Sony BDPS790 4K Upscaling 3D Wi-Fi Blu-ray Disc Player

I received my player a short time ago, and so far I'm very pleased with the device. Setup wasn't totally painless, however. I currently own four optical-disk-playing devices (not counting computer drives). I have a five-disk Sony DVD carousel, a Samsung BD player(with wireless but with minimal features, mainly Pandora, Netflix, Blockbuster, and some news headlines), a slightly older Sony BD player(BDP-570) which has, up until now, been the main unit in my entertainment center, and now this. I'm reasonably pleased that the user interface is essentially unaltered from my earlier Sony BD device. The interface is still very easy to use, and very intuitive. It DOES, however, have the annoyance of lacking some configurability (I'd sure like to be able to remove the "Michael Jackson channel" from my list of video channels, for example, as I'll never... EVER... watch that.) It does have a few new features accessed from that media-resources screen... the Opera web browser, a pretty decent Skype client, and a few other items. But if you've owned a Sony BD device before, the UI will be totally familiar to you, as will most of the main configuration options. The remote control is also very similar to the older Sony remote, except that some of the special functions are now in a secondary, concentric ring around the nav-select pad... which is actually a BAD thing as far as I'm concerned, as I have found myself frequently accidentally hitting the outside ring when I'm trying to hit the inside ring, or vice-versa. Fortunately for me, I seldom use the provided remote, instead using my Logitech Harmony programmable remote... so this is not really an issue. But if you plan to use this remote as your primary control, I suspect you'll experience the same thing from time to time. Sony could have done better in this regard. Picture quality is gorgeous, of course, as played on my 240hz Samsung 3D LEDTV. I wasn't sure that there would be any visible difference, but the image quality is notable improved, especially on upscaled DVD images. It seems that the two fast processor cores in the machine are getting a pretty robust workout... they're not being wasted! 3D is impressive, too... though I suspect this is more related to the TV than the player. (Samsung's 3D TVs are the best on the market IMHO, right now, though Sony's BD players are the best, I think!) That said, the machine never so much as "hesitates a frame" in even the most action-packed 3D scenes... which is something you'll occasionally note on lower-end 3D units, as the data streaming through them can briefly get backed up in fast, moving scenes, being rendered twice-over for each frame (once per eye, in other words). I do not have access to a 4K display, so I have no idea if that's good or not. I suspect that 4K will tax the resources of this machine... then again, so few people have 4K displays right now, it's not worth quibbling about. Now... if you buy one of the first units (ie, the current batch, I think!), you'll likely have a few issues when you first obtain it. The machine is designed to be network-connected, and wants to be connected. But, at least in my case, and in the case of many others, the network functionality seems somewhat hobbled under the "release firmware." You need to update the machine's firmware... after which, my machine has worked perfectly. But the device, by default, will try to "web update" itself anytime connected. Which means that you need to manually update the device, using either downloaded media (from the vendor's website), media obtained from the vendor (for a fee), or at the very least, a hard-wired network connection, in order to do your first update. Prior to the first update, I had significant difficulties maintaining a connection... which could lead to an improper update, and a "bricked" device. Lots of other folks had the same problem. Post-update, my device works perfectly. Also pre-update, I couldn't manually enter my wireless networking info (the UI was there, but it didn't allow me to finish my setup). Post-update, that's no longer an issue. The receiver in this device isn't tremendously powerful, and a better antenna/receiver set would be a major boon. It's basically on-par with devices built into laptops and so forth, and (post-update) works about the same as any of those. But it would be well-served by having some improved reception, since it's going to be tasked with streaming a lot of data. The reception is better than you'll get with a Roku or the like, but not as good as it ought to be for the price, and if you're not near your router, you may have some connectivity issues from time to time. It does seem to be on-par with my prior Sony device, or the built-in wireless in any of my TVs. That's about all I can say about it right now. It's a terrific device, plays back flawlessly for any media I have access to, and just generally is the best device of its type out there right now, as far as I'm concerned. Just be careful about updating the device when you first receive it. I recommend downloading the update files and installing them without the network at all (see Sony's support site). After doing this, my network has worked flawlessly so far, and the device is separated from my router by a floor and four walls, and about fifty feet... and we have power lines nearby. I'm very satisfied with the device so far. If that ever changes, I'll be sure to update this review, though. ************* Edit: Well, I've had this for a while now and have fully put it through its paces. There's one thing I thought I ought to mention. This has the best DLNA interface I've yet to see on a consumer device. It's easy to use, functions well... but there's a problem. It only recognizes a tiny subset of my media, including very, very few of my video files... very few. And while it will recognize any MP3 file, most of my media is in WMA format, which the player won't recognize, either. So, the DLNA functionality is pretty hobbled, as far as I'm concerned. I'd love to hear the experiences of others in this regard. No support for windows media audio and video? No support for MKV containers? These are things that really should be present in ANY contemporary media-streaming solution. Hopefully Sony can implement something (it's not a hardware issue so it MUST be a legal-rights issue!) to manage file types better in the future. Right now, the only device I have which can make full use of my media server, with the exception of actual PCs, is my little Archos portable media player. I sure wish my Sony BD player had support for as many file times as my Archos does... ************* Another edit: I've now had two more firmware updates since posting the above. And yesterday, I decided to play around with the network DLNA mode again. I don't know which firmware fixed this, but as of yesterday, I can now play WMA audio files with no problems. I still can't see any of my WMV, DIVX, MOV, or other video files. The only things I CAN see, really, are the transport stream files taken directly from DVD rips, and I only have a handful of those, created off of disks I own, so that I could put those files onto my portable player (Archos 5IT, 500GB). So... it does seem that Sony is "fixing" the DLNA issues, but a step at a time. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of my stuff... video files, etc... someday soon.

I use the player mostly for streaming movies from Netflix and Amazon using the built-in WiFi, and also a little for DVDs and Blu Rays. It works well for all four of those purposes. I'm happy with the usability and speed of response to commands from the remote. It seems to stream a little more reliably than the old PlayStation 3 (may she rest in peace) which sometimes had a little trouble with the variability of my internet connection speed. Before ordering this BDP-S790, I had ordered the Panasonic DMP-BBT01. I found the Panasonic unacceptable and returned it to Amazon (see my review on that product). The Sony BDP-S790 is a far better product from a user interface perspective, and seems much more reliable at streaming, too. One problem I encountered was some initial difficulty with the network connectivity of the BDP-S790. It reported success at WiFi connection but failure regarding internet connection. That report turned out to be not quite true -- I did have internet connectivity and could stream, etc., even though it reported failure, but it was flaky and would drop off the network in the middle of streaming. I also could not perform software updates over the network, and the error message had to do with failure to contact the DHCP server (in my Cisco Linksys E4200). So I quit using DHCP, assigned a static IP address to the device, and haven't had a bit of trouble since. (By the way, I've not had any other WiFi device in my household, out of a dozen or more, that failed on DHCP with my router.) Anyway, it now reports success on internet connectivity, and I can stream uninterrupted movies, and I can perform firmware updates over the network. It was a relief to have solved that problem so I could keep this player, and not have to return it and make a third attempt at selecting a decent player.

I bought this at roughly the same time as the Samsung equivalent, the BD-F7500 4K Upscaling 3D Wi-Fi Blu-ray Disc Player . The day after, a firmware update was installed and it has been reliable ever since. As the price of that Samsung has been volatile, but is currently selling at close to M.S.R.P , I assume the Gremlins met an appropriate fate. I retract the unreliable portion, but have not figured out how to bypass Amazon's carved in stone review rule. I hope this Sony Player will be supported by firmware installations for years to come. It supports Super Audio CDs as well as all functional Blu Ray and regular DVDs. It has a good buffer and can ride most waves in your high speed Broad Band ISP. I have seen it say that it is receiving HD Streams as high as 48 MB/S and as low as 0.3 MB/S. The ISP never lowers the price even to reflect their service. However if the low bit rate last more than a minute in HD, this Sony bookmarks where you are and politely brings up the Menu at Play a DVD! Nice touch considering it is an Excellent Blu Ray player. If there was one item to be added, it would be voice control. In general, Remote Controls for DVDs has shrunk in Size in direct proportion to their start up times. I tend to watch movies in low light, and even though Sony makes excellent L.E.D.s they are not to be found on this remote. I guess I could download an App, but speech is more civilized in First Class.