Is it normal for a Blu-ray player to be noisy?

[DarthPrime]

I picked up a Sony Blu-ray player (BDP-BX2, Sam's and Costco's model of the BDP-S360) a few weeks ago, and it seems noisy compared to my older DVD player. When loading a disc, or for a few secs when the player is first turned on you can hear the drive making a "reading" noise. It sounds like the lens is moving back and forth. I doesn't do this during playback. Its not very loud, but noticeable from a few feet away from the TV.

Movies seem to playback fine (only had a chance to watch a few), but I'm concerned about the noise. I went back to the store and tired to see if the demo unit did this, but with the noise of the store I couldn't tell.

Are Blu-ray drives generally more noisy than DVD drives?

[ajmrowland]

Often times, a device from one brand has to work a little harder than the same from other brands. This causes the fan to make more noise. My PS3, luckily, is near-silent.

[DarthPrime]

I've never heard the fan on my player. The noise I'm hearing is similar to the noise the PS3 makes in this video when the game is first loaded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8tvct3b ... re=related

Not real sure if a stand alone player should make these noises or not. My friend said his Magnavox player is completely silent. I have a week left to exchange the player, although if the noise I hear is normal there isn't any use in exchanging it.

[2099net]

I would say Yes. I've no experience of a Blu-ray stand alone player, only my PS3 (which does seem to be nosier when playing Blu-rays then playing games). However, my HD-DVD player is quite noisy - its about the same as my PS3, which surprised me at the time.

When the PS3 is first turned on, the fan does a short, high volume, high speed bust. It's hard to tell from that You-Tube video how loud it is, because we have nothing to calibrate the sound setting to.

You'll soon get used to it. It's not really a problem. Now, if we were talking of 360 levels of noise...

If its a mechanical sound (you can hear my PS3 seeking data at times), its possible - I presume your player has two lenses, it could be something to do with head positioning. Incidently, I believe the PS3 now has two lenses, even though the original PS3s had one lense. I don't know why the change, either money or it wasn't reliable enough (the PS3 disc read error is quite common).

[ajmrowland]

The volume on my tv must drown out the PS3 fan, because mine sounds fairly quiet when watching movies at reference-level.

[DarthPrime]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'm starting to think this is just normal for a Blu-ray drive. I can't find any good examples of the "read" noise other than the PS3 one above. I did find a few examples of a Samsung stand alone player, and it was a lot louder than the Sony player I have now. The player is in a bedroom about 4 foot from where I sit, so that's probably why I hear it. I'm just used to my DVD player which is silent compared to the new Blu-ray player.

Also I think some PS3s are louder than others on fan noise. My friends 60GB launch unit gets pretty loud sometimes, but never loud enough to hear it over movies or games.

[KubrickFan]

My Blu-ray player (Sony BDP-S350) has an option that increases the loading time when the disc starts up. Apparently it makes the fans go louder, because it has to work harder. Maybe your player has that option too, and it's selected?

[DarthPrime]

My Blu-ray player (Sony BDP-S350) has an option that increases the loading time when the disc starts up. Apparently it makes the fans go louder, because it has to work harder. Maybe your player has that option too, and it's selected?

Its turned off. From what I can tell the noise is coming from the drive and not the fan.

[DarthPrime]

Went ahead and did an exchange this afternoon, and the new one seems better. It makes a slight noise, but you can only hear it next to the player. Compared to the other one its pretty silent.