- 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with Full HD 1080p playback
- Built-in Wi-Fi, Digital Audio Output(s): 1 Optical (Rear), 1 Coaxial (Rear)
- AVCHD, GIF, JPEG, MP3, MPEG-4, MPEG1, MPEG2, PNG; Media Remote app for iPhone/iPad & Android phones
- Region: Blu-ray: A, DVD: 1, 60Hz
- Power requirement: 120 VAC, 60 Hz
This isn't a super in depth review, but will give you more info that most will in a fairly brief summary:
First off, I am a Sony TV guy who bought TWO Panasonic Blu-Ray players last year due to their seeming superiority(reviews, pro and online stores).
First step for any modern electronic device, update your firmware. My initial update took over 5 minutes. I also recommend registering at internet.sony.tv as in the past some Sony products won't connect to certain services until you do. I connected to AmazonVideo on Demand and Netflix, BEFORE I registered it, so they may have responded to complaints and dropped the requirement, but incase there is a service that require it get it out of the way, it only takes a minute if you have a Sony account already
Netflix app(they upgraded! Sony fans rejoice!):
One glaring fault with (past/pre-2012?) Sony visual products is their Netflix app, as for years Sony decided to have a proprietary interface, and if you have researched it, a LOT of people had Netflix streaming issues. I guess Sony finally took note, as the new interface is like a across between the Wii interface and the Panasonic interface, as in it looks like you avgerage Netflix app now. I watched the Norwegian film TrollHunters, and it took about 15-20 seconds to load the movie, 10 seconds for the Netflix stream to stabilize to the bandwidth( this is mostly on Netflix's end I believe), with the unit 10 feet from my router. For the entire movie, it never reloaded or refreshed, or froze, and was in 1080 with 5.1 sound. I also paused the movie and rewound several times with no reload or delay. Truly the smoothest Netflix experience I have had yet on any of my devices. If your getting the S590 I assume this will be important to you. And yes, it has a dedicated Netflix button, and the app loads faster than my Wii or Panasonic Blu Ray players, and my Sony TV's, so I assume they have "fixed" it, but I haven't done a lot of viewing yet.
Blu Ray performance:
Another reviewer said it won't play Disney movies, but I didn't have a problem, more later. First I put in the Star Trek (2009) Blu Ray, which has great visual beginning. I didn't have any performance issues that I could tell, and the menus are VERY fast and responsive, almost to a fault as there was a bit of shutter on the pop up menu, but unless you watch the movie with the pop up constantly going up and down I don't see this as a big issue. It was roughly 30 seconds from hitting the eject button to close the tray to the Paramount intro screen going, not bad.
I then tried a 3D Disney Blu Ray (Tangeled, a true Disney made film), as one reviewer had said Disney BR does not work. Seeing as how this player is VERY new( a few weeks to a month on market), My guess is there was a firmware issue, disc issue, or user issue. That said, Tangeled played flawlessly in 3D as I skipped around chapters trying to cause an issue, but it all worked great.
Also, this player, in my opinion, works very fast when skipping chapters or loading a scene from menu, where some playera seem to pause or lag. It was also quick to fast foward and "rewind", with little to no pause when hitting the button. A noticeable leap over my 2011 model panasonic bdt-220.
Network set-up:
As usual for modern Sony products, if you have a WPS router, took roughly 2 minutes, from the time I started the set up on the TV, walked to my router in the next room and hit the WPS button, and then walked backed to tell the TV to begin connecting.
The Media Remote app for Android worked very well, but you must first go to the settings menu on the TV and scroll down to the Media remote section, and "register"(aka activate, a button push) the feature(an unnecessary step IMO but I guess they are worried about people with an unprotected router have their TV taken over by pranksters?).
Now some people are complaining about build quality. It's true it doesn't feel as sturdy at the Panasonic Players I bought last year, but is by no means flimsy. Unless you are planning on dropping it regularly, or letting your dog chew on it, I don't see a problem with this. It does look nice, with a brushed metal "look" on the case.
As with seemlingly EVERY Blu Ray player, it does not come with an HDMI(which baffles me, it isnt expensive to make a high quality HDMI cable, don't get fooled by the HDMI cable prices).
6-Month Update
I have now owned this product for 6 months. If I were to again compare it to the Panasonic's , although they are a generation older, the Sony absolutely blows them away. It loads movies faster, it streams Hulu and Netflix faster, it updates firmware MUCH faster, and I have not had any streaming or Blu Ray video problems at all.
I have encountered one issue, but won't change my rating. On Fast Boot mode, while the boot is nearly instant, I did encounter an odd issue where it boots itself. If you have your TV HDMI control function, it will turn on the TV also. It's a bit unnerving when you are asleep and you are awoken by your TV turning on and seeing a Main menu. This COULD be an HDMI control issue with my TV though. There are two ways to solve it: Turn off fast boot(it's still much faster than most Blu Ray players), or turn off HDMI control so it can't turn on your TV itself. Also, while some Sony TV's do not, this player will also auto zoom/strech the screen when you are watching a 4:3 format video on netflix, to fit your widescreen, so there aren't any bars on the side. I know many people want to use every inch of their TV screen.
Also, Sony has been fairly quick lately to keep the Internet Video Apps up to date/ recent versions, So no TiVo-style glacier slow Internet Application User Interface updates to worry about.
Buy Sony BDP-S590 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with Wi-Fi (Black) Now
This is a awesome Streamer/Bluray/DVD player. I haven't experienced any issues whatsoever playing back Bluray disks. Boot times are very good with the disks I tested. Everything played back perfectly with stunning picture quality. However, I really purchased this player for its streaming abilities. Sony players were dinged in the past for a poor Netflix experience. Sony have fixed this with a updated Netflix interface that supports 1080p and Dolby Digital+ streams. Similarly Amazon VOD supports Dolby Digital bitstream audio, and VUDU and HULU+ are unchanged from the 2011 players, but work fine. Its also nice to have "crackle" on there so you can watch the odd Seinfeld episode when you fancy.I also tested the player with a DNLA server. Sony seem to recommend Serviio (free) so I think they must test the DLNA features of the player with this software. I tested photos, music and video and everything played back perfectly.
Anyway, a great streamer/disk player. Highly recommended !!
** update **
Had a need to play a Disney BD disk on this player the other day. A comment here suggests that Disney BDs won't play. Complete nonsense. They playback perfectly.
** Update (8/27/12) **
Sony added support for watch lists with the amazon Vod app.
Cinema NOW is now supported.
Read Best Reviews of Sony BDP-S590 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with Wi-Fi (Black) Here
I've been looking for a Blu-ray player for awhile now and my purchase was delayed a bit due to so many conflicting feedback entries over products. I finally decided to go with a brand I trust, Sony, that had the features I was looking for and just see what happens. The S590 is 3d capable, but I have no interest in 3d and that is why I do not address it in my review.Out of the box the player is a bit plasticy. (Is that a word?) Yes it feels a little cheap, but on the upside it is light and matches my other equipment. I don't need a Blu-ray player that is built like a tank. After all, it is just going to sit there on my media shelf playing movies. I don't get why people complain about it. Do they take their players mountain biking with them? So yes, the case is plastic, but I could not care less. One important note, an HDMI cable is not included with the unit, so be sure to have one if you want an HDMI connection.
I plugged in the player via HDMI and turned it on. First thing I established a wireless connection so I could update firmware. My router, in the next room, was seen immediately, along with routers from neighbors. I entered my password and was connected. Next, I updated the firmware. That took less than five minutes to do. Amazon Prime connectivity was next, then Netflix. No issues at all. I then decided to stream an Amazon Prime movie, Mission Impossible 3, as it is hi-def and I wanted to see what performance was like. The movie started up within 30 seconds, I saw I was getting between 8.4 and 10.2 megabits per second. The picture was clear and smooth. Over the weekend we streamed from Amazon Prime and Netflix and were very happy with the speed of connection and quality of video and sound.
I also tried playing Blu-Ray and DVD movies, both with no issues. I did not time how long it took to get a movie playing, but I can (very unscientifically) say that it was faster than what I have seen with several units. Everything played as expected.
Boot up time is acceptably fast. I chose the slower boot process as I don't want the player in standby mode all the time. When I turn the player on, I am able to choose what I want to do in about 15 20 seconds. More than acceptable.
Overall, I am extremely happy with the player. It is responsive, boots quickly and has handled my needs, (Blu-Ray disks, DVDs, Amazon Prime and Netflix.) I have not tried other features, so I can't speak to them. Given my experience, I would expect they would work as advertised, but you never know until you try them.
If I have friends looking for a Blu-Ray player, I won't hesitate to recommend the S590!
Want Sony BDP-S590 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with Wi-Fi (Black) Discount?
In April I decided that although I loved my LG blu-ray player for Netflix and watching blu-rays, I wanted a new player that would let me watch Amazon streaming and have an updated and easier to use Netflix interface. My old player worked perfectly for what it did, I just wanted something that did more.First, based on my great experience with my LG player, I ordered the LG BD670. I liked the interface, liked how it played blu-rays, loved that I could search Netflix from the blu-ray player itself (the old player would only let you view your queue and a few of the specific categories that it chose, you had to go to another device if you wanted to search or even browse beyond that) and I loved Amazon streaming. But it did not play Netflix well: during the course of pretty much anything I'd try to watch, whether it was a 2+ hours movie or a twenty minute tv episode, it would lose the sound and have stuttering picture for anywhere between a few seconds to several minutes. After less than two weeks I contacted Amazon and sent it back. I put my old blu-ray player back and it worked with no problems, for Netflix and blu-rays both.
Then, based on glowing reviews, I tried the Panasonic DMP-BDT220. Initially it seemed great. I liked it even more than the LG. Then it started having connection issues. Actually, it started having connection issues the first day, but I didn't realize right away that it was going to be a *constant* problem. There was not one day that it did not lose the internet connection. Granted, where it was set-up is as far away from my wireless router as it can be while the two devices are still the house, so some connection issues are understandable, but it would lose connection when nothing else in the room it was in had lost their connection and beyond that even, it would not reestablish its connection until I'd cycled it off and on, sometimes several times. I really wanted it to work, since when it was working, I loved it. I did not contact the company, in fairness, so I cannot say if they could have helped me or comment on their customer service. I did check online reviews and message boards and found that I was not alone in having internet connection issues with it. I tried some fixes that were posted but nothing worked. I read more than one person complaining that they *had* contacted Panasonic and were told that the wireless in the player just wasn't that strong, and the only real cure for connections issues was to move the player closer the router. That wasn't an option for me so, incredibly frustrated, after almost a month of it, I contacted Amazon and sent it back. Again I put my old blu-ray player back and it worked with no problems.
Finally, as a last resort, I tried this player, the Sony BDP-S590. Tentatively, hesitantly, I would say it *seems* I've found my player. I admit, I held off on the Sony because it was more expensive than the LG, and at least at the time I was first looking, the reviews weren't as good as for the Panasonic. But for me, it's working. It sits where the Panasonic sat (and where the LGs sat) and doesn't have any connection issues except when there is genuinely an interruption that is affecting everything else that's connected to the router--and even then as soon as the router is doing its thing again, all I have to do is hit "Retry" and the player is connected again, no turning it off and on repeatedly. It has no problem playing Netflix, or Amazon streaming, or Crackle, or Youtube, or good old blu-rays. I appreciate that it's got the only remote that actually controls my not-that-old Toshiba tv, which isn't a big deal, but it's nice. I'm not an audiophile or videophile or whatever, so I can't comment on the technicalities of the sound or picture; it sounds and looks fine to me. The loading times aren't long enough that I get impatient, but I'm not the sort of person who times those things as long as they aren't long enough to make me take notice.
As far as I'm concerned, if you just want to watch stuff, it works. And if you have any sort of distance constraints on where you can place it (like if you don't want to/can't put it in the same room with the router) this is your best bet. I waited to write this review, paranoid after the first two blu-ray players, but after about a month of this, I'm still pleased with it.
Please note: Updating the firmware on this player can take a few minutes. It's quicker when the player is hard wired. The player has to be turned on again after the update is completely finished. Also, Sony customer support was friendly, responsive, and helpful when I called asking about the update. :) Panny needs to improve the quality of their customer service. Rather cut and dry in my experience.
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