Sony BDP-S590 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with Wi-Fi (Black) (2012 Model)

So I was looking for a device that could replace my home theater pc since I was not using it much for TV anymore. My main goal was to find a product that I could use with Netflix, Amazon, etc. but even more so, was the fact that I needed to be able to play all my home movies. I have a NAS device with a DNLA server where I store all my movies, videos, and photos so I needed a device that could play a various amount of file formats. After doing much research online in my price range, I narrowed it down to The BDP-S590 and an LG BP620. I chose Sony for two reasons even though the LG had a much larger file format support. 1) It had support for Amazon Instant Video, and 2) It supported Divx and xVid. I have to say that I was VERY disappointed with one aspect of the Sony, and this is not stated anywhere on any product info pages. The file formats supported do not work via all mediums. All of the listed formats are supported ONLY via a USB drive connected to the back of the player. DNLA only supports a few of the listed ones, so your option is either to encode all the videos in one of those supported formats, OR use real time transcoding software like PlayOn or TVersity. For me, since transcoding is very CPU intensive I have chose to re-encode all my videos, but this is not feasible for a lot of users so it may be easier to just dump them on a local USB drive. I will provide more details on specific codecs below. One last thing to note is that you had to enable "Internet Video" before it would see files on the network, took my a minute to realize that. UNBOXING: Not much to say here. Very clean box with just the DVD player, Remote, Manual and Cables. I was mildy disappointed that it only came with composite cables. Would have been much nicer to come with HDMI. INSTALLATION: Again pretty simple. Just plugged in to the wall, plugged my network cable, and plugged my HDMI cable into the TV as well as my optical audio cable to the receiver. SETUP: Initial setup was pretty simple, most of the menus did everything automatically; HOWEVER, since I was using a wired connection with easy network setup, it already pulled an IP address and was working perfectly. I did not test configuring a wireless connection. INTERFACE: I have read some reviews online that complained about a laggy interface or some lag when playing videos etc. I have not noticed this as of you. Everything has been blazing fast. I personally do not care for the Playstation/PSP style layout as I like Eye candy, but its very clean and easy to navigate. DVD/BRAY: Oddly enough, I have yet to test Disc playback, and do not own any blu-rays yet. There is no reason to believe this would have any issues but I will edit this review if it comes up. FILE FORMAT SUPPORT: This is taken from the manual, and as you can see is a bit convoluted. You need to make sure you encode your video as well as the audio portion of the video in a format that is supported if you want to use it over DNLA. *1 The player does not play coded files such as DRM. *2 The player may not play this file format on a DLNA server. *3 The player can only play standard definition video on a DLNA server. *4 This player can play AVCHD Ver.2.0 format. *5 The player plays AVCHD format files that are recorded on a digital video camera, etc. The AVCHD format disc will not play if it has not been correctly finalized. *6 The player does not play coded files such as Lossless. *7 The player does not play animated PNG or animated GIF files. *8 For MPO files other than 3D, the key image or the first image is displayed. Audio: MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) ".mp3" AAC/HE-AAC *1 *2 *6 ".m4a" WMA9 Standard *1 *2 *6 ".wma" LPCM ".wav" Video: MPEG-1 Video/PS *1 *2 MPEG-2 Video/PS,TS *1 *3 ".mpg," ".mpeg," ".m2ts," ".mts" MPEG-4 AVC *1*2 ".mkv," ".mp4," ".m4v," ".m2ts," ".mts" WMV9 *1*2 ".wmv," ".asf" AVCHD *2 *4 *5 Xvid ".avi" Photo: JPEG ".jpg," ".jpeg" PNG ".png*7" GIF ".gif*7" MPO ".mpo"*8 SUPPORTED DISC FORMATS: I will update my review with this info, but here is the list of playable disc/formats Blu-ray Disc*1 BD-ROM BD-R*2/BD-RE*2 DVD*3 DVD-ROM DVD-R/DVD-RW DVD+R/DVD+RW CD*3 CD-DA (Music CD) CD-ROM CD-R/CD-RW Super Audio CD *1 Since the Blu-ray Disc specifications are new and evolving, some discs may not be playable depending on the disc type and the version. The audio output differs depending on the source, connected output jack, and selected audio settings. *2 BD-RE: Ver.2.1 BD-R: Ver.1.1, 1.2, 1.3 including organic pigment type BD-R (LTH type) The BD-Rs recorded on a PC cannot be played if postscripts are recordable. *3 A CD or DVD disc will not play if it has not been correctly finalized. For more information, refer to the instruction manual supplied with the recording device. Discs that cannot be played * BDs with cartridge * BDXLs * DVD-RAMs * HD DVDs * DVD Audio discs * PHOTO CDs * Data part of CD-Extras * Super VCDs * Audio material side on DualDiscs OVERALL: I would give this unit a 7/10. Mostly because of the file format issues, to support a format but only allow it via usb and not DNLA is absurd to me. I also think the interface could look a little more "Casual" and less "Business". For the money I am not sure you will find anything better. There are only about 3-4 other competing brands for the price/features, and they all excel in other areas while falling short in others. This Sony was the best all around one of the bunch.

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I recently bought this blu ray player to go with my 3d projector. I have not tested the 3d on it yet, but I did stream a movie last night on VUDU. The movie looked great and played great. One big difference I noticed with this over my previous blu ray player, was that this was the first blu ray player I was able to steam a movie in HDX on VUDU without it stopping and buffering alot. In fact, it didnt stop at all. Now alot of factors could play into that I guess, but I thought it was worth noting. When I first opened the box I was very disappointed with how cheap and flimsy the player looked and felt, I even commented that to my girlfriend before i read reviews on here saying the same. The blu ray player we replaced is a Sony as well, and the one replaced feels alot tougher and looks tougher too than this one (last years model blu ray player). I guess it shouldnt be much of an issue since I dont beat up my electronics. I just hope the inside of it is good! The remote is fine and is comfortable in the hand for the few seconds it might be held. It does its job well, but I am replacing it with a Logitech Harmony 700 remote, to eliminate 5 remote controls, so the remote wont be used by me once that arrives. The player discovered my wireless network fine and was easy to setup. As stated above, the streaming was excellent. I watched it on my 106" screen with 3d projector and the picture looked amazing with no skipping, buffering or any other annoyance. The update to the player once connected wirelessly to my internet did take quite a long time. I did not time it, but Id wager a good half hour. You will need to do the update if you plan to stream, because the player did not have vudu/netflix/etc preloaded, and only came up after I updated, which is expected with electronics now a days. Why do Blu-ray players not come with an HDMI cable? They cant be that expensive to produce with the players. It seems like they would be standard on a blu-ray player, but it isnt. You will probably want to buy a cable to go with it if you dont have spares. Rating a 4 so far because for the price I would have expected it to feel a bit more sturdy. Will update later when i watch a 3d movie. *UPDATE* Updating review to add the 3d movie experience. I purchased Polar express 3d that came with the red/blue glasses. The 3d looked good, but the glasses were uncomfortable so i stopped watching. Yesterday I watched Avatar 3d with the active glasses and the experience was awesome. I am not sure what kind of role the Blu ray player plays in 3d quality, if any, but the quality was great. My girlfriend usually gets bored during a movie and will read her Nook, but this movie she actually watched all the way through and stayed attentive. She has seen Avatar before, so that impressed me as well. She commented several times how amazing the 3d was. Well, thats it for now, my review.

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Ive had this Sony Blu-Ray player for about 2 months, and so far I really love it. This was purchased to replace an LG Blu-Ray player purchased in 2009. The LG player occasionally had some hiccoughs when playing DVDs, and while it streamed Netflix it couldnt stream Amazon Prime. So when upgrading, I really wanted a Blu-Ray player that consistently had high-quality playback, and that was also capable of streaming not just Netflix and Amazon Prime, but whatever new streaming technologies come out later down the line. This Blu-Ray player met all my expectations and more. The streaming is spot on, the user interface isnt complicated, Blu-Ray and DVD playback are both excellent, and there are no compatibility issues with my RCA LED HDTV. So why the 4-star review, when this really meets all my needs and exceeds my expectations? Because Sony, in typical Sony fashion, needlessly complicates things with its proprietary approach to the user interface. Instead of simply registering the device and enabling it with each of the respective streaming and other applications, you must first register for a Sony account. In fact, you cant connect to the Internet without first registering for a Sony account. This, to me, is ridiculous. Not to mention, every time I use one of the streaming apps, it is very clear that the device is first checking in with Sony. Just what information is Sony collecting from or about me? Im not a fan of this, at all. Unfortunately, other manufacturers are also moving in this direction. Overall, highly recommended--if youre willing to deal with Sonys registration process.

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