A few weeks back, I told you about a wireless USB LAN adaptor and a new Blu Ray player from Sony that came home with me. Today, the review!
So my wife wanted to update the TV and disk player for our bedroom. We took home a Sony 32” TV, a Sony 32BX420, and a Blu Ray player to match, the Sony BDP-S480. In addition, I added a wireless USB adaptor to allow the TV and Blu Ray player to network.
Setup
Setup of the Blu Ray player was easy: plug it in, connect the cables, and install the USB adaptor. Once the Blu Ray player found the USB adaptor, it asked for the security code to get onto my home network, established an N connection wirelessly, detected a firmware upgrade and asked for my permission to update. Once updated, it then went out and found all of the DLNA servers that were on the network and switched on. Setup could not have been easier. Thank goodness for HDMI. One cable from the Blu Ray player to the TV for video and sound. Gotta love it!
Disk Playback
Disk playback has been very good, with dvd’s being upconverted to 1080P and Blu Rays playing well. All as expected since this is a Blu Ray player.
Streaming Content
I don’t have Netflix, so I concentrated my streaming to on-network servers that had content to share. The specs for the BDP-S480 claim that MP4 files are supported. Almost all of my video is in MP4 containers with AAC audio and H.264 video encoding. None of these files worked with the DLNA client onboard the BDP-S480. This capability was the main reason that I spent the extra $80 for the USB adaptor; needless to say, I was not happy with this result. However, recorded TV from my WHS V1 is converted to WMV files. These all played very well with no issues at all and looked good on the 32” screen. Not a total waste!
Qriocity
As a result of the PlayStation Network hack, Sony allowed 30 days of access to their service called Qriocity. I availed myself of this freebie for a bit, and it played music back very well using this Blu Ray player. I also tried the video playback and it streamed very well after a brief buffer when starting playback. This is a good service, and I may upgrade and buy it if it works on the PS Vita due out towards the end of the year.
Overall
I really wish that my video files in H.264 and AAC encoding had worked with this DLNA client. The streaming for Qriocity and for recorded TV shows inside the network worked well, but I was hoping to get my movies this way like I currently can with the PS3. I’m not sure that paying the extra $80 for the USB adaptor was worth the cost in my case. However, if you use Netflix or Qriocity or and of the other supported services (Hulu Plus, YouTube, Pandora and some others), then upgrading the networking capabilities of the Blu Ray player may make some sense. At the end of the day, my wife is happy that she can watch movies and TV on a nice TV in the bedroom, so I’ll consider this one as Mission Accomplished!
Sony KDL-32BX420 TV Sony BDP-S480 Blu Ray Player