Yamaha BD-S1065BL Blu-Ray Disc Player

Even with recent discounted price, not a competitive offering We all love a bargain and that's what this otherwise lofty-priced blu ray player appeared to be when its price recently dipped below two benjamins. In my ever-ending quest to test almost every blu ray player, I purchased one with reasonable hopes. Yamaha debuted this player at nearly $600 and thought it might be a capable performer with a bit too demanding a pricetag (a la the Denon DBP-2010CI). A few "professional" reviews had scored the player reasonably well in traditional AV quality, which led me to believe this player might be akin to the apparently higher end funai-built machines badged as Marantz, Onkyo, and Denon. Upon unboxing the player, my hopes were high in feeling the heft of the player. The player has an old-fashioned profile and weight similar to the larger Funai-built players. Connectivity on the rear panel is very good with Multi-Channel Analogue outputs, dedicated, down-mixed stereo outputs, usb hub, Ethernet connection and the usual video offerings. Upon powering up the player, I was astonished at how slow it was to boot. It dragged on for quite a while - reaching the 30 second-ish purgatory of the Pioneer BDP-51FD's boot time. The flash menu was a partial image of an open piano showing its strings that added a nice, unique touch. Once the setup menus appeared, I began to get an eerie feeling as to some of the origin of this player. The menu's graphics and test is very simple and lacks the refinement of a Pioneer, Oppo, or even Sony frankly. The quick start was the first worry that this was less of a Panasonic-based Funai player and something different. After configuring the internet connection, I was disappointed to realize that firmware can only be updated via the rear-mounted USB hub. This is as convenient as an ashtray on a Harley. After yanking out the player from my rack and downloading the firmware, I updated the player to the May firmware described to resolve playback issues with new discs including Avatar. The whole process took roughly five minutes. The lack of the ability to download firmware via the internet connection is really problematic considering most of us do not want to have yank out a player of the rack each time it needs a new firmware update. The Sharp-esque quick start feature did have a significant impact in powered off eject time, dropping it to a reasonable 2 seconds. That said, I could hear the fan blow while this player was in its idle state and can only believe that the activation of quick start would release an innocuous electricity leech in your rack. The configuration of the video and audio was relatively straight-forward, but disappointing in the utter lack of video adjustments. Outside of resolution, the image is effectively unalterable from the native state. There are no adjustments for colorspace, noise reduction, brightness, etc. You get what it puts out and that's it. While adjustments are not necessary, they seem nearly obligatory for a unit whose MSRP alone suggests a more refined AV experience. Image quality of blu ray is excellent, but not very different from any other blu ray player (including a $100 discount player) for 1080p 24fps sources. Colors seemed very accurate with skin tones avoiding warm or jaundiced looks. Motion was smooth and did not notice any unusual errors in depiction. DVD image quality was reasonable, but lacked the detail and subtle edge enhancement that could be found with a Pioneer BDP-320. While the image generally avoided deinterlacing errors and was moiré free, it was a bit less than convincing as a "well-upscaled" image to the naked eye. Synthetic tests showed it did well with 2:2 and 2:3:2:3 (PF-T) cadences, but was easily tripped up by the majority of other film cadences. This performance was consistent with Sharp-based players (ie Pioneer BDP-120 and BDP-330). As you may have inferred, I believe this player (and its big brother the BDP-1900) are based in part upon Sharp designs. I have no conclusive proof other than the menu layout and design, inclusion of a quick-start feature, firmware via usb, and video performance. In regard to disc playback, I noticed a few gremlins that are sadly very Sharp-esque. During playback of a Netflix copy of "The Way of the Gun" audio began to drop-out and the video stuttered, ultimately locking up the player. I tested the same scene of the blemished disc on my Pioneer BDP-320 and Oppo BDP-80, which played it without even the slightest hesitation or interruption. Analogue audio setup was relatively easy and I found the analogue output adequate, but far from arousing. I found analogue audio similar to the Sony 1000ES, but not nearly as rich as the Burr Browns in the Denon 2010 or the Pioneer BDP-320. At the end of the day, the $200 player marketplace has gone from budget to rife with excellent performers that include streaming, wireless connectivity, and even 3D capability. This player's only merit is traditional AV playback, which candidly it fails to establish itself as an above average performer let alone near the highly discounted Pioneer BDP-320 or Sony BDP-S1000ES. Sadly, even at $200, there are a number of better options Rating: 2 (Yamaha BD-S1065BL Blu-Ray Disc Player customer review by WDH, 2010-06-08)

Excellent Blu-Ray Disc Player This is an excellent blu-ray player. The colors are vibrant and the picture is crisp connected to my Sony LCD television via the HDMI port. Disc loading times are miniscule, with the player initiating playback in no time I have tested both recent and older blu-ray titles (The Prestigeand have experienced no problems loading the disc or enjoying the non-BD Live special features. The unit itself is very sleek and slender and weighs less than five pounds. Additionally, the player is silent during use. I highly recommend this player to anyone interested in owning a great blu-ray player at the decent price spectrum. Yamaha as always knocks the competition out or perhaps im biased towards Yamaha. Rating: 5 (Yamaha BD-S1065BL Blu-Ray Disc Player customer review by Nina Forsyth Thompson, 2010-01-26)

NOPE! LOOK ELSEWHERE FOR YOUR BLU-RAY PLAYER When Dorothy and crew approached the castle of the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, she encountered a old, dilapidated wooden sign that read . . . "I'd go back if I were you", and this expresses my sentiments perfectly for anyone considering the Yamaha BD-S1065 Blu-Ray Player. As a diehard Yamaha fan, I truly wish that I could offer prospective buyers of the Yamaha BD-S1065 something 'positive' about this particular player, because I've been a staunch supporter/consumer of all things 'Yamaha' for many years. The fact is, they make some of the finest home "audio" components available anywhere, but I'm afraid the same cannot be said of their "video" gear including the BD-S1065. Let me say at the outset that I own the Yamaha RX-V863BL A/V (home theatre) receiver ($600) and its an awesome unit! I also own a full line-up of Yamaha home theatre speakers including the Yamaha NS-C444 center speaker ($150), two Yamaha NS-B750 bookshelf speakers ($1200/pair), and a Yamaha YST-SW315 sub-woofer ($250), all of which operate flawlessly for me. So it seemed to make perfect sense to trust in the purchase of a new Yamaha BD-S1065 blu-ray player ($400) for our developing home theatre system. But unfortunately, that trust was completely shattered when I connected and evaluated the BD-S1065. The first unit I received had more problems than I care to articulate (right out of the box), but the single most troublesome flaw was that it took the player "eons" to load a new (standard issue) blu-ray disc. I mean it took literally 4-5 continuous minutes of scanning the disc before anything at all appeared on the television screen, and even then, it would re-enter yet another secondary "reading" phase that made the unit completely unusable in practical terms. I tried it on multiple discs of variable manufacture, and it misbehaved the same on each and every one of them. However, it also had a grossly outdated version of firmware, so being the optimist that I am (i.e., thinking that this might be the source of the problems), I foolishly went to the trouble of downloading the newest version of firmware from the Yamaha website to a CD/R disc via home computer and then transferring the new firmware to the BD-1065. Unfortunately, despite the firmware update, the problems all continued. In fact, some additional issues arose after the update including completely random stoppage of blu-ray discs right smack in the middle of viewing a movie (almost like a screensaver event)! Weird! Very-very weird. And significantly, the faulty behavior could not be duplicated using the same discs with a PlayStation 3 (PS3) or other (Samsung) blu-ray player. Fortunately, Amazon has always been great about returns, so I sent the unit back for a replacement. A week later, the second (new replacement) BD-S1065 arrived, so I plugged it in (just as before). To my utter dismay, all of the same issues or problems with the first unit were present with the 2nd (replacement) unit including protracted load times, excessive and multiple disc readings, random stoppage of the disc in the middle of playback, etc., etc. And believe me, the list of headaches goes on from there! In each instance, I used brand new blu-ray discs all of which played without incident on a blu-ray equipped PS3 and similar Samsung unit, and in each instance, I was able to repeat the problem by returning the disc to the Yamaha BD-S1065. End of story. Bottom line? This unit is NOT worth considering for your blu-ray needs. Sorry Yamaha, but I'd recommend that people look elsewhere for their blu-ray needs. Rating: 1 (Yamaha BD-S1065BL Blu-Ray Disc Player customer review by Extemporaneous, 2010-01-19)

Great performer! After dealing with playback issues on lesser Blu Ray players, I decided to go all in and buy something high end. This is a true piece of A/V equipment, not half toy / half computer. It has played everything I've put in it without skipping. Several DVD's that I thought were scratched because they always skip at some point play without hesitation in this player. The sound in fantastic, partly due to my Yamaha reciever, but I do notice a difference. The remote is OK but I use a Logitech Harmony so it doesn't matter for me. The case is full sized, not ultra slim player here. I had to adust my shelves to fit it in my A/V cabinet. My only issue so far is that the USB port is in the rear and you can't download updates directly from the internet. When I attached the ethernet cable to the network, I assumed that the updates would be downloaded onto the flash drive I had inserted. Not so. I had to download the files from the internet to put on the flash drive and re-insert into the rear of the player. This is not too big of an issue for the way I have my setup, but I could see how it could be a pain if someone didn't have easy access to the rear of the player. I have the LG 60PS80 so I don't miss the Netflix and YouTube, but I found on other players I had that I didn't use them much anyway for it to affect my purchase decision. Rating: 5 (Yamaha BD-S1065BL Blu-Ray Disc Player customer review by K. Klein, 2010-01-18)