Excellent Player! - Nearly perfect.

The facts: The player is worth a total of truly outstanding and his money. Image and sound very good, many different formats (s. Homepage Sony) are supported. The operation is well thought out. The user interface on the screen waived frills and is immediately obvious in most cases. The remote control is somewhat small, but fits comfortably in your hand and is clearly and simply structured. The included user manual is pretty brief, but it is anyway hardly needed.

Well, the display on the device: because you can sometimes hear 'an audio CD, without having to turn on the TV, if the player is in addition to the TV also connected to a receiver or amplifier. Note: the player has it (just) a coaxial digital output, so the receiver or amplifier needs a corresponding input.

Provided that the TV supports HDMI / CEC (which should be true for most newer TV), you can configure the system so that the television after the player is automatically turned on. If you do not want the (for example, because you can hear more frequently audio CDs on a receiver / amplifier), can this function under System Settings Disable (Home button press on remote control, menu item "Setup" - "System Settings" - "HDMI Settings" - "On Off").

Very pleasant is the restrained screen display when playing music tracks (dark blue-black tones, progress bar for the track time). The screen brightness can be selected in the setup in three steps (menu item "Setup" - "System Settings" - "Display Brightness"). A screen saver is activated (menu item "Setup" - "System Settings" - "screensaver" - "A" / "off").

The noise is very moderate: When you insert a disc and Scanning Programmes can perceive sounds that are not pushy but. Merely select chapters or by order (eg in MP3 playback or a DVD or Blu-ray disc) is done in complete silence. Right before you start playing you can hear a faint and barely
disturbing noise. This is made clever: Apparently the read head to the selected chapter or folder is not moved on the disk (and it is this movement is due to physical reasons not completely silent) when the playback button is pressed. If you select only about chapter 2, then chapter 5, then chapter 3, the read head first is going nowhere. It is only when
you press Play, is the read head to Chapter 3 (this makes a sound) and playback starts. Some other players (eg Panasonic DMP-BDT364 / 365), the read head passes after selecting each chapter immediately to the appropriate position on the disc and does this just perceptibly, in this particular case it is therefore 3x to noise, instead of just once, as at Sony.

The network connection is accomplished in no time, even for WLAN: The player supports installation via WPS, thus one must not even the network key (a secure connection) note. With a little concentration that even absolute layman should be possible. To register at a Fritz! Box, for example, 7390, just in the Internet browser, the Fritz! Box user interface (will normally with fritz.box or 192.168.178.1) and there in the enlarged view under the menu item "WLAN" the sub-item "Security "and then the tab" Select WPS Quick Connection ". Check the checkbox must be "WPS active" or be. Then select one of the three offered WPS methods (the top selection WPS-PBC works anyway) and press the button "Start WPS". Then - that is, within the next 2 minutes - start "Simple Network Settings" WPS configuration - the Sony player under the menu item "Setup". After less than two minutes, the network configuration for the player is stopped. Entirely analogously works with other wireless routers with WPS support.

When network is enabled on the other computer (or more precisely Server) to shared media content (videos music, pictures) can be accessed on the network. This works with a stable network connection in most cases very good - but it also has pitfalls: Sometimes it may happen that the player is not aware of any changes of the media content on a server communicating. In the player's dialogue, you watch a media file in the selection list, which is no longer available on the server. And the reverse is also true: Newly added media files on the server are not displayed in the player dialog and are then also not be playable. This behavior, however, does not seem to be specific for these players, other equipment tested (Panasonic Player, Samsung TV) behaved similarly. I. d. R. can be fixed with a reboot of servers and players in conjunction with a little patience. There may be here but also a problem in my own network adaptation before (I can not rule out with 100% certainty in any case, even though the network is completely otherwise unremarkable). Perhaps still not endured teething of the underlying DLNA protocol come into play.

When playing long sequences (several 100 pictures in a row) via network access to another instability showed: Occasionally, the player depends on and no response any longer, not even on the off by remote control or on the device. The only solution is disconnected from AC power for about 10 seconds and restart. Annoying when it happens. But again: networks are not permanently stable at 100% - which may in any case be supported by experience and also concerns professionally maintained networks. What is Sony still has to be blamed: a consumer device must be able to deal with such instability and must not hang!

The player supports the Miracast standard! This makes it possible to output data from a smartphone directly on the player or on the connected display device on the player (TV monitor for images, videos and sound receiver for sound). I have tried this with a S4mini with Android 4.4.2 for pictures, videos and audio playback, and it works well. Select the player in the Home mode the menu item "screen mirroring" and enable the Smartphone Settings Screen Mirroring or what is perhaps even easier, use a corresponding app, such as "WiFi Display" or "Widget Miracast". Important: In my experience, the screen mirroring works only if enabled in the system settings of the quick start mode (with slightly higher standby consumption). For the setting, press the Home button on the remote control, menu item "Setup" - "System Settings" - "Quick Start Mode ..." - "A".

The app "Sony TV Side View" (from the Google Play goals) enables an Android smartphone for remote control: It will be a rule do not need, eventually there is a well-to-use remote control (FB). Nevertheless, the sideview app offers more, such as is obtained in this way an alphanumeric input option. And the device can thus be remote controlled via WLAN from another room or floor from, even when switched off (provided the Quick Start Mode is [tested with S4mini / Android 4.4.2 and works] active), for example.

Unlike the smaller BDP-S5200, the device has an integrated power supply, a function display on the front side and a second USB port on the back. The latter is very convenient: You can not do a picture / music or video collection on the device itself permanently available and therefore also play without networking (a 64 GB storage costs
For slightly higher processing speed of the dual-core processor delivers. The speed advantage over the BDP-S5200 falls in the "normal operating conditions" (everything except 4k playback) negligible.

The design is a matter of taste. I personally does not want to open up the meaning of "negative camber" on the front and side lines. Nevertheless: The unit is well made and does not leave a cheap impression.

In order to assess:
Pull for the occasional instability in long slide shows via network server must be a few tenths of points (depending on how important one that's up to 0.5), the other DLNA abnormalities I let in my review on the sidelines. Many things in detail anyway a matter of taste - and absolute perfection, there are in real life not. For completeness: the software version of my player is M21.R.0164.

All in all, I come as a result to a rating of 4.5 to nearly 5 points and thus to a serious purchase recommendation!