Sony's BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc (BD) Player delivers admirable picture and sound quality, and, as with many BD players, it can upconvert regular DVD movies to 1080p format. It can also play back multimedia files recorded onto relatively spacious (and inexpensive) DVD media. As a budget BD player, though, it lacks support for the latest Blu-ray features, such as picture-in-picture and online services, and it's sluggish when loading some of the newest BD titles. But ease of use and a strong selection of configuration options make it a compelling choice for anyone in search of basic Blu-ray enjoyment.

Attractively styled, the matte-black chassis measures 3.1 by 16.9 by 14.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 10 pounds. Indicator lights and a multifunction display lie behind a strip of blue-tinted clear acrylic across the lower half of the faceplate. Power and disc-eject buttons, embedded at each end of a dark, metallic strip along the top front edge of the player, are easy to access. Five small buttons near the top right of the device supply basic playback functions.

The narrow, baton-style shape of the remote control is comfortable to grab, with ridges and a notched finger-hold on the back. My thumb landed naturally on the four-way directional pad, which has disc playback buttons positioned within easy reach immediately below. You can program basic TV controls using codes provided in the manual. Dedicated buttons let you dim the player's front-panel display and select the format for video output.

The player's HDMI output supports up to 1080p60, and for BD movies only (not for upconverted DVD video), 1080p24 video. The component video HD output supports up to 1080i with BD titles and up to 480p with most DVD videos. A video output-format option called source direct matches the player output to the native format of the source material—useful for HDTV setups that incorporate an external video processor. The S300 also provides a selection of optimized video output presets similar to vivid, theater, and others that most HDTVs offer. The setup menu also has custom picture-quality controls.

Audio port selection includes coaxial and optical digital output as well as stereo and 5.1-channel analog. The S300 doesn't support HDMI bitstream output of Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD tracks, but the player can decode these and other popular audio formats to Linear PCM (LPCM) at up to 7.1 channels for a practically identical listening experience.

Prior to testing the player, I visited the Sony Web site and downloaded the latest firmware update (version 3.80). The player's lack of an Ethernet connector, USB port, or memory card reader requires you to burn firmware updates to a recordable disc; to apply the updates, you insert the disc into the player.

A check of the player's video output levels confirmed that it delivers a full-range response—unlike the Sharp BD-HP20U, which crushed dark detail and clipped bright detail during HDMI output. My DVD video test clips from popular 24-fps film-sourced material were detected properly and promptly, ensuring a detailed picture with no distracting artifacts.

But when I performed film-detail tests using the HQV Benchmark DVD and Microsoft Windows DVD Test Annex 3.0, I discovered that the Sony BDP-S300 couldn't properly detect and process film-sourced material that had nonstandard metadata. With most DVD movies that the player upscales, viewers are unlikely to see any obvious errors, but the odd title may occasionally exhibit flicker or jagged-edge artifacts. Advanced video processors in BD players such as the LG BH200 Super Blu Player and the Samsung BD-UP5000 handle such material with ease.

The BDP-S300's performance with 1080i video was similar to that of the Sharp BD-HP20U—poor, in that it failed all my deinterlacing tests, indicating a loss of up to half the potential detail in the video picture. But since the encoding format for most BD movies is 1080p (progressive), the lack of effective HD deinterlacing abilities won't be a deal breaker for most people. Unfortunately, the two players share another characteristic: sluggish disc load times, particularly with BD movies. For six BD titles, the BDP-S300 averaged 64 seconds per disc, and the Sharp BD-HP20U was slightly slower at 67 seconds per disc. By contrast, on the same titles, the PlayStation 3 averaged 33 seconds—about twice as fast.

The time from power-up to tray-open for the BDP-S300 is the slowest I've seen, at 47 seconds. The player is sluggish even when generating thumbnails of images recorded on DVD media. And BD titles that take advantage of Java-based interactive features, including advanced menu systems, were especially tough: The player operated at a stuttering crawl. This isn't good news, since new BD releases seem to be adding an ever-increasing number of Java-based features. On the bright side, like most stand-alone disc players I've tested recently, this one is very energy efficient: Monthly power cost, based on 8 hours of daily operation at $0.13 per kWh (the local average), is a minuscule $0.81.

The Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc player provides a quality viewing experience and useful multimedia features, and it will be Sony's least expensive stand-alone BD player for some time. But while the savings may please your pocket, they might also test your patience.

Benchmark Test Results
Passes below black video (HDMI): yes
Passes above peak white video (HDMI): yes
HQV DVD Benchmark score: 20 (out of 130)
HD HQV Benchmark score: 10 (out of 100)

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