Sony BDP-S350 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player

This is my first BluRay player. So far so good. The setup was very straightforward and I did appreciate the simple set up walk through the minute I turned it on. After setting up - I was a bit surprised (all right - fricking shocked) when sound played through my TV speakers because I specifically set it up to play through the digital audio output. Not a big deal - I can just mute the TV, but I did fear it was going to blow out the speakers.

So after the unit was set up (less than a minute with an HDMI connection and a digital audio out) I popped in my first disc. Granted, I did not test with a BluRay DVD, but the load-time was a pleasant surprise. I found it just as fast as the el-cheapo model DVD player that occupied the space before it. All the nightmares I have heard about ridiculously slow start-up times seem to have been for not. No problem with loading.

Also, I have heard horror stories of having to update firmware out of the box. Luckily, the check for a firmware update is easier than the set-up, and took less than 5 seconds to tell me I was up-to-date.

Since I don't have a BluRay DVD handy I popped in an animated feature. My family - who is usually the biggest critic of new things - all noticed a significant improvement vs. the previous analog player.

sony bdps350
So set-up, ease of use and picture quality are all superior. Also, when using a digital coaxial I notice a much better sound than with other mid-line DVD players. Aesthetically this is a sharp looking unit. The remote seems a bit of overkill and I think it's a bit too large. Plus I'm not confident that I can use it to control my non-Sony TV. I haven't played around with all the features yet, but so far it's worth what I paid for it.