Tech Blog

[#1]

At home I think I have all the makings for a good test. I have two HD TVs (relax I won one), a regular Sony DVD player but with an HDMI connection to the TV, and a PS3 with a HDMI connection. My plan was to do several different tests with regular DVDs and Blu-rays, but I didn't wind up being that detailed. What I did do was test the WiFi and that was where I was disappointed.

Setting up the player and WiFi was dead easy. I'll give Sony that, it wasn't hard to get the player hooked into my home network. Once online the time, date, and update status were checked (updates are key so more functionality can be added I hope) painlessly. What I wanted to do was watch a movie from my laptop (I have a digital copy of Dark Knight). Nope. All the WiFi let's you do is look at pictures. Hmm.

Okay, look at USB port! On my PS3 I watch XviD/DivX movies through a USB drive. This would make it a great home device. Lots of flexibility except...

Right, no XviD.

The player was great with the Blu-ray (Iron Man) and regular (Elektra) movies I tried, but the fact that the only thing the WiFi and USB are for are pictures is disappointing.

I know Sony wants to create the digital home (at Media2o we have used a lot of Sony products), but to make an advanced, networked Blu-ray player that can only play pictures over the network (not even music) is just a gap that I couldn't over-look.

If I were Sony, the first update I would push out would be to enable playing music through the network. I would follow that with DivX/XviD movies.

Is this a great DVD player? Yes.

Does it perform well? Yes.

Could I make it better? Yes.

I think this DVD is good for homes where you need a DVD player, with Blu-ray, that is above par but not crazy high end.

I haven't seen this in stores yet, but I'm told it will be shortly (if it isn't already).