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Sony BDP-S300 Review |
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Reviewed: 29 February 2008
Design
Slimline the Sony BDP-S300 is not, but the rather bulky chassis still manages to present itself as a chic piece of equipment in the Sony tradition. This is due in no small part to the outstanding build quality that we have come to expect from Sony, but have not always found of late on some of their High Definition kit.
A blue coloured glass fascia and brushed metal finish add the perfect finishing touch to the impressive build quality.
Features
Connectivity on the BDP-S300 is about what you would expect for a budget offering. High Definition video (up to 1080p) as well as audio are catered for with the single HDMI output. There is a component video output that can display video from Blu-ray discs in HD, along with S-Video and composite outputs.
Video Upsacaling: yes Output Resolution: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p Playable Disc Formats: CD/DVD/DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+R/DVD+RW Sockets: 1 HDMI input, composite video, s-video, component output video.
Those of you who are planning to maintain your existing DVD collection will be pleased to know that the BDP-S300 will play and even upscale standard definition DVD's. The BDP-S300 can also play audio CDs, MP3 and JPEG files burned on CDs and DVDs.
The current must have feature for High Definition (HD) kit is 1080p/24 frames per second (24p) support and the BDP-S300 doesn't disappoint. Movies have traditionally been filmed at a frame rate of 24fps (frames per second) and the 1080p/24 feature allows films to be shown in their original format with a claimed reduction of the 'juddering' effect.
Disappointingly but not surprisingly, the BDP-S300 lacks support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio high definition soundtracks (Sony's own Playstation 3 supports Dolby TrueHD). The BDP-S300 does support standard Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound and for the slightly higher quality Dolby Digital Plus.
Performance
The Sony BDP-S300 may fall a little short in the features department, but in the most important area, picture quality, it delivers. Things take a little time to get going (around a minute from power on to film start), but its worth the wait with excellent high definition images.
We have come to expect superb HD images from any Blu-ray player, but the quality of the BDP-S300 in this respect is even more impressive given its budget status.
Picture quality on the BDP-S300 is retained even with the darkest scenes, with subtle and precise shadow detail. Equally impressive is the fact that even with the fastest moving action scenes most of the detail and sharpness is retained.
Like other Sony Blu-ray players, colours are rich and vibrant, showing none of the minor gamut faults we have witnessed on other High Def players. Of course, the quality of your screen will play a part in overall quality, but at least you will know that the BDP-S300 won't be the weak link.
Pop a normal DVD into the BDP-S300 you will witness a significant improvement in quality over your normal DVD player.
The upscaling abilities of the Sony BDP-S300 are not the most accomplished we have seen, but it will breath new life into your existing DVD collection, to the extend that you will be thinking twice before upgrading them to HD.
Conclusion
The Sony BDB-S300 lacks some high end features, notably the ability to deliver any form of high definition sound, but it delivers an excellent high definition picture for the price.
If however, you are also in the market for a games console, then Sony's own PlayStation 3 offers an equally good Blu-ray video performance and it has the advantage of the high definition audio format, TrueHD
