There are a whole bunch of Blu-ray players being announced at CEDIA, but for the most part there’s not too much to differentiate them. Sharp’s new Blu-ray player, the BD-HP20U, the company’s first ever and while it’s mostly the same as other players, the press release claims that it will load Blu-ray discs in ten seconds. For those of you not used to the sluggish speeds of high-def media, that’s very fast — we’re used to it taking closer from 40 seconds to well over a minute on other high-def players.
We definitely love the Quick Start mode, but we’re disappointed that the BD-HP20U doesn’t offer bitstream output for DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks. On the other hand, the $550 price tag is pretty attractive, considering the only other $500 standalone Blu-ray player we’ve reviewed–the Sony BDP-S300–was extremely sluggish.
Sharp, Blu-ray, Blu-ray Player, Media Player, BD-HP20U
