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The Sony BDP-S1 is a first generation Blu-ray Disc (BD) player and is the first such player released in North America. It was originally scheduled for release in the United States on August 18, 2006 with a MSRP of $999.95. Sony had postponed the release date of this player several times and it was released on December 4, 2006.
On November 30, 2006 Sony announced that the player began shipping to major consumer electronics retailers and specialty dealers nationwide. It became available at retailers on December 2, 2006. The player has received firmware updates since its release, the most recent one being released in 2012.
The Sony BDP-S1 does not come with a built-in Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection; therefore it has no online capabilities. However, firmware upgrades may be applied by downloading the upgrade and burning them onto a recordable or rewritable DVD and loading it on the player for installation. As of December 2020, the latest firmware release for the BDP-S1 is version 6.10, which was released on April 11, 2012. [1] The update improves BD-Java compatibility to enhance interactivity with some BD-ROMs, adds compatibility with BD-R/RE discs burned by the Click to Disc™ and Click to Disc™ Editor software included with some VAIO® computers, adds Dolby® TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus Audio decoding functionality, enhanced playback compatibility with certain BD-ROM format discs, enhanced customer support capability, compatibility with the BD-R/RE format (BDMV), and corrects the output signal status information for audio output and display when Linear PCM 5.1 channel soundtracks are played via HDMI.
During its initial release, there were reported issues with certain BD-ROM movie discs, namely BD-J functionality. The discs played incorrectly or would not play at all. Sony resolved this issue with a firmware update and the player is now compatible with all BD-J (Blu-Ray Disc Java) standard discs once upgraded to it.
The player is capable of decoding Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, [a] Dolby TrueHD, [a] LPCM, and DTS core. Currently, the player is not capable of decoding DTS-HD High Resolution Audio or DTS-HD Master Audio.
Audio is sent out of the player through TOSLINK, HDMI, or composite 5.1 analog surround sound jacks. The player will gives the option to output Dolby Digital or DTS via the Toslink (optical or coax), or selectively downmix either independently to PCM. However the digital output is not necessarily compatible with other surround system decoders. Even standard DVD soundtracks cannot be guaranteed to be correctly decoded by Toslink input equipped decoders. There is a disclaimer in the supplied owners manual to this effect. The player will save the user's selections allowing for customization of your outputs. The supplied HDMI connection is version 1.2 and does not support Deep Color or Bitstream out for Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. This feature is not capable of being added later.
The BDP-S1's analog composite and component video outputs differentiate it from most Blu-ray Disc players manufactured since the early 2010s, as all Blu-ray Disc players manufactured after 2013 no longer come equipped with analog composite and or component video outputs in order to deter video piracy. [2] [3] [4]
The BDP-S1, being one of the earliest of the first generation Blu-ray Disc players, has much longer load times than later model BD players, around two to three minutes from the initial system power up to actual video playback. When the unit is fully powered up, playback is faster, taking approximately fifty to seventy seconds from disc insertion. However, this is not as fast as the PlayStation 3. Loading times are improved from the original version when updated to later firmware versions. [5]
The player is not compatible with any audio disc format, as a BD-only drive is used. However, playback of Compact Discs (CD) is possible when using the Asia-Pacific version of the BDP-S1, known as the BDP-S1E. [6] A re-branded derivative version of the BDP-S1E with CD playback capability was later released in North American region, with the model number, BDP-S2000ES. [7] [8]
Video CD is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm (4.7 in) optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia and West Asia, superseding the VHS and Betamax systems in the regions until DVD-Video finally became affordable in the first decade of the 21st century.
Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, it is lossy compression. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35 mm film prints. It has since also been used for TV broadcast, radio broadcast via satellite, digital video streaming, DVDs, Blu-ray discs and game consoles.
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An audio/video receiver (AVR) or a stereo receiver is a consumer electronics component used in a home theater or hi-fi system. Its purpose is to receive audio and video signals from a number of sources, and to process them and provide power amplifiers to drive loudspeakers, and/or route the video to displays such as a television, monitor or video projector. Inputs may come from a TV, FM, or AM tuner, satellite receiver, DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players, VCRs or video game consoles, among others. The AVR source selection and settings such as volume, are typically set by a remote controller.
DTS-HD Master Audio is a multi-channel, lossless audio codec developed by DTS as an extension of the lossy DTS Coherent Acoustics codec. Rather than being an entirely new coding mechanism, DTS-HD MA encodes an audio master in lossy DTS first, then stores a concurrent stream of supplementary data representing whatever the DTS encoder discarded. This gives DTS-HD MA a lossy "core" able to be played back by devices that cannot decode the more complex lossless audio. DTS-HD MA's primary application is audio storage and playback for Blu-ray Disc media; it competes in this respect with Dolby TrueHD, another lossless surround format.
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This article compares the technical specifications of multiple high-definition formats, including HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc; two mutually incompatible, high-definition optical disc formats that, beginning in 2006, attempted to improve upon and eventually replace the DVD standard. The two formats remained in a format war until February 19, 2008, when Toshiba, HD DVD's creator, announced plans to cease development, manufacturing and marketing of HD DVD players and recorders.
Blu-ray is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-definition video. The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The name refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs, resulting in an increased capacity.
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.m2ts is a filename extension used for the Blu-ray disc Audio-Video (BDAV) MPEG-2 Transport Stream (M2TS) container file format. It is used for multiplexing audio, video and other streams, such as subtitles. It is based on the MPEG-2 transport stream container. This container format is commonly used for high-definition video on Blu-ray Disc and AVCHD.
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