We recently moved into a new house and it came complete with a dedicated Family Room.  While the house was being built I had it wired with Cat 6 cabling in (3) room—including the Family Room—with the express purpose of streaming video from the Internet and providing access to my home network.

In the family room video streaming was in order so I needed a whole new entertainment system in that room, including a streaming device.  But I also wanted a Blu-Ray player as part of the mix and set about finding a unit that combined both.  What I decided on was the Sony BDP-S185 1080p Blu-Ray DVD Player with mixed results.    

Product 411

The Sony BDP-S185 1080p Blu-Ray DVD Player is a single-disc, Blu-Ray player that when connected with an HDMI cable play’s Blu-Ray DVD’s in your collection with resolution up to 1080p (Full HD) when used with a compatible HDTV.  As an added bonus the unit can also play your CD’s of all types, plus MP3 and JPEG files that have been burned onto CD-R’s, CD-RW’s, DVD’s and other media.

Equipped with a RJ-45 port, the Sony BDP-S185 1080p Blu-Ray DVD Player is network ready and capable of Internet Video Streaming right out of the box, offering access to Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, Flixster, HuluPlus, and YouTube just to name a few. Also, with the unit you can post messages to Facebook, or send Tweets, though I have not attempted either exercise. 

The Sony BDP-S185 1080p Blu-Ray DVD Player also comes equipped with a USB port that will allow you to connect your digital camera, USB connected MP3 player, or USB storage device in order to share photos, on an HDTV, or listen to music.          

Dolby Digital surround sound decoding is built in, along with a DTS output. High definition sound is possible via Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD, through 7.1 channels of discrete audio.  Other outputs include component video, HDMI, as well as an optical digital audio output.

Front controls are few, so most of the players operation can be carried out via the remote control.               

First Impressions

I was surprised by the small size of the Sony BDP-S185 1080p Blu-Ray DVD Player. The unit is only 7.4 inches deep, 11.4 inches long, 1.6 inches thick and weighs in at just 3 pounds!   Nevertheless the unit contains all of the connections one would expect on a major Blu-Ray DVD player.  The HDMI connection was routed to a Sony HT-CT150 Theater System; since the audio is also carried though the HDMI cable there was no need for any further connection except for the RJ-45 cable which went directly to a wall plate.   

Once connected and powered on, I set-up the Sony BDP-S185 1080p Blu-Ray DVD Player network connection; if you have DHCP on (most cable boxes provided by AT&T and Comcast do) then the unit will get an IP address automatically.  I preferred to set the IP Address and DNS settings manually.

I bought two of these units; one I put in the Family room and the other is in the Master Bedroom.  The latter unit I have had not issues with, but the unit in the Family room is defective.  For the first month of use the unit in the family room performed as designed, but then it started losing connectivity to the Internet.  I tried several trouble-shooting steps, but nothing worked consistently so I turned to Google wherein a fellow Sony BDP-S185 user suggested using Google’s public DNS servers in the unit Primary and Secondary DNS setting, those being (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). 

After inserting the addresses I have experienced no issues with connectivity to the Internet, however 2 days ago while I was streaming video from Netflix the screen started to flicker, badly.  At first I thought it might be the television, so I switched back to live TV and the picture was fine.  I then switched back to streaming and the picture was fine, so I do not know whether the unit is at fault or the stream.          

Other than those (minor) glitches, the performance of the Sony BDP-S185 has been stellar.  Since I do not have a 7.1 channel A/V system—the aforementioned Sony HT-CT150 is a 3.1 channel system—I cannot speak to that feature, however the sound through the Sony HT-CT150 is more than adequate.  So too is the sound through the Bose Solo (bedroom unit).

The image quality via Blu-Ray discs is outstanding!  Mated to either one of my Samsung HDTV’s the colors are rich, vibrant, shockingly sharp & clear, and everything I heard Blu-Ray could be.  Boot-up time is minimal.  Regular DVD disc playback is also outstanding and truth be told, there is little difference between the two formats.  And of course any audio formatting is also present.         
 
Conclusion

Despite the issue I have had with the family room unit and may yet have to replace it, I am pleased with the Sony BDP-S185 1080p Blu-Ray DVD Player.  The unit is small, yet high versatile and full-featured.  I have yet to explore all of the on-line/streaming option the unit has to offer, but I look forward to hours of discovery. 

If you are looking for a small foot-print, affordable ($87.47 at Amazon.com), versatile streaming Blu-Ray player, give the Sony BDP-S185 1080p Blu-Ray DVD Player a look.   

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 87.47