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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Great value now that Sony's worked out the kinks"
Pros: Affordable Blu-ray system, novel way to easily access slots
Cons: Software update required to get Blu-ray stable
Summary: I think those who previously gave this unit a low rating probably bought it when it first came out, when the 3rd party software for the Blu-ray was still buggy.
I bought one just now (March 2007) at Fry's for $1600, and after updating the video card driver and the WinDVD from Sony's site (only one minute for each download over my DSL), the Blu-ray worked fine.
Other reviewers also may not have been aware of a limitation of Blu-ray that Sony has no control over, which is that the encryption on Blu-ray discs will stop a disc from playing over a DVI connected monitor unless it finds the HDCP decryption protocol on the monitor that is plugged in. In other words, there's a good chance your existing LCD monitor with a DVI connector will not allow Blu-ray to play from any Blu-ray device, as only a very few LCD monitors today have HDCP built in.
Your work-around, if your monitor has a VGA connector (almost all of them do), is to attach a DVI-to-VGA dongle to the PC and use a VGA cable to the monitor. The Blu-ray will then play on your monitor with a slight decrease in quality (still a much nicer picture than standard DVD video).
Besides that my family is enjoying the Blu-ray, another nice feature of this Sony PC is that the silver square panel on the front (see the picture) has a section that pops right off with a quick press of your thumb, allowing you to add up to three additional hard drives without having to open the whole case. Very nice design.
