2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Good basic device.
Date of Review: Dec 29, 2008
The Bottom Line: Not worth the extra cost. No USB is a big issue if you want to show pictures or video from your computer. Wait for the next generation Blu-Ray players.
The BDP-S350 outputs excellent quality pictures. It up-converts standard definition (SD) video to High Definition (HD) to the maximum 1080p format. It will load/unload discs relatively quickly. All basic functions are easy to use.
It has a display feature that that shows a quick view (to the miute) of where in the disc you are. It also shows the data-rate of the disc that's playing. Basically a nerd thing.
The annoyance comes when trying something more than Play, Pause or Fast Foward (FFWD).
This player does NOT have a USB input, so you can't plug in a Fashdrive & show stuff for your computer or digital camera. This is a serious issue if your TV doesn't have a USB input either as it limits the usefullness of your big screen TV.
During FFWD you don't get a continuous, sped-up version of the video. It shows a freeze frame that updates at different rates depending on which FFWD speed you choose. For example, at 1x FFWD you see 1 still image for every 3 seconds, at 2x its 1 frame every 11 seconds. This makes it hard to find a specific spot in a video.
This is fairly standard in most of this years Disc players. Due mostly to the processor needed to decode MPEG video streams, so is not a problem on just the Sony. It's just very annoying to me. Next generation players should have the higher processing power to eliminate this prblem and make still frames sharper.
Alll in all, I wouldn't recommend this player unless you really need Blu-Ray play back right now. Most of the current crop of standard def players will do a great job with DVD playback. Just look for "1080p Upconverting" in the specs. Many also have USB playback that'll show pictures and video files you download from the net and put on a flash drive. The difference in upconverting standard Def DVD and playing Blu-Ray discs is noticable, but not that great to justify the $100+ extra price.
