Sony Blu-ray Player research

Sony's BDP-S360 Blu-ray player ($299.99 variety) is often a wonderful case in point of finding additional for a smaller amount. It delivers even much better photograph excellent than its predecessor, the superb BDP-S350, nonetheless the S360's price is $100 decrease. Several sacrifices were produced: You will not obtain the multimedia streaming functions another gamers on this cost range supply, for example. But in the event you consideration about photo quality over all else, the S360 delivers.

Behind a fold-along door within the S360's glossy tinted deal with you'll uncover a centrally located tray mechanism, an information show, and standard playback controls. The player's ahead-facing energy and eject buttons inside upper corners of its confront are significantly less difficult to function than have been the upward-angled buttons of your S350, especially as soon as the unit is stacked less than other parts. The primary remote manage is really a step again from the S350's, which featured bigger buttons over a larger frame. Sony has also eliminated the eject button to the new remote, doing it much more seemingly you might smudge the participant's glossy encounter with fingerprints when inserting and getting rid of discs.

The S360 lacks the S-Video clip connection that was around the S350 but retains the HDMI and component picture outputs that aid HD picture formats. Such as the LG BD370, the S360 also attributes coaxial and optical electronic audio outputs for larger versatility when connecting to an amplifier that may not aid HDMI audio. As with most Blu-ray players, the S360 settles for the composite video clip cable; makers really should contain HDMI cables, as an alternative, for superior photo excellent and simplified setup.

An Ethernet port within the S360 enables simplified firmware updates around a broadband connection, plus a USB port might be filled with 1GB or more of flash storage to allow support for BD-Dwell downloadable multimedia functions. The low cost price tag of flash memory space these days need to make this optional upgrade standard, but at the least this participant's USB port is undetectable out of sight; the LG BD370 leaves the reminiscence sticking out the front of your participant.

Specifications

Picture Outputs Composite, Component, HDMI Audio Outputs Optical (Toslink), Coaxial, HDMI, Stereo RCA Height 2.two ins Width 16.9 ins Depth 8.one inches Fat 4.half a dozen lb Supported Video recording Formats 480p, 720p, 1080i, 480i, 1080p60, 1080p24 Disc Structure Assist DVD Video clip Networking Options Ethernet A lot more

Unlike other $300 gamers for example the Samsung BD-P1600 and Panasonic DMP-BD60, the S360 does not assistance Internet-based mostly streaming of providers including Netflix's Check out Instantly (Samsung) or YouTube (Panasonic). The participant supports JPEG and MP3 multimedia file playback, but only from a recorded disc (Blu-ray, CD, or DVD) and not also by way of USB like other players, including the aforementioned Panasonic and Samsung models.

At 41 seconds, the S360's Blu-ray load time is a couple of seconds more rapidly than the S350's. In the event the S360's Swift Commence function is enabled, it reduces the time the player demands to start out up and eject its disc tray from 23 seconds to 7 seconds. The S360 is under common at swiftly scrolling by way of very long menus, however: It took 22 seconds, whereas the LG BD370 required only 15 seconds.

The S360 is superior at upconverting normal-definition DVDs than another Blu-ray participant I've examined. The challenging HQV Benchmark DVD showed that the S360 could limit jagged-edge artifacts greater than the Panasonic DMP-BD60. And also the S360 nailed all of your benchmark's movie cadence tests that check out for preservation of detail when dealing with some in the additional frequent frame costs employed picture manufacturing-which includes the price of 24 frames each moment (fps) by which most movies and prime-time TV SET shows are captured.

Most Blu-ray movies are stored within the 1080p24 structure (1080p resolution, 24 fps), along with the BDP-S360 can output this movie structure to your compatible exhibit via HDMI. But not like the Panasonic DMP-BD60, the S360 upconverts DVD films not to 1080p24 but to your much more commonly supported 1080p60 structure which will introduce judder, that is noticeable in gradual panning photographs.