Clearly the sony ugly duckling

As stated previously, the unit is ridiculously noisy, unresponsive, and not user friendly at all. Steer clear at all costs!

Down with video - up with DVD

I am very pleased with this player as it is stylish, fast, gives good picture and sound quality and uses a seperate playing technology for music CD's. However, for the price, I did expect it to have atleast the simple features, such as the zoom function. My last player (Samsung) was very good with every feature including zoom, but lasted barely a year because of some fault. Overall though this is a top player, if you are thinking of getting a DVD player, do not opt for a playstation 2 - opt for the real thing.

Fantastic product

Fantastic product! Would definitely recommend it. Assembly was simple (colour coded wires, picture diagrams etc.). The quality is superb, you can feel the vibrations of the sound. Although my rating is showing as 1 star (can't work out how to change the rating) I do not hesitate giving it 5 stars

Nice machine, pity about some details

Overall a really nice machine, however it does have a number of drawbacks.

As has already been mentioned the difference in price for the larger hard disk is unfairly inflated, but many manufacturers/suppliers sadly pull this stunt. The inability to copy movies to the hard disk is a very annoying and unnecessary design decision, but lets hope with the gradual demise of DRM that future models may reconsider this functionality.

The USB link is very slow and copying music and pictures can take an eternity, a poor design/cost saving decision.

The machine happily copied a whole load of JPG files but for some reason was unable to read/display quite a few, although these appear to be some of the more compressed images. The photo album facility is very primitive, and when it gets to the end of one album it just goes onto the next... annoying.

In a similar vein the music jukebox is also very limited, offering very little functionality. In these days of mp3 devices and a multitude of PC based music playing software you'd expect rather more functionality. For example no shuffle/random track capability.

After all the restrictions you're probably wondering why I gave it 3 stars, well the basic functionality works very well. The recording and playback is good quality, and this is what most users will be most concerned about. While the machine has a slow USB connection at least it has one, along with a lot of other interfaces. Personally I don't care about the picture show facility, but the limited music library functionality cost it a whole star, but that may not be an issue to many potential buyers.

Decent price decent buy

Makes strange quite loud noises periodically (every few hours on standby) and so I took it back to where I purchased it from. The 28 days warranty had expired so was forced to have it sent away to be repaired. It came back with a firmware upgrade - the noises are normal according to the Sony website but my other Sony recorder doesn't make any - and so obviously the firmware upgrade didn't fix the noises. Anyway they are not loud enough to wake me up and I like all of the other excellent options the device has (after all is a Sony) and the price is very good. It doesnt have HDMI and is a little slow to start up format etc but I need compatibility with my other Sony DVD recorder (would have to finalize disks if this model was a different make to record on one recorder and play on another). I would recommend looking at the Sony RDRGXD360S as it has integrated freeview and the panasonic dmrez25.

Dav-x1g - amazing sound - amazing price

I have this item and I cannot believe how good it is. The main amp/dvd unit is unbelievably well made, it is really heavy with a proper aluminuim top and bottom. The front speakers are very loud despite being small, and the sub woofer will shake plaster off walls its so good. The unit comes with very easy"plug and play" speaker leads and extension pieces can be bought seperately. The DVD player is the usual Sony quality and will play dvd copies and even DIVx's off the internet. The back of the unit has a huge range of connectors with scarts, phono, and digital inputs. Really for the price you cannot go wrong. Sony do a Dav-x1v which has a dvd multichanger but was priced at £699 in the Sony centre, This is £400 cheaper and sounds every bit as good!

Good but could have been much better

I decided to acquire a BD player that was able to decode HD Audio like Dolby True-HD. I therefore traded in my BDP S300 and exchanged it for the higher end model - the BDP S500.
Despite preferring HD DVD formatwise, I really wanted to be able to experience the best of all films in Hi Def and that meant going purple and getting both formats.

The drawbacks of the BDP S500 are primarily that it is a Profile 1.0 BD standalone player. Blu-ray is an incomplete format, rushed onto the market so as not to be left behind by HD DVD which is a completely finished Hi Def format.
There are two further Profiles that are forthcoming for Blu-ray players (there may even be a profile 3.0 but that remains unconfirmed):
Profile 1.1 sees the introduction of extras such as picture in picture etc that are available on HD DVD players but are not available on Blu-ray until very recently, with the introduction of a few players like the Panasonic DMP BDK30.
The other is Profile 2.0 which has not yet been introduced and at this time there are no signs of any players appearing enjoying that profile.
This profile features full internet connectivity via an ethernet connection, another function enjoyed on HD DVD players but completely missing on BD Players.
Obviously being Profile 1.0, the BDP S500 enjoys none of the features that will be available in Profiles 1.1 or 2.0 nor is it possible to upgrade this player to incorporate these features. As a result the arrival of Blu-ray discs that have these features will simply be a case of playing the film only for the BDP S500 and its fellow Profile 1.0 players.
- Another drawback to the BDP S500 is that it does not decode DTS-HD Master Audio. Therefore, any discs in that format will be decoded as normal DTS.
It is rumoured though that Sony are going to provide a firmware update which will allow DTS-HD Master to be decoded via this and other Blu-ray players. The sooner the better frankly.
- Like all BD machines, the BDP S500 is limited as to what CDs and DVDs it can play. Anything outside of a conventional CD or DVD eg a CD-R or DVD-R etc will not be able to play.
My last criticism of this BD player is the clunkiness of the Java menus and the time that they take to load, particularly when playing a 50GB Blu-ray disc chock full of extras eg Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
That said this loading time and overall Java interactivity has been helped though by Sony's recent firmware update 3.50 for the BDP S500 which I recently I applied to my player.

So what is good about the BDP S500?
- It decodes Dolby True-HD superbly, giving a deep and very rich sound indeed when played back via my Onkyo HDMI Amp. Films like Close Encounters and The Fifth Element are simply superb, sound is beautifully clear across all channels with no distortion whatsoever. Surround sound is amazing and is never intrusive.
- Despite not(yet)being able to play back DTS-HD Master, the BDP S500 can play back DTS-HD and conventional DTS sound. Both are superb and give an incredible audio experience.
Ditto for its ability to playback Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus.
- Visually the BDP S500 plays back a stunning 1080p Hi Def picture and this fantastic picture is really what the Hi Def experience is all about.
- Lastly the build of this machine is really good - it looks and feels well made, and I just love the the robotic front fascia that lifts up and down prior or after the disc tray opening and closing.

So there you have it, a mixed bag. I bought the player for its strengths and was fully aware of its aforementioned limitations. It has not disappointed me in my expectations of it but just be aware of the Profile 1.0 concerns and others that I have outlined. If like me, you can do without those features then go ahead and pick one up because this is a fine Hi Def player which will be even better if it gets its rumoured firmware update to be able to decode DTS-HD Master Audio.

Superb Sound

I wanted to replace my hi fi separates with large speakers and get rid of all the cables. This unit gives superb sound and dvd image and is easy to set up. It also looks great and takes up very little space. I have connected it to the cable tv box and the tv surround sound is fantastic.

Best at its price

Interestingly this product has gone up since we purchased it via Amazon and Hughes Direct. It arrived quickly and in perfect condition. Easy to set up with our Sony Bravia TV (from Sainsbury by the way and highly recommended at the price). It gives superb quality surround sound. We have used it on some of our older music concert as well as film dvds and it brings a whole new dimension to the viewing and listening.