Sony BDP-S380 - What will it do?

[THRobinson]

Been trying to get onto the Sony forums, but, their site is a mess and putting me into a loop.

Anyway, looking to sell off my PS3 and buy a BluRay player since I don't play games much and the whole lack of MKV, NTSF etc...

Problem is, some reviews say the S380 will stream over a network from the PC (hoping TVersity) and some says it won't. Some reviews say NTSF support despite not being advertised, some don't. Same was a few reviews saying no DivX, and a few saying MKV.

Basically, wondering if anyone has confirmed any of this (confirmed not 'heard').

Hoping for NTSF through USB, MKV, DivX and the ability to stream from my PC through ethernet (wired) like I do my PS3 with TVersity. Also, if anyone can confirm if Cinavia is present or not.

Thanks

[jman98]

My personal advice would be to NOT buy Sony for this. Not only are there the "does it or does not play X" questions you have, you should be aware that some parts of Sony are pretty consumer hostile (Cinavia is an example of this) and if you buy one of their players, you may find that it will refuse to play your BluRay discs unless you regularly update the firmware to support crap like Cinavia. Also, if you care about region free playback of DVDs, Sony players won't be of any use to you.

[THRobinson]

Oh, Sony will essentially 'force' firmware updates to play newer Blurays? See, that stuff they don't post on their site and I hate finding out about it the hard way. I have a Sony Bravia TV, always loved Sony products for quality (TV, headphones, MP3 players, etc) but their dvd/bluray/ps3 stuff I'm having less luck with.

Any recommendations?

Samsung BD-D5300? an LG?

I used the DVD/Bluray player finding on the site, have for years every time I need to buy a new player... but... not as helpful lately. I'll plug in what I want, get a list, go to research it and find that some stuff it's supposed to do, it does etc. Back to square one. :S

[shaema]

I recently bought my sony bdb - s380, and I was pleased with it. It has superb hd picture quality on my bravia tv set and good sd upscaling.

It does recognize ntfs through usb, it plays mpeg2, mts, mp4, wmv, mkv and xvid but not divx files.

I have not tried streaming from a pc so I can not give you an opinion. Perhaps some one else will do it?

[THRobinson]

So, no DivX at all... I knew it wasn't listed as being supported but, figured may have been a licensing thing. I know when it does say DivX is usually plays most XviD as well, figured if it plays XviD it would likely play DivX as well just not guranteed.

Well... Sony fell off the list once I saw forced firmware updates... Sony adding protection and removing features without us having any choice (well, no more playback I suppose is an option) makes me want to avoid them.

Too bad... I have a 40" Bravia as well, and I had an S370 for almost a week and looked great... but the lens was wonky and had problems with discs, even new ones without scratches, finger prints etc... when I returned it I was convinced by a few buddies to get the PS3 instead of exchanging. Never had a full chance to test features on the s370.

... loved the look, layout and Flixster... movie trailers instantly.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I have a Sony S570 and while the USB port supports a wide variety of formats(as Shaema mentioned) the DLNA function is weak, Sony limits streaming to MPG and WMV. I would get a WD TV Live Plus player for streaming. As for other brands of Blu-ray players it's hit and miss, I owned an LG BD570 but it would lock up when I tried to stream.

[THRobinson]

Samsung BD-D5300 is on sale right now for $150CAD... seems to play what I want.

Posted on here which 4 players I was looking at, hoped for some feedback and confirmation about small details not found on the manufacturers site but so far no response.

[THRobinson]

Well, bought the Samsung BD-D5300... took it back. Extremely slow menus and sometimes the TV (Sony Bravia) had probs detecting it.

Bought the Sony S380 simply because the S370 I had briefly (lens issue, returned it and got a PS3) was very nice and synced with the TV. That all being said... no DLNA!!!!

So, back to BestBuy I go I suppose. If I can't connect to my PC via ethernet, it's a no go. Sadly the S370 is out of stock everywhere except demo models they aren't supposed to sell yet. There was a demo S570 marked down considerably, $10 less than the S380... may give it a try.

The LG looked promising but, potentially no DLNA either from what the site says.

As we go forward with technology, aren't we supposed to be getting MORE features?

[edDV]

My results with the Sony BDP-BX37 which is the Costco/Sams version (current model is BDP-BX38 similar to the 380) are sumarized here (post #47). SD DivX was supported on the 37.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/328677-Cheap-Blu-Ray-Player-that-does-it-all-like-P...y+Black+Friday

I'm happy with it for image quality and for streaming Netflix and Youtube. Quality exceeds PC output.

I have it on a hard wired Cat6 gigabit Ethernet network. I got DLNA working with my Win7 machines. Every firmware update shows additional streaming content. The Sony menus are better than Samsung IMO. For $94 it is a great deal at Costco.

Not sure what is different on the BX38 or 380.

[THRobinson]

Ya, I've read the DLNA works with the S370 and was going to try and track one down... or an S570 which there is one left locally.

However, I also read that the DLNA is limited and works only with MPG... saw a few posts that state that which is what's making me hesitant towards buying one. As well, a recent firmware messed up the DLNA on the S370.

Prob is, with many forums... you see these posts, and all from 6-12 months ago but no follow-ups... so not sure if a newer firmware fixed the issues, and if can use DLNA to stream AVI files and MKV files.

Anyone? Confirm?

Desperate for a decent Bluray to replace my PS3 but... so far no luck.

[blaviguer]

So, I picked up a BDP-S380 today, it networked easily enuff, and the choice of built-in providers is great, but I really want this to connect to my win7 media player. I think one of you guys said you had a similar version working - could you tell me if you did anything in particular on the sony box to get it to show itself to media player? It just doesn't want to show itself.

[THRobinson]

I had one for a day and took it back... went through about 3 blurays that weekend testing different ones out, thankfully BestBuy has a very relaxed return policy.

The S370 I had worked and networked with my PC as a media server perfectly, if the lens didn't died I'd still have it.

The S380 removed DLNA so won't stream media from the computer, and removed DivX. XviD worked, but anything I had encoded with DivX wouldn't play. So back it went.

I finally got fed up trying, and built myself a media centre computer instead. With the probs Sony has been having lately, removing features really made no sense.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Sony-BDP-S380_Blu-ray-Player_review

2nd page mentions the lack of streaming....

[blaviguer]

Thanks for that quick reply. And yep, Best Buy is where i picked this up, so I guess they have another one heading back. I really wanted to stick with Sony since it automatically switches to the correct HDMI input on my Bravia when I turn the blu-ray on. Oh well...

[THRobinson]

Exactly the same reasoning for me... I have a Bravia as well and worked great together, plus I always liked Sony, stuff works great and the interface looked great as well.

Wish I could remember all the ones I tried, I remember 2 didn't have DLNA, LG said it's not officially supported but may/not work, and 1 was a good player but the slowest thing on the planet. But that was a while ago so, probably new models out now.

Might want to go to the site (BestBuy) and look up the make/model of the ones that interest you and see if the specs show DLNA.

But ya, Sony is great, not sure why the 380 removed DivX support and DLNA... if you can, get the 370, maybe somewhere has old stock, another smaller store maybe with older inventory or something... the 370 worked great on my system. Just a fluke the lens was wonky. When I took it back friends convinced me to grab a PS3, which worked but, cost a bit much and I never played video games off it so now trying to sell it and just use the media centre instead.

[socencounter]

Getting S380 to play DivX encoded .avi files

All you folks out there who are unable to play DivX encoded video files can now do so using this tweak. A software called "abcAVI Tag Editor" [http://abcavi.kibi.ru/download.htm] allows a .avi file to change its codec signature instantly without having to re-encode the entire video file. Install, open it and drag the 'unplayable' .avi file onto it. It now shows its properties (the 'video stream' should read DivX...). Now, navigate to the tab 'Hacks & Tweaks'. Tick the 'FourCC' option and scroll to 'Xvid' and hit the save button (floppy disc icon) at the top. Thats it!!! Its codec signature has been changed from DivX to Xvid and S380 will recognize its codec as Xvid. Now you can transfer this video file to a pen drive/HDD and it should play smoothly on your S380. Enjoy & Thanks for reading!

[jman98]

AVI FourCC Code Changer can do the exact same thing that socencounter talks about without having to resort to risking a download on a Russian website. And changing the FourCC code won't fix issues related to encode options that DVD players don't support for Divx/Xvid.

[jagabo]

Well... Sony fell off the list once I saw forced firmware updates...

Sony is consumer hostile and I don't buy anything from them anymore. But all Blu-ray players require updates to play the latest discs. Cinevia support is required on all new Blu-ray players (as of Jan. 2012) by the AACS agreement. Older players may or may not be updated with Cinevia.

[socencounter]

@jman98 : Thanks for your comments. And I must say, AVI FourCC Code Changer is a simpler tool than the one I mentioned. Nevertheless, the focus here is not the tool. There are a dozen tools which can edit the .avi file codec signatures. I hate to disagree, but the most important thing is I was able to play DivX encoded files on S380 by altering its codec signature using either of the tools. I previously owned a BDP-BX37(identical to S370 sold in the USA) and it doesn't even recognize .avi files (no support for DivX like the S380). This issue was overcome by renaming it to .mp4/.mkv.
NOTE : BX37 sold in Canada & S370 sold elsewhere(except USA) support DivX! If SONY would include DivX/Xvid playablility for these in its future firmware updates remains to be seen! I strongly believe SONY is slowly stripping the DivX Certified label from all its new blurays (which is the case for S380/S390/S480/S580) while supporting the open-source codec Xvid (thus need not pay licensing fees to DivX as some say). This for buyers would mean that DivX encoded videos will no longer be supported. Once again, this is where AVI FourCC Code Changerpresence would be significant.

There is a rhythm to which how SONY decodes & ultimately plays a video file:

• First, it will look up its file extension (.avi,.mkv,.mp4,etc , since S370 didn't support .avi files, it wouldn't even be displayed on TV, same is true for the PS3, since it doesn't recognize .mkv files).

• Next, it will check the codec signature which if found to be DivX will display a message "File selected is corrupt or unsupported".

The breakthrough with Xvid and DivX is deep within they both share the same codec standard "MPEG 4 part 2"set by ISO/IEC which is exactly why DivX certified players also end up playing Xvid encoded files but not vice versa. Also, the .mkv, .mp4 containers which use H.264/AVC codec follows the standard "MPEG 4 part 10". More on this @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4

I recently discovered one more issue with most SONY bluray players - they cant decode video files encoded with variable bitrate( bitrate changes from say 2000Kbps to 60 Mbps). Also, AVC specification greater than version 4.0 aren't supported as well. It doesnt work for me, but depending on other parameters like frame-rate (which must ideally be less than 30 frames/sec) your video 'might' play!

Comments are most welcome. Thanks for reading!