Sony BDP-BX1 reviewed by Mary Thomas

September 1, 2008

I'm not sure what Sony was planning when they decided to release this version of Blu-ray player. It is essentially rebadged version of Sony BDP S350 Blu-ray disc player. This isn't a bad thing seeing as BDP S350 is an excellent Blu-ray player. However, this might add to the confusion for consumers looking for a blu-ray player. This is very solid player if you are looking for a stand alone player instead of PS3 for your main Blu-ray player. There are plethora of audio options as well as the latest Blu-ray Profile.

The design of the unit is pretty standard. It is little bigger than your standard DVD player as with most other Blu-ray disc players. The disc tray is covered by face plate with Blu-ray logo in the middle. Immediately to the right is the LCD display area. The far right side of the player contains your typical play back function buttons (god forbid if you lose your remote). There is added feature of light indicator for true 24 fps output. Overall, it's a typical well thought out design. I doubt you'll see any radical design in current of future players. The remote is pretty standard affair. It has directional buttons in the middle with numeric pad at the top. Nothing fancy. It is universal remote so you can control your other home theater devices. It's adequate remote if you don't want to spend money on Harmony remotes.

As I've said earlier, this player does accomodate Profile 2.0 which include the BD LIVE features found on the latest Blu-ray movies. The added online features might be an important extras for some of you. If not, it's nice to know it's there. The future firmware upgrade is available via the ethernet port or USb port. The player comes with plethora of connectivity for audio and video. It has the standard HDMI as well as Component, composite, and S-video for video outputs. For audios, you have the HDMI and stereo RCA output. If you don't have the newer receivers, you will miss the analog 5.1 or 7.1 output. But most of you most likely have some sort of receiver with HDMI compatibility. The player does excellent job of handling various audio formats. For people without a good receiver, the player has onboard decoding of Dolby TrueHD. Otherwise, most other high definition can be bitstreamed to receiver for decoing.

The overall video quality was quite good. I did not notice any jaggie edges or motion blur during the fast movement sequences. I watched both Matrix and Batman begins from start to finish and did not notice any artifacts or jaggie edges. As with most players, viewers wont notice significant differences between player to player.

Overall, this is an excellent player. This is the rebadged version of BDP-S350 which can be purchased mainly at Costco. Few other onine retailers such as Amazon.com carries this player as well. If you have not taken plunge into high def disc player, than this is a very capable player to purchase.

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