Sony vs Philips bluray player

[Smokey]

I was content to keep recently bought Philips (BDP2105/F7) bluray player. But after seeing couple of web sites choosing Sony BDP-S3100 ($99) as best bluray player of year, the curiosity got the best of me and bought Sony player to compare it with Philips player.

After few tests via HDMI, it very apparent that Sony is head and shoulder above Philips player.

The first test was DVD upscaling capability and Sony not only destroyed Philips in terms of picture quality, it also had better performance than my dedicated DVD player. Upscaling DVDs seem to bring alot of picture noise with it, and Sony did an outstanding job keeping the picture noise free with excellent resolution.

The second dvd upscaling improvement was Sony's more accurate skin tone. With Philips player, the skin tone had an orange hue which effected over all picture quality. But Sony skin tone improvement went a long way to give picture quality more cinematic look.

And Sony offer more advanced video settings than Philips, including conversion method for film or video, (4:2:2) or (4:4:4) color space conversion and choice of either 10bit, 12 bit or 16 bit deep color output.


Sony bluray player also boost over 100 apps via Wi-Fi, including vTuner apps which give you choice of 100 music stations from around the world.

So returned the Philips player back to store :)

And with that conclusion, I guess we can dismiss the following video web site that test bluray players. They claim that all bluray players are created equal, including their DVD upscaling capability.

Blu-ray Player Battle: Is Image Quality Really Any Different? (http://www.digitalversus.com/duels-battle-of-five-star-products-a966/blu-ray-player-battle-image-quality-really-any-different-ap879.html)

[Mr Peabody]

Good info, confirms what I would recommend for others, I find the Sony players to be very good. The older 790 was reviewed to equal or best the Oppo Blu ray playback.

I need to see what the deal is though you get more aps than me. Actually I have less now than when I first got the Sony. I don't mormally stream but there were some aps the kids watched that seem to have disappeared, like a dedicated video channel that played only Michael Jackson.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I was content to keep recently bought Philips (BDP2105/F7) bluray player. But after seeing couple of web sites choosing Sony BDP-S3100 ($99) as best bluray player of year, the curiosity got the best of me and bought Sony player to compare it with Philips player.

After few tests via HDMI, it very apparent that Sony is head and shoulder above Philips player.

The first test was DVD upscaling capability and Sony not only destroyed Philips in terms of picture quality, it also had better performance than my dedicated DVD player. Upscaling DVDs seem to bring alot of picture noise with it, and Sony did an outstanding job keeping the picture noise free with excellent resolution.

The second dvd upscaling improvement was Sony's more accurate skin tone. With Philips player, the skin tone had an orange hue which effected over all picture quality. But Sony skin tone improvement went a long way to give picture quality more cinematic look.

And Sony offer more advanced video settings than Philips, including conversion method for film or video, (4:2:2) or (4:4:4) color space conversion and choice of either 10bit, 12 bit or 16 bit deep color output.


Sony bluray player also boost over 100 apps via Wi-Fi, including vTuner apps which give you choice of 100 music stations from around the world.

So returned the Philips player back to store :)

And with that conclusion, I guess we can dismiss the following video web site that test bluray players. They claim that all bluray players are created equal, including their DVD upscaling capability.

Blu-ray Player Battle: Is Image Quality Really Any Different? (http://www.digitalversus.com/duels-battle-of-five-star-products-a966/blu-ray-player-battle-image-quality-really-any-different-ap879.html)

Smokey,
It does not matter how many bits the colorspace is processed with, in the end Bluray disc is 4:2:0.

[Smokey]

I need to see what the deal is though you get more aps than me. Actually I have less now than when I first got the Sony. I don't mormally stream but there were some aps the kids watched that seem to have disappeared, like a dedicated video channel that played only Michael Jackson.I didn't see the Micheal Jackson app on new Sony player. I am guessing apps are dynamics where Sony add or delete apps via updating.

[Smokey]

Smokey,
It does not matter how many bits the colorspace is processed with, in the end Bluray disc is 4:2:0.

Sir TT, that should read (4:2:0) if smilies are disabled.

I try different seeting and did not noticed much difference. I know DVDs are sampled at (4:2:2) using 8 bit color output (correct me if I am wrong), but ws not sure about bluray discs.

[topspeed]

Great info, Smokey. Sony seems to really be trying to reclaim their reputation for picture quality. The PS4 has a steller BD player and, much to my surprise/chagrin, easily outperforms my Denon on DVD's as well. It's just as well, for whatever reason I can't get the Denon to communicate well with the new Marantz AVR anyway...

[Smokey]

Great info, Smokey. Sony seems to really be trying to reclaim their reputation for picture quality. The PS4 has a steller BD player and, much to my surprise/chagrin, easily outperforms my Denon on DVD's as well.As quality DVD player in the market is almost non existance and extinct, its good to know that Sony players will be there to carry the torch as quality DVD player also. Still alot of movies are out there that are not on bluray :)

[recoveryone]

I must have fainted after the first post when Smokey said he spent more money :). To move on I said the same thing in another post how BDP's have all forgotten about the need to put a good up conversion chip in their players.