Over a year ago Sony introduced its BDP-S300 Blu-ray (BD) player. It was one of the slowest HD disc players we've ever reviewed, and its ability to upconvert DVD movies into a high-definition format was weak at best. Sony turns things around with its latest player, the BDP-S350, our new Editors' Choice. The updated version offers significantly faster disc-loading times, improved DVD upconversion quality, and greater compatibility with the latest features of the Blu-ray disc format. The S350 is also the most energy-efficient BD player we've ever seen—and at $299.99, it's affordable.

Though the S350 retains some of the design characteristics of its predecessor, its overall size is dramatically smaller. By relocating the tray mechanism behind a fold-down blue-tinted faceplate, the player's height is reduced by a half-inch compared with the S300. Most A/V set-top products have standardized on a 17-inch chassis width, and with a 16.9-inch width the S350 follows suit. However, the 6.4-pound player's 8.8-inch depth (6 inches less than the S300's) relegates it to the top spot of a home theater component stack.

The updated baton-style remote control features large, clearly labeled function buttons encircling a central directional pad for menu navigation. The rounded back is textured for a comfortable and secure grip, and tactile feedback provides some compensation for the lack of glowing or backlit buttons.

The selection of ports on the rear of the player lacks the 5.1 analog audio outputs of the S300 but does include an Ethernet port for simplified online firmware updates. If the S350 is connected to the Web, it will, by default, occasionally check and alert you when firmware updates are available—an important feature given the frequency of these necessary updates. A recent firmware update for the S350 adds support for BD Profile 2.0(BD-Live), which enables online multimedia features with compatible Blu-ray titles. Like the Panasonic DMP-BD50, the S350 requires additional flash memory (via a USB port on the back of the player) in order for related BD-Live features to function.

As with the S300, the S350 provides coaxial and optical digital outputs, as well as analog stereo output (RCA). Audio format support includes full decoding and bitstream output (via HDMI) for Dolby Digital+, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD HR audio codecs. The player supports only bitstream output for DTS-HD Master Audio tracks.

The HDMI port supports up to 1080p24 and 1080p60 output with Blu-ray movies, but upconverted DVD video is limited to the more common 1080p60 format. The pricier Panasonic DMP-BD50 is one of the very few BD players to feature 1080p24 DVD upconversion. Component video output supports up to 1080i output with Blu-ray movies. As is the case with most modern BD players, including the Samsung BD-P1500 and aforementioned Panasonic, the S350's HDMI supports consumer electronic control (CEC) functionality, so a compatible TV can provide basic control commands to the player through the HDMI connection. This allows the player to be located out of sight.

With a fixed selection of six BD movies from my disc library, the BDP-S350's average load time of 43 seconds per disc was 21 seconds faster than the S300's and fairly close to the record-setting 41 seconds of the Panasonic DMP-BD30. Turning on the original S300 and waiting for its tray to open took 47 seconds. The S350 cuts this time by almost half, to 24 seconds.

Many Blu-ray movies feature menus that are enhanced with animated effects and other graphical flourishes that can cause older BD players to appear sluggish and unresponsive. The S350 delivered a smooth performance with titles like these, and the Bonus View (picture-in-picture) feature worked fine with supporting BD titles. On-screen playback information includes codec, bitrate, time, and video format details.

Sony decided not to include some of the S300's more interesting multimedia features here. There's no longer support for playing MP3 audio or JPEG image files stored on recordable DVDs. (JPEGs can be viewed only when the files are recorded to CD media.) Audio playback support is limited to CDs only.

All Blu-ray players are also upconverting DVD players, but the upconverted picture quality depends on the prowess of the video-processing hardware. The S350 offers one of the best upconverted 1080p DVD viewing experiences I've seen; a significant improvement over the S300. The player rendered my selection of classic DVD movies in excellent detail without distracting artifacts such as jagged edges or line flicker. The addition of user-adjustable picture controls, including detailed video noise reduction (NR) settings, helped enhance the player's HQV Benchmark test score. It placed third, behind only the LG BH200 Super Blu and Sony's own PlayStation 3.

Practically all Blu-ray movies are encoded into the progressive 1080p24 video format, so interlaced-to-progressive HD video conversions within a BD player are rare. Despite that,, many consumer-level HD video-editing applications produce interlaced 1080i video. Effective deinterlacing of this material is necessary to maintain picture detail while minimizing distracting artifacts. The S350 delivered a mixed performance on the 1080i HD HQV Benchmark test, as it proved incapable of properly deinterlacing standard 1080i video into the 1080p format, but its performance with 1080i film material (originally recorded at 24 frames per second) was solid.

The player features a quick-start option that can reduce its power-on to tray-open time to an impressive 6 seconds; however, the player's standby power consumption when using this feature jumps from a miserly 0.3 watts to 9.3W. This increases its calculated monthly operating cost from $0.32 to $1.00—based on 5 hours of daily use at $0.13 kWh (a Northern California average). Samsung's BD-P1500 achieved a 7-second start-up time without the need for increased standby power consumption. If you forgo the quick-start option, the S350 ranks as the most energy-efficient disc player that I've tested.

Analog audiophiles who need multichannel analog audio outputs should skip the Sony BDP-S350, but for the rest of us, this player delivers a terrific Blu-ray and upconverted DVD viewing experience in an affordable, energy-efficient, compact design. With its solid performance and list of noteworthy improvements over its predecessor, the S350 is easy to recommend, and thus it becomes our Editors' Choice for stand-alone Blu-ray disc players.

Benchmark Test Results:
Factory default display settings
HDMI video input @ 1080p24/1080p60

Objective Testing (higher is better):
HQV Benchmark Score: 86/130
HD HQV Benchmark Score: 70/100
1080p24 output (BD): Yes
1080p24 upconversion (DVD): No
HDMI CEC support: Yes

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