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6.8 out of 10

Sony BDP-S500

First seen: 4 october 2007

Information found in: from 50 sources in 20 countries.

Best Price: 549.00 USD

  • User Score (95)
    7.9 7.9 from 95 reviewers
  • Expert Score (7)
    7.7 7.7 from 7 reviewers
  • Value for money (2)
    5.7 5.7 from 2 reviewers
  • Features (2)
    7.0 7.0 from 2 reviewers
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Pros & Cons

  • good with cds, looks great as well, great connections, great build and design, saturated colors
  • will not play cds, remote needs work, no ethernet, load time, poor reliability
  • 1080p High Definition Picture
  • 7.1ch Surround Sound
  • 24p True Cinema
  • Bravia Theatre Sync
  • x.v. Colour
  • 1080p DVD Upscale
  • AVC-HD Disc Playback
  • Dolby True HD decoding/bit stream out (HDMI ver1.3)
  • Dolby Digital Plus decoding/bit stream out (HDMI ver.1.3)
  • DTS -HD High Resolution Audio decoding/bit stream out (HDMIver1.3)
  • DTS
  • 5.1ch Gold Plated Analog Audio Out
  • HDMI
  • Bitrate Display
  • Motorized Slide Door

BDP-S500

The BDP-S500 is Sony’s current flagship Blu-ray player. It is a Profile 1.0 Blu-ray with 1080p output supporting 24p playback, HDMI 1.3, and Sony’s x.v.Colour technology. The player physical dimension is 430mm x 99.2mm x 361mm and weighs approximately 4.8kg. In comparison to the BDP-S300, this player is bigger and comes with a motorized sliding front panel. The package includes the player, video cord, stereo audio cord, power cord, and remote control.

Features

The BDP-S500 deliver…

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BDP-S500

The BDP-S500 is Sony’s current flagship Blu-ray player. It is a Profile 1.0 Blu-ray with 1080p output supporting 24p playback, HDMI 1.3, and Sony’s x.v.Colour technology. The player physical dimension is 430mm x 99.2mm x 361mm and weighs approximately 4.8kg. In comparison to the BDP-S300, this player is bigger and comes with a motorized sliding front panel. The package includes the player, video cord, stereo audio cord, power cord, and remote control.

Features

The BDP-S500 delivers Full 1080P picture and up to 7.1 channels of surround audio. This player can play Blu-ray Disc Movies, DVDs, Audio CDs, and AVC-D discs. This includes reading the recordable BD-R and BDR-RE discs in BDMV format, as well as BD-ROM, DVD+R (video mode), and DVD+RW (video mode) discs. The player can also read AVCHD camcorder recordings on 8 or 12cm DVD discs. It can output Blu-ray Disc Movies encoded at 1080/24p in their native frame rate. For other movies, it can also output at 1080/60p. The digital connection outputs video in 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. For DVDs, it can upscale most DVD to 1080p quality. The player can decode MPEG2, MPEG4-AVC, and VC-1 videos. When connected via the HDMI connection, the BDP-S500 can either output or internally decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. It also supports uncompressed PCM. The analog-to-digital converter supports 192 KHz audio at 24bit. Apart from HDMI, the player has composite, S-Video, and Y/Pb/Pr component video output, as well as analog, coaxial, and optical audio output. The BDP-S500 supports Linear PCM output via HDMI bitstream.

Additional Features

The player can also play MP3 and JPEG pictures in DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW format. For interactivity, the BDP-S500 supports BD-Java programming. The player also has several Cinema Tunes Picture Presets for tuning the picture to room brightness. With Sony BRAVIA Theatre Sync, the player can be used in sync with Sony BRAVIA Televisions. Other features are front LCD off or dimmer mode, parental control, and popup menu interface.

External Resources

Sony Style

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  • Reviews of Sony BDP-S500

  1. BDP-S500

    Reviewer: Stuff.tv
    29 February 2008
    Overall 8
    8.0
     

    Looks great and is a very capable performer, but this still isn't the finished Blu-ray article we're looking for Read more

  2. Reviewer: HDTV
    2 March 2008
    Overall 9
    8.6
    Value for money 6
    6.0
    Features 8
    8.0
    Ease of use 8
    8.0
     

    A few frustrating absences such as the Blu-ray 1.1 profile and DTS-HD Master Audio are more than made up for with supreme HD picture quality and Dolby TruHD along with DTS-HD High Resolution audio. Read more

  3. Review: Sony BDP-S500 Blu-ray

    Reviewer: review.smh.au
    17 March 2008
    Overall 8
    8.0
     

    Sony BDP-S500 RRP: $999 Rating: 4 out of 5 http://www.sony.com.au The trumpets have sounded, the debris has been cleared from the battlefield and Sony's Blu-ray format has been declared victorious in the "high definition DVD" war. There were a few souls who tempted fate (and lost) by taking the plunge on Toshiba's HD DVD players, especially after prices dipped below $500 just before Christmas. Most people, though, were happy to stand on the sidelines until a winner was... Read more

  4. Review: Sony BDP-S500 Blu-ray

    Reviewer: Brisbane Times
    16 March 2008
    Overall 8
    8.0
     

    Sony BDP-S500 RRP: $999 Rating: 4 out of 5 http://www.sony.com.au The trumpets have sounded, the debris has been cleared from the battlefield and Sony's Blu-ray format has been declared victorious in the "high definition DVD" war. There were a few souls who tempted fate (and lost) by taking the plunge on Toshiba's HD DVD players, especially after prices dipped below $500 just before Christmas. Most people, though, were happy to stand on the sidelines until a winner was... Read more

  5. Sony BDP-S500 Blu-ray Player

    Reviewer: TrustedReviews
    11 February 2008
    Overall 8
    8.0
    Value for money 7
    7.0
    Features 8
    8.0
    Performance 9
    9.0
     

    The BDP-S500 is Sony's top-end Blu-ray deck, and is the bigger brother of the BDP-S300 . While we were impressed by the S300's picture quality, the lack of key features made the sub-£300 price tag seem like a false economy. Read more

  1. BDP s500 doesn't live up to claims

    Reviewer: OneCall
    29 August 2008
    Overall 6
    6.0
     

    This unit was purchased as I was told that it could play DTS Master audio, this turns out not to be true. It can not output pure bitstream so my Denon 3808 only gets a DTS surround signal, not the higher codec DTS Master. It does fine with Dolby TrueHD, but not DTS Master. Other than that I love it, despite being even slower to open, load or play than previous generations from Sony... Read more

  2. great! great! great

    Reviewer: johnny, J&R
    14 October 2008
    Overall 10
    10
     

    the image quality is the best i've ever seen. it was very easy to hook up, plays all my old dvds. only negative is that the load time is a little slow but all of the blu-rays ARE LIKE THAT. definitely recommend. [...] Read more

  3. Bad product or bad luck

    Reviewer: DealTime UK
    20 May 2008

    I bought this unit 2 months ago and have had problems with it. Although easy to use, the first unit I had had difficulty with dark still images; little white horizontal lines appeared. The unit was incredibly slow to respond to commands from the remote. It was returned to Sony and Sony performed a firmware update. Obviously, not diagnostic was done, same problem occured. The store changed the unit. Just recently, the remote stopped working. I have to go replace it. The... Read more

  4. Anonymous confirmed purchaser

    Reviewer: Reevoo
    16 November 2008
    Overall 8
    8.0
     

    Read more

  5. STILL CHUGGING ALONG

    Reviewer: W. Rawls "Green Meanie", Amazon
    15 February 2010
    Overall 8
    8.0
     

    I HAVE OWNED THIS UNIT FOR ABOUT A YEAR AND 1/2 NOW AND KNOW OF TWO OTHERS IN OPERATION FOR ABOUT THE SAME DURATION. THE UNIT IS SLOW TO LOAD, I'LL HAVE TO GIVE THE OTHER COMPLAINERS THAT, BUT ONCE YOU GET OVER THE INITIAL WAIT PERIOD, (GO DO SOMETHING ELSE UNTIL THE BEAST IS READY) THE OUTPUT IS FANTASTIC, BOTH BLU RAY AND STANDARD DVD UPSCALED. I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THE PERFORMANCE AT ALL, (NOT COUNTING THE OCCASIONAL GOOFINESS THAT MANY THINGS DIGITAL DO, ONCE IN A... Read more

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