Photo gallery: Sony BDP-S360Blu-ray may have started out as a mess, with confusing "profiles" and painfully slow load times. But beginning this year stand-alone players have finally gotten their acts together. Sony's entry-level BDP-S360 is typical of the new breed of Blu-ray players. It has the basics covered, with Profile 2.0 support and on-board decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Beyond the basics, the BDP-S360 doesn't offer much. Unlike its competitors, the BDP-S360 can't deliver any streaming internet content such as YouTube.
While we do like the polish that went into the BDP-S360's XMB-inspired menu system, we were disappointed to see some simple design missteps such as the recessed USB port and the lack of an eject button on the remote. The Sony BDP-S360 does have a stylish exterior design and offers reliable Blu-ray playback, but we have a hard time finding a reason to recommend it over other options.
Design
The BDP-S360's design strikes a nice balance between the glitzy (some would say tacky) gloss of Samsung players and the more conservative approach of Panasonic players. The front panel is dark and translucent, giving it a glass-like look. When opening the disc tray, the entire front panel actually flips down, similar to the Samsung BD-P1600's design, but we found Sony's implementation less clunky. We also appreciated the BDP-S360's small footprint, a compact 430x56x216mm.
There are only basic front panel controls available, so you had better not lose the remote. (Credit: Sony)
We usually don't have much to say about the design of a Blu-ray player's back panel, but the BDP-S360's unusual USB port is worth pointing out. The port is recessed into the unit, surrounded by black plastic, and the small opening won't accommodate some of the fatter USB thumb drives you may have lying around.
The recessed USB port can be a pain if your USB memory drive doesn't fit into the cramped opening. (Credit: Sony)
The included remote has a great layout and simple design, but there's one fatal flaw: it lacks an open/close button for the disc tray. We're not quite sure how this oversight managed to get past Sony, but if you're used to popping open the disc tray before you get off the couch to change discs, you'll find it as frustrating as we did. Of course, you can always opt for a quality universal remote to get around this issue, as the BDP-S360 is capable of receiving an open/close IR command.
The BDP-S360 uses an adaptation of Sony's XMB user interface, which is now featured on nearly all Sony products with a video output. Not everybody is a fan of the layout, but we tend to like it and had no problems zipping around the BDP-S360's menus. If you're not used to Sony's XMB interface, it's not quite as intuitive as, say, the large icons on the LG BD370's menu system, but the learning curve isn't steep. Aside from the graphics, the BDP-S360 has a polished feel that surpasses other Blu-ray players we've tested. We enjoyed little touches like the screen fading to black when you stop a movie, and how quickly the player navigates Blu-ray disc menus.
Features
Like virtually every 2009 Blu-ray player, the BDP-S360 is Profile 2.0-compliant, which means it's capable of playing back the BD-Live features available on some Blu-ray movies. These have to be downloaded off the internet, so you'll need to make an Ethernet connection and also plug in a USB memory drive to store it. The BD-Live content we've used so far isn't that compelling, but the technology is still relatively new.
Soundtrack support is solid, with the BDP-S360 featuring on-board decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential. That means it can decode those soundtrack formats so they can be played back on almost every HDMI-capable A/V receiver. Bitstream audio output is also supported, if you'd rather the decoding be done in your receiver. (DTS-HD Master Audio Essential differs from standard DTS-HD Master Audio in that it lacks decoding for a few legacy DTS DVD soundtracks formats such as DTS 96/24, ES, ES Matrix and Neo:6. It still processes all the high-resolution Blu-ray DTS soundtracks.)
The BDP-S360 includes the standard collection of video-outs. There's an HDMI port capable of outputting Blu-ray movies at 24p, as well as upscaling standard DVDs to 1080p. If you've an older HDTV, there's also a component-video socket that will handle Blu-ray at 1080i and DVDs at 576p. There's also a legacy composite-video jack which is limited to 576i standard-definition resolution.
The BDP-S360 has the standard collection of outputs, including both optical and coaxial digital audio outputs. (Credit: Sony)
For audio, you can use the aforementioned HDMI output for high-resolution, multichannel audio. There are also two digital audio outputs — both optical and coaxial — which is a nice bonus, as many Blu-ray players are including only optical. There's no multichannel analog output, but there's stereo analog audio output if you have an older A/V receiver.
Unlike the other entry-level players from Panasonic, Samsung and LG, the BDP-S360 doesn't offer any streaming internet content such as YouTube. That's unfortunate because it adds value to these stand-alone Blu-ray players, especially for users who don't feel that the image quality leap from DVD to Blu-ray is that significant.
Performance
All Blu-ray players tend to offer very similar picture quality — and they look much better than DVDs — but there's definitely some variance among entry-level players. First, we popped in Silicon Optix's HD-HQV test suite on Blu-ray and browsed the test patterns. The initial video resolution test looked good, with full resolution and no jaggies on the rotating white line. The BDP-S360 also aced the next two jaggies tests, showing none of the jagged edges we sometimes see on budget players. Last up was the film resolution test and again the BDP-S360 had no problems.
Program material was up next, and the BDP-S360 performed well again. We checked some of our favourite "problem" scenes on Mission: Impossible III, and we didn't see any moire in the stairs at the beginning of Chapter 8, or on the trimming of the limo in Chapter 16. Ghost Rider also looked good as we didn't see any moire in the grille of the RV at the end of Chapter 6. The BDP-S360 did stumble a bit on the video-based Tony Bennett: American Classic as we saw plenty of jaggies on the clapperboard on the beginning of the Diana Krall segment. For the strictest videophiles this may be a concern, but the reality is that there are relatively few video-based Blu-ray discs.
We also tested the operational speed of the BDP-S360. We've already commented on how the BDP-S360 is fast at navigating menus, so we had high hopes for its disc-loading performance. Unfortunately, the BDP-S360 turned out to be the slowest of the new 2009 players we've tested. Loading Mission: Impossible III took 23 seconds with the player already on. The Samsung BD-P1600, LG BD370 and Samsung BD-P3600 all loaded the same movie in less than 16 seconds, and the Panasonic DMP-BD60 took 21 seconds. Discs with more elaborate menu systems such as Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl loaded in one minute 28 seconds and one minute 56 seconds, respectively, which was about the same as the DMP-BD60. However, the players from Samsung and LG loaded these titles around 30 seconds faster.
Most home theatre fanatics have amassed a significant library of DVDs, so we put the BDP-S360 through our standard DVD test suite. It passed the initial resolution test, clearly depicting all the resolutions in the test pattern, but we did notice some image instability. The next video-based tests didn't quite pass muster as we noticed plenty of jaggies on the rotating white line, as well as on three pivoting white lines. On the upside, the BDP-S360 did pass the film conversion test.
Next we looked at actual program material. We started off with Seabiscuit and the BDP-S360 held its own on the difficult opening sequence. It didn't look quite as good as the Panasonic DMP-BD60 — we could still see some minor jaggies on the very first black-and-white photo — but it looked substantially better than the LG BD370. We switched over to Star Trek: Insurrection, and the Sony did a good job with the introduction, depicting the curved edges of the boat hulls and bridge railings without any jaggies. Unless you're really picky about DVD playback, the Sony BDP-S360 will do the job.
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