Sony BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player

This is my first Blu-Ray player,I did research this one quite extensively and found the majority of the reviews to be good.I have had no problems at all.

I purchased the player from Circuit City about 6 months ago and applied several firmware dowloads to see if it would cure the very long load times and the frequent lock-ups. I always purchased SONY products, but they missed the mark on this product.

I was foolish enough to buy into Sony's Blu-ray player gimmick back in March when they put HD-DVD out of business. The gimmick is that you are supposed to upgrade the firmware on the player everytime a new version comes out. Well this player will not accept new versions from a disc. Everytime I've loaded a new firmware version from a disc onto this player it has messed things up and causes the movies I have to freeze up at random points in the movie. What Sony is doing and they know exactly what they are doing is that a year or so from now they will quit making firmware for older model players and if you want to be able to watch newer movies you will have to buy another player. This is the gimmick and Sony knows it. Needless to say my BDPS300 is in the shop for repairs again due to the fact that I loaded firmware version 4.30 on the player from a disc that I got directly from Sony and it messed the player up again. Whatever you do, do not buy a Blu-ray player from Sony. In fact you may just want to stick with a reliable up-converting regular DVD player from another manufacturer and steer clear of the Blu-ray technology all together. If my Blu-ray player breaks down again that's what I am going to do. I wish that HD-DVD could have found some way to stay in business because I never once had a problem with it but Sony had to have their way and because they have made a good solid reputation as a maker of high quality electronic equipment they were able to convince stores to support their Blu-ray technology and it put Toshiba's HD-DVD technology which was just as good or even better out of business. Shame on you Sony and also shame on me for jumping the gun on buying into this technology when it is still in its infantcy. Anyways please do not fall for this gimmick. Wait and see how long Blu-ray is going to be around before you buy a player. I would be willing to bet it won't last long once more and more people become wise to The Sony Blu-ray Player Gimmick.

I've read many reviews on the Sony BDP-S500 and there's been a ton of gripe in regards to the speed and load time of the player. I'm not sure what people are used to (or what their expections are) but this DVD loads just as fast as any player I've ever used. There is no lag time on this player that others have experienced with this player.

Load time is around 3-5 seconds per disc and once the disc starts up, no problems....maybe Sony updated the software recently.

From a cosmetic standpoint, the player is beautiful...very stylish.

In summary, this may be Sony's lower end Blu-Ray player but if you're looking to simply play movies at bluray quality without all the bells and whistles, this is your player....why spend extra to get features you're never going to use anyways.

I purchased the player on 10/6, shipping was very quick. After I installed the new firmware, it is awesome, still takes a minute or two for the player to load up the movie, but the picture is excellent and the sound is awesome. I looked around before I bought this one, this to me for the price beat everybody.