Sony BDP-S580 Video

Sony BDP-S580 Video Transcript

Hey, I'm Matthew Moskovciak, at cnet.com, and we're gonna take a look at the Sony BDP S580 Blu-ray player, which is currently selling for about a 170 dollars. Like most players, it has a glossy black finished and although you can't see any buttons from afar, there are actually a few little knobs along the bottom for basic functions like eject and play. There's also a handy usb port on the front and there's even a second usb port around the back. Including are modest and the simple designs that we like, and you can also control the player with Sony's remote app which is available for both iOS and Android. The coolest thing about the app is that you can use the keyboard to search and streaming services like Netflix and Amazon instant, which you can't do on any other player we've seen. The BDP S580 has the standard set of feature we expect at this price, including built-in wifi and 3D Blu-ray support. It also has the most extensive sweet extreme media services of any Blu-ray player we've tested including Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, Vudu, Pandora, and Slacker. While we love all the services, we weren't as thrilled by the way Sony User Interface displays though. Instead of the standard Netflix interface we've seen on all the other players, Sony has its own interface and unfortunately the cover art is small and sometimes it can be hard to read. The main user interface isn't that great either especially when you have to scroll pass tons of less popular services to get to something like Vudu. Now, we're on the back, you'll see the AV inputs, including the html output and the collateral audio output. We put the player through our full series of- in this quality test and it was an excellent performer. However, these days nearly every Blu-ray player has basically the same image quality especially on Blu-ray movies, so it shouldn't be a big factor when you're making a buying decision. When we tested the speed of the player, we found that Sony is faster than the Everest 2011 Blu-ray player, especially when it comes to loading Netflix and navigating movies. However, it's not quite as fast as loading Blu-ray disc, so you wanna look at the speedy Panasonic DMP BD210 if you want fast load times. So, overall the Sony BDP S580 is a solid Blu-ray player with built-in Wifi and more streaming services than all competing Blu-ray players that we've tested. But the trade of this is you have to put up on this clanky interface. I'm Matthew Moskovciak, and this is the Sony BDP S580.