Sony BDP S300 - Expert Reviews

Review summary: While the PS3 remains a top-notch Blu-ray player with video game capability thrown in as an extra feature (do I hear groans from Sony marketing?), there are plenty of us who would rather have a dedicated BD player in the house than a game console. The ...

Pros: Superb playback of Blu-ray Discs, Good upconversion of standard definition DVDs from the HDMI output, Affordably priced

Cons: Sluggish disc loading, though competitive with most current Blu-ray players, Will not decode Dolby TrueHD, Will not properly play the advanced extra features and games on some discs, Occasional freeze-ups

Pros: Excellent picture quality on Blu-ray and DVD ; DVD upconversion up to 1080p ; HDMI output

Cons: No onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding ; slow load times, particularly unbearable on newer BD Java discs like

Verdict: The BDP-S300 is a decent choice if you're limiting yourself to a relatively cheap, standard-design Blu-ray player, but everyone else should consider the competition.

Review summary: As one of the major players in the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war, we weren't surprised when Sony announced a price drop for the BDP-S300 to the relatively low list price of $500. Despite the fact that we've been wowed by Blu-ray's image quality, price ...

Pros: Excellent picture quality on Blu-ray and DVD ; DVD upconversion up to 1080p ; HDMI output

Cons: No onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding ; slow load times, particularly unbearable on newer BD Java discs like Pirates of the Caribbean ; some minor video performance issues ; no Ethernet port for firmware upgrades

Verdict: The BDP-S300 is a decent choice if you're limiting yourself to a relatively cheap, standard-design Blu-ray player, but everyone else should consider the competition.

Review summary: Earlier today we reported the major details on Sony's new Blu-ray player, and now we've received the full press release for the BDP-S300 which will be announced tomorrow at Sony's line show.