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Sony BDP-S350

Sony A/V products tend to cost more than those from other makers, so a truly affordable Blu-ray machine like the company's BDP-S350 ($300) makes one stand up and take note. But while this player debuted with the ability to internally decode Dolby TrueHD soundtracks (no DTS-HD Master Audio, though), initial shipments lacked BD-Live compatibility despite the presence of a LAN port on its rear panel. That situation was fixed last fall, however, by a firmware update that boosted the player to full Profile 2.0 stature.

The Sony's face is relatively uncluttered, sporting only three control buttons and an LED light to indicate 24p video output. Its depth is notably shallow -- a good thing, too, since the slot for plugging in a USB storage device to enable BD-Live features is located on the player's back panel (an arrangement that, unlike on the LG BD300, avoids marring front-panel cosmetics with an awkward protuberance). Although the BDP-S350 lacks a multichannel analog-audio output, it has pretty much every other jack type you'd expect to see, including HDMI, and component, composite, and S-video, along with stereo analog and both coaxial and optical digital audio.

Like the other remotes here, Sony's doesn't have a backlit keypad, though its buttons are well spaced out and easy to locate. Many key buttons are clustered around the central navigation control, including Home, which launches the player's distinctive XMB (Xross Media Bar) onscreen-display menu, and Option, which calls up a display that lets you adjust noise reduction and other picture settings. Pressing Display, meanwhile, puts up a screen providing detailed data about soundtrack and video-encoding format, along with variable bit-rate readout.

Setup & Performance

A cool feature of the S350 (at least for those who regularly watch lots of movies) is its Quick Start-up mode. With this, the player goes into permanent standby, powering up and accepting discs in about 6 seconds. Load time was similarly speedy: regular Blu-ray titles took about 25 seconds, while Java-heavy ones clocked in at around 70 seconds. Otherwise, the Sony's general operation was fine, although I found that its slowest fast-scan mode provided somewhat choppy visual quality when searching through discs.

The BDP-S350's handling of test discs was for the most part excellent on both the Blu-ray and DVD fronts. The only significant test that it tripped on was the HQV high-def-video resolution pattern, which is one we use to gauge a player's ability to deinterlace 1080i-format video-based images. As I mentioned in my LG BD300 review, such discs are few and far between, so I wouldn't hold this against the Sony. Wall•E's picture looked crisp and vivid when I watched it on the company's KDL-55XBR8 TV, and so did many of my standard reference DVDs that I checked out.

Bottom Line

Sony's BDP-S350 is an all-around basic, good-performing Blu-ray player that won't set you back much. The BDP-S350 doesn't do Netflix streaming or DTS-HD Master Audio decoding. But what this Sony player does do, it does exceedingly well.

The Round-up

Blu-ray Disc has come a long way since we started messing around with it back in 2006. Numerous features we've been waiting for since Blu-ray was announced, like Bonus View PIP video commentaries and BD-Live interactivity, have become commonplace on many new disc releases. And with the arrival of maxed-out new players like the quartet reviewed here, we now have machines primed to take advantage of them.

If you're looking for a player that offers very solid audio and video performance, including decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks, Panasonic's DMP-BD35 is an excellent choice. Its affordable $250 price makes it the best Blu-ray deal going. Those seeking more of a Swiss Army knife approach to Blu-ray should check out Samsung's BDP-2550. It not only offers excellent video performance, including flawless upconversion of regular DVDs, but its Netflix HD and Pandora streaming give you plenty of other stuff to do when you run out of discs. Also, built-in 1-GB local storage for BD-Live features means one less thing you'll have to buy. LG's BD300 is also a solid performer, with its appeal heightened by standard- and high-def Netflix streaming. Last but not least is Sony's BDP-S350, a basic model that provides high-quality Blu-ray and DVD playback at a reasonable price.