Product Description

Revel in astounding HD clarity with the BDP-S350 Blu-ray Disc player. Featuring BD-Live compatibility, you can take full advantage of the Bonus View feature of select Blu-ray movies as well as acquire the latest features and updates as they become available. This player also outputs a Full 1080/24p True Cinema picture, plus upscales your existing DVD collection to 1080p when using the HDMI connection. Superior picture quality isn't the only thing you'll notice, the BDP-S350 comes with Dolby TrueHD which del...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11825 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: BDVFS350FI.YG
• Released on: 2009-01-22

Features

• Blu-ray Cinema System
• 1080P Up Scaling
• Output Power:50w x2 + 100w Watts(RMS)
• Surround Dolby Digital/Dts/Prologic 2
• CDR/RW playback

Manufacturer's Description
Compact 2.1 channel High Definition Home Theatre system with slimline Blu-ray Disc™ player and S-Force PRO front surround. Ideal for enjoying great sound in rooms where space is at a premium.

Box Contains

Customer Reviews

Great budget addition to a smaller scale home setup
I bought this to match my Sony 40w5500 after finding that the TV's own sound was certainly not really up to the same standards that the picture was. Also having previously tried out the Sony Bluray bdps350 player (the player inside this package) in isolation, the sound output on Bluray discs was extremely quiet, and this definitely warrants investing in some sort of home cinema setup, something to consider if you are considering solely purchasing the Bluray player. The Bluray player alone I would give around 4.5 stars, though has plenty of other detailed reviews on this site that encapsulate my reasoning so I will focus below on the sounds system aspects.

SETUP
The Sub is limited in positioning, the speaker is on the right side of the tower and the manual suggest that you have 0.4m of space between the speaker side and any other surface or device, so it really should be on the right side of your home setup.

The two speakers come with decent length cables of 2-3 metres, but are common speaker wires and are fairly easy to remove and extend if necessary. These speakers have a nice heavy quality feel to them probably due to the shielding inside, and can be positioned virtually anywhere you wish though the virtual surround effect may be affected slightly by your choice. The speaker bases can detract and the option is there to suspend these on a wall by a hook.

It is also worth noting that you cannot add any additional speakers to this unit if you were thinking about it in future.


CONNECTIVITY
There are decent number of connection points. There are 3 HDMI inputs for each of your appliances such as console, Bluray player and sky, and the remote allows you to easily interchange between source. ( there are no HDMI cables supplied) There are a few other input options such as multiple optical inputs, coaxial, and RCA sockets (details of which you can look at by downloading a manual for the sound system). You can also connect the unit to pick up sound straight from the TV using the optical cable or RCA, so overall you are likely to be able to set this unit up some way or another.

Connecting via the HDMI cables I have found that the connection to the TV is dependant on whether the speaker system is on or not, when off you will pick up no image or sound on the TV from your games console etc. For this reason I prefer to plug my console into the TV directly and use the `optical cable from TV to sub' connection method, as I do not always want the system on. eg late at night.


SOUND
This is probably no audiophile system, and my primary reason for purchase was that it would fit into the small space I had. My room is around 3m x 4m in size and I find that this system very competently fills the room. The small speaker units contain two diaphragms within them and they cover a decent sound range and capably go to loud volumes. The sub adds the needed extra oomph to this and depending on the material you are viewing can deliver some level of ground shaking force. But bare in mind this is only a 200W system, relatively low compared to the 1000W range you find in many higher standard home cinema systems (more suitable for the large rooms). Hence this isn't massive earthquake levels of bass vibration, but enough so you feel a good judder if you are touching the floor. Some Bluray discs that are fairly quiet in output, can allow you to put the master volume on maximum setting without it being too loud, something I personally feel limited by, but realistically I probably wouldn't want to go any louder. Most standard DVDs can play very loudly but the high treble levels may sound a bit harsh to the ears and cannot be specifically adjusted.

The sub has an adjustable volume level, from -6 to +6 that does provide some personal customisability. But it would have been nicer to have a full equalizer to get the sound profile you want, the display area is too small to show one however at this price range one cannot really complain.

There are slight sync issues with the picture and sound, maybe 20-40ms, but I haven't felt the need to use the sync options supplied which allow you delay audio by a certain amount. Another great review I read stated that the brain can wilfully adjust for some level of sound lag and `believe' that the picture and sound are in sync even if they are not and I find this true to some extent. As well as the units sound sync options, the Bluray player actually has some sync options too though I have not tried these out.

This unit touts the virtual surround capability but I'm not sure any directional distinctness is gained, the sound just sounds more `room filling', and is certainly unlikely to give you the true effect of something behind you on the left or right, that a 5.1 system would do.

CONCLUSION
Overall this player is great addition if you have no other sound system set up. I doubt it can compete with full 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound systems, but if you are limited in space this is certainly a vibrant piece of kit in a great value bundle package. There are certain functionality omissions from the system but these deficiencies are certainly not critical in nature and should not halt your purchase if you already had identified this as a potential system for your home.

Very impressed
I wanted to add a little punch to my TV's sound and also make the switch to Blu ray so I opted for this. I would have got full 5.1 surround sound, but my room layout and thin walls weren't suitable.

Firstly the 350 player - great player and upscales brilliantly. Leon used to look fairly terrible on my dvd player and xbox but on this it looks great. There'll be loads of other reviews about the player so I'll stop there.

The speakers - They are fairly small but sound good. I'm not sure how much better than the TV speakers they are, but the Sub makes a world of difference. Be warned the sub is on the large size, but it packs a good punch and adds real oomph to music, games and films. The sub's speaker is situated on the right hand side, and the remote control sensor on the front, which limits where I can put it, but that's just my set up.

It was a doddle to set up, and with my TV being a Sony - the synch function works well and I can do all the basic controls with one controller.

How well does it replicate surround sound? - not too sure. It does give a feel of directional sound, but I suppose it will never be able to re-produce the sense of actually having speakers behind you.

All in all a very good system, which I'm very pleased with.

I found this system cheaper elsewhere, but thought I'd write a review.

Oh - I also received some free blu rays in the box - the Wall-E, Mamma Mia, and Hancock bundle. So that was a nice bonus :)

Sophisticated audio
The Blue ray player is excellent and it upscales DVD so well you'll want to watch your whole DVD collection again. I wanted a quality sound system without all the wires and extra speakers of a full 5/1 system. I wanted a Sony because I have a Sony LCD TV and expected it would integrate well and would be great sound quality. I was not prepared for how complex this system is. I don't know how this compares with other systems but the number of connections and settings is a little overwhelming. The remote allows control of the TV and Blue ray player but again is not a simple solution. It is essential to read the manual. ( I know....real men don't read manuals !) I have a separate DIVX/DVD player and Satellite receiver which the system accommodates via hdmi. My Humax HDD recorder is scart only so it has to go to the TV and from there to the system via an Optical cable. And there are still various sockets available on the system for the addition of a hifi system for instance. So the connections are pretty comprehensive. The sound is obviously better than the TV's own and for a small to medium sized room the volume is more than enough. It has good depth and delivers that cinema rumble thing you want. Not so convinced of the surround effect promised by "S-Force Surround". So am I happy......Well....I'd have liked the main/sub unit to have been smaller or more discrete and its probably more sophisticated than I need and there may be less expensive options out there But because I have a Sony TV and as a bundle BDP and 2/1 Sound system. I think I made the right choice.