My SONY 350 is starting to growl so before it dies I'll move it to the bedroom and get a new one for downstairs.

I was looking at the 590 but if anyone has any suggestions I'm not married to any particular players.

I picked up a Sony BDP-S790 a couple of months ago and love it. I needed the dual HDMI though for my old receiver so it fit the bill perfectly. Love the DVD upscaling and it has played every Blu-ray and DVD I have tried so far. The 590 is going to be much more affordable though and will probably have pretty comparable Blu-ray and DVD playback. I was tempted by the Oppo, but $500 for a player just wasn't happening for me and I didn't need region free.

The new 2013 models from Sony, Panasonic, and LG will be hitting stores over the next few months. I'd probably just wait and get one of those. I did pick up the LG BP-620 late last year and it's been rock solid. Probably the fastest loading standalone unit I've ever had. Streams great on wireless. The only drawback is no Amazon Instant Video. The 2013 models (330, 530, 730) are supposed to have Amazon again.

The Pannys are known to be able to play some region B discs with a simple remote hack (the best kept secret BD player on the market..IMO).

My main player is an Oppo, but for a "mainstream" player I've always had the best luck with Panasonic. And I was a Sony guy for DVD players, but Panasonic's BD players are just solid.

My Sony, an S360, gave up the ghost this winter. It stopped recognizing blu-ray discs (though it still played DVDs fine) and I would get a DISC INVALID error whenever I put in a blu-ray.

This will be the last piece of Sony hardware I buy. Every single piece of Sony hardware I have owned has either stopped working or started getting glitchy in two or three years. After the skipping Sony CD player I owned in high school, I wrote them off, and reluctantly bought a Sony blu-ray player in late 2009 because I got a good deal on it and figured they might have improved in fifteen years. Never again.

I'm not married to SONY. The only reason they are first on the list is that my univeral remote is already programmed for SONY and since it's an older one, reprogramming is quite a pain.

I recently picked up a Panasonic DMP-BDT500 (thanks, Spiky for the recommendation). I am really pleased with it's performance and it had the 7.1 analog outputs I needed. I read several reviews critizing the remote but I got used to it really quickly. I also programmed it into my Harmony so it's not really an issue if you don't like it's remote. Overall, a solid player and since it's linked to my Panny; when I turn on the player the TV automatically goes to the correct input.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I really, really love my S-590. It streams all the major services flawlessly, plays SACD's, and will play just about any file format through it's USB drive in NTFS format. Which was a huge plus for me, because previous models were limited to FAT32. I like keeping an external hard drive connected with all my media so this is very nice.

Will the S-590 play .iso images or files > 4gb in size off memory sticks?

Amazon has a terrific deal on the Sony BDP-S590. It's currently $94.99 and you get a $20 Amazon Instant Video credit with purchase.

Amazon Offer

Here's a photo of the new Sony BDP-S5100. Ugly design:

I don't think it will play .iso, but it will handle NTSF formatted drives via USB. Which means it can handle larger sizes than 4gb. I've got a 500gb drive connected to the rear USB & an 8gb stick to the front & both work perfectly.

I picked up an S590 a couple weeks ago at Costco for $80 to replace my S350. I love it. The only annoyance is the fact that they eliminated the option that shows the remaining time for a title. You have to do math now (subtract current time from total time).

Also, I kept the remote from S350 in order to retain the 10 second skip-back function.

Mine died last night, wouldn't load anything, so I'll have to go out and grab something today.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Have the Sony's impoved their load times? I had a 350(?) and it was painfully slow. I upgraded to a Panny and it was like night and day. I was a Sony person back in the DVD days but...

Is the top flat?

No. All of the new models have an odd shaped top. Amazon now has the new BDP-S1100 ($89.99) and 3100 ($119.99) in stock.

I just picked up the Sony S590 the other day because the laser on my old 40gb 'fatty' PS3 started to go.

So far I'm really enjoying the S590 - picture and sound quality are top notch. Honestly I'm surprised of the sound difference in bitstreaming the HD audio to my receiver instead of having my PS3 decode it.

The BDP-S5100 is finally up for pre-order on Amazon. No release date yet. $139.99 and this model replaces the 590. I think the BDP-S790 remains the flagship unit.

BDP-S5100

I'm thinking of upgrading my old, slow as molasses, non-internet enabled, bargain Blu Ray player and am looking at some Sonys, mainly because a sticking point for whatever new one I get is that it has Amazon Prime streaming capability. Just looking at Amazon, the Sony ones seem to have much higher ratings over the other brands that can stream its content.

But the new design of the Sonys is a dealbreaker for me. UGLY. I see that Amazon still has the BDP-S390 for sale (3D capability is a non-factor for me) and the price isn't too bad. How much of a upgrade are the new models over last year's line? Anything really noticeable?

I bought the S 590 and have been happy with it. Fast load times, good picture quality. I don't have a 3D TV but for $10 I figured I'd grab the better model. I haven't done any of the streaming yet. The short answer is the 590 is much nicer than my old 350 was.

I've had the new BDP-S5100 for about a month now and it's been excellent. Very quiet during playback and loading, when isn't always the case with Sony units. It powers up pretty quickly, although my LG 620 still beats it by a couple of seconds. It has more apps than any other unit I've owned before and I've had no issues streaming with Netflix, Amazon, or Vudu. It's also a very compact design, so it won't take up much space at all.

My Sony player did the exact same thing after about 13 months. The replacement player I purchased, a Samsung BD-E5400 is a piece of garbage. That one will play blu-rays, but has a major issue with layer changes on standard dvds. I purchased a service plan on the Samsung and need to return it but am not rushing to do so.