Sony BDP-S370

So, I finally did it.  I had been putting off getting a Blu-ray DVD player for quite some time, but the prices are way down and the features are getting better day by day, so I figured it was time to jump in.

I did some research, watched the sales, then pounced.  I decided on the Sony BDP-S370 for the feature set and the price tag.  I got it for $129 today, but I plan on re-buying it at Best Buy on "black friday" for $99 and returning it, saving the extra $30.

Now, my HD TV is a bit old.  I bought a Mitsubishi 55" RP HDTV in 2003, so it doesn't have HDMI inputs.  I'm connecting via the component cables.  Not as good as the HDMI, but still not too bad.

So, I hooked it up, which took all of about 5 minutes.  I have ethernet behind my TV, so the WiFi option was not necessary for me.  Within 10 seconds of plugging it in, it informed me of a software update and walked me through a quick setup and update procedure.  Painless.

The on-line content choices are pretty extensive.  First thing I did was go to the YouTube app and browse a few videos.  Using the numeric keys to "type" with was not fun, but doable.  Full-screen playback is excellent.  The content loads quickly and plays flawlessly.

The real reason that I bought the Blu-ray now was to make it easier to display my HD digital video (Flip camera) on the TV, and this player did not disappoint.  I grabbed my 4GB thumb drive and threw a few mp4, m4v and mov files onto it and plugged it in.  It recognized the drive immediately and offered to play the videos, which looked stunning!

Then I made a DATA DVD, burning some of those same files onto the DVD+R disc (note...NOT a Blu-ray disc).  I popped that into the player and again, it recognized the files and could play them in spectacular high def. Absolutely wonderful.

Lastly, I grabbed my Flip camera itself, and plugged it into the player's USB port and voila!  It recognized it and I was again able to play the content directly off the camera in HD!  Outstanding.

The on-line documentation indicates that this is DLNA compliant, but I have not yet figured this part out.  Once I do, I should be able to play my media files directly from the PC, across the network, to my TV.  That's my next challenge.

In short, though I have yet to insert a Blu-ray DVD into this thing, I can already highly recommend this player as a great way to make it easy to watch your home HD video!