Sony BDP-S300

September 10, 2008

Manufacturer's overview

Everyone will marvel at the stunning sound and picture quality of this second-generation Blu-ray Disc player. With remarkable features and versatile performance, the BDP-S300 is an amazing value.See and hear a whole new world of high definition with the incredible BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc Player. The crystalline clarity of 1080p Blu-ray Disc movies and DVD up scaling has to be seen to be believed. Amazing 24p True Cinema output and cinema-tuned picture presets allow you to see movies exactly how the director intended. And with BRAVIA Theatre Sync, you can now you can control your compatible BRAVIA TV and AV systems from just one remote.

Our Take

This is predecessor of Sony's BDP-S350 model. As such, it is similar in terms of features. The one missing feature is the ability to upgrade the Profile 1.1 to 2.0. This player lacks the ethernet port which limits it to the Profile 1.1. As there are very few if any disc with internet content, you might not mind a player with Profile 1.1.

The connectivity exactly same as the S350 model with the exception of ethernet port. It has the standard HDMI interface as well as component and S-video for standard definition output. It does have 5.1 channel audio support for better backward compatibility.

The image quality is on par with most Blu-ray player, which means it is excellent. This player has option to output the video in true 24 fps format. 24 fps is the original frame rate at which most movies are shot. The review sites and user reviews generally rate the video output of this player as excellent. The upconversion quality is pretty similar to that of S350's level. If you have big DVD collection, this player's upconversion will be more than adequate.

The audio decoding capability is pretty similar to that of S350 model. It lacks the decoding of high definition Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio formats. This can be easily overcome if you have receiver capable of decoding them as this player can send the signal through bit stream. Other than that, it can handle any other audio format.

The remote is very similar to that of S350. Very functional unit which lacks the back lit buttons. You should not have any problem with this unit.

Overall this is very popular model as it is feature rich model. However, if you must have profile 2.0 than you might want to have look at the S350 model as that model can be updated where as this model can not.

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