Sony BDPS350 Blu-ray Player
By Alistair • Jun 10th, 2009 • Category: Entertainment, Featured
After the demise of HD-DVD people were somewhat nervous about moving across to the Blu-ray. Not only was it a whole new technology to buy into (discs to replace, players to purchase etc) but it was also not very affordable. Of course there were a few ‘budget’ players with their price anything but and the feature set definitely lacking.
So it’s 2009 and, perhaps a little later then we’d have anticipated, there are finally some great affordable players on the market. Our favourite definitely has to be the Sony BDPS350 (yeah trying saying that a few times) with it’s great features, price and quality (heck it’s a Sony product after all). Now is the time to get into HD.
Let’s get all the geeky bits over and done with, the Sony BDPS350 sports the following:
- 1080p output at 24fps
- HDMI and component video connections
- PhotoTV HD
- BRAVIA Sync
- Network Update
- BD-Live
- 7.1 Channel HD
- BD-ROM/R/RE, DVD-+Video/R/RW, CD Playback, AVCHD Playback
Now with that out of the way we’ll summarise that for you – this Blu-ray player is upgradeable via it’s network updates, supports the highest HD output, looks stylish and has amazing audio. Inside the box you’ll find a remote control, the player itself, instruction manuals and disc for your PC. Batteries are included for the remote control but you’ll need to source your own HDMI and ethernet cable to connect it up to your system.
Plugging in and connecting up via HDMI was easy and with one cable you get both video and audio sent down it. HDMI truly is an amazing way to cut down on clutter behind the TV. Upon powering on the setup routine takes you through a few questions with the defaults being more than sufficient. With all that done the first thing we did was to upgrade the device via the network update. Downloading the update was painless and applying it took about 10 minutes. Sadly there was no progress bar output on the TV but the front the device said ‘VUP 1/9′ and progressed through that.
The menu system (XrossMediaBar) is similar to that of other Sony products and quite clutter free. Most of the time you’ll never need to bother with it as simply slotting in a disc starts the movie. If you’ve never seen HD before then you’ll be blown away by the quality of Blu-ray movies. There’s no comparison between DVD with scenes being crisp and clear. Colours were extremely vivid giving you that ‘Wow!’ moment.
Of course all of the new Blu-ray features are there with inline menus and video that you can access whilst the movie is playing. This can include things like directors commentary which can pop up while watching. BD-Live support is in there too letting you enjoy additional content (such as extra scenes, games etc) when connected to the Internet. This does require a USB flash disc which you can insert at the back of the player.
And don’t about all your existing DVD movies as the BDPS350 ‘upscales’ existing DVDs so you get a better picture quality. Of course it’s no substitute to HD but definitely gives your old DVDs a new lease on life.
The player itself is finished to a high quality and decently sized. Still think it could be a little bit smaller but hey no doubt the next few models will fix that. It’s whisper quiet (yeah can’t imagine what it must have been like to watch HD DVDs on the xbox360!) and does not take too long to load discs, probably averaging around 6 to 7 seconds. Our one gripe will be the blue light on the front of the player which we found to be a bit distracting. No doubt after using it for a while you’ll get used to it, but why do they design it like that?
The remote control fits nicely in your hand and has all the options you need. We tested the player on a Toshiba 1080p LCD TV and between the two they decided they could talk to one another over ‘Regza Link’. This mean we could control the player via the TV remote. Very handy and it looks like this is support on other devices too. Hey if we can do away with one more remote control then why not.
Now the best part about this Blu-ray player must be the price. Very affordable at $289.99
Final verdict : If you’re looking to get into Blu-ray and have been holding out then go on and splash out on the BDPS350. It’s not going to break the bank, is from a reputable brand and is packed with features and quality. Enjoy!