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75.126.130.58-
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
-
Decent bargain-priced Blu-ray player
EDITED 12/03/08 - The player freezes in multiple places when playing "The X-Files: I Want to Believe." I attempted to play the movie three times and it froze three times, each time required a power-down and restart. I just finished watching the movie on the PS3 and it did not have any issues. There is apparently no way to update the firmware on this player, so I don't expect good results on some titles.
One thing that I discovered that I really do like about this player is that it will allow you to set repeat on all movies, unlike the PS3. The PS3 will not allow some movies to repeat, but I have been able to set them to repeat on the Sylvania. This is not a big deal by any means, but I do like the feature.
EDITED 10/14/08 - It looks like the price has been reduced to $199 now, so this player is more attractive. It is a four-star unit at this price point. The review was written when the price was $279 and the price reduced the star rating. This is a very reasonable price for the player and I expect that it will suit many people. Recommended.
ORIGINAL REVIEW FOLLOWS:
OVERALL 3.5 STARS
I received this unit today and tested it against my Sony Playstation 3. I timed how long it took to perform various actions on both units and the results are as follows:
The Sylvania NB500SL9:
The time from power on to display on screen was 35 seconds without a disc in the tray.
The time from inserting a Blu-ray disc (The Nightmare Before Christmas) to display on screen was also 35 seconds.
The display went black for 1 minute and 4 seconds after the previews, as the BD menu was loading. It took 2 minutes and 2 seconds before the audio handshake completed and the BD menu soundtrack started playing.
The menu is moderately slow to respond, but not painfully so. Moving between menu items is not snappy like it is on the Sony Playstation 3 (Playstation 3 80GB, but it is not slow enough that you don't think the remote is working.
It took 5 seconds to load the Disney Blu-ray screen after pressing play (without intro by Tim Burton). After the Disney Blu-ray intro, it took 25 seconds to get to the FBI warning. It took 13 seconds from the end of the FBI warning to get to the Disney castle scene and then about 3 seconds to get to the movie.
The HDMI audio handshake failed again and I had to reset my processor to get the audio to work.
I pressed "Top Menu" to get back to the menu and it took 1 minute and 2 seconds to return to the menu screen and, once again, the audio did not work. The video and audio cut out and came back on after 1 minute and 4 seconds and the audio was back.
The video output is pretty solid and I don't believe that anyone will have many complaints here. Overall, the video output was excellent and I was very pleased with the performance.
The audio is problematic in my installation and changing the BD audio mode did not fix the handshaking issues. The audio eventually synchronized, but it took a long time and was definitely disappointing.
Apparently the HDMI handshaking is questionable on this unit. I have a Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player and a Sony Playstation 3 Blu-ray player and neither have HDMI audio/video handshaking issues with my Integra DTC 9.8 processor. I connected the NB500SL9 with the same Audioquest HDMI cable that I use with my HD DVD player, so I know the cable is not the issue here. I tried all the various settings in the setup section and was unable to resolve the audio handshaking issue, so this is where my testing ended.
This unit might work much better with a different processor than I am using, so consider this a review of how the Sylvania unit works with the Integra DTC 9.8 pre/pro only. With this in mind, I cannot recommend this unit for anyone using the DTC, as the audio handshaking issues are a deal breaker.
I tested the same disc with the Sony Playstation 3 and the results were as follows:
Power on to display took 9 seconds.
The disc was recognized by the PS3 5 seconds after insertion.
It took 29 seconds after insertion to get to previews.
It took 26 seconds to get the the BD menu after the previews. The audio synchronized immediately. Menus are immediately responsive.
It took 3 seconds to get to the Disney castle scene after pressing play without intro.
It took 13 seconds to get to the FBI warning.
It took 26 seconds to get to the BD menu after pressing "top menu" from the movie.
If you are in the market for a Blu-ray player, I would still suggest the Sony Playstation 3, as it doesn't cost very much more and performs far better in every way. Playstation 3 80GB
IMPORTANT... see below:
When connected directly to my Mitsubish WD-73833 DLP set, the HDMI handshake was immediate, so the issue is with how this unit's HDMI port handshakes with my Integra DTC 9.8 processor. I cannot say how this handshakes with other processors, but I suspect that it will work well with many processors.
Overall, I will give this unit a 3.5 star rating, as I am certain that it will work very well in some settings, but not in mine. I would give the Sony PS3 a 4.5 star rating and would still recommend it over the unit reviewed here.
Rating: 
-
Sylvania has built an outstanding player!
Sylvania has produced a real winner in this Blu-Ray player! I hooked it up to a 42inch HDTV using the high speed HDMI cable that came with it (a big plus in itself). I connected the audio to my receiver using the coaxial digital output. I turned it on and waited a bit less than a minute for it to power up. I anxiously inserted my first blu-ray disk. It started playing perfectly a about 30 seconds later. The picture and sound are completely outstanding. This could not have been any easier!
I ran it through it's paces doing various tests (I'm an engineer at heart). Jumping backward and forward between titles was quick and flawless. Pausing and then resuming play was equally flawless. I stopped it and restarted it. It gives you the option to playback from the beginning or to resume where you left off. I chose resume and was very quickly watching it where it left off. Perfect!
Even though it worked perfectly right out of the box, I was curious to check out the menu system. Without even looking at the instructions I found the the setup menu to be very easy and intuitive. I didn't make any changes since the defaults were all what I would have chosen anyway.
Next, I wanted to try playing back a regular DVD. This unit upscales to 1080p. To my surprise, the picture I saw was actually very close to looking like blu-ray! Wow! This is going to make me want to play a lot of my regular DVDs again. Nevertheless, I'm sure I'll always want to watch my favorites using Blu-Ray when I have that option.
Finally, I tried playing back a DVD I recorded myself. Again, it played perfectly with no problem at all. Then, I tried a CD and found it to play perfectly. I also tried a CDROM that has jpeg images on it and that too worked showing the images as a slide show and giving me the ability to choose to view a specific image, or to quickly jump between them.
This is really a great bargain for the price. About the only thing it doesn't do that I would have wanted is to playback mp3 files. But that isn't really a big deal since I have other ways of playing them.
I absolutely recommend this player - 2 big thumbs up!
Rating: -
Sylvania Blu Ray a perfect Picture
This unit has all the important features and is a bargain for the price at Amazon. Picture and sound are perfect and far better than DVD much to my shock. I am using it with a 57 inch Hitachi HDTV and the picture is still incredibly sharp. The unit actually has a Sony optical head and the rest is actually Panasonic according to other sources. Quality seems excellent with a very capable remote and included HDMI cable.
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