Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater I finally bought a Blu-ray player - need some help

Yup, I cashed in my aeroplan miles got a $500 gift card for Futureshop and bought a Sony 550. I got it for $349 plus government share (taxes) and am price protected till January.

So far so good, I managed to get it all set up but I have a few questions or minor issues with this unit.

Reason for this model; I have an older (5 years) Rotel pre/pro with no HDMI. So I need multi out and onboard decoding on the player. This one has that. I also have a 1080i Projector with component, so I need up-converting through comp. to 1080i, and this one does that too.

So here are some very very minor issues I have with the player (keep in mind I have only had it for 24 hours)

- When you put a disk in the tray and press play, nothing, I had a Cambridge Audio CD player once like that too. No biggie, just odd.
- There is no SKIP button on the front face plate.
- The Display button doesn't tell you how many more minutes left in the movie. I suppose they might be able to fix this with a firmware update (let's hope). When stuck watching those Hugh Grant movies with my wife, I need to know how much is left.
- There is no option for setting crossover frequency on the sub. I can select the volume and distance. No I can override that at the back panel of the EP500. Does anybody know if crossover frequency is required for the new BD audio formats?

- I can live with all of the above issues, this one however is a little more annoying.

I can set Audio priority to either HDMI, Multi, or Optical/coax. So I set it to Multi, then I put in a standard DVD and the pre/pro only decodes Pro Logic II. I change the Audio Priority to Optical/Coax, and standard DVD's are now being decoded in AC3/DTS, cool, except, now I loose the HD audio formats as the blu-ray disk is only playing AC3/DTS. This is kind of a pain to have to change the Audio Priority in the setup because I want to switch between standard DVDs and Blu-ray disks.
Has anybody run into this problem??? How do you fix it???

I suppose I could let the BD player do my AC3/DTS decoding, however wouldn't the D/A converter be better in the Rotel? I also noticed when I did this that the Sub was way too loud, and only for AC3/DTS, not for the HD audio formats. Again, I could fiddle around with the volume on the EP500, but I’d rather just use the base management in the Rotel.

What I do love is the picture, very nice on a 120" plus screen. But the HD audio formats are the real reason to get Blu-ray. I literally can't believe how good HD DTS sounds. It's like a curtain has been lifted over my Axioms. Only one word; WOW!!!!

Standard DVD’s look really good too. Cd’s sound as good as they ever did with my old Toshiba DVD player, of coarse I am using the Rotel’s D/A converters, so not much surprise there.

pn

Welcome to the Sony BDP-S550 family and support group. LOL

I have mine, but alas, it is a Christmas present, so I don't get to open it yet.

I havfe found the S550 thread (which is VERY long) over at AVS to be a great source of help from a ton of people with experience using the player. While us Axiomites are good about helping out with this stuff, you may get a faster response (and one that is better than mine) over there.
Here is a link for you.

Sony BDP-S550 Thread

Wow, you wern't kidding. That is a very long thread. I am just going to post my question rather than read all of that. Good to know, thanks for the link.

BTW, I bet you can't wait till Christmas. You think you know how good your M60's and your VP150 sound. You have no idea how good those speakers sound. Because I didn't know until yesterday how good mine could sound. And I thought I was feeding them good stuff. You'll never want to go back to AC3/DTS again. For the 1st time I can honesly say that my HT room sounds better than any movie theatre I have ever been in, including IMAX.

pn

I find it kind of surprising that a sound problem would exist since the multi-channel in, from what I always understood, was strictly a flow-thru type of analog connection separate from any other in the AVR/pre-pro with the analog connections sending the signal directly to the amps bypassing any other processing. When standard DVD's are played disengage the analog connections(muli-channel input), and if your connections are right this would engage the DVD input which is connected to the DVD optical/coax input. These are two separate inputs one analog coming directly from the player and the digital input going into and using the internal processing of the pre-pro(DD, DTS etc.). This second would be for regular dvd's only since there is no HDMI input nor processing of the latest surround formats in the unit. The only common thread here is the video connections. The audio inputs would be separate. I have the same issue and it works fine. As far as the issue of starting up, it sounds like there is a problem with the player.

Well, I think you helped me on another thread...!

I just get word back from the AVS forum. It looks like this is a problem for the 550. This is the reply I got.



"The S550 does not make it easy to use analog for BD and digital for DVD. The Panasonic BD55 is better in that regard. So, you either have to let the player handle DVDs or switch Output Priority back and forth.

The crossover is fixed at an unknown point (likely 100 or 120).

Or, just use the lossy output of the S550. The lossy tracks are done at higher bit rates than DVD and many say they sound as good as lossless."




So it looks like I have some choices to make. I wonder if it is possible to fix this in a firmware update? I'll ask.

I could always program a macro in my URC300 to switch the Audio Priorities.

Hmmm...much to think about.

pn

Worf -

Bummer that the issue lies in the player. If I had to choose given the options you have, I guess I'd first try the macro to see if it worked consistently. If not, I think I'd stick with the lossy CODECs until they make it easier via the firmware in the future (hopefully).

With that said, I actually find the difference in video far outweighs the difference in audio, so my priorities may be different than yours. Also, my experience could be based on different Blu-Rays than yours. I suppose it largely depends on the quality of the non-HD mix versus the HD mix on the same disc. On the few where I've taken the trouble to try to compare, I've found a slight difference in the HD track, but nothing as immediately apparent as what it sounds like you've experienced (which makes me a little jealous!)

Really I'm just trying to make you feel better if you have to stick with the lossy codecs as I don't think you'll be missing as much as you might think. Feel better?

Jason

Thanks, I am feeling better.

I got 3 movies with the player (part of the promotion, I,Robot, The Kindom of Heaven, and The Devil Wears Parada" I have only been using the I, Robot as I was planning on saving Kingdom Of Heaven as an Xmas present for my Dad, and as for The Devel movie, well, that might end up in my wifes stocking. All three are in HD DTS. So my review of HD Audio format is for I, Robot, in HD DTS. And that sounds awsome! It is important to note, I don't have the DVDs of any of these three so I guess it's a very subjective assessment.

Here is hoping for a Firmware update.

pn

The HD sound formats Imho sound much better, on many movies that have both regular DD and HD TruDD, you can switch back and forth while viewing a movie, to me the difference has been significant.

Yesterday a friend brought his BluRay of the Police reunion tour... WOW! I was blown away with the sound quality! It really made my Axioms shine!