Sony BDP-S360 Blu-Ray Player

This is a very good player as long as you don't care about internet streaming (I don't), however, it does have BD-Live capability. I was drawn to the BDP-S360 because I already had a Sony TV; I knew I wouldn't have to fiddle with the remote much. Picture and sound were superb. Was please how it could recover from the one error spot on the Blu-ray disc I played with no intervention from me required. I understand it loads Blu-ray discs faster than most machines. The BDP-S360 also played my DVDs flawlessly including some I burned myself. I recommend this as a solid, low cost Blu-ray Disc player.

I bought this because of price and reviews. Once I got it set up right, it sounds great. Setup, control and speaker connections could be better. The main problem I had setting it up was caused by those cheap, spring-loaded speaker connectors on the back of the amp. I knew these were bad from the reviews, but they were even cheaper than I thought they were, especially when you are trying to use fat, 12-gauge stranded wires, which is evidently too big for them to handle.
The binding post connectors for the front speakers were a pain to use without banana plugs, when I'd tighten them, they'd push the wire back out due to poor design. The surround right, left and center connectors, which are of the inferior, push-in spring-loaded variety, were far worse. After successfully connecting the right and left surround cables, part of the center channel connector fell apart. I had to put a piece of electrical tape on it to keep the red plastic push-tab from falling on the floor. The tab isn't broken, the connector is just weak and very cheaply built. It appears to me these connectors were made for 14-gauge wire and smaller. In the manual, speaker wire specs are listed in inches and millimeters instead of English and American wire gauge sizes. The sizes given in the manual don't correspond to any reasonable gauge size according to the standard conversion tables I've seen.
The amp was supposed to be initially set for what is called a 3/2.1 speaker pattern, that is, left and right front and surround, center and subwoofer. I could not get my subwoofer to work until I discovered the initial setting was actually 3/2, in which subwoofer channel is absent. I reset the speaker pattern to 3/2.1 and immediately heard the subwoofer (Polk self-powered, which is also hard to set up due to poor documentation) come to life.
After several days of fiddling around with it, I still haven't figured out the remote control. Sometimes I can get it to also run my Sony Blu-Ray player, sometimes not. Sometimes I can get it to sound speaker test tones, sometimes not. There is a steep learning curve on the remote (my particular model of this amp does not have the auto-setup feature with the microphone).
I also found out I could play audio through a spare HDMI cable I had laying around. It is nothing special. I have ordered some 1.4 cable, but my old cable, which is 1.3, I think, seems to work just fine, at least as far as audio goes. The same cable also links the Sony blu-ray player to the amp so that when you turn on the amp the player automatically turns on as well. I went ahead and disconnected my coaxial cable I had been using for audio.
The good thing is the amp worked right out of the box on the very first try and it sounds great. The bad thing is those cheap spring-loaded speaker connectors that are made for wimpy, skinny wires, not man-sized ones.

The BDP-S360's design strikes a nice balance between the glitzy (some would say tacky) gloss of Samsung's players and the more conservative approach of Panasonic's players. The front panel is dark and translucent, giving it a glasslike look. When opening the disc tray, the entire front panel actually flips down, similar to the Samsung BD-P1600's design, but we found Sony's implementation less clunky. We also appreciated the BDP-S360's small footprint, a slim 16.9 inches wide by 2.2 inches high and 8.1 inches deep.

I usually don't have much to say about the design of a Blu-ray player's back panel, but the BDP-S360's unusual USB port is worth pointing out. The port is recessed into the unit, surrounded by black plastic, and the small opening won't accommodate some of the fatter USB thumbdrives you might have lying around.

The included remote has a great layout and simple design, but there's one fatal flaw: it lacks an open/close button for the disc tray. We're not quite sure how this oversight managed to get past Sony, but if you're used to popping open the disc tray before you get off the couch to change discs, you'll find it as frustrating as we did. Of course, you can always opt for a quality universal remote to get around this issue, as the BDP-S360 is capable of receiving an open/close IR command.

The BDP-S360 uses an adaptation of Sony's XMB user interface, which is now featured on nearly all Sony products with a video output. Not everybody is a fan of the layout, but we tend to like it and had no problems zipping around the BDP-S360's menus. If you're not used to Sony's XMB interface, it's not quite as intuitive as, say, the large icons on the LG BD370's menu system, but the learning curve isn't steep. Aside from the graphics, the BDP-S360 has a polished feel that surpasses other Blu-ray players we've tested. We enjoyed little touches like the screen fading to black when you stop a movie, and how quickly the player navigates Blu-ray Disc menus.

The Sony BDP-S360 Blu-Ray player is the easiest thing in the world to setup. I hooked up the HDMI cable and the power cord, popped in a disc and it played perfectly right out of the box. I didn't even bother to go through the setup steps as outlined in the manual. I've had it for several weeks now and the 1080p picture on my Toshiba 52" LCD HDTV is remarkable.
Other users have complained about the front panel. It pops open smoothly for the disc and then it closes. I don't have any issues with it at all.
I would recommend this unit to everyone.

my reg. dvd broke and I have a high def tv so decided to upgrade to blu ray.The picture is soo much sharper and the sound is soo crisp and clear. Hooked up easy with a hdmi cable. This kind of connection even improves the picture and sound of my none blu ray dvds that this machine also plays. Also my tv is a sony so its very compatable.