To call the Sony BDP-S550 a budget Blu-ray player would be doing it a disservice to its myriad features, but what else do you call a Blu-ray player that costs around £250?
Surprisingly, for the price, it looks and feels the crackers, mimicking some of Sony’s higher-end Blu-ray players for its design. That’s not the best bit, though. The Sony BDP-S550 offers the kind of OTT performance Daniel Day Lewis can only dream of, and a features list that’s stronger than the stench of an unfriendly Stilton.
From the six-second boot up to the BonusView feature you know you’re dealing with a quality product. The Sony BDP-S550 handles pretty much everything you throw at it, upscaling with aplomb and supporting BD-ROM/R/RE, AVC-HD and almost all flavours of DVD and CD. There’s even Sony’s Precision Drive HD that’ll miraculously stabilize scratched disks – don’t ask us how – and support for Blu-ray Profile 2.0.
Elsewhere you’ve got 1080p/24fps output and picture quality as peachy as a Geldoff daughter’s name. In fact, the only downside we can see is the backlit remote control – it’s not exactly in keeping with the rest of the product.
Still, that’s like kicking Angelina Jolie out of bed because you don’t like the mole on her big toe (we don’t know if she does, it’s just an analogy). We wouldn’t do that and we’re certainly not going to get kick out the Sony BDP-S550 because of its remote. This is an awesome machine!
