Blu Ray Disc Players

The Sony BDP-S500 Blu-ray disc player is Sony’s latest Blu-ray disc player. This player’s predecessor Sony BDP-300 impressed its consumers with a great picture quality and low cost by sacrificing a few important features. BDP-S500 has become a prominent remedy by including a lot of these missing features such as DTS HD decoding and Dolby True HD.

Design:

Sony BDP-S500 Blu-ray DVD player has an eye- catchy design, much better than that of Sony BDP-300 Blu-Ray Disc Player. Though it is not as svelte as the other blu-ray DVD players, this unit has a bulky presence with a supreme build quality. The blue coloured glass fascia with a brushed metal finish is the perfect finishing touch that can be given to this impressive build quality. Sony has included a motorised front panel which glides down elegantly when the open/close toggle is being pressed. The device looks a little bigger and has a very classy looks which is evident in the following picture. The player’s height reaches around 100mm. This extra height makes it look very old fashioned. The motorised front tray might be one of the reasons why the player looks big.

Features:

As BDP-S500 is Sony’s current top-end blu-ray player, this model offers some important features over BDP-S300. The component, composites sockets, HDMI version3 and S-video take care of the video outputs. The player sports 5.1channel analog outputs and optical and coaxial digital audio outputs. These features allow you to enjoy Dolby digital, DTS and decoded HD audio sound tracks if you do not have a HDMI equipped receiver. You can transfer True HD, DTS HD bit streams and Dolby digital plus up to 8 channels of linear PCM through the players HDMI output if you already have a receiver with HDMI input and decoding capabilities. Yet, the player does not support DTS HD master audio so those you want to try out some of the high resolution tracks will be definitely disappointed. This player does not come with a HDMI cable which is unacceptable for a player that is expensive.

Upscaling:
Sony BDP-S500 video player can output videos in the resolutions of 720p, 1080i and1080p and hence, the player can also upscale the DVDs to any of these formats. The player will output the video in the native frame rate while playing blu-ray discs encoded in 1080p/24. If you have televisions with the relevant processing mode, then you can view your videos in the way they were actually shot, else the player also provides you the 1080p/60 output.

Playable formats:
BDP-S500 disc player can play recordable BD-R, BD-RE discs, DVDs, CDs and discs laden with JPEG and MP3 files. The player also has the ability to play AVCHD camcorder recordings on an 8 or 12cm DVD discs. In case they are recorded using xvYCC, then it can playback them with their extended colour palette on a HDMI 3.1 input TV.

Disappointing Profile1.0:
All these features are fascinating but it is disappointing that the player is of the profile 1.0 and not 1.1. As a result, the player can not play some of the interactive features that are found in the other blu-ray displayers. If you are a kind of person who wants to enjoy all the bonus features that are available in the disk, this player would prove to be very frustrating. In this case, you can opt for Sony’s PS3, which is the only player with profile1.1, currently available in the market.

Attractive interface:
This video player has a very easy interface that was attractive and intuitive. The menus are stylishly designed and presented in hi-def. This attractive interface is achieved with the use of XrossMediaBar.

The remote control:
BDP-S500’s remote control looks unique when compared to its counterparts. Its buttons have been carefully designed and logically arranged. It has a blue directional pad in the middle of the unit and the player responds swiftly to the commands of the remote. This player meets with the expectations of the BD-J menu well. The set-up can be accessed only in the stop mode but you can stop the disk without exiting the menu system hence that will not be a trouble for you.

BD-Live:
Sony BD-S500 Blu-Ray DVD Player comes with a Built in BD-Live (Profile 2.0) to immediately access studio-specific online content including trailers, interviews and other extras and enjoy them through your Blu-ray Disc™ Player. You can use the 1GB of exchangeable storage to save downloaded BD-Live content from the internet.

BRAVIA Sync technology:
BRAVIA Sync technology makes connecting the players to BRAVIA televisions and Home Theatre systems from Sony a piece of cake. You can enjoy this facility by connecting Sony components that are compatible with HDMI control function with HDMI cable.

Excellent audio and video performance:

The Sony BDP-S500 excels in one of the most important area, the picture and audio. One of the player’s major complaints was that, it takes a while to load. But once it gets loaded, it is definitely worth the wait. The disc player’s video quality is nothing less than phenomenal with its pure 1080/24p images. It had vivid colour reproduction, represented the deep black, and the ultra-sharp detail handling gave the images an irresistible three dimensionality. The player does not show any of the gamut faults, that we had witnessed in the other hi-def players. This spectacular video performance is complimented by an equally good audio performance. The down-mix from 7.1 to 5.1 surround sound to two-channel stereo is handled well. The HD formats yielded some spectacular sound quality and DVD also sounded great. No fault could be found with the CD playback too.

Sony BDP-S500 Blu-ray disc player has its point of attraction as its video and audio playback. Thought the fact that it lacks SACD playback and DTS HD Master Audio Support is disappointing, the feature list is very good. As the player is with profile 1.0, there is no question on the fact that the player will be outdated in a few months with its inability to cope with the interactive features that will be by then available in the other profile 1.1 complaint blu-ray DVD players.

Technical Specification Details of Sony BDP-S500 Blu-Ray DVD Player

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