Sony BDP-S370 Blu-ray Disc Player
Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at
1:45 pm
- BRAVIA Internet Video: Access movies, music, videos & more
- iPhone/iPod touch BD Remote
- Quick Start/Load to watch movies faster than ever
- BRAVIA Monolithic matching design for clean esthetics
- Access detailed movie information w/ Gracenote
Product Description
Enjoy Blu-ray Disc movies in Full HD 1080p and improve the quality of DVDs to near HD with the Sony BDP-S370 Blu-ray Disc Player. Play your favorite movies faster than ever or connect to the internet and instantly access a wide variety of movies, TV shows, music and more. Plus turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a remote control by downloading a free app…. More >>
Sony BDP-S370 Blu-ray Disc Player
Tagged with: BDPS370 • Bluray • Disc • Player • Sony
Filed under: Blu Ray DVD Players
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Just purchased one of these from the Sony Store and chose this model because we had great experience with our Sony Bravia TV. It works great for Blue Ray disks, but playback on DVD’s is horrible. It horizontally stretches DVD video to fill a 16:9 aspect ratio screen. That means if you watch DVD’s with this unit, particularly older DVDs that are are in 4:3, you will get a stretched, pixelated image. If you can tolerate such an image, then it is a great player, but if you get seasick from watching distorted video, then avoid this player. There is no way to turn off this feature. The only work I found around was to zoom in on the TV and clip the top and bottom of the image so proportions appear correct but this makes the image more fuzzy. I am very dissappointed Sony forces DVD’s into 16:9 aspect ratio and did not include an option for watching DVD’s in 4:3 aspect ratio.
Rating: 2 / 5
This is my first blu-ray player. Well, technically, it’s my third, but I returned the other two and decided on this one. I returned the Samsung BD C6500 and got this one, for cheaper. Anyway- here’s a review for my fellow technophobes:
What I love:
1) I had it set up in just a few minutes.
2) It automatically detected all of my connections and cables, and I confirmed them in the set up.
3) Connecting to the internet via ethernet cable was so much easier than the Samsung!
4) I updated the software, and after entering a code on Sony’s site, I was given a Netflix activation code and was watching netflix in minutes.
5) This works with my older non-High Def system and will allow me to slowly upgrade.
6) There were other Sony apps I haven’t had an opportunity to check out (except I did check out some Michael Jackson videos.)
One minor annoyance found thus far:
Netflix Streaming- you can only access your instant queue.
And for all those hesitant to upgrade to Blu-Ray because your system is old, here’s my system:
My set up:
Tube television (Toshiba 36AF4I, 9 years old), 3 piece stereo acting as a receiver (Panasonic something or other- 15 years old), Sony Blu-Ray S370 connected to ghetto TV via component video, and to internet via ethernet cable to a router.
What I was looking for:
To replace my dead DVD player and would work on my old system but would work on a flat screen in a year or so. Also, streaming netflix a bonus.
Rating: 5 / 5
I just went to my local Sony Style store and tested/played with this new BD player (S370 model) and I must say I was/am very impressed! Before looking at the player in person, I was thinking, what did Sony strip down from the previous models (S350 & S360) to make this one thinner and less expensive? But after going in the store and playing around with this BD player, I was pretty blown away with the quality, quick loading times, looks/size, and price. I actually brought in with me a few discs to try (I brought “The Dark Knight” Blu ray, “Resident Evil” DVD, & also a few burned CD’s & DVD’s just to make sure the player would read them). I wanted to try “The Dark Knight” Blu ray because on my old S350 Sony BD player, the load time for this Blu ray is quite long (about 30-45 seconds). So I first turned off the S370 player, then turned it back on. Start up time was very fast (about 3-5 seconds at most). I hit the eject button, put “The Dark Knight” BD in, closed the tray, and the load time for this player was maybe 10 seconds max! I couldn’t believe how fast it loaded up and began playing the movie ( and “Dark Knight” is a BD that usually takes a while to load up). Next, I put in my “Resident Evil” DVD, to see how fast it loaded & most importantly, how well it up-converted. Load time was obviously extremely fast, since it was fast on a BD, it’s even faster on a DVD (although, not by too much, that’s how quickly the BD’s load up). Now, I purposely selected the older/original/first “Resident Evil” DVD as I knew that the picture quality was not as good. Of course, up-converted, on this older movie, it did not look like a BD would, but nevertheless, it was decent/watchable. Another notable thing to consider here is that Sony had this player hooked up directly to their TV (the new NX800 model) with a HDMI cable (of course). That’s it. The S370 was not connected to a high end receiver or anything (just directly to the TV), so keeping this in mind, if you have a high-end A/V receiver or video processor, the up-converting will end up looking even better! Lastly, the burned CD’s, DVD’s. They worked flawlessly. Again, since Sony didn’t have this player hooked up to a receiver/speakers/etc (just to the TV), I was not able to tell how good the sound quality of the CD was, but I just wanted to be sure the S370 would play burned discs. The other things I looked at were the menus. Very nice X-Bar menu system (a bit more colorful than before). I was not able to check any of the streaming/Internet options since Sony did not have it hooked up the the Internet (kind of a bummer). I wish Sony had the player hooked up to their network as one other thing I really wanted to try was the iPod touch/iPhone BD remote app. I brought my iPod touch in, but sadly, the player was not connected to the network for me to try this feature out. Because of the fact that I was unable to check out this feature and the streaming/online features, I am unable to give this player the full 5 stars at this point. But for the features I was able to check/test, it passed with flying colors and easily takes the 5 star rating. Hopefully I’ll be able to test out these other features and update this review soon. However, if anyone that actually owns this unit & tries these other features, please let me know.
Rating: 4 / 5
I already own a Sony BDPS-360 downstairs as our main Blu-Ray player, but wanted a streaming player for upstairs (an Xbox360 takes care of that downstairs). Since I won’t have a 3D TV for quite some time, and have wired ethernet running to the appropriate room, the 470/570 offer me nothing over this player, so I bought the 370.
Blu-Rays are very quick to load. Checked out Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, and the biggest delay in getting to the movie was skipping the previews up front. Menu was up in just a few seconds, and the movie launched very quickly after that. Maybe 30 seconds from putting the disc in until I was watching the movie.
The remote does have an Open/Close button on it. That was not a big deal for me with the 360, but others complained about it so I thought I’d mention it.
Streaming takes a bit of setup, with the biggest item of note being that you need to register your Blu-Ray on internet.sony.tv before activating the streaming features. I had fits trying to create an account directly on that site, but creating a SonyStyle account first and then activating here worked much better. This works similar to Netflix activation in that you get a 4 symbol code from the player, enter it into your account, and now the Blu-Ray is activated. I then needed to go through the typical Netflix activation, getting another code from the player and entering it into my Netflix account. Amazon VOD linked directly to the Sony account and was then available on the player. Instructions for each of these are included in the screens on the Blu-Ray player, where it will provide the codes and the website address, and you then go the computer and finish linking from there.
Netflix works only off your Instant Queue, so you need to add movies to that queue on the website (or from the Xbox360 or other device with a full browser). Amazon VOD seems to have a fairly complete browser included. Netflix HD quality was reasonable, but most importantly about what I get on the computer or Xbox360; the player does not interfere in any way. This player was my first experience with Amazon VOD, and I must say the Sample HD clip (Superman Returns) was a lot higher than I expected, and actually better than most OnDemand offerings I get from my cable company (TWC NC).
So for Blu-Ray playback and Internet streaming, the box does a really good job. I wish the Netflix interface was more robust like the videogame consoles have, but actual playback and access to the Instant Queue works fine.
The big disappointment, and the one that keeps it from getting 5 stars, is that the SonyStyle page for the player lists DLNA as a feature. This is the standard for letting media devices connect to your computer and stream video / pictures / music over the network. Services like PlayOn also support this. DLNA, however, is not actually active on the player. From checking other sites, no one knows yet if this will be available in a future firmware update, or if the site is incorrect. If DLNA support is critical to your decision making, you may want to hold off until there is some answer on the DLNA picture.
Aside from that, I’m really happy with it as Blu-Ray player and Netflix/Amazon VOD streamer.
I have not yet tried a standard DVD, or any of the music streaming services. I’ll update this review if anything changes as I use the player more.
UPDATE MARCH 1, 2010: Sony has updated the product page and changed the footnote for DLNA support. It is now due in a July 2010 firmware update. That’s good news, and once the firmware ships I’ll try to remember to report back on how well it works. If it works well the review will probably bump to 5 stars, as this is a pretty full-featured, fast, stable Blu-Ray player for under $200, especially if like me wireless and 3D are just not important to you.
One other bit of info for those who buy the player: if you have a Vizio TV, the remote code to use appears to be “04″. It’s not in the manual, but I tried this after a web search revealed others using the code for other Sony remotes, and this works for turning the TV on and off and changing the volume. The INPUT button does not work for me, though. The manual also seems to be missing the instructions for changing the TV code, but thanks to the manual for the S360 I have downstairs, the instructions are to hold the TV power button on the remote, enter the code, then release the TV power button on the remote.
Rating: 4 / 5
Eric Johnson: While the player by default stretches 4:3 DVDs horizontally (which some people inexplicably seem to prefer), you can in fact fix this. From the main startup screen (either no DVD in the player or press Stop), navigate all the way to the left to the Setup column and scroll down a notch to Screen Settings. Press the round button to select it and then scroll down to TV Type and Screen Format. Make sure your TV Type is 16:9 and Screen Format is “Fixed Aspect Ratio” and *not* “Original.” (Yes, they have the names backwards.)