Blu-ray Players

The DMP-BDT500 is a Blu-ray player designed for music lovers. While it doesn’t skimp on visual refinements and connected cleverness, it really sets itself apart from the rest through sonic engineering. In many ways, this is Panasonic laying claim to the more esoteric end of the Blu-ray market, typically the stomping ground of brands like Cambridge Audio, Denon and Marantz.

Here’s the plot: Take one of the finest off-the-shelf BD players available (Oppo’s BDP-93), re-engineer it with custom power supplies, upgraded DACs, dedicated high-end analogue output stages for music playback and then add a much prettier user interface.Take said components, wrap them up in a high-end chassis with stunning build quality and drop dead gorgeous cosmetics.

As stormy iClouds gather over the home entertainment business, threatening to replace physical media with content streamed from a virtual locker, there’s something almost quaint about the idea of a media server system – a physical repository for your movies and music that sits on a home network. But are media servers really an AV cul-de-sac that time is rapidly forgetting, or the most practical multimedia solution of all, combining the benefits of tangible discs with the convenience of Video On Demand? The answer probably lies somewhere in-between.

Toshiba’s BDX1250 is designed to appeal to those making their first timid steps from standard-def DVD to hi-def Blu-ray. No shame in that, except it has to compete with plenty of other decks (including Sony’s BDP-S185 and Panasonic’s DMP-BD75) that are all taking the same approach. And at this end of the market, price is everything – the launch ticket of £130 made it an immediate non-contender, but shop around and you’ll find it for £100 or less.

Onkyo has carved itself a formidable niche in the lower-to-midrange AV receiver market by following a Tesco-like philosophy: piling features high and keeping prices low. But that’s not the route it’s taken with disc players. Here the company has played a purist card, which is admirable yet fraught with commercial peril.

If you’ve been building a collection of Blu-ray discs you may well be wondering how you’re going to watch your movies on the move. Ripping BDs is impractical and, despite a great deal of puff, digital lockers have yet to open for business. Enter the BDP-SX1, Sony’s first stab at a transportable.

Sony’s bottom-of-the-range Blu-ray spinner offers a lot in performance and specifications for its meagre £130 ticket, but misses out on a couple of the key features that its BDP-S480 sibling brings to the party for only £20 more. With that in mind, it’s only worth considering if you’re really hard up, or are looking to upgrade your bedroom setup.