Sony BDP S760 - first thoughts

[matengawhat]

great little machine smaller than i thought - seems very well built - nice remote and very easy to setup and update - whole thing took about 15 mins

first impressions - great menus just like the ps3 - quick to load - only had few hours with it - tried black adder series 1 first - very bitty picture did nothing for me but put that down to age of programme early 80s - one thing that did worry me though was the upscaled image did not fill my full 1080p 106" screen was a good 3 inch missing from left hand side - not sure if that due to the upscaling or original source not had chance to experiment

then moved on to the wrestler blu-ray which looked amazing def very stable and well focussed image thats seems to really pop looks great through my optoma hd20 (liked the first review although personally had not problems with placement although does have an issue with image shift as when turn projector off figure stay the same but image resets to 0)

the image is slighty better than the ps3 but biggest improvemnt for me over the ps3 was the sound was great to see all the lights on the amp and sounded superb - need to do some more experimenting over the weekend and just hope that the upscaling was down to the disc and not issues in the sony

 

[fayeanddavid]

matengawhat

Bit of a serious kit kist there, do I assume you are taking sound to your amp via HDMI?

Any views at all on the analogue out option to the amp in terms of quality, also BDP 760 upscaling of DVDs, can you give me a run down of your thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Andrew Everard]

matengawhat:one thing that did worry me though was the upscaled image did not fill my full 1080p 106" screen was a good 3 inch missing from left hand side - not sure if that due to the upscaling or original source not had chance to experiment

Well, The Black Adder was made in 4:3, so no amount of upscaling is going to make 16:9. Additional zooming is going to be needed to make it fill a 16:9 screen, at the expense of the loss of some 'top and bottom'

 

[matengawhat]

that was my initial thoughts so not to worried at this moment in time - really need to try a dvd movie so at least give it a fair chance at upscaling a decent image to begin with - just happened to have black adder to hand at the time. Will experiemt more this weekend

yes is connected to my amp via HDMI - so my onkyo 876 doing all the decoding was nice to see it all light up with DTS MA

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm! The image is only slighly better than the PS3..so if one isn't that bothered about the sound and more about picture quality then there's very little incentive to want to upgrade to something like a BDP-S760 or possibilily any Blu Ray player around £400.00, let alone even consider a budget BDP-S360

I think this speaks volumes for the little PS3 which still tends to hold it's own when it comes to Blu Ray and Upscaled DVD images on say TV displays up to 42 ins

So over and above the PS3 what else is there really out there at the moment that is significantly better ...after all who's interested in something else only being marginally better for picture quality and which costs £100 more?

 

[Anonymous]

In my experience, the image quality is significantly better on my S760 than my PS3 in so many ways.

I would say that most people (I guess depending on setup, eyesight, etc.) would notice a considerable improvement in PQ as well as SQ stepping up from the PS3 to the S760.

Just my opinion of course.

 

[pete321]

Tallyho: I think this speaks volumes for the little PS3

I think it speaks more for 1080p in general. My feeling from the 4 1080p blu-ray players I've had in my house (including the PS3) is that there is very little between them, that's not no difference, but at normal viewing distances small improvements. However, that's where the Sony 760 is setting new ground, at just over £300 you're not having to pay a fortune for those small improvements in picture.

I'll add one proviso that not every 1080p picture will be good, I had a TViX which could output 1080p and the picture was terrible.

 

[matengawhat]

the ps3 is really good but can be bettered - the difference in picture quality between these new players is never going to be light and day - its always going to be subtle as the images they produce now are so ultra sharp especially on the small screen but inflate that image to 80" and above and the differences come in terms on edge definition, colour, depth of image, smoothness of motion which its def better on the 760 than the ps3 for example

I will be honest though i have never seen a £1000 blu ray player but i am pleased with the results but your screen also has a massive effect on what you see especially for motion and colours ect - you really need to spend time setting up your system to reap the real benefits

my optoma hd20 for example I sometimes times think it seems to try to pull out every tiny little bit of detail rather than allowing the motion to flow quite as free as it should

 

[Anonymous]

pete321 You make a very, very good point indeed...if there are going to be improvements they will never be anything more than subtle ones for most of us who have displays up to around say 42ins..What is that we all think we get by spending £400+ on a player ...certainly not massive leaps in picture quality...What you do get however and pay the extra for...are more features on a player...other than that the law of diminishing returns tends to kick in very quickly

 

[Andrew Everard]

As I reported back from the Kuro launch two and a half years back, the Pioneer engineers were saying then that most people couldn't tell the difference between HD Ready (ie 1080i/720p) and Full HD 1080p on screens smaller than 42in when watched from a normal viewing distance.

 

[pete321]

Tallyho:What you do get however and pay the extra for...are more features on a player...other than that the law of diminishing returns tends to kick in very quickly

There's no doubt that if I was buying a blu-ray player today, it'd be the Sony 760. But having got my Oppo, my love of SACD has been reinvigorated, so the extra features play a big part in the extra it costs over the 760 as there's no BD/SACD alternative at a sensible price at the moment.

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew I really do believe they are right and what's more my HD ready 720p/1080i TV is much better at displaying Standard Definition TV whether it was through SKY or now via my Foxsat FREESAT box comapared to a lot of 1080p TV's which tend to loose it when displaying SD TV

 

[Jonnyhifi]

Tallyho:pete321 You make a very, very good point indeed...if there are going to be improvements they will never be anything more than subtle ones for most of us who have displays up to around say 42ins..What is that we all think we get by spending £400+ on a player ...certainly not massive leaps in picture quality...What you do get however and pay the extra for...are more features on a player...other than that the law of diminishing returns tends to kick in very quickly

I would agree - on my 42" Panasonic the difference between PS3 and S760 is quite subtle. From the PTAE3000 to 106" screen , the difference is significant and well worth the outlay.

 

[Anonymous]

Johnnyhifi

I agree 100% with you

 

[Jonnyhifi]

Tallyho:Andrew I really do believe they are right and what's more my HD ready 720p/1080i TV is much better at displaying Standard Definition TV whether it was through SKY or now via my Foxsat FREESAT box comapared to a lot of 1080p TV's which tend to loose it when displaying SD TV

Agreement yet again !

Until the vast majority of day-to-day TV is in HD, I'm quite happy with my 42", 768-line HD ready TV for news watching etc.

A 37'' 1080p LCD Samsung we have upstairs is less adept at displaying standard fayre (bluray is razor sharp though).

 

[matengawhat]

just watched my second blu ray movie on the 760 - Knowing which i actually really enjoyed even for all the bad reviews - thought ending a bit cheesy but until the last 10mins thought a really good film with some very nice effects, great slighty spooky ambience - both picture and audio transfer were faultless - a really good shocase for your system and just how good blu ray and my hd20 really can look!!

far more impressed tonight due to the quality of the recording - think the wrestler was filmed to look low budget because of the setting and genre of the movie

 

[bigboss]

Watch 'The Dark Knight' & 'I am Legend'. They will look awesome on your 106" screen!

 

[matengawhat]

just thought i would add to this as i 'm sitting here watching starwars - the empire strikes back and can't believe how good the upscaled picture quality is on a film thats this old - the picture is just so sharp with so much detail - dark blacks - bright whites

it has never looked so good!

i have also never noticed how bad C3POs costume looks - the bit where the wires are between top and bottom!!!