 "Don't buy" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
| I purchased this blu-ray player for $330.00. I have had it for just over a year and used it very lightly. After about the 20th disk played, movies started freezing up during playback. About 5 disks later, it won't read anything at all. Digital readout is "no disk". Since it is past a year, there is no more warranty. This unit can not be repaired by a factory authorized repair shop. It must be sent back to Sony and exchanged for a refurbished comparable unit costing 152.99. It was a nice unit when it worked, but I would never recommend an item to anyone that only lasts long enough for the warranty to run out. Do not buy this blu-ray player! |
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 "Died 2 months after warranty period." | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from Texas |
| The picture and sound quality were great....while they lasted. At 14 months, the unit developed a problem of freezing up after just a few minutes play. This unit has only seen moderate use and has always been plugged into a good surge protector. The only solution offered by Sony was to exchange the unit for a refurbished one at a cost of $152.99, which is more than the cost of several new players on the market today, and only a few dollars cheaper than buying a refurb unit of the same model at retail. I can understand an occasional product failure, but when you pay well over $300 for a piece of electronics, I would expect the manufacturer to stand behind the product better by offering a good discount on repair or replacement exchange when a unit dies so soon after the warranty period--especially when a little internet research shows that my experience with the unit is not an isolated incident. This is an inferior quality product, backed with inferior service and an attitude of 'we don't care about the customer's satisfaction'. I will never buy another Sony product. |
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| "stopped playing blurays 1 month out of warranty" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from ma |
| when it worked was a fantastic blu ray player picture is amazing sound was quite good also. however 1 month after warranty expired unit stopped playing blu rays and sony customer service was useless one day website stated i could exchange for 1 dollar fee plus shipping. called the next day and was told $120 to even have it looked at and the website now says 152.99 for exchange. i will be purchasing a new player rather than have this one fixed and it most certainly will not be a sony product. never again a sony! |
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| "Not Happy" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from Northern, VA USA |
| I purchased this Sony BDP-S550 over a year ago because of the reviews and because Sony had won the Blu-ray contest with other formats. I'm a big fan of Sony products but I've had my share of problems. This player has played my Blu-ray DVDs very well but then again, I'd say I've only watched less than ten actual Blu-ray movies during the time that I've had this player. A week ago, I'm watching a Blu-ray movie and all of sudden near the end of the movie, it stops and freezes. I went through trying to start the movie again and decided that the disc must be bad so I took the disc back to the store and got the same title. This time, the movie won't load at all. I tried other Blu-ray discs that I had along with other standard DVD titles and nothing works. I then purchased a lens cleaner. The cleaner did ok but still, no discs will play. I contacted Sony for assistance. To fix it, I have to ship it to a Sony authorized dealer for $112.00. I don't know if I am going to ship it or get another Sony player. But I'm leaning towards getting another player like the Panasonic. I've seen other situations where just after the warranty runs out, the device goes bad. Mine is one month over a year old and now no player and no warranty. Lastly, I've read online that this is a common problem with this player. What the problem is remains elusive. Still a good player...when it works...and mine doesn't...and I'm not happy. |
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 "It plays" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from Phenomynouss@hotmail etc is my e-mail |
When I bought this, it was the most recent one available.
So it does what it's supposed to, it plays Blu Ray discs and DVDs and upscales them. It also lets you change the output video quality to 720p or 1080i or 1080p etcetera. This is very helpful as the TV I use can technically support 1080p, but its native resolution is 720p. As a result, playing Blu Rays on 1080p tends to have the picture suffer some scratching or tearing things which are very unremarkable and the average viewer would never be able to notice.
So that's it, really. What drags this down a star is its problems and little "quirks".
The load speed. Maybe its how all Blu Ray players are these days, but the speed is atrociously slow. I wouldn't have any frame of reference though, as this is my first Blu Ray player. I would not be surprised if older players were even slower than this. Or maybe it just has to do with the size of the disc being inserted---example, inserting a disc of Star Trek the Original Series tends to take up to 30 seconds to load, but never any longer. To distract us, though, it shows us a tiny little wireframe Enterprise shooting phasers!
One of the biggest gripes I have, though, is its autoload. I have some ideas as to how this work, but here is the summary: It works sometimes. When I open up the Blu Ray after first turning it on, load in a new disc, close it, it will load... if the TV is not on, or if it's turned on to normal TV.
If I unload a disc and load in a new one while on the Blu Ray menu, it will NOT auto-load, and instead I need to select BD-ROM and press Ok in orderfor it to load. This gets troublesome.
One odd quirk which I don't think is very serious, nor that many people would take note of, is a tendency, during a Blu Ray movie, out of literally nowhere, for the movie to pause. Not freeze, not stop, but pause, as in, the movie pauses and there's the II symbol for pause on-screen. This is easily corrected by pressing the "Play" button. This has happened to me quite frequently, but not nearly enough to be of significant nuisance.
Another big huge problem which is easily resolved is the volume. For some odd reason, every Blu Ray played on this player is inherently low on volume. For reference, on my HTS, during normal TV, a volume of 10 would be very low, a volume of 16-18 is averagely loud. A volume of 25 is very loud. With my DVD player on, 16-18 is loud, and 25 is extremely loud.
By contrast, 16-18 is virtually inaudible on the Blu Ray player. A volume of 25 is of decent sound, and 21 is soft. 30 is around the reasonable volume for a cinematic experience with loud sounds. I will personally beat over the head anyone who watches a movie with me at this volume, then after its done, changes back to the television without lowering the volume.
The menu is quite good, not only easy but almost fun to navigate, as I feel like I might find some as of yet unexplored options to make for a different or more unique movie experience. Downloads happen fast and quick and efficient.
It plays. That's pretty much what it should do and it does it. I have no regrets and I would buy it again if it broke. |
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| "Stopped working after 11 months" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from MA United States |
| System worked fine for 10 months. Then it stopped recognizing blu-ray discs, even discs from our collection that it had played on numerous occasions before. SONY support says it isn't an uncommon problem and it needs to be sent to Texas for repair. Even though it is still under warranty, the cost of shipping makes it hardly worth it. I expect more than 10 months of use from a $350 product. |
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