The Sony BDP-S570 is oneof a new breed of game-changing Blu-ray players. Standing just 46mm high, it maybe a mere sliver of a thing, but it offers a level of functionality that'llhave early Blu-ray adopters spitting feathers. £200 or less gets you jaw-on-the-floorpicture quality, 3D Blu-ray and Super Audio CD compatibility, BBC iPlayeron board, Internet TV and DLNA media streaming. But, there are caveats…
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Solving the 3D connection conundrum
If you intend to use the BDP-S570 as part of a home cinema, you'll need an AVreceiver with HDMI v1.4 connectivity. Hook it up to a legacy non v1.4 AVR andyou won't be able to route 3D through it. We tried to coax Ice Age 3 through anon-HDMI 1.4 Pioneer AVR and the Sony player was having none of it. Itsteadfastly maintained it wasn't connected to a 3D display and onlyoffered access to the 2D version of the movie. Consequently, you'll be forcedto run HDMI direct to your 3D TV and, in the process, lose the ability to listento high-resolution DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD soundtracks.
In every other respect, connections are standard. In addition to the single HDMI,the BDP-S570 has component and stereo audio outputs, optical and coaxial digitalaudio and Ethernet. The player also hastwo USB slots, one on the rear panel and another on the front fascia for mediaplayback. Unlike some of the lesser players in the Sony range, there's 1GB offlash memory on board. This means there's no need to use one of the USB slots asa repository for BD-Live shenanigans.
Mr Sony says keep your media local
If you access your soundand vision files from USB, the player offers sterling support. It recognisedand played its way through all the required suffixes in our test folder (AVI, DivX,MKV, MPEG-4, MP3 and AAC.). It even acknowledged and played SRT subtitle files,always a sign of good breeding. When you try and access the same content across your home network, however, its attitudenosedives. The player can't see hi-def MKVs, and turns its nose up at those artysubtitles so readily embraced by USB.
Jump from your ownnetwork to Sony's IPTV garden and there's a bewildering amount of content to admire.Sony's Bravia Internet Video (BIV) portal is fast becoming an attraction oftheme-park-like magnitude. Thankfully, getting the deck online is a snap. Ifyou don't have a handy Ethernet connection, there's integrated Wi-Fi.
Online offeringsinclude (deep breath): BBC iPlayer, Sony Entertainment Television, the FIFA World Cup collection, Eurosport, YouTube, Blip TV, Dailymotion, Lovefilm, Singing Fool, pod and videocasts -- plus someGerman news stuff of no consequence. The player's XrossMediaBar (XMB) strainsunder the weight of so much Internet telly.
The headline attraction here is the BBC catch-up service. Venture beyond,however, and the user experience warps a little. Dailymotion is acurious alternative to YouTube, stuffed with slightly pervy TV clips andparanormal videos. But you can't really tell that from Sony's front end. Theuser interface follows Sony's standard BIV grid format, and shows a handful ofthumbnails with the invitation to 'Click here to see all 36,426 items'.Frankly, even if you had several spare lifetimes, you'd never make it through a listof 36,426 items. There is a rudimentary search option, but it doesn't get youvery far.
The Sony EntertainmentTelevision network has a variety of free streaming TV shows, along with aninnovation it calls 'minisodes'. These are five-minute edits of longerproductions. Back in the day, feature films used to be cut to shreds to sell onsmall 8mm cine film reels -- this is similar. You can view truncated episodesfrom Rescue Me, Different Strokes, I Dream of Jeannie and Mad about You. Weopted for the 'highlights' version of Jeannie (freshly colourised). Theexperience was like dozing off in front of the TV and then waking up slightlyconfused when the end credits roll, unable to fully recall what you've justwatched.
Recognising how difficult all this content is to navigate, the BDP-S570 offersa separate search app, which allows you to do a keyword trawl. We recommendjust typing random things into the search bar and seeing what comes up.
3D compatibility is the Blu-icing on this player cake
In 3D guise, the S570is perfectly well behaved. We auditioned it with a selection of 3D screens(Panasonic, Samsung and Sony) and found no incompatibilities or quirks. With standardBlu-ray discs, it squeezes hi-def detail onto screen with ruthless efficiency. Imagequality is not quite as accomplished as last year's BDP-S760, which utilisedthe high-performance video chipset from the brand's top-range BDP-S5000ESmodel, but it comes close -- and the improved feature specification outweighsany niggles.
The BDP-S570 is also areassuringly good DVD spinner. Standard definition is upscaled (rather well) to 1080p over HDMI,meaning those with smaller screen sizes are unlikely to feel a need to immediatelyrepurchase their disc collections.
Audiophiles willappreciate that fact that the deck can play Super Audio CDs. It can decode toPCM, or stream DSD if you have a Sony AV receiver that accepts DSD over HDMI.The precision and clarity of David Bowie's Heathen, a marvellous multi-channelmix on SACD, is thrilling on the S570. The beautiful sound design, with cleancrisp vocals and bouncing bass, makes you wish they still released real recordson the format rather than beardy chin-scratching nonsense.
CD playback pales alittle in comparison, but is good enough when delivered via the digitaloutputs. The player will pull album art from Gracenote when you load a disc,which is a neat touch. That said, it doesn't do this when fed SACDs.
Blu-ray disc loadingtimes are fast. Lou Reed's Berlin (from Artificial Eye) went from tray loadingto menu screen in 30 seconds, and the remastered Goldfinger (Fox HomeEntertainment) served up the 007 logo in 46 seconds.
Conclusion
We think the Sony BDP-S570is insanely good value for money. Its feature specification is generous and itsoverall disc-spinning performance fabulous. Throw in BBC iPlayer and thesprawling smorgasbord that is the Bravia Internet Video portal and you have aformidable home entertainment machine.
Edited by Emma Bayly