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Sony BDP-N460 Blu-ray Disc Player

on June 4, 2010 5:06 pm in Sony Gadgets / no comments

Sony may be the “face” Blu-Ray, but stand-alone Blu-ray players from the company were to step behind the Panasonic, LG, Samsung, and which featured extensive functionality of streaming media in early 2009. Sony BDP-N460 is Sony’s attempt at catching up, released only a month before the start of the season and Netflix with support for several weeks after that. Yes, BDP-N460 is long overdue, but it’s largely worth the wait, with a set of streaming data services (Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube, Slacker, and NPR), which is a challenge for multimedia LG BD390 at a much lower price. BDP-N460 can not compete with BD390, when it comes to hardware features, though, is the lack of built-in Wi-Fi, built-in memory, multi-channel analog outputs, and media streaming across your home network. PS3 Slim is also available for about $ 100 more, which is, if you want high-definition game console and media streamer.Nevertheless, BDP-N460 offers a compelling combination of functionality and solid streaming Blu-Ray at a more affordable price, making it a strong choice for buyers on a budget.

Design
BDP-N460 almost copies the design of Sony’s entry-level BDP-S360. Most of the front panel is made of glossy black plastic. It has a smooth appearance without visible disc tray, and only two buttons on the right, slightly raised. The front panel automatically flips down when you click remove, opening the disc tray. ”Hidden” disc tray helps BDP-N460 maintain a smooth appearance – and it is less than the clumsy design flipdown Samsung BD-P1600 – but it is unclear how we will operate smoothly mechanism two years later.

LCD display on the small side, although still available for reading from 7 feet back. Fortunately, it can be gray or off completely, although there is no passing over the logo Blu-Ray. Design of the front panel is rounded in a convenient USB port on the bottom right corner for quick connectivity.

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We usually do not so much to talk about the design of the back of the Blu-Ray player, but the unusual USB port BDP-N460 is worth noting. The port is recessed into the block, surrounded by black plastic, as well as a small hole does not take into account some thick USB thumbdrives you may have lying around.

Supplied remote control has a great layout and simple design, with the exception, not enough open / close button, the disc tray. Not having the eject button is upsetting our own, and if you’re used to Popping open the disc tray before you get off the couch to change discs, you will find it as frustrating as we did. Of course, you can always opt for a quality universal remote to work around this problem, and BDP-N460 can get open / close commands IR.

User interface and streaming media services

BDP-N460 uses XMB-interface, similar to that used on the PS3. The main categories are set, Photo, Music, Video, and network. This is not easy, and we expect, streaming media services, which will have a network, for example, but instead they were classified by their type of information. (Category Network apparently used only for activation of some streaming capabilities). We would also like to see a simple icon Watch a movie “for technical neophytes, but instead need to click on a user unfriendly words” BD-ROM “.

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We do not normally go into the details of streaming Netflix, when we consider the Blu-Ray player, because the interface is usually the same across devices, but Netflix at the BDP-N460 is slightly different. Instead of a large movie covers are arranged horizontally, five of which are visible at once, BDP-N460 displays 18 small film covers the same time. In most cases this is an advantage, because it is easier to quickly cycle through instant queue, especially if you have a lot of titles there. On the other hand, sometimes the film covers just too small. ”Broken Flowers” is not visible from a distance of 7 feet of our seats for 50-inch TV – we do not know that the movie was until the cursor over it, and a film entitled shown below.

Netflix interface Sony also handle fast-forward and backward in many ways. Other devices usually show more thumbnails showing you where you are at the movies and BDP-N460 has only the scrub bar at the bottom, not the picture that makes it difficult to find your favorite scene. We also noticed that in general the quality of streaming video, it seemed a bit worse than we are accustomed to seeing. We have seen more “jerky” playback than we are used to seeing on other players, we usually find all the Netflix-devices have about the same quality video. That being said, always difficult to identify whether the problem because it violates the network or because of the player.

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Although we do not find most content of YouTube is “sofa-friendly”, it is worth noting that YouTube has some bonus movies and TV shows. However, when we stream “supersize Me”, the image quality left much to be desired, even for a documentary, where the image quality is not of paramount importance. Wallace & Gromit “looked a little better, but this is only the boundary viewed on-screen TV-size. One big plus, we found that the proportion is usually handled correctly, which gives it a leg on complex service YouTube for competing Panasonic DMP-BD60 and the LG BD390.

Sony also offers the choice of the name of film studio company for streaming, and our review sample allowed the flow of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” to it on Blu-ray or DVD for free.(Without promotion, rental costs $ 25!). The image quality was excellent on this thread on the same level with the best threads we’ve seen from Amazon and Netflix. Sony also three free movies available at the time of review (“Ghostbusters,” “Muppets in Space” and “Steamboy”).This is a good attitude, but we do not expect that this corresponds to the source of content.