(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET Networks)
During the 2008 holiday season, we found plenty of affordable Blu-ray players to recommend under $300. Fast-forward a couple months, and we're surprised to find that many of those players are either discontinued (Panasonic DMP-BD35) or are no longer discounted.
You can still get a few Blu-ray players for a bargain, but you'll have to give up some features to get under the $300 mark. None of these players have multichannel analog-audio outputs and they also lack onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio. That being said, most people won't have any complaints with the Blu-ray image quality of these players and the top two players are Profile 2.0 compatible. If you can wait a few more months before you make the jump to Blu, it might be worth seeing how much Samsung and LG price their new Blu-ray players, but these are some of the better bargains available right now.
Read our full comparison of budget Blu-ray players.
Related content: Best Blu-ray players.
(Credit:
Sony)
Sony has added BD-Live capability to the BDP-S350, making good on a promise it made when the Blu-ray player was released earlier this year. The upgrade is available as a free firmware update for existing users; it downloads and installs to the unit straight over the Internet at the click of a button. Even better, the price of the player has dropped to $300. That means--for the time being, at least--the player is 25 percent more affordable than the PlayStation 3.
... Read more
Will the pricetag of the Sony BDP-S350 get a $100 haircut?
(Credit: Sony)Sony will be dropping the prices on its standalone (non-PlayStation 3) Blu-ray players by $100 in September, according to an anonymous source cited by CE insider Gary Merson on his HD Guru Web site.
Around the same time, the source claims that budget players manufactured by Funai and sold under the labels Philips, Magnavox, Sylvania, and Insignia could drop as low as $249. Specifically, the Sony BDP-S350 would drop from $400 to $300, and the as-yet-unreleased step-up model, the BDP-S550, would be introduced at $400, instead of the $500 price that was previously announced.
Now, anonymous sources are a dime a dozen on the Internet, but our normal degree of "beware stuff you see on a blog" cynicism is tempered by two points. First: Merson's had a good track record on getting the inside scoop on forthcoming price drops in the past (example). Second, the fact that prices are coming down as we approach the all-important holiday buying season just makes sense--we'd be more surprised if the prices didn't fall.
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The BDP-S350 is the smallest Blu-ray player we've seen yet--only a few inches deeper than a standard Blu-ray case.
We know you may not be interested in a standalone Blu-ray player, but at least the Sony BDP-S350 brings something new to the table.
We just posted our full review, and as you can tell from the image, the BDP-S350 is smaller than any other Blu-ray player we've seen, measuring just 8.75 inches deep. It also has a quick start feature, which powers on the player in just a few seconds, although engaging the feature means the BDP-S350 will sip about 9 watts of juice even when it's powered "off."
Most importantly to videophiles, the image quality is actually pretty good, surpassing most of its budget competition and only slightly stumbling on video-based Blu-ray discs.
So why did the BDP-S350 get a relatively lukewarm rating?... Read more
Is the BDP-S550 the first standalone Blu-ray player better than the PS3?
(Credit: Sony)Sony has announced two new Blu-ray players scheduled to be released in the second half of the year: the entry-level BDP-S350 and the step-up BDP-S550. We haven't been the biggest fans of Sony's recent standalone Blu-ray players (the BDP-S300 was really slow and the same price as the PlayStation 3). Fresh off its victory over HD DVD, however, the company has announced two new Blu-ray players for 2008, both of which sport considerably more attractive feature sets and prices. Here are the details:
Key features of the Sony BDP-S350:
- Supports BonusView, which means it is Profile 1.1 compliant
- BD-Live ready, which means it can gain BD-Live capability with a firmware update
- Ethernet port for firmware upgrades
- Supports 1080p output at both 24 and 60 frames per second
- Onboard decoding for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD
- Bitstream output for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
- About $400 list price, scheduled to come out this summer
Step-up features on the BDP-S550
- Onboard decoding for DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio
- 7.1 analog outputs
- 1GB local storage, which should make it Profile 2.0 compliant
- About $500 list price, scheduled to come out in the fall
While the BDP-S350 is interesting for its relatively low price point, it's still going to be hampered by the fact that it costs the same as the PlayStation 3--which offers almost all the same functionality (except bitstream audio output for high-resolution soundtracks), plus you get a high-definition game console and a media streamer. On the other hand, we could see the BDP-S550 being a hit with home theater enthusiasts because it offers a couple of key step-ups that make is a particularly solid standalone player--DTS-HD Master Audio Decoding and 7.1 analog outputs. We're betting that the PS3 eventually gets onboard DTS-HD Master Audio decoding--which will make BDP-S550 less attractive--but for right now it looks like a solid option for audiophiles, especially those who plan to use the 7.1 analog outputs. Of course, the BDP-S550 will also have to compete with other step-up standalone players coming out this year and we're betting the Panasonic DMP-BD50 will give it a run for its money.
On Sale Now: $179.95 - $432.91
View the latest prices for Sony BDP-S350
On Sale Now: $549.00
View the latest prices for Sony BDP-S550
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