount Blu-ray release of J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek". The disc loaded faster than you can say "Klingon". I was also quite impressed when pressing the "Pop Up/Menu" button on the remote control automatically forced the disc to skip through the four trailers (that play automatically at the start most of the time). This is the first machine that could blow past the trailers like that in one fell swoop. (Formerly, you had to use the fast-forward function to forward through each trailer one at a time.)
As many of you know, The "Star Trek" BD was one of the most well-received BDs of 2009 in terms of picture quality. Well let me say the PQ looks extraordinary on this player and my television. The only problem I noted was a brief glitch in the video outputting/processing, when a herky-jerky something happened and skipped a brief second during the climactic space battle at the end of the movie. I reversed the movie and played it again, and the second time around, no problems.
Second test disc was the 2007 Columbia BD release of "Spider-Man 2" (from the trilogy boxed set). This disc loaded quickly and played flawlessly, again perfect PQ and video outputting. No complaints here at all.
Final test disc was the 2006 Disney Platinum Edition DVD release of "The Little Mermaid". This disc loaded very quickly and the picture quality throughout was superb. No jaggies at all like you'd see on some other BD machines when playing standard DVDs. Superb auto upscaling to 1080P from the disc's native 480i.
Some specific features that impressed me with this player: The remote control has an open/close button on it, which was missing on older Sony BD remote controls (particularly the N460). This player has the easiest auto set-up (by far) of any of the various new players I've connected to my TV out of the box. Finally, you can deactivate the lights and numerical (counter) display on the front of the machine, so it is completely dark when powered on. This is a handy feature if you, like me, dislike all those lights particularly when playing a movie in a darkened room.
Also I particularly like the small size of this player. The S300 was a behemoth in comparison. This player takes no room at all in my component cabinet (in fact it is so small I can't keep my Wii on top like I did with my old player).
All in all this is a superb A+++++ machine from Sony. Here is the player I was waiting for. Technology has caught up to the level such that these players have really come into their own. Also this player is 3D capable with the expected firmware coming this summer. So I will be ready to watch Avatar when the 3D BD is released. Celebration all around.
Netflix capable
Wi-Fi capable
Additional online content
Economical
I know my requirements are not that stringent, but the player is just for the family. I wanted to be able to do Full HD 1080p and the family/kids wanted to be able to watch Netflix. I wanted/needed Wi-Fi because I did not want to run a network cable.
After reading hours of reviews I decided on the Sony BDP-S570 because it met all of my requirements, as well as, is prepared to be a 3D player with a firmware upgrade. I watched Amazon for about a month and finally it went on sale for $224. I brought it immediately.
I had my new Blu-Ray player up and running immediately. I connected the Blu-Ray to my network and immediately updated the firmware. I registered with Netflix and was watching movies instantly. I have not had any issues whatsoever with Netflix. This is a great box if this is one of your major requirements. I also registered with Pandora and Slacker and have very much enjoyed the online music. My family has also enjoyed watching YouTube as well.
After a month I am extremely happy with my purchase and highly recommend this Blu-Ray player.
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