Sony BDPS500B

Excellent sound ; Great build ; Dolby TrueHD output ; Upscaling works well

Blu-ray playback leaves a lot to be desired

With the price of the Toshiba HD-XE1 seemingly stuck at AU$1399, the Sony BDPS500B is now one of the cheapest premium HD players available. It boasts a sturdy build and features you won't see on other players. Sound is fantastic, and DVDs are great,...

It's fine as a player of Blu-Ray, DVD and CDs. No experience with any other model, so can't compare

1) TOO SLOW ; 2) TOO SLOW ; 3) WAY TOO SLOW

good upscaling ; brilliant pictures

Slow to start ; slow to load ; onto its 3rd firmware upgrade ; what bright spark through of a java menu system ? At least I can get a coffee and cake, or have a shower while the bloody thing loads a disk

Nice picture and sound

Silly user interface, worse documentation ; overcomplicated and slow hardware

Excellent picture and sound quality

Slow to open the tray, slow to put-up ; info on the screen, lack of proper documentation