Very poor Netflix performance; overall disappointment so far.
I've had this player for several days now. Blu-Ray playback appears to be good although I don't really have anything to compare it to. But so far its other attributes leave a great deal to be desired.
Netflix playback is especially poor. I waited to buy this unit for its Netflix capability to kick in and was using the Roku HD player in the meantime. Even with a wired connection the Sony's Netflix HD content playback is noticeably sluggish and jerky almost to the point of being unwatchable compared to the Roku player connected wirelessly to the same router. I watched parts of the same video on each player and the difference is not subtle; it is pronounced.
Also the upscaled DVD picture on this player is very VERY soft almost to the point of looking out of focus even with the TV's Sharpness setting turned up to maximum. This is in comparison to the Sony DVP-NS700H upscaling DVD player I had been using previously which appears to have a sharper crisper image; again the difference is noticeable.
I'm going to try a few more DVDs and see if Sony and/or Netflix tech support can address the streaming problem before I give up and return the unit. I had hoped this player would be a nice addition to my BRAVIA setup (46" Z4100 LCD TV) but so far it's let me down.
UPDATE: I called Sony and went through three levels of support. They agreed with my description and assessment of the Netflix HD picture quality and told me there was nothing that could be done about it. I also called Netflix and they couldn't help either; none of their suggestions worked. If I can't resolve this myself I'm going to have to return the player.
UPDATE 2: Amazon on Demand HD video looks fine; very good actually. Looks like this is a Netflix issue (probably the onboard software not the stream since Netflix still looks fine on the Roku) that will have to be fixed with a firmware update sometime in the future.
UPDATE 3: CNET has now reviewed this product. From their review of the player's Netflix performance: "We also noticed that the overall streaming video quality seemed to be slightly worse than we're used to seeing. We saw more "jerky" playback than we're used to seeing on other players".
UPDATE 4: The Sony firmware update issued on December 22 has had no effect on the Netflix HD streaming quality. It looks the same as it did before.
UPDATE 5: For reasons unrelated to this issue I upgraded my cable internet service to Cablevision's "Optimum Boost" which among other things is supposed to more than double Internet speed. Indeed I'm now seeing over 20 Mbps on [...]. Nevertheless the problem remains; the Netflix HD video is still "jerky". Apparently the problem is not the network. I think it may be that the Sony does a poor job handling the Netflix stream compared to the Amazon stream such as e.g. upconverting from 720p to 1080p.
UPDATE 6: I did some more experimenting with the player this time removing the HDMI connection and using component instead setting the player's component output to 720p. This did not correct the jerky motion problem; it looked essentially the same.More detail ...
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