Just when you thought Blu-ray players were starting to settle down in their capabilities, when along comes another new must have feature in the form of 3D.
This latest Blu-ray player from Sony, the BDP-S470 is touted as being ready for this and a whole host of other new features. Where a lot of the effort seems to be going these days is in the form of online content. When just 18 months ago it was good to see a Blu-ray player making full use of the online BD-Live features, these days it seems a bit undersold if your player can’t even access BBC iPlayer. The Sony BDP-S470 can do this – and more – including other catch up television services, and YouTube and Dailymotion. The player is also DLNA enabled which means it can communicate with other DNLA devices in your home. To take full advantage of this of course you’ll really have to connect the player to your broadband – either by connecting a network cable from your router to the player, or by purchasing the optional UWABR100 wireless dongle – and also update the firmware on the device. The Sony BDP S470 should prompt you to do this automatically and is a straightforward process.
The player itself is one up in the range from the popular BDPS370, and like all the latest 2010 Sony Blu-ray Players a very attractive device indeed using the brands new ‘monolith’ design concept to great effect. The player itself is a standard width, but also not very deep and also quite lightweight, but considering its cost is not surprising.
Controlling the Sony BDP-S370 is easy thanks to the much loved XrossMediaBar menu system, but if you have a iPhone you can also control the player with that if you wish. Getting the player started is impressively quick with a three second start up time, and a much improved two second disc eject time – something which was surprisingly annoying on older players.
This isn’t a top of the range player so connection options are all pretty standard with a single HDMI out and component and composite video outputs, and a single optical and digital coaxial audio outputs.
This model has been replaced by the Sony BDP-S480
What to consider before you buy the Sony BDPS470 Blu-ray Player
The wireless dongle is not included, and to get the full benefit of the features of the player you ideally need to be online with it. If you cannot connect with a network cable, the UWABR100 wireless dongle is almost essential. You might also want to consider the 3D Ready Sony BDP-S570 which has built in Wi-Fi.
Why you should buy the Sony BDP-S470 Blu-ray Player
A step up from the BDP-S370, albeit only mainly because of the 3D readiness, this player is fully loaded with all the latest features, and combined with slick usability and great design, makes a great purchase. Rating: /5
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