Sony is looking to step up its Blu-ray game with the BDP-S760, the company’s first standalone deck with built-in Wi-Fi. That makes it a breeze to access BD Live. Read our Sony BDP-S760 review and find out what other tricks it has up its sleeve.
Built-in Wi-Fi means you don’t need an ungainly dongle or LAN cable to get online – just follow the simple onscreen wizard to find your access point and away you go. The BDP-S760 is also DLNA certified and as such can display photos from PCs on your home network – although its inability to stream music or video makes this a wasted opportunity, particularly as the BDP-S760 supports 802.11n, the new speedier Wi-Fi standard.
Elsewhere you get two USB ports, one for photo playback (but not MP3 or DivX) and one to add BD Live storage. Also inside is a bevy of snazzy-sounding picture tech previously found on Sony’s high-end BDP-S5000ES, including HD Reality Enhancer and Advanced Super Bit Mapping.
Unusually there’s a headphone jack on the front. Plug in a pair of cans and the Sony BDP-S760’s Headphone Surround mode will emulate 7.1-channel sound.
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All these features are contained in a stunning and superbly made case, tarted up with a blue light and glossy silver top panel. The BDP-S760’s back panel offers all the usual suspects – HDMI, Ethernet, component, S-video, composite – as well as a set of 7.1-channel analogue outputs that feed decoded Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio soundtracks to older amps.
The Quick Start boots up the player in five seconds flat, and you’ll get to grips with the BDP-S760’s operating system in no time. Every function is helmed from the Xross Media Bar – first seen on the PS3 – a slick, intuitive menu system that glides from option to option like an eel on ice. It’s just a shame the deck takes such a long time to load discs – Terminator Salvation clocked in at over a minute.
We have no complaints with picture quality on the Sony BDP-S760 though. The screen is awash with razor sharp detail, vivid, natural colours and deep blacks, and when the light fades top-notch contrast keeps the picture watchable. Select the 1080/24p option and there’s no judder or edge noise either.
Add in gorgeous audio playback and the Sony BDP-S760 is one classy performer, by far the best standalone deck Sony has produced – it’s just a shame that it can’t match the LG BD390’s more generous feature list.
