Sony BDP-S350: world’s slimmest and fastest Blu-ray player

Sony finally has the Blu-ray format nailed down thanks to its latest budget decks, the BDP-S350 and BDP-DM550 that can power up in less than 4 seconds and play profile 2.0 BD-Live content. What’s more, Sony has got the price below £250.

The new super-fast, super-skinny BD decks will hit the UK next month, making the BD350 one of the most affordable on the market. In a demo, the player took less than 4 seconds to boot up and show its ubiquitous cross media bar GUI addressing one of the complaints that consumers have had about sluggish HD players. It will actually have profile 1.1 firmware from the box, but it will be immediately upgradable to 2.0 when you plug in an Ethernet cable and download the update. Alternatively, the necessary software can be burned to a CD-ROM from the Sony website or picked up free on a disc from a Sony Centre.

The BDP-350 will go on sale with the slightly more expensive BDP-550, which will also have multichannel audio outputs, a USB memory drive and be profile 2.0 from the box.

Out September | £220-£249 | Sony

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