BDP-S350 – Next Gen Blu-Ray Player Out Now

Sony USA announced yesterday that the first model in its next generation of Blu-Ray players is now available to buy. The BDP-S350 replaces the current BDP-S300. The current high-end model, the BDP-S500 will be replaced by the BDP-S550 later in the year. The BDP-S350 offers several important upgrades over its predecessor. The most obvious of these are the aesthetics. The new model is considerably slimmer (58% smaller in fact), and much lighter than any previous Sony player.
Under the hood, considerable improvements have been made to the startup times required not just to load discs, but in the time it takes to fire up the unit itself from standby, both of which were previous sticking points with the BDP-S300. Perhaps most important of all however, is the new unit’s compatibility with advanced Blu-Ray features such as Bonus View (picture in picture commentaries for example) and of course BD-Live for access to downloadable content. One let-down though is that BD-Live support will only come in the form of a firmware upgrade later this year, and that an optional flash drive is required to store any downloaded content. The BDP-S550 on the other hand will apparently come bundled with 1GB flash storage when it is released. The presence of an ethernet port on the S350 does mean that firmware upgrades are now a lot simpler. Previous models had to be upgraded by downloading an .iso file from the Sony Support site, burning to a CD-R and booting the unit from the firmware upgrade disc.

The BDP-S350 is on sale for around $400 which means that it will be going head to head with the 80GB PS3 in light of the announcement at E3. Some consumers will still obviously prefer the PS3 as a better overall solution, especially given that it supports BD-Live out of the box (with the current latest firmware). What the standalone players do offer however, is more powerful, dedicated hardware video decoders and support for advanced audio and video features such as Dolby True HD and x.v.Color. I personally welcome the addition of these models to the Sony range.

Full press release follows below:

SONY’S NEXT-GENERATION BLU-RAY DISC PLAYER NOW AVAILABLE AT SONY STYLE STORES AND RETAILERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

New BDP-S350 Delivers Full Promise of Blu-ray Disc with New Features, Technology

NEW YORK, JULY 16, 2008 – Sony’s next-generation Blu-ray Disc player, model BDP-S350, is now available across the country at Sony Style retail outlets, sonystyle.com and other authorized Sony retailers.

The BDP-S350 supports BonusView (picture-in-picture), which is featured on select new Blu-ray Disc home video releases, and is also BD-Live ready, with an Ethernet port for easy firmware updates and access to Internet-based interactive content features. A firmware update enabling BD-Live is planned later this year.

It also features quick start up mode improving the player’s boot up time to approximately a few seconds and offers an external port for local storage for BD-Live, allowing users to add an optional flash storage device (sold separately).

“We leveraged our expertise in film production and digital technology to build a machine that movie fans would truly love,” said Chris Fawcett, vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics’ Home Products Division.  “An advanced Blu-ray Disc player like the BDP-S350 is a must for every HDTV owner because it delivers the ultimate video and sound quality, while unlocking features you can’t find on DVD, downloads or video on demand.”

Since many consumers own extensive DVD movie libraries, the BDP-S350 incorporates Sony’s new Precision Cinema HD Upscale technology that converts standard-definition signals (480i) to 1080p and outputs a full HD equivalent resolution signal to 1080p TVs via HDMI.  Additionally, the model also adds Sony’s new Precision Drive HD, which helps to detect and correct wobbling discs from three directions, stabilizing playback of bent or scratched Blu-ray Discs and DVDs.

Not only does the new BDP-S350 model deliver enhanced performance, it is easier on the environment.  Compared to Sony’s previous BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc model, the new BDP-S350 model reduced the overall unit size by 55 percent, reduced packing material by 52 percent and reduced the unit’s total weight by 38 percent.  The compact size of the finished package allows Sony to reduce the C02 emissions related to shipping by approximately 43 percent.

In addition, the unit features 21 percent less power consumption in playback mode and 43 percent reduced power consumption in stand-by mode.  It also features lead-free solder, all-paper packing and the user guide is printed on 70 percent recycled paper with Volatile Organic Compound-free vegetable oil based ink.

The model offers 7.1 channel Dolby® TrueHD and Dolby® Digital Plus decoding and bit-stream output, as well as DTS®-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio bit-stream output.

The BDP-S350 supports AVCHD discs encoded with x.v.Color™ (xvYCC) technology, an international standard for wide color space reproduction.  The standard expands the current data range of video by about 1.8 times, allowing the players to output more natural and vivid colors similar to what the human eye actually sees in the natural world.  The players also feature compatibility with an array of video formats, including BD-R/RE (BDMV and BDAV modes), DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW (CD-DA format), and JPEG on DVD/CD recordable media.

The new BDP-S350 is now available for about $400 at Sony Style stores, online at sonystyle.com, at military base exchanges, and at authorized retailers nationwide.