Sony's new MegaChanger and ES Blu-ray players in the flesh
By Paul Miller 
posted Jul 24th 2009 8:11PM
posted Jul 24th 2009 8:11PM
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It's not worth it.
this shows how FAT americans are getting that now they want to shove 400 disks in a BD player so they dont have to get up from the couch and switch disks...
It's only being released in the US?
They should have been smart about this and made it a streaming jukebox with RS-232 control so that your HTPC could control the jukebox and have it send the video to any room in the house. That's the only real use for a carousel of this magnitude.
Yes, might not be worth it, but price point still better than the Olive Opus music server for $1,799 and that URC Universal Remote with haptic feedback that's going for "less than $1,500". Wouldn't be surprised if Blu-ray becomes obsolete before anyone can fill this thing up with all Blu-ray titles.
I agree it's not worth it. That thing is moving past 'home electronics' into the 'straight up ugly' category.
Can't afford that many Blu ray
Yeah, I don’t really understand how this product may be utilized. Perhaps it’s intended for a photo studio, science lab or commercial enterprise. I really can’t imagine any average end user being able to justify this thing.
Regards,
Yes, but does it play HD-DVD as well?
;)
sony... so, no
uh.
moving on....
Why would we want to play HD-DVD?
I wouldn't.
I don't know why you would.
Wish it could play PS3 titles, or can be hooked up to a PS3... Or produce a PS3 disc changer somehow... Even a 200 disc would do nicely for those with large game collections.. /dream.
$1900 for the player, but $12,000 for the Blu Ray discs to go in it (400x$30)
Kind of like the price to fill up an iPod with iTunes bought songs.
Thank god for piracy.
Are there 400 BD titles in existence worth watching?
Or... $400 media PC with a couple 1.5TB HDDs and Boxee!
-Taylor
Dude, if I give you some money, will you buy me some of those 1.5TB drives that hold 6 or 7 TB?
Also, please tell me where to find a $400 PC that can output 1080/24p and bitstream over HDMI, as well as controll enough HDD's to hold 400 Blu-Rays worth of data.
I'd prefer a media server too, but the people pitching it as the cheap alternative don't know what they're talking about.
Look up XBMC for Linux and VDPAU. You're welcome.
Yeah, cause it was the $99 for windows that made this implausible.
Try again, with facts please.
Are there even 400 Blu-ray movies out yet?
Ha!
Even if there were, how many of em would you actually wanna watch?
the adult film industry got a contract to sell some titles in blu ray.
so yes. there are over 400 titles out. It's just that half are titles like "obama nails palin"
the players are quickly approaching a price that can and might dominate dvd, but the media is still too expensive, blank or otherwise they have to focus on bringing the price of the media down.
I just bought the changer. Woot.
sonys ui looks a lot like wmc
oh and sony sucks.
No SA-CD support?
Those 12 people are gonna be disappointed.
You can find me and the other 11 at ps3sacd.com.
Meh. I'll be in my living room listening to SACDs with my Yamaha B-2 and my Bozaks...
Would it really be XMB 'styled'? Shouldn't it just be the XMB since Sony stated a while ago that they were going to standardize the interfaces across their products? Nit picking I know but just wondering.
400 Blu-Rays x 35gb (Avg iso including all features)
/931 (1tb hd)
=15 1tb HD's
15*80 = 1200
+200(raid cards)
+250(mobo, proc, ram, etc)
+300(server case)
+netflix subscription
much better deal IMO
Is there a reliable blu-ray ripping program? I love the idea of saving my blu-rays to disc and stripping out the frigging commercials.
I see what you did there
400 Blu-Rays x 35gb
+ ripping time
+ waiting around while it happens
+ configuring the HTPC server
+ ... ah fuck it ...
I have $2000 to spend I'll just put the discs in a big electronic case.
Your CPU/MOBO/RAm might be $250.... But your PSU will be $500.
15 Drives. Sheesh
it would be a better device if it's a ps3... I can keep both my BD and ps3 game collection in the machine itself.
QUOTE:---------------------------------------------------
400 Blu-Rays x 35gb (Avg iso including all features)
/931 (1tb hd)
=15 1tb HD's
15*80 = 1200
+200(raid cards)
+250(mobo, proc, ram, etc)
+300(server case)
+netflix subscription
much better deal IMO
END QUOTE: ----------------------------------------
So you're advocating renting blu-ray movies from NetFlix and ripping them to your HTPC?
This is all about convenience and HTPC-Blu-Ray is not convenient, it take a lot of work and not everyone wants the hassle.
I have an HTPC myself and rip all my DVD's to a 20TB Raid, but I don't rip my Blu-Ray's.
I ordered one of these changers because it's CONVENIENT.
20TB RAID? Joe Average speaking there... and your RIPPING how many DVDs? Sounds like SBG's got more $ than __________ (you fill in your noun/adj)
Everyone has their hobbies and Home Theater is mine. I never said the my 20TB Raid was full, but it's there for when I add new DVD's to my collection.
Sounds like SBG's got more $ than _AniMill__
I'd like to get this 400 Disc Mega changer, but the price is to high for me. You don't have to fill it all with Blu-Ray's, but DVD's and CD's also. Of course when your spending 2K, DVD's and CD's seem like a waste of space. Why oh Why does the cost jump up so much?!?! It's just basically a large Plastic tray to hold 400 disc's sitting on top of a Disc player and some software.
I always thought, wouldn't it be nice if these things, you fill it up, and it goes though each disc and gets the info form the Internet and makes a nice Database of all the movies and Info and Pictures, kind of like DVD Profiler, and you look though, find what you like and it just loads it right up. If you needed more space, being able to Daisy chain up 2, 3, maybe 4 of these things together, imagine 1600 disc's, Blu-Ray, DVD's CD's, all together and easy access at anytime with a nice Database to see on the screen.
Yet the ones I've seen are so primitive. Bad Menu's, Manually having to enter names, etc. What a let down. This newest one looks much better, but I'm guessing some of the same Limitations?!?! Riping the Disc's onto some type of Media server is a Idea, but the COSTS, are pretty high I think. You need a halfway decent PC, but also a whole lot of HDD. A bunch of HDD running is also not very energy efficient. Oh, not to mention all the time your spending Riping DVD's and especially Blu-Ray's. Hours, and Hours, and Hours. Your going to need a Really, really fast PC to cut that time down a little bit. I know it's more flexible, more features, but a HDD takes a dump on you and your screwed also. For now, it's the Manual way. Run DVD Profiler on the PC or PDA, and look though and see what I feel like watching, then find the Disc, and Place it into the player, and when done, put it back.
Don't buy the ES then, get the standard one that is substantially less.
The Non-ES changer looks pretty damn good for $800 (this article says $700 which would be even better).
It's not like you have to fill the thing with Blu-Rays, it also accepts and upscales DVDs. I could easily fill over half of this thing with my current DVD/Blu-Ray collection and would give me an excuse to box up all the cases.
If this thing really sells for $700, then I will definitely get one. I would have liked to see some PS3 integration as mentioned by another poster, but I can imagine this being very handy. Not sure why everyone is calling it too expensive, it seems pretty damn reasonable to me. In fact it's about the same price as their 200 DVD changer they were selling a while back.
Thanks, I think I'll wait until Blu-ray folds in 3-4 years, and buy this thing used on eBay for $36 (including shipping).
Better yet, forget Blu-ray. Wait, I've already done that...
$2000 isn't bad at all for 400 discs, it'd be perfect for somewhere like a pub/bar instead of a jukebox even if they only used CD's in it. Bear in mind there are single disc players that will run you $2.5k+ and if you're running somewhere where you want live music this is a hell of a lot easier than getting someone to manually change it.
For a home setup, i don't know why people are moaning that people who use this are fat and lazy, a good lot of people are turning to hard drive options which is even lazier (you have effectively unlimited capacity) and you're sacrificing quality in most cases. With this at least if you have a home cinema you can simply pop all your discs in and forget about it. Note: people saying they can't afford 400 BDs, it also plays back normal DVDs as you'd expect.
Oh and price wise comparison to a PC, it's quite a bit cheaper. Assuming this costs £2000 in the UK... TB's are down to around £70 and you'll need 15 according to another post. So call that £1000 just for the drives. Now on top of that you're going to need a very good power supply - at least a kw and you don't want to skimp on quality, you'll need a good RAID controller, i'd probably get fully buffered RAM just to be sure and not to mention the size of the case and the ventilation. That cost is inching towards the £2k mark and i think for convenience i'd stick with the changer. Oh and lets not even begin to mention backup, with 15 drives?!
"$2000 isn't bad at all for 400 discs, it'd be perfect for somewhere like a pub/bar instead of a jukebox even if they only used CD's in it."
Except they could buy a CD-only changer for a tenth of the price?
I think these are all reasonable. Keep in mind that ES stuff comes with 5 years of warranty. I'm still having a hard time with why the 1000es gets the ES badge, it's like a bdps560 with analog outs...
Another boring product that no one asked for. Way to go Sony!
Couldn't agree more. Who wants to have that big an ugly box wasting space in the living room anyways?
I have a 300 (or so, can't remember) CD player in my living room. Big waste of space and computers moved faster than the disc technology so its useless now.
If you buy this Sony monster now, how fast will it be obsolete? And who is interested in Glu-Rays anyways (glue = that's how they BDs stick to the shelf in the best buys)
I would buy it if it was from Apple and charged with 3000$
This is so 1999.
Yes, it is "so 1999" That is because sony already owns the designs and plans for many of their previous disc changers.
So all they are doing is recycling 12cm disc changers into the latest format.
The XMB is pretty beautiful on that. Slap a TB hdd in there, and UPnP sharing and thats a pretty damned awesome media centre. Still the price isn't right :/
austin @ Jul 24th 2009 8:19PM
sony... so, no
+1
I don't think I will ever buy another sony product again if I can go with a competitor. Besides considering the size of this beast you can go with a server and a 2TB drive for the same footprint and it does a hell of a lot more more a smaller price. A special thanks to SONY for being a douche all these years
What everyone is missing is the potential distribution applications of this device.
Put it in the rack in your home, centrally located, and attach it to a video matrix switcher. Then, with a system like Control4, you have flawless cover art browsing and no need to change discs. It is robust, reliable, and does not require that you crack any sort of copy protection to use your Blurays.
It will also upconvert your DVDs, playback all CDs, and automatically scan itself when a new disc is inserted, going out to the internet through Control4 to get the cover art.
Sweet piece. Anyone who has owned the DVP-777ES can attest to how good they work.
I'm one of those DVP-777ES owners, and there are only two drawbacks: the menuing software is a bit dated (would be very nice if Sony came out with a firmware update that could be applied via CD-R or DVD-R) and the "robot" can only work on one side of the media. While most discs are single sided, I've got some stuff that is double-sided for one reason or another.
Didn't see anything about handling the double-sided media, but the menu update would be a VERY welcome change.
Common stupid complaints regarding the mega changer
1. It’s sooo big! This is something those that make this complaint are very sensitive to as they have never heard this comment applied to them self. Actually its dimensions are 9.5”X22”x17” or 3,553 cubic inches. A DVD case is approximately 7.5”X5.5”X.5” or 20.625 cubic inches. In other words, 172 DVDs in a box would take up the same space. So the Mega Changer takes up much less space. Of course you could only display 34 DVDs and actually see the titles in the same space this item takes. So what is the problem, the extra foot and a half of depth? This product is not intended for people who live in a van down by the river.
2. It’s too expensive! At 50 GB per Blue Ray RW, 400 disks, that is 20,000 GB or 20 TB of storage. Assuming you want a safe internal hard drive to hold your movie collection, the Western Digital WD RE3 [RAID EDITION] 3.5in Enterprise SATA Hard Drive, 1TB, is currently on sale for $160. That’s $3,200. Let’s say you can find one with the safety you are comfortable with for $100 each. That’s still 2 grand. The mega changer not only stores but plays just about any disk out there. Even DVD-R (DL), remember those? Even if a non compressed Blue Ray is only currently 35GB, it still doesn’t make sense to put Blue Ray’s on hard drives. This can be done but is illegal. If you cannot afford to pay attention let alone are complaining about the cost of an $800 Blue Ray player that has these specifications, you are not in the market for this device. Shut the door on your van down by the river.
3. Are there even 400 Blue Ray disks available? Yes, there are thousands of Blue Ray disks available and more coming out every week. You are missing the point though; it plays Blue Ray disks and regular DVDs. It upscales via its HDMI jack regular DVDs to 1080p. If you have ever seen this bit of techno magic it is worth the $400 difference between a good DVD player and one that will upscale to HD quality.
4. Blue Rays will be replaced by movies being downloaded off the internet soon. Yeah, like books were completely replaced when we had the ability to download the written word 2 decades ago. Yet 20 plus years later, we still have giant book stores in every town. The only media successfully converted to digital to date was music. That was because of the uniqueness of music listening. Most of us are satisfied listening to a few tracks while we are going to and fro in our cars. Not so with books or movies. Most of us attempt to watch a movie uninterrupted. A DVD is smaller than a hard drive if you want to take it somewhere. The quality of a Blue Ray is superior to anything that can be legally downloaded at this time. Most of us own TVs that provide bigger screens and more convenience than our computers do. Some technophiles are even talking a Blue Ray light (Blur Ray) which is “almost as good as” Blue Ray. Yeah, I imagine there will be a lot of support for this format from the motion picture industry so illegal downloading is made easier. It is also easy to take high speed internet for granted when you live in a city. Unlike Japan, much of America geographically does not have access to high speed internet, but most have a DVD player. Blue-ray stats.com quotes Nielson Videoscan that for the week of July 12th, Blue Ray sales rose to 13% of all DVD sales, $16.6 million dollars in sales that week alone. Up 149% from this week in 2008. Not too bad for a dying format. Unfortunately adult movies are now rapidly being released in Blue Ray, I wonder if those might increase sales? I think it is more likely the 480i movies on your hard drive will end up being overwritten when your kids find them in a few years. Expect to hear: “HAHAHA, look at Pops old movies, look how big the pixels are, way to go Pack-Man.”
5. This machine is just so you don’t have to get up to change the disk. I guess you don’t own an MP3 player then, because everyone knows the only people who own those are lazy folks who don’t want to put a new CD in the slot. Maybe it has something to do with the ability to access, organize, oh why bother, if you actually think this way go back to playing Mario brothers. In your van, down by the river.
If you really like movies and have a good steady job, you love Blue Ray. It is the best home movie technology ever created. Have you seen Pinocchio in Blue Ray? Gold finger? This Mega Changer in addition to holding 400 of any kind of discs leaves nothing out. It even outs in 24p True Cinema, 7.1 audio, Gracenote Metadata, you name it, and it has it. If you really love movies, you should organize a parade in the Mega Changer’s honor. If unwilling to do so, please consider stop bashing the commitment this company has made to those of us who really like movies by providing us this no-holds barred product.