I ordered this player from Sonystyle.com last night. I will post my thoughts when I receive it.

I got this player yesterday and played around with it for a bit. First, a little about my setup. I have it connected to an Onkyo 604 receiver via hdmi then to my Samsung HLP-7178 DLP tv. I have it set on 1080p for video and PCM for HDMI audio.

I watched a few minutes of Casino Royale first. It took about 30 seconds to load (seemed about the same as the XA2). Then, it started. Bam, static in speakers and a loud thumping from the sub as the movie began to play. Very odd. I fixed it by changing the speakers to "small" (which mine arent that large anyways). But, it fixed it. Picture was good, audio was good.

Next, I popped in some porn....just kidding....Pirates of the Carribean: DMC. It took FOREVER to load....I didnt time it, but it was very slow. It had to be 60 seconds or more. Picture looked good though and no static from the speakers.

Then, I put in Vertigo (from the Masterpiece collection) standard dvd. It seemed to load standard dvds a bit slower than the XA2. I watched chapter 5, which has rich colors and alot of detail. It looked great. Near HD. So, I immediately put it in the XA2 and watched the same scene. I saw little if no difference. Both looked spectacular.

Granted this is the only standard dvd that I have watched so far on it.

I watched all of Hellboy and it looked brilliant with no problems at all. The sound was incredible.

So far, I give it a thumbs up. Good player! Looks nice sitting next to my XA2.

Here is a good review:
http://www.hometheaterblog.com/homet...dps300_bl.html

I'm thinking about getting this player in a month or so. I like that it has 5.1 analog outs as this matches up well with my Denon 2802 receiver (the digital part of my Denon went out along time ago and the analog is all that works). I will be connecting the Sony up to an Infocus 4805 projector. Should I hook it up using component or would I benefit more from HDMI? If I hook it up with HDMI, what cable would I need to match my Infocus?

Video: Player -> HDMI-to-DVI cable -> Projector
Audio: Player -> 5.1 analog -> Receiver

Thanks for the info. Josh Z.

Just got this player for my parents. I first got them a HD-DVD player last week but when I took them out to buy some movies, they seemed to be pretty disappointed that most of their favorites were only on Blu-Ray (Casino Royale, Pirates, etc.) so we returned the HD-DVD player. I'm still keeping my A2 though along with my PS3.

The movies take a while to load but the player is great.

For those who are Best Buy Reward Zone members, this week's 12% coupon specifically says in the fine print on the back that it can't be applied to HD DVD or Blu-ray players. Nonetheless, if you play dumb when you bring it to the register the coupon will deduct the 12% when it's scanned so long as the check-out drone doesn't question it.

After MA sales tax, I walked out with one paying only $461. Would've been only $439 if I'd driven up to NH, but the gas would've probably made up the difference anyway.

I have yet to see this in 3 of the Best Buys I frequent. Still waiting for a Blu-Ray player that will be 100% BD-J compliant, and sadly, I don't think this one will be. I hate my damn PS3.

The one I ordered from CC was delievered yesterday- and today I had to go in and exchange it for another one.
Either the remote didn't work, or the player wasn't recognizing it.

I tried to bypass it and just use the set top controls, but none of the discs i loaded could get beyond the menu.

The preview at the start of Casino Royale looked good (excellant actually from what I saw)- but I'm just not impressed with my Blu-ray experience so far.
Build quality on the unit is cheap and at best, it looks like a $300 player.
$500 for something that is going to be forever incomplete four months out is pretty ridiculous.

But then, I've long known Blu-ray is not the go-to format if you are looking for 'value'. Maybe the PS3s capabilities can justify its price tag, but I'm not interested in a game console at this time.

One other thing to note, the S300 will not play CDs. Since it doesn't have an ethernet connection, that means if Sony issues a firmware update you'll have to burn it to DVD.

What a pain in the ass.

Doesn't play CDs? Is this player a rebadge of the Pioneer?

That's what people on AVS are claiming.

Oh, but hold on a second, the manual says that it will play CDs. I guess I'm going to have to try it for myself....

OK, disregard what I said earlier. It seems to be compatible with CDs after all. Either that, or it just really likes Nellie McKay and is making an exception.

That's why you should live closer! AND...fill up while you're up there, 'cuz the gas is cheaper too.

Yeah, but my office is downtown Boston. Right now it's just a quick T ride away.

It plays CDs, just not SACDs.

So then this player is NOT a rebadge of the Pioneer, and is an entirely new piece of hardware?

It's also been mentioned at AVS that this might be made by Samsung.

Ok- after watching various Bds and one sd on the player last night I have to admit that my second impression is much more positive.

As much as it pains me to say it- compared to the A1, the Sony preformed in a much more refined and pleasurable way.
It was zippier in just about every respect, seemed to offer equivilent upscaling performance, has a more ergonomic remote (though it feels much cheaper), and most importantly- it runs silently.

On top of all this, PQ from Pirates and Casino Royale and King Arthur was spectacular. Easily as good as the best HD DVDs I've seen. I wouldn't go so far as to say Bd is better, because these were all films made within the last few years, while on the HD side my diet consists mostly of older catalog titles.
Still, this is a huge improvment from the Bd demos I saw last year and its great to know that the format is fully capable of producing stunning content when source allows and the studio makes the effort.

Also, the player mated very well with the Pearl.

I still think $500 is a bit much given the build quality and general cheap feel- but at the same time, I've got to admit it seems to deliver where and when it should.
And given it's silent operation I think I might just end up using this as the go to player for regular DVDs more often than not.

I'll tell ya- it's great to finally be format independant. I feel like a big chain has been taken off. It's...liberating. It's my hope that all fanboys of both persuasions can share the same sensation some day- hopefully sooner rather than later.

I'm pretty sure that was debunked. The player says "Made in Japan" on it. If this isn't a Pioneer rebadge, then it's probably an original Sony design.

I'm kind of glad. I prefer Sony/Pioneer over Samsung. I may just wait and get the Panny. It seems to be a flawless unit for playback (according to AVS users) and it has an ethernet port. Circuit City has a 7/1 release date. I'm just not sure if I want to pay $599 for it now. I definitely want a standalone unit though. The PS3 is fine, but I do miss those PCM tracks and I'm not upgrading my Denon receiver anytime soon.

For what it's worth, the BDP-S300 works on the same remote control frequencies as the BDP-S1 (discovered when programming my Harmony remote). Whether that means it's also OEM'ed from Pioneer, I don't know for sure.

I received this player yesterday and hooked it up to my 40V2500 Sony Bravia LCD via HDMI. Setup was very quick and easy. Load times are similar to other HD players. Power up takes about thirty seconds and loading Blu-ray discs and DVDs takes about another thirty seconds. The load times on the two Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-ray discs took almost two minutes each and navigating through their menus was a little slow. I watched The Curse of the Black Pearl Blu-ray without any problems and the picture and sound quality was great. The picture quality on Pirates 1 & 2 is in the top tier of any HD disc released so far.

I tested a few other Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs and they all played fine. I could not tell any real difference in the DVD upconversion between the BDP-S300 and the HD-A2. Sound quality was also good although I am not using a receiver or surround sound speakers.

This player is not really a great value at $500, but overall, I am happy with the purchase. The player is very solid and Blu-ray discs look great. The player came with firmware 2.0 already installed, but hopefully a future firmware update can fix any slow load times with the advanced Java titles. I suspect many Blu-ray promotions, discounts, and new players are on the way so you may be better waiting until the fall to buy a player; however, if you are impatient like me, this seems to be a very good player.

Thx for you observations fryinpan.

They send out discs automatically if you're registered. Also, I would argue the Toshiba ethernet upgrade process has been much more of a pain in the ass than downloading and burning an ISO.