Sony BDP-S1

The Sony BDP-S1 is a first generation Blu-ray Disc (BD) Player. It was first released in North America. It was originally scheduled for release in the United States on August 18, 2006 with a MSRP of $999.95. Sony had postponed the release date of this player several times and it was released on December 4, 2006. On November 30, 2006 Sony announced that the player began shipping to major consumer electronics retailers and specialty dealers nationwide. It was available in stores December 2, 2006.

Network Capabilities

The Sony BDP-S1 does not come with a built-in ethernet connection, therefore this player has no online capabilities. Nevertheless, firmware upgrades may be applied by downloading the upgrade and burning them onto a recordable or rewritable DVD and loading it onto the player.

BD-J Compatibility

During its initial release, there were reported issues with certain BD-ROM movie discs, namely BD-J functionality. The discs played incorrectly or would not play at all. Sony solved this issue with a firmware update and the player is now compatible with all BD-J standard discs.

Audio Decoding capability

The player is capable of decoding Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus (after firmware upgrade higher than ver.2.00), Dolby TrueHD (after firmware upgrade higher than ver.2.00), LPCM, and DTS (Core). Currently, the player is not capable of decoding DTS-HD High Resolution Audio or DTS-HD Master Audio.

Audio and Video Output

Audio is sent out of the player via Toslink, HDMI, or analog 5.1 jacks. The player will give you the option to output Dolby Digital or DTS via the Toslink (optical or coax), or selectively downmix either independently to PCM. However the digital output is not necessarily compatible with other surround system decoders. Even standard DVD soundtracks cannot be guaranteed to be correctly decoded by Toslink input equipped decoders. There is a disclaimer in the supplied owners manual to this effect. The player will save your selections allowing for customization of your outputs. The supplied HDMI connection is version 1.2 and does not support Deep Color or Bitstream out for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. This feature is not capable of being added later.

Load Times

The BDP-S1 has somewhat quicker load times than previous BD Players, around 60 to 90 seconds from system power up to actual video playback, or 30 to 40 seconds from disc insertion, although this is not as fast as the PlayStation 3. Loading time is also improved from original version when updated to the latest firmware.

DVD-Audio, SACD, and CD Playback

The player is not compatible with any audio disc format. No announcement has been made as to whether this issue will be resolved.CD playback is possibe when using the Asia-Pacific version model no. BDP-S1E.

References

* http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=BDPS1
* http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/autoresponsev4.asp?id=442790
* http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=11040237