Today I replaced my early model Panny BluRay with a Sony S570 and I thought I might share my thoughts on it, just in case any one was looking to buy a cheap/mid priced player. You can easily see the spec and the outputs on the back of the unit if you do a very quick Google.

The unit itself is pretty slim and has the odd appearance of having it’s front flap down, this is actually odder than it sounds, as the unit doesn’t actually have a front flap. It has an uncovered USB port on the front of the unit and really that’s about all the remarkable bits that you can see just by looking. The remote feels like a bit of tat you might find with one of those cheap DVD players you used to get in petrol station.

Anyhoo, the good bits…….

It has Wi-Fi!!!! Yay and it’s dead easy to set up, well it would have been if I have discovered a little sooner, how to put my password in using capital letters……..Doh! But within seconds the unit had found my laptop and after said lappy asked if I wanted to share it, I could stream instantly via my BluRay player to my telly and AV receiver. It doesn’t seem to like ‘avi’ files, but with a bit of luck Sony will issue an update over the interweb for that (well fingers crossed). But you are only a couple of clicks away from slide shows and music streaming (the remote has brilliant range) and watching some of my recent pictures on my lovely Kuro telly, I was amazed hw much better they looked on a screen that is colour corrected, simply gorgeous and the whole thing is completely stutter free too. The other things that appear in the menus are for music and video services. You Tube is on there and once I logged into my account (saved with a single button press) I can easily keep up with all my favourites and subscriptions, well ‘Simon’s Cat’ anyway Also, BBC iplayer and ‘Channel 5 catch up’ are on there and I am led to believe that Ch4 will join eventually. The picture quality on BBC HD is pretty good, it looks to be somewhere between SD and HD in it’s appearance although I haven’t found a 5.1 sound track on it yet (not sure if that is possible) but having just watched Top Gear on it, I can say it runs faultlessly and didn’t stutter once (not counting Clonkson at the start ).

So what about the pictures and sound? Simply great. Colour spacing can be tweaked in the copious menu as can several of the sound parameters. Sound itself is bright and clear with a lot of punch. And before I forget, the whole shebang boots up breathtakingly briskly.

The bad bits? Well the drive does make a hunting sound a bit like a computer DVD drive (wonder why ) and that’s about it.

Great player and a really good streamer with it’s in built WiFi. If you are looking for all of these features, then this is a box I can really recommend.

Sorry if that sounded like I was a salewoman

Edited 24 January, 201115 yr by Lady Elanore

Just googled it and i see what you mean about the 'flap down' appearance. Think that would bug me a little.

We've had our Sony blu-ray player, (The good old BDP-S350), for over two years now and it's a great blu-ray player... My only niggle with the 350 is it's lack of wi-fi but it's only 6ft away from our router so it wasn't an issue running a cable in. The 350 has a slightly noisy scan noise too but once it's got the disc up and running it's quiet as a mouse.... And getting the disc up and running has always been very very quick anyway.

Enjoy the new purchase.

Cheers

Dave.

Enjoy the new purchase.

Cheers

Dave.

Ta

ps my router is upstairs somewhere, so wifi is perfect

As a quick update, I have just loaded the remote player onto my HTC Desire so I can control the player from my phone over the network. Bloody clever, even if I don't understand it all I have also just had a really big update, so I will have to see what else has turned up

The 570 was Whathifi's Bluray product of 2010!

I've just bought the 370, partly as I'm not bothered about 3D and also as it only cost £86, and am really impressed with it. We have a 350 in the lounge and I was going to put that in the bedroom and use the new one downstairs, but that seemed like too much hassle.

The 370 is a lot quicker to start up and load a disk, the usb on the front is useful for photos or downloaded movies and the image quality is superb. Upscaling is very impressive too, even on lower quality downloads.

Agree about the styling though, it's not as nice as the 350, but apart from that, I can't find fault with it.

Edited 25 January, 201115 yr by jlwah

The 570 was Whathifi's Bluray product of 2010!

I've just bought the 370, partly as I'm not bothered about 3D and also as it only cost £86, and am really impressed with it. We have a 350 in the lounge and I was going to put that in the bedroom and use the new one downstairs, but that seemed like too much hassle.

The 370 is a lot quicker to start up and load a disk, the usb on the front is useful for photos or downloaded movies and the image quality is superb. Upscaling is very impressive too, even on lower quality downloads.

Agree about the styling though, it's not as nice as the 350, but apart from that, I can't find fault with it.

I bought my brother the 370 for Christmas ( you got yours for a better price than me though) and that's what led me to the 570 Funny thing is though,, since I got it, I haven't watched any BluRays on it, just mucked about with all the other stuff

whats the boot-speed on blu-rays?... some modern disks are getting worse (inception for instance) and take a few minutes to boot and get into the fillum.

Im still on a panny BD35.. dont see a reason to upgrade.. all the youtube gimmicks are just that... gimmicks

whats the boot-speed on blu-rays?... some modern disks are getting worse (inception for instance) and take a few minutes to boot and get into the fillum.

Im still on a panny BD35.. dont see a reason to upgrade.. all the youtube gimmicks are just that... gimmicks

I have a You Tube account and do find it useful as well as entertaining. You can do an awful lot of window shopping on YT nowadays

The boot up time is measured in seconds! Only those infernal warnings and security jobbies waste time while you wait for the movie to play. It feels almost as quick as a DVD player

There is a whole bevy of stuff like deep colour support and a tweak to your colour spacing. It plays DVDs with much more clarity than my Panny 30 ever did and overall it is a better Player anyway. It can also play SACDs which is nice, even if I only have a couple

Edited 27 January, 201115 yr by Lady Elanore

I have just bought a new Sony 40" LED 3D with built in WIFI

Brilliant for iPlayer, and other online crap

Does the 570 support streaming from NAS based products which support streaming protocols like:

- Squeeze

- iTune Streaming

- DLNA / UPnP AV streaming?

I am wondering if I could use one to replace my ShowCentre (streaming device), and my Panny DVD-ram (which is playing up, and I don't record much - if anything)

Does the 570 support streaming from NAS based products which support streaming protocols like:

- Squeeze

- iTune Streaming

- DLNA / UPnP AV streaming?

I am wondering if I could use one to replace my ShowCentre (streaming device), and my Panny DVD-ram (which is playing up, and I don't record much - if anything)

Unfortunately the only things that support pie tunes streaming is the appleTV and other i-Devices.

It will probably do DLNA streaming, but will no doubt be just as limited as eggbox/ps3

I also have the S570 as an upgrade from my trusty PS3. I can agree with everything Amanda says about it. The only niggle is that it's not a lot quieter than the PS3 in terms of the fan so quiet atmospheric scenes can suffer from fan intrusion.

The 570 has 1GB of internal RAM in order to assist in booting the newfangled blu ray discs up faster. Seems to work like but don't know how.

So far watched Book of Eli on it and the picture is commendable. A definite improvement over PS3

It will probably do DLNA streaming, but will no doubt be just as limited as eggbox/ps3

I just use my NAS is DLNA streaming source which my ShowCentre picks up and gives me a directory listing, and then I just select the relevant .avi or .mpg / .m3u and it plays. If I could replicate that functionality on a 570 that would enable me upgrade my dvd player, and remove the showcentre from under the TV

I also have the S570 as an upgrade from my trusty PS3. I can agree with everything Amanda says about it. The only niggle is that it's not a lot quieter than the PS3 in terms of the fan so quiet atmospheric scenes can suffer from fan intrusion.

The 570 has 1GB of internal RAM in order to assist in booting the newfangled blu ray discs up faster. Seems to work like but don't know how.

So far watched Book of Eli on it and the picture is commendable. A definite improvement over PS3

From what I have read on tinterweb, you get more streaming capabilities with windows 7 machines than Vista. I think it is mainly to do with which video formats in can use.

Just opened the back door and found that Parcel Force have kindly left my new SKY Bridge conector on my doorstep!!! Just as well I wasn't away on work for a week or two!!

Anyhoo, that aside, it appears to be a Netgear connector of some sort and sports a single Ethernet connector on the back. When I get my new bigger SKY box I'll connect it up and set up my Anytime+ account (hopefully). But here is a question. If this device is simply a router connector with a bit of software to ease the SKY broadband connection (??) is it worth buying a gigabit switcher and sharing the bridge device with my Network capable receiver and my Humax HD box? I can't see why it wouldn't work unless Sky have put some crafty software in the bridge device.

test!