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Sony BDP-S470 Blu-ray: Casablanca compatible review by colleague

This past weekend Casablanca colleagues Tracy Ball and Brenda Lantow shared (on the Cassie Tips List) news of their success with a newer model Sony Blu-ray player.  I pass this on as I receive many queries about Blu-ray decks that are compatible with the HD disks created by the Next Generation Casablanca editors ---

"We recently purchased a Sony BDP-S470 Blu-ray player and have put it through the paces with both commercial and Cassie-generated DVDs and Blu-ray disks.No playback issues so far.
Our Cassie setup is an S4100 with Bogart 2.4c and Arabesk 4.6.  The S470 is connected via HDMI to an A/V receiver which is in turn connected via HDMI to a 1080P monitor.

For the Blu-ray test, the footage was shot in HD with a Canon HV-20, input via Firewire to an HD project on the S4100, edited (including added still photos, added audio, titles, etc.) to a 46 minute program, and burned via the AVCHD(DVD) setting to a Verbatim BD-RE disk.  The Sony played the entire program without a hitch.  Both video and audio quality was excellent.

For the AVCHD on DVD test, clips were shot on a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 (point-and-shoot), transferred to a USB flash drive, input to the S4100 via Media Manager, exported to an HD project, edited (including added audio and titles) to a several minute program, and burned via the AVCHD(DVD) setting to a TDK DVD-RW disk.  Again, excellent playback on the Sony with no issues.  (One can also play the Panasonic AVCHD files directly via front panel USB connection with the camera or a USB flash drive.)

We also tested about a dozen older Cassie-generated DVDs, some of which go all the way back to the first Arabesk, with no issues.  A couple of these would not play on another player, but the Sony did not seem to have any difficulty.  Similarly, no playback issues with commercial DVDs of various vintage and the upscaling looks very good.

So, we are ready to retire our trusty 10 year old Pioneer DVD player, which has always played anything we threw at it.  The Sony BDP-S470 seems to be an able replacement and sells for about $185.   The nearly identical S370 sells for about $20 less but apparently will not get the 3D software upgrade when (if?) it is available.  The S570 is about $50 more and adds built-in WiFi (wired ethernet on the S370 and S470) and 1 GB internal memory to support BD Live (external USB flash drive required for this purpose on the S370 and S470).  Other than the aforementioned differences, all three models appear to have identical technical specs regarding file formats, etc.

Hope this is useful to those in the market for a Cassie-compatible Blu-ray player.  So far, this model is looking good to us.
"

Tracy Ball and Brenda Lantow
Lantow Productions
Quincy, CA




Tips & Tutorials by the Casablanca Expert, Chet Davis
www.CasablancaExpert.com