Overall, the Blu-ray image quality performance of the BDP-S300 is very good. While it's nice from a feature-proofing perspective, it's unlikely to have much utility in the near future-you'd need an x.v.Color-compatible display and an x.v.Color-compatible Blu-ray disc, and there are no such Blu-ray discs currently released. The other feature the BDP-S300 has is x.v.Color support, which is a new, larger color space. We've tested a few players with this ability and haven't seen any increased performance with the displays we've used, but we're holding our final judgment until we've seen more displays. a display with a refresh rate that's an even multiple of 24). One is the ability to output at 24 frames per second, which some claim can minimize judder when used with a compatible display (i.e. The BDP-S300 also has a couple of additional enthusiast-friendly features. The BDP-S300 can play standard audio CDs, along with MP3 and JPEG files burned on CDs and DVDs. We're not sure why Sony decided to ditch SACD support, a feature that would certainly appeal to the enthusiast market. Unlike Sony's PlayStation 3 and Sony's older BDP-S1, the BDP-S300 doesn't support SACD, nor does it support the other niche high-resolution disc format, DVD-Audio (which the Panasonic DMP-BD10A supports). It can also play standard-definition DVDs and upconvert them to higher resolutions (more on that below). The main feature of the BDP-S300, of course, is its ability to play Blu-ray discs. Sure, it's not nearly as bad as the remote on the Panasonic DMP-BD10A, but you'd still be wise to pick up a nice universal remote. There's also no backlighting, although that's not a common feature on Blu-ray player remotes. The biggest annoyance is the design of the buttons-they're all similarly sized, the same height, and mostly adjacent to each other, which makes the clicker difficult to navigate by feel in a dark home theater. Overall, the remote is usable, but there are some key missteps that keep it from earning our praise. The included remote is slick-looking with its reflective directional pad in the center. The remote is pretty to look at but isn't ideal for dark home theater use. Personally, we preferred the Sony's understated style. While those blue lights can sometimes have a cool high-tech look, they can also be distracting in a completely dark home theater. Unlike almost all Blu-ray players we've reviewed, the BDP-S300 somehow does without prominent, glowing blue front panel buttons. On the top of the player are two critical buttons-open/close and power-which can be somewhat irksome if you're planning to stack components atop the BDP-S300. The simple rectangular component sports a LED display on the bottom half of its face, and in the upper right section there are some basic playback controls, including handy chapter forward and backward buttons. While Sony may be known for the glitzy exteriors of its HDTVs, home theater systems, and yes, game consoles, the BDP-S300's design is pure understatement.
But most potential buyers will be more satisfied by the cheaper PlayStation 3, or the better-performing (and more expensive) alternatives like the Panasonic DMP-BD10A and Samsung BD-P1200. If you're dead set on getting a standard-design Blu-ray player, as opposed to a game console, and don't want to spend a lot of money, the BDP-S300 is certainly a compelling product.
Not to mention that there's another similarly priced Sony product currently available that does essentially everything the BDP-S300 does plus a whole lot more: the PlayStation 3. There are some minor video quality performance issues, some major load-time performance issues, no SACD playback, and no decoding for high-resolution soundtrack formats like Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio. The Sony BDP-S300 is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of price, but enthusiasts will note that sacrifices have been made. Despite the fact that we've been wowed by Blu-ray's image quality, price has always been a serious issue, especially with HD DVD players often costing as little as half as much and offering essentially identical performance.
HD DVD format war, we weren't surprised when Sony announced a price drop for the BDP-S300 to the relatively low list price of $500.
As one of the major players in the Blu-ray vs.