Sony BDP-S580 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black)

We have had excellent experiences with Sony video and audio products. Their devices cost a little more than their competitors but they are high quality, last a long time, and are easy to use. All of our electronics (except computers) are Sony. This blu-ray is no exception. Easy to setup, easy to use, some surprise features, quiet.

Well the problem is on demand video from netflix or amazon or any other service. It simply doesnt work... often. Its registered, and I verified it with Sony. Its connected to the internet with no problems and the browser works. Movies stream no problem on my PC. We have 6Mbs DSL so movies stream no problems on our PC. I even placed it in the DMZ to allow all ports to talk to it without restriction, no dice. Netflix has the unit registered and it is receiving data. It connected wired and wirelessly with neither working correctly with on demand video services.

We got 1 movie to work only. All the rest of the time it doesnt... Read more

[This is a long review warranted by the number of features of the BDP-S580. I want to try to provide as much relevant information as I can in an attempt to make this as useful to you as possible. If you only want a one line "this is great" review, I apologize, but some folks like details :) I know I do.]
IMPORTANT NOTE: I have added a number of updates and edits over time to keep this review up to date. Be sure to check those as they can show resolutions to earlier problems I experienced. Typically I left the original issues in place in the review, followed by an Edit with a resolution, so that other people running into the same problem may be able to find answers.

Some background...
This was bought to replace an older Sharp HP20U Blu-Ray player and some of the features of a DLink DSM-520 network media player. After also having owned the Sony BDP-S570 (the prior model to the S580) for a short while as a first replacement effort, I decided to return that and... Read more

I did a lot of research before purchasing this player. I am not a big Sony fan, and lean more towards Samsumg. I got a Samsung C6800 and returned it after a few days. When I got the Sony, the first difference I noticed was the user friendly XMB menu bar on this player. Setting up options was a breeze and there are quite a bit that can be tweaked. The built-in Wi-Fi works flawlessly. Another good feature it has is that as it streams content, it would show you the current download speed which is neat. Want to control your player from your phone, there's an iPhone App for that. Load times and picture quality are comparable. It has nice sleak remote as opposed to the quite-frankly ugly Samsumg remote. So all in all it is a solid player and it has alot of the little touches that make it the best out there.

On a side note, I agree with the other reviewer about the limitation of picture quality on component video connections. But I would'nt take any stars from this player for that... Read more