Review: Sony BDP-S1700 Streaming Blu-Ray Player

I haven’t mentioned this yet but Wifi Streaming in my house is a real chore. Not watching shows, but getting the different systems from diverse manufacturers to connect to one’s home Wifi system can be a real challenge for some users. I needed another Blu-Ray player for the Master bedroom because my wife keeps asking me to watch movies at bedtime. I could have gotten another Wifi product, but I’m tricky and have a lot of old tech in boxes. That’s why I bought this Sony LAN Streaming player, instead of another Wifi headache. Let’s talk about it.

The Sony BDP-S1700 Streaming Blu-Ray player is available at many retailers, including Amazon. The player comes in a small brightly colored box which contains the Blu-Ray player, the AC power Adapter, the remote control, and as always with a Sony product: the AAA batteries required for the remote to function. There are multi language instructions for the installation and operation of the unit. Even if you want to use it as a standalone unit for Blu-Ray alone, it’s really a good idea to hook it to your network with a LAN cable for the software updates. It has essentially zero apps or streaming ability without that LAN cable in place. In a bit, I’ll talk about how I dealt with that in a bedroom 50 ft away from the household router, without running a 50 ft cable.

This Sony player has minimal connectivity, too. On the back of the unit, there is one LAN port, one HDMI output, one DC power input, and a Coax connection to send the Audio signal to your sound system if you connect the HDMI to your TV, and not your Audio/Visual receiver. The power button and Tray Open/Close buttons as well as  a USB input are on the front panel. The USB input is for playing videos, music, or watching photos with the Sony Streaming Player. The instructions are clear and simple, showing the many ways to connect the unit to your router and A/V system. They also illustrate the small remote control, and it’s easy to operate controls. One nice feature: the remote can be linked to your TV, and supports many brands including of course, Sony. Other TV brands which can be controlled by the BDP-S1700 are Hitachi LG, Toshiba, RCA, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Sharp, Panasonic, Samsung and Philips.

This Blu-Ray player has some interesting features: One can lock the disc tray so children cannot open the player, and damage the unit or the discs. On the remote, one can set “FAVORITE” button to your favorite APP. Like most streaming players, the apps include Netflix, Hulu, and many others. I had only one complaint: Crunchyroll is not in the menu; my Samsung TV had dropped that App early last year, and it makes it difficult to watch without a different streaming device. I use a Roku just for that app. There is a “Home” button which goes to the Home screen. There are colored buttons which are used as shortcut keys for many interactive functions.

The Sony unit can play pretty much anything: It supports Blu-Ray discs(BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE), DVD discs(DVD-ROM, DVD-R/DVD-RW, DVD+R/DVD+RW) and CD discs(CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R/CD-RW). The player can play many kinds of video, audio, and image files in many kinds of formats, all of which are listed on the instructions. This unit can pretty much play any standard Audio or Video codec and a few unusual ones like Monkey’s Audio files with the extension: .ape.

Let’s talk about my solution to a 50 ft cable running across my entire house. We live in a large house, and our Wifi network has always been a challenge. I have bought or been given numerous Wifi network extenders in the past several years and not every device solved all the problems, so many have ended up set up in my network, and then after time, tossed into a box. I just happened to have an older extender which has a WAN output. Since I had already connected the device to my home network in the past, it was as simple as plugging in a LAN Cable between the BDP-S1700 and the Wifi Network Extender WAN port, then connecting the unit to power. That’s it, in a few seconds the system was booted and installing the software updates and apps.

The Home screen is clear with a simple to understand layout. I was able to quickly obtain sign in codes for my apps such as Hulu, or Amazon Prime and set up the system. My wife was watching Hulu in seconds and I was able to start writing this article. She asked for a new Blu Ray Player: I found a simple solution: The Sony BDP-S1700 Streaming Blu-Ray Player.

The Bottom Line: 

If your home Wifi is already overloaded with a number of devices, you might want to go back in time to a wired LAN Streaming Blu-Ray like the Sony BDP-S1700. It can be directly connected to any router with a LAN Cable, or to any Wifi network extender with a WAN port still with the LAN cable. It has many of the popular apps, and can play pretty much any kind of audio, or visual file whether on disc, or with the front mount USB input. Neither the very necessary LAN cable or the HDMI cable are included, but the AAA batteries were. This unit supports full HD 1080p Blu-ray disc playback when connected to a compatible TV with the HDMI cable. This is a sophisticated unit, with great ability, just not Wifi. I give it 10 stars for my use, 7 stars for the average user. 8.5 total score.

Our Rating 8.5 / 10 stars

Average Price* $85.00

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

Specifications:

What’s In The Box

• Instruction Manual
• Remote control (RMT-B127P)
• Batteries (Type AAA x 2)

• Customer Registration Card
• Warranty Card

Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.