Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Bluray Question

I got a cheap bluray player for an early Christmas present.

I hooked it up with a nice HDMI cord and popped in planet earth. It looks amazing but some parts, mainly dark parts like around tree trunks and other thing gets a really bad snow effect. Its like white dots flashing on and off constantly in certain parts. Also my mom watched Meet the Robinsons and noticed the same problem in that movie.

So do what do you guys think the problem is? A faulty bluray player or my TV?

bluray player is a sony s-300

my TV is a sammy HL-S5687W DLP

thanks in advance

Poorly calibrated TV? I would get a calibration disc, wait is there one for Blu Ray? I haven't looked.

Well, I would try a different connection, maybe another HDMI cable or a component cable.

I would then try another TV if at all possible.

Also you might try updating the firmware:

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl?mdl=BDPS300&news_id=232&mdl=BDPS300

I was thinking about getting this player but after reading these comments on the website I think I will hold off:

Can a disc with DTS-HD audio be played on the Blu-ray Disc® player?

Yes. However, the sound quality is the same as conventional DTS audio sound because the player does not support DTS-HD decoding or HDMI bitstream output.

and this one:

Can I play discs with Dolby® Digital Plus or Dolby® TrueHD sound on the Blu-ray disc® player?


The Blu-ray Disc® player has Dolby Digital Plus decoding functionality.

You can also enjoy conventional Dolby Digital sound from Dolby TrueHD streams. However, the player does not have Dolby TrueHD decoding functionality and does not support Dolby TrueHD or HDMI™ bitstream output.


so basically this player does not decode or pass the signal to the receiver to be decoded for dts-hd or dolby true-hd.

Thanks ill try updating the firmware and see what that does.

hopefully it works better for you after that. If not I would think about an exchange.

It sounds like a good player for the money, I just think that it is odd that you can get an hd-dvd player for less that will decode all the new sound formats.
Thats just one more reason I hope hd-dvd wins the format 'war'

I will likely get a bluray player in a few months though b/c there are a lot of bluray only movies I want to see in HD, and i fear that this format war will continue for some time.

I keep waiting for a HD-DVD player with out all the audio codecs if it will save me a few bucks on the player, as the new receivers have all the codecs and I would rather spend those few extra dollars on a new receiver.

I agree I would rather have a player that passes bitstream through so that the receiver can do the decoding (even if the only change is that the dolby truehd button lights up on my 3808 ). I find it odd that these players are more expensive then the ones that do the decoding. I guess the players with this ability also have the ability to decode these formats. IF they came out with a player without all the audio codecs that required the decoding to be done in the receiver the manufacturer may be able to lower the price.

What really stinks is the bd-300 mentioned above does not have the ability to pass bitstream or decode dts hd or dolby truehd- it downgrades them to dolby digital and dts.

It can however, decode dolby digital plus.

I have heard that DD+ sounds very good, better than DD.

I watched a dolby digital plus movie the other night and was pretty impressed.

I think that truehd and dts hd are both better formats.(spec-wise... I have not compared the three formats)

For most consumers it may not be a big deal that this player does not take advantage of these 2 formats.

IMO, the new HD sound formats are half the reason I want an HD player. Many people may not care about this and just want 1080p.

the bd-300 offers 1080p but it does not support dolby truehd or dtshd. My a2 decodes both truehd and dts hd, but only does 720p/1080i.

For someone like me who only has a 720p set and wants to take advantage of the hd audio formats the a2 is a clear winner. someone else may insist on having 1080p but could care less if the new audio formats are downgraded.

Of course if someone wants the best of both worlds they can step up to a higher end Hd DVD player or bluray player. I have no intention on spending that kind of money on an HD player yet

That would be me. I want 1080P and all the audio codecs sent out to my receiver which is why I think if they removed the audio codecs, it might drop the price. I am not willing to buy into HD dvd nor BR yet but I am thinking this time next year I just might.