Sony BDP-BX1 Blu-ray Player?
Posted by Tyler Pruitt on July 29, 2008
Filed Under: Blu-ray, Format War, Retailers
Update: Costco now has the BDP-BX1 for $279.99. If you don’t live near a Costco, you can pick the Sony BDP-S350 for $224.99 from Amazon right now.
It seems Sony has once again made a special model of their Blu-ray player just for Costco and Sam’s Club (to prevent price matching w/ BB, CC, ect.) Last time it was the BDP-S301 vs. BDP-S300, now it seems Sony is really trying to throw off J6P.
Their new Blu-ray player has just landed at our local Costco (Seattle Area), and is badged as the Sony BDP-BX1 Blu-ray Player. The unit looks to be the Sony BDP-S350 (BDP-S350 Dissected), but with a 1.5m HDMI cable included in the box and a price of $379.99 $279.99.
What really surprised us was how small the box was, as compared to the BDP-S301 sitting right next to it.
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Actually it also has a backlit remote and can output DTS-HD and Dolbt TrueHD as well…. but no internal decoding….. great deal!
Many companies re-name products for specific stores. BB may get a product that is 99.9% the same but the number or a different color. I remember many years ago, I think only BB has grey SONY VCRs.
I work for Costco Wholesale and can assure you that this player is not a stripped down version of the BDP-350. It is exactly the BDP-350 with a name that Sony provides for the big box stores so that the 350 can be sold with an enormous mark up in the other, higher end electronics stores. The sales staff at those establishments love to point fingers at us and tell the consumers that there is something “missing” from our units, but the only thing missing is the huge margin that these stores are extracting from your wallet. In fact, Costco usually demands from the manufacturer some sort of “bonus” deal-in this case, a backlit remote and HDMI cable that are not included with the BDP-350. Because the model names are different, they think that you wont compare these units directly.
I saw the BDP-BX1 at Costco today. It is bluefaced, unlike the 350, which is black. The box didn’t mention being able to bitstream true-hd like the 350.
@Bill –
The s350 is blue. It can look black though. Just depends on the lighting.
@Bill – Dolby® TrueHD Decoding: HDMI™ bitstream out only with the BDP-BX1
The Sony BDP-BX1 showed up at Costco in Toronto, Canada today for $275. A great buy!
Oklahoma Sam’s Club – $277.87
I think I’m gonna pick one up. They had a whole skid.
I did pick one up at Sams club in VA. WOW, really nice… Huge improvements over the last versions! I highly recommend it!
the one thing that I don’t see that the Costco brand has but the S-350 does is an ethernet port. @Jeff -
@Jean –
I just bought one yesterday at Costco for $289 and it does indeed have an Ethernet port. also I did a software update to version 10 and all is great. This is one great deal on a great BD player.
Does any one of you have experience trying to set up the resolution of the BDP-BX1 Blue Ray Player for 1080i under the video out put format when it is set up to “Component Video” as it is listed on the instruction manual on page 62.
Any help will be appreciated I am trying to drive a HD monitor that supports 1080i/1035i with Y, Pb, Pr component analog signal
Engadget says that this player will be on sale for $180 at Sears for Black Friday.
If you folks liked it for $280, should I guess it’s an even better value for $180?
ok, for us dummies and still in the 90’s, is there any equipment needed to get surround sound or can we still use our older model that we currently have?
thanks,
I guess I should have added that we are thinking of purchasing the blue ray at Costco.
@Peter –
How do you do a format update? Please email to my regular email address. Thanks.
Sony BDP-BX1 Blu-ray Player and S350. Which one is better?
That Costco blu ray player is in fact NOW $227.99 in Canada so it must be alot cheaper in the USA. The other competition are selling the 350 with three blu ray movies NO HDMI cable for boxing day special of $219.00. The electronic retailers here are being beaten to pieces over their margins, supposedly, and so they are matching or bettering the Costco price. Costco has a much better return policy that our Future SHop stores . Forget about Best Buy,,, pain in the A**…to get anything returned. These things will go down alot further in the next few months as the new versions come onto the market and the economy of the world and japan continue to tank into oblivion.
cant decide between bdp-bx1 and bdp-s350 please help me decide
what is the diferrence between hd tru decoding and bitstreambetween both units ‘>@Rowell -
@john – @M Belanger – let me know
BDP-BX1 can read MP3 encoded discs, BDP-S350 can not!
Bought a BDP-BX1 at Costco and hooked it to a 42″ LG TV 1080 resolution, it worked great. The TV was too large for my room so downsized to a 32″ Panasonic Veija 720 reso;ution,hooked up the Blueray again with identical cord (HDMI) and can’t get sound or pic. On the Sony Blueray box there is a note to the effect that the BDP-BX1 may require a full 1080 res TV.for it to work. Has anyone else experienced that. It sucks if I have to get a 1080 res TV now.
I have had the BDP-BX1 for about 9 months now, and it has worked very well.
Sony has now released the BDP-N350 which supports streaming from NetFlix, Amazon, YouTube and many others.
The BX1 has an ethernet port which works well for firmware updates. The big question is whether it will get a firmware update that will also support streaming. Aside from this gap, I’m extremely pleased with the BX1.
I have had the BDP-BX1 for about 9 months now, and it has worked very well.
Sony has now released the BDP-N460 which supports streaming from NetFlix, Amazon, YouTube and many others.
The BX1 has an ethernet port which works well for firmware updates. The big question is whether it will get a firmware update that will also support streaming. Aside from this gap, I’m extremely pleased with the BX1.
I have 2 BX1’s…Love them. I would really like to get Netflix streaming… I have Yahoo and Google via the Media box that came with my sony TV.