Strengths: It is Cheap

Weaknesses: Everything else

Summary: Received as part of a Christmas offer from Sony for buying a 46 in LCD TV, so I've only had it 4 months. The thing no longer works. It powers on, but then turns itself off and then tries to re-power up. Only way to stop it is to pull the plug. The DVD tray will not open or close. So now it goes for warranty repair with me paying the freight to the repair center. One expects top notch products from Sony -- this unit doesn't fit that profile either from a hardware quality standpoint or an operations standpoint. Others have addressed the slow boot up time. Others addressed the grainy picture on non HD DVDs. I would say the picture for the typical non HD DVD is no better or worse than what one would see on a cheap DVD player. I haven't watched any HD DVDs so can't comment on that, but it would seem that unless one is going to spend a huge amount on HD DVDs, blue ray players aren't worth the price. Just glad I didn't spend any money buying this thing.

Strengths: Great picture when playing Blu ray Disk. Connected all audio connections at once except Coax, and all worked automatically...Great sound.

Weaknesses: Sloooooooooooooow loooooaaaaad times, One Blu ray disk to 5 Minutes before i could start viewing. No ethernet connectivity,Pricey for what you get. Standard DVD's Looked Grainy.

Summary: Beware of 5 Star ratings, Since they are usually posted by electronics sales people. I Purchased the Sony BDP-300 at a local retailer for $418.00 including tax, 3/13/2008, Returned it and got a full refund 3/17/2008.Load times are to much to bare, Local Video rental very limited in Blu-Ray selection. After having it for 4 days i couldn't bare dealing with it anymore. My opinion for a player this disfunctional, it's worth $100.00 Paid to you by Sony Per day to test their new products.The next Generation of blu rays to look for will be coming out soon. Sharp BD-HP50 Blu-ray Player (2nd Q 2008) and Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray Player (May 1st 2008).Click below for upcoming Bue ray players.http://www.blu-ray.com/players/

Strengths: Beautiful picture!

Weaknesses: must be very patient - a little faster after updating the system firmware with the online patch from Sony, but then the front panel stopped working, must use the remote - definitely needs future patch

Summary: Well the price was great and the quality and sound is extremely exceptional (the full 1080p gives it that extra edge!). Be aware if you plan to use this for your main theater; it is a little picky with the type of media you choose for making your home videos. Test it first.

Strengths: Nice user interface, plays movies without problems

Weaknesses: slow load times, sluggish response to commands, no decoding of TrueHD, DTS-HD MA

Summary: The BDP-S300 plays movies without problems. The picture quality is good.However, it's slow to load, and sluggish when responding to the remote. Also, the player does not support the high-rez audio formats, TrueHD and DTS-HD MA.

Strengths: great picture

Weaknesses: price

Summary: Blu-Ray movies need to come way down in price for me to buy all of my dvd's in that format. I usually reserve "keepers" as my Blu-Ray purchases. There also appears to be a few seconds adjusting up front when the dvd is first inserted into the player - perhaps set-up time? Overall though I am happy with my purchase.

Strengths: Great picture and excellent sound

Weaknesses: None for me

Summary: I bought this Blu-Ray player last July to watch movies and it has worked flawlessly for me from day 1. I am not a viewer who will use picture in picture (which this does not have)nor do I play any of the games which are on some of the discs. I wanted a Blu-Ray player which gives me full HD video and great sound. The audio sounds great on my surround sound system when I use it. Sometimes I just use the TV speakers and the audio is excellent. If you are interested in a Blu-Ray player with outstanding video and excellent sound this player is for you.

Strengths: Great 1080P picture, Easy firmware updates, Very good upconversion, unbeatable price

Weaknesses: Slow loading process, non-lighted remote control

Summary: This Blu-Ray player has it all for an unbeatable recently reduced price. Although the loading process and the power up process are slow I do believe that further firmware updates will improve that drawback. You also ge 5 free Blu-Ray DVD's with a mail-in rebate. Sony's firmware updates are more frequent than Samsung's and this is why I chose this Blu-Ray player.

Strengths: Nice picture

Weaknesses: Movies Skip, takes a long time to load, terrible tech support

Summary: This is the worst BD player out there, It can not play a movie without skipping at the beginning or end. You cant access special features, the unit freezes at certain times, no wonder they dropped the price, they cant get rid of them. A word of advice, check out Samsung, LG or Panasonic, but stay as far away from the Sony.

Strengths: Don't care

Weaknesses: Tick tock tick tock

Summary: A year ago I would have told you that you would be crazy to buy Blu instead of HD justlooking at the price. My friend spent $1200.00. You believe that? Later I got my HD playerfor the XBOX 360 for $200.00 and said "Oh Yea"! Then I started to try to buy movies thatI hadn't already bought on SD-DVD.(1200+) Well, I ended up having to duplicate a littleand learn patience. Things started to look brighter as the choices started to grow.But after a while I got really frustrated that a lot of movies I wanted to own, were not going to be on HD. So, while I was at Best Buy shopping for Xmas gifts, low a behold,There lies a Sony Blu-ray player for!$299.00!. And on top of that, it was 20 bucks offmore for an open box. And since someone gave me a $50.00 Gift Cert. There was reallyno choice. I had to buy it. That was before Warner Bros. switched sides. I finally made atimely decision that I wouldn't regret.But remember that friend of mine. I felt so bad that he couldn't see any HD versions,That I got him and HD player for Xmas. "D'OH"!In summation, I owned Betamax, LaserDiscs, Hi8 and Advantix cameras. You know as well as I do, that 5 years from now we(I) will be in the same situation. Screwed nomatter what we do.

Strengths: Picture quality, remote control, several audio-outputs

Weaknesses: S L O W loading, NO Dolby-HD or DTS-HD decoding.

Summary: I bought mine from WalMart.com for $ 350+ tax. Very easy out the box setup. Rather big and heavy unit. I bought HDMI cable from Amazon for $ 5. I upgraded the firmware to v3.3 and eventually to v3.7. No increase in loading and boot-up speed noted (with BD disks). It becomes annoying after a while. Anyway, great picture quality and integration with SONY Bravia TV. Remote has several functions and allows menu selection while DVD is playing - without exiting the movie. Has several audio outputs. Mine started giving trouble a week into using it. The player would drop video and audio output randomly and this got worse, requiring the player to be returned. Also, this player does NOT suppot DVD-HD audio decoding - which Samsung does support. Overall a decent player for $ 300-350. It appears to be a "first generation" BD player and hopefully better (and faster) BD players will be released soon. I am planning to purchase this again soon. This time I will buy extended warranty!

Strengths: Plays Blu-Ray Discs, upconverts standard DVDs. Full 1080p output. Good array of audio outputs.

Weaknesses: No Dolby TrueHD onboard decoding, no Ethernet port. SLOW LOAD TIMES.

Summary: This player had promise--more reasonable price point, full 1080p Blu-Ray playback. However, this player is fraught with problems. The first thing you'll notice is the LONG LOAD TIMES. Blu-Ray Discs can take upwards of 2-3 minutes to reach the title screen, even after loading the latest firmware. While we're on the subject of firmware updates, the lack of an Ethernet port is completely UNACCEPTABLE when every other player in its class has one. The lack of this port means that you must download the update from Sony, burn it to a disc, and then load it in the player. What a joke.Other than that, the player works fine. Blu-Ray playback is great once you get it loaded....the problem is getting there. This player would be a good option if it was $200. The player can generally be found for $400 or less, but this is just too much for a slow player with no Ethernet port.

Strengths: Great picture and sound, lots of conectivity opotions.

Weaknesses: none yet

Summary: Truce! With the help of recent price drops I was able to grab this unit for just $256 at a local Military Exchange to go right along side my Toshiba HD-A3 (Black Friday $179) Now I have both formats for just over $400 not to mention 15 free High Def movies! In comparison to the HD-A3, the Sony player is way bigger and has more connectivity options, including a full set of 5.1 surround sound analog outputs. But as far as picture quality they're undistinguisable. The Sony also has the advantage to fully integrate with some Sony HDTV's as far as control is concern. But this matters little to me since I don't have a Sony TV. Overall a great buy for those who want to explore the HD world without braking the bank.

Strengths: excellent picture

Weaknesses: none

Summary: Very good picture quality. I have it set up with a Pioneer 60" Kuro plasma TV along with a Yamaha receiver with JBL wall mount 7.1 speakers. The picture is impeccable along with the best sound I have ever heard.

Strengths: Easy to use. Great Picture.Rental places like Flixster send Blu-Ray discs out that have less use which means more reliable.

Weaknesses: Not all DVD rentals are available in Blu-Ray format.

Summary: I hope Blu-Ray wins the battle in the DVD market.The picture quality is exceptional. The response time on the eject system is a little slow. Great buy and value overall.

Strengths: -Nice looking.

Weaknesses: -Slow-Pricey-No Dolby True HD and DTS-HD1, and HDMI 1.3-No SACD

Summary: For this price, it needs to be much faster, and address all audio codecs. I'm sure Sony will eventually provide a killer Blu-Ray console that is affordable, but it's not here yet. Probably not till after Blu-Ray 2.0 specs are pushed. Wait a bit. In the meantime, just get a PS3.