The Blu-ray Disc Rollout And Evolving Standards

When Blu-ray Disc was first introduced, I did due diligence and decided to wait a few months for the first generation Sony BDP-S1 BD player. It was frustrating. From April to November of 2006, I had to be content with HD DVD. I knew that I could expect a better presentation from Blu-ray; the storage capacity and bit rate are so much higher that reduced compression simply had to yield better results (this would prove to be quite true). I avoided the earlier introduced Samsung BD player and waited for the Sony and I’m glad I did. The Samsung had a programming error that caused a video chip to soften the image, a situation that gave BD an early black eye. The Sony was worth the wait: highly detailed, sharp as a tack, and ultimately able to decode internally all the advanced audio CODECs but one, lossless DTS-HD Master Audio.

The BDP-S1 is a Profile 1.0 player, so as the BD standards evolved and new features were offered on Blu-ray Discs, I had to play another waiting game as manufacturers introduced Profile 1.1 and Profile 2.0 players. Once again, I was frustrated; I couldn’t view or review advanced supplements like Bonus View (PiP) and BD Live (Web-based extras) found on many BDs. But I once again did due diligence and decided that the BDP-S550 was my player of choice. I had skipped over Sony’s very reasonably priced Profile 1.1 BDP-S350 since I wanted a full feature player. The BDP-S550 can decode every audio CODEC and output the signals in up to 7.1 channels as either analog or over HDMI as digital. As a Profile 2.0 player, all advanced supplements would be accessible. And it has many desirable features: 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema output; DVD playback with 1080p upscaling via HDMI; support for AVCHD discs recorded in high definition camcorders; broad media compatibility with DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and JPEG files on DVD or CD; x.v.Color Technology for the extended chroma palette of Deep Color; and, unlike similarly priced Profile 2.0 Panasonic players, the Sony comes with 1GB of storage for BD Live content at no additional cost. The unit is physically smaller than the BDP-S1; it’s not as deep. It measures 17 inches wide by 8 3/4 inches deep by 2 3/4 inched high; yet, at 7 lbs 4 oz, it seems substantial. And since Sony had recently reduced the SRP to $400, it is readily available online from reputable sellers for as low as $310 plus shipping. It is, in fact, a remarkable bargain considering its capabilities and cost.

Setting Up

Installation is a snap: HDMI to my switcher for video; 5.1 analog channels to my B&K Reference 30 decoder; an RJ45 network cable to my local hub; a press-on IR emitter from my IR distribution system; the insertion of the supplied 1 GB of memory into its dedicated slot; and, the connection of a power cord. (For those who can accept digital audio over HDMI, the analog output connections are not required.) When I first powered the player, I was immediately impressed with the boot-up time. Even in the normal power mode (more about that later), the player is much faster than my BDP-S1 to reach a state when a disc could be loaded.

Setup screens are automatically displayed the first time the unit is powered. I specified 1080p60 (alas, my Sony VPL-VW100 won’t accept 1080p24), 16x9 display, 5.1 analog outputs (my B&K won’t accept 7.1 analog channels), speaker types and distances, speaker levels using the handy internal noise generator, and I noted the players MAC address (the physical address of the internal network card; I needed that because one of the security measures I’ve enabled on my wireless router is MAC address filtering). One of the options is power mode. Normal shuts the electronic down, causing the player to boot up just as any other player would. But there is a fast boot mode. When this is enabled, boot up time are reduced to a few seconds. This may seem appealing, but the reality is that the player simply keeps its electronics powered while in standby and the cooling fan remains active. This consumes more energy and might reduce the player’s lifetime (actually, most electronic failures occur on application of power, so I can’t be sure if the player would last longer always powered or not.) Note that even though the TV Type is set for 16:9, the Screen Format must be set for Fixed Aspect Ratio, otherwise, 1.33:1 material is stretched horizontally to fill the 1.78:1 video frame. I then set the Dynamic Range Compression to wide to eliminate any reduction in the audio dynamic range. Once the player was configured, it returns to a “Home Page” whose style is reminiscent of the PS3.

It was then time to hike upstairs to my PC and enter the player’s MAC address on my router’s white list. Since the player defaults to automatically establishing its IP address, by the time I returned to the theater, it had established a connection to my local area network and it was online.

Performance

The most vexing aspects of Blu-ray Discs and their players are the load delays. When first powered on, the player has to boot up, loading firmware into memory and executing whatever housekeeping may be required. When a disc is inserted, the player has to load and execute BD-J code; that causes a delay. And I was appalled at the download and executing delays associated with BD Live when I assessed the Panasonic DMP-S50 player, my first exposure to Web-based supplements. At the time, I felt BD Live to be a joke. I was concerned that mainstream consumers – and even enthusiasts – wouldn’t stand for waiting a half hour to watch an online trailer. So I decided to get out a stopwatch and to see if the BDP-S550 was any better. I was delighted to find that it is… substantially better.

Action	BDP-S1	BDP-S550	DMP-BD50
Boot up to Player’s Home Page (no disc)	0:48	0:24
Disc and BD-J Load to BD’s First Splash Screen	1:57	1:10
Load BD Live Menu		2:41	6:00+
Download HD Trailer (2:04 runtime)		4:58	16:00+
Delay to First Play of Trailer		0:25	7:00+
Delay for Each Subsequent Play		0:06

Even without the Quick Start option enabled, the new Sony player boots up twice as fast as my first generation Sony player. BD-J intensive discs load faster too; Men in Black loads 1.7 times faster. But the real surprises are the BD Live delays. Bringing up the BD Live menu is 2.2 time faster than the DMP-BD50. And downloading a two-minute trailer is 3.2 times faster than the Panasonic. Reading the trailer from memory and starting to play it for the first time is a remarkable 16.8 times faster. BD Live menu loading approaches PS3 territory; the BDP-S550 measures 2:41 and the PS3 was approximately 2:00. And the BDP-S550 is actually three times faster than the PS3 was for first play (0:25 versus approximately 1:30). (Notes: I checked the bit rate for my cable modem and found it to be within 3% of the rate found at the time of the review of the Panasonic DMP-BD50, so that is not a factor. And Dave experienced similar delay times for the DMP-S50 with his high speed cable Internet service.)

Suitably impressed, it was time to test the player’s technical video performance. As you’ll recall from Dave and my review of the Panasonic DMP-BD50, in addition to the test patterns we all have on Sony BDs, I have on hand a few BD test discs that allow me to judge the quality of the video produced by a player. I began by mounting two identical Sony Blu-ray Discs on each of my BD players. I then activated the easter egg test patterns on each by entering 7669 on the remote control keypad while the disc’s main menu was displayed. I skipped to the resolution pattern and pressed pause to lock that test in place on each player. I was then able to switch back and forth between the two players using my HDMI switcher to compare the images. I was unable to tell the test patterns apart. Static spatial resolution seems identical. Since I was viewing the images on a 110-inch diagonal Stewart StudioTek 130 screen illuminated by a Sony Ruby 1080p front projector, I fully expect that had there been any differences, I would have seen them.

It was time to stress the player with more challenging high definition tests. I have a set of DVD, HD DVD, and BD test discs from HQV Silicon Optics; these discs offer a clever set of pass/fail tests. The BDP-S550 did extremely well on these high definition tests, passing them all.

The Video Resolution Loss Test (1080i) shows very modest strobing in the highest frequency subpattern as the white bar rotateds but the fine lines remain visible, so the player passes. In comparison, the BDP-S1 demonstrates slightly less stobing, but also less contrast in the finest grained test pattern (which would result in a slight loss of image sharpness) and slightly higher jaggies in the moving diagonal bar.

Diagonal Filter “Jaggies” Tests A and B were excellent, showing surprisingly little shape irregularities, even for the shallowest of angles. In contrast, even though the BDP-S1 passed the jaggies tests, it shows slightly more visible jaggies at the lower angles with respect to the horizontal.

Film Resolution Loss Tests are also extremely good, showing no visible artifacts whatsoever, whereas the BDP-S1 passed the test, but has minor visible artifacts in the highest resolution subpatterns.

I was left with the impression that this is a superb BD player, one that should deliver exceptional quality high definition images. But how about DVD playback? I next assessed the player’s ability to scale a standard definition DVD to 1080p. I loaded the HQV Silicon Optics test DVD. The BDP-S550 passed and surpassed the Sony BDP-S1’s performance. It passed both Jaggies tests, the flag test, the detail test, the noise reduction test, the film detail test, every cadence test, and the horizontal and vertical scrolling titles were very smooth and artifact-free. Toshiba’s HD DVD players have exceptional DVD scaling capabilities; this third generation Sony player is easily a match for them. I was also pleased to find that the BDP-S550, like the BDP-S1, properly displays non-anamorphic widescreen content properly. For example, my venerable old DVD of The Rocketeer (a guilty pleasure) fills the width of the screen when viewed from either Sony BD player. (I’ll remind you that Toshiba’s HD DVD players displayed the widescreen images within a 1.33:1 frame, thus losing screen resolution with both letterbox bars and black pillars. So they fail to be able to play back and scale all DVDs properly. For those who’ve been using a Toshiba HD DVD player exclusively as a scaling DVD player, that will no longer be necessary; the Toshibas have met their match.)

Experiencing Content

When I finally loaded a variety of films on Blu-ray Discs that had earned very high marks for video in my reviews, I was startled to find that the images seemed noticeably sharper, more detailed, and more transparent. Colors were ever so slightly more convincing. Since the static resolution is identical between my two BD players, I was really surprised with the subtle improvement in small object detail and finely grained textures. It had to be the better dynamic video processing (after all, even when the camera is locked down, shots are not completely static). Perhaps the new player’s 4:4:4 chroma processing contributes to the better images as well. I’ll mention that since I assessed the video with the audio muted, that was not a factor. I can only say that the Sony BDP-S550 produces absolutely lovely images. I knew that I had exceeded the visual quality of a distribution print in the motion picture theater with my BDS-S1; I did not expect to see a further improvement by moving up to a new BD player only two years after buying my first.

The audio is no less impressive. I can finally hear the benefits of all lossless audio CODECs through the player’s internal decoder. All the attributes I’ve come to expect from lossless tracks remain, and DTS HD-Master Audio tracks sound splendid. As for having to disable the center surround output, the player perfectly matrixes the center surround channel into the left and right surround channels (as I mentioned, my B&K Reference 30 decoder does not have 7.1 analog inputs; it’s limited to 5.1). The B&K then dematrixes the center surround, restoring my surround audio to the full EX soundfield. The center surround is preserved and then restored.

Quibbles and Some Silver Linings

I must mention that the analog subwoofer output is similar in amplitude to the analog subwoofer outputs of both my Toshiba HD DVD players and my Sony BDP-S1 BD player; they are all about 13 dB low. As I described in an earlier article about this issue, I fabricated an external non-inverting line amplifier to boost the bass signal between player subwoofer output and B&K’s input. I continue to use that little amplifier with the new player. Alternatively, excluding the subwoofer output, I could have reduced by 13 dB all the Sony’s audio output levels, or I could have reduced the input sensitivity of the same five channels on the B&K (or a combination of both). The problem with those approaches is that when switching to another audio source, like a digital bit stream for which input sensitivity is not adjustable, the audio amplitude would suddenly jump up. (At best that would be startling; at worst, it could damage a speaker. I find neither acceptable.) In earlier communications with both Sony and Toshiba, the only statement I was able to solicit was that the decoding conforms to standards. I don’t get it.

The player’s fast scan modes are the least smooth of any I’ve experienced on either the five DVD players I’ve owned or the three other BD platforms I’ve used. It’s a jerky display of individual frames. This is unexpected considering what I have to assume is more powerful processing power based on other attributes. Perhaps the CPU is more powerful but the DSP or video chip is not.

The player does not have the ability to single-step frames in either direction, as the BDP-S1 can. This is a real disappointment since I occasionally verify a disc defect or artifact by sequencing through frames one at a time.

The new player uses remote control codes that are identical to my older Sony BD player. This makes the installation and separate control of two Sony BD players in one room impractical. The silver lining is that I didn’t have to invest time in having my universal remote control relearn codes (although I did create LCD labels and did have it learn codes for a few new buttons, like Home, Time, and Options).

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I like to include runtimes for supplements in my disc reviews. Quantity and quality can be equally valuable information. When I press the display button on the BDP-S1’s remote control, the duration of the currently playing content is one of the numbers onscreen. Not so with the BDP-S550; there is no handy readout of duration. When the display button is pressed, one sees lapsed time. Pressing the Time button changes the display to time remaining. So I guess I’ll have to start content, immediately press pause, and then go through a two-button sequence to view the total remaining time. As I said, a quibble. But the good news is that the player will display the maximum audio bit rate, the aggregate dynamic video and audio bit rate, and the video CODEC type, among other things. So the new player is, in fact, more informative than my first generation player.

Parting Thoughts

I’m very impressed and very pleased. Among the four Blu-ray Disc platforms I’ve experienced (admittedly a limited number), the Sony BDP-S550 is clearly the best. It excels in both Blu-ray Disc and DVD playback, looking and sounding great. It’s much faster than the standalone players I’ve experienced and is even competitive with the PS3’s speed. It’s Bonus View and BD Live ready, but requires no additional purchase of memory. Readily available for a very reasonable price, this player is very highly recommended.