Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray

Price: $799.99 - $799.99

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Sony's flagship BDP-S1 Blu-Ray player05/24/07

Pros:

great image quality

Cons:

occasionally freezes up with no way to escape except to pull the plug

This is a gorgeous looking unit that you will be proud to own. The image quality is highly dependent on the source material. 'Garbage in --garbage out'. My TV will not accept the Sony BDP-S1's 1080p output, but accepts 1080i and upconverts. Therefore I am in a postion to compare with my Toshiba HD-DVD player, but to compare the two one would need to have the same movie formatted for each machine. I have been going back and forth between the two for 5 months, and the differences are subtle. Nervertheless, I occasionally find myself being 'wowed' when I go back to the Toshiba, with regard to sound and image quality. Perhaps it is due to the quality of the source material. I know this is off the topic but the HD quality I get off my rooftop antenna into my TV tuner, runs circles around just about anything you will get off the BDP-S1 or HD-DVD. The antenna signal is not compressed like with cable and satellite.
The BDP-S1 is not immune from skipping and freezing problems. I am aghast when this happens. Hello, this is 2007 and Sony should be able to make a player that does not freeze solid in the middle of a movie. Often the best you can do is pull the plug and restart. And don't get me started on how long it takes to boot back up. Finally, I am embarrassed for the new technology but you cannot expect the machine to remember where you left off if you have to stop and shut down before the end of the movie. And one more complaint, maybe I am ignorant and have not figured it out but, at least my Toshiba gives 5.1 surround off the optical digital output.