Sony BDP-S300

Pros: Unit looks very slick, thin, silent operation, video quality and audio quality

Cons: *Very slow* to load some discs, probably wont be able to upgrade to Blu-ray profile spec by firmware, audio format support

Summary: I just recently purchased a BDP-S300. The unit looks very good with my other home theatre gear and operates silently.

The video and audio quality is superb, as is to be expected.

The one thing that really lets this player down is that it takes *forever* to load discs. As mentioned in the CNET review, it truly does take approximately 3 mins to load Pirates of the Caribbean. It takes a similar amount of time to load any one of discs in the Spider-man trilogy.

Another thing to look out for is that this player does not support TrueHD or DTS HD MA... and probably wont - ever. I'm not hugely concerned about this, but it is a shame that I would probably have to buy a new player to get that functionality.

One last thing... as the Blu-ray specification is still not complete, as the new specifications are approved - it is highly unlikely the player will be able to take advantage of them via a firmware update. Again - it's a shame that it is a high probability that a new player would need to be purchased in order to take advantage of future Blu-ray features.

Overall, if you are looking for lower cost entry in to HD and aren't too concerned about slow loading discs, the absolute highest quality sound or being able to take advantage of soon to be added capabilities - then this would be a good choice. In all honesty, you are probably better off buying a PS3 (or a Toshiba HD DVD player/Xbox 360 with HD DVD add on).