Customer Reviews

SonyŽ Blu-ray DiscTM Player BDP-BX2

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Outstanding quality. This blu-ray player produces a top quality picture. Setup was painless. However, if you like to add all devices to your cable box remote control, I could not get it to recognize this player. I tried all the Sony codes in the manual and then tried the learn process and the cable remote could not operate this player. Not a deal breaker but an annoyance. This player has BD Live which allows for firmware updates over your network but has to be hard wired. It has no wireless capabilty. It does not have some of the newer network features such as Net Flix, You-Tube, Pandora, etc. But with BD Live, maybe these capabilities will be added in future firmware updates. My unit arrived with .006 firmware version. Web site review indicated that version .007 was the latest firmware available. I called Sony for the .007 firmward disc and they sent it free of charge and it arrived in 4 days. Great service from Sony. There is a Quick Start option that I selected so I find this player to be very fast from disc insert to start of movie.

Bottom line: If you are looking for a top quality Blu-Ray player, you can't go wrong with this one. And the firmware can be updated as newer versions come available. If you want the latest internet features, they are not offered with this model. I would highly recommend this player.

I have two identical BDP-BX2 machines. One is being used "out of the box" and is an excellent machine. Plays every Blu Ray I have. No problems. On the other one, I downloaded two "firmware" upgrades from the Sony site. After the first "update" it would only play some Blu Ray discs. Now it calls all Blu-Ray discs "Invalid Disc" and plays only DVDs. Bottom line: A really a good machine if you don't update the firmware. If you update the firmware, you could end up turning it into a DVD player.

I received this player for Christmas and have now had time to watch numerous videos on it. This is my first Blu-Ray so I don't have other to compare it to, only what I have read in other reviews.

First I will say this an inexpensive no-frills player. If you want bells and whistles you need to pay more and look elsewhere. On comparing the Blue-Ray format to the progressive scan (upconvert) DVD I find that the picture for most live action films is simply outstanding and an order of magnitude better. On animations such as the recent release of Sleeping Beauty to Blu-Ray the difference is only slight. However, I don't see that as a function of the player but the actual film.

Setup for the machine was breeze and everything worked as advertised on setup. I am beginning to think that that is a rarity anymore. I haven't had the machine long enough to testify to its reliability, but I have found Sony products to be generally reliable in the past.

There are only a few things that I have a problem with, and these are only small nits:

- I would prefer an eject button on the remote.
- I don't like the idea of firmware updates. That implies they will be continually tinkering with this. Get the standard down and leave it alone. I have heard horror stories on these firmware updates. The other thing bad about this is the fact that you have to plug it into a network via a Cat5E cable. What do you do if you have no network?
- All of my other devices which use an HDMI cable allow me to have the sound through the TV or the Stereo amp at the same time. This allows me to choose how I want the audio with little effort. In this device you must set it up to play through one or the other. If you want to change it you must go back to the audio setup menu and reconfigure the device.

One other commenter said he experienced problems getting the cable TV remote programmed for this device. I use a Logitech Harmony 550 programmable remote for all my devices now and I had no problem getting this new unit programmed into that remote.

Update: After roughly 5 months of use I have had zero problems with this unit. Therefore I will conclude that it is most likely very reliable and will not fail until it is worn out.

This is my first blu ray player and it works great. Blu ray discs look great on it (I've been testing it out with season 5 of LOST). The player itself looks really slick. The load times for blu rays are pretty quick too. Something you may not be able to tell from the picture: when a blu ray disc is playing, the faint light at the top center of the front is blue, when a dvd is playing, it's white.

Note: as other reviewers have said, this player does not have advanced internet features like streaming Netflix. This is a non-issue for me, as I have other devices with those capabilities. Some people have also complained that the remote has no eject button... Who cares?... If I need to eject a disc I'm going to need to get off the couch and walk up to the player to take it out anyways...

If you want a simple, slick looking, inexpensive player, go with this one.

I already have a PS3 so I don't actually need those network features, I simply just don't want to use my PS3 to watch blu ray discs too often because my PS3 is backward compatible with PS2 & PS games, so I rather use it for games mostly, surprisingly I think this BX2 has better picture quality than my PS3, for real the color is more vivid and vibrant on this player and I got this on an auction for only half of the retail price.

I purchased this player just to see the difference that Blu-Ray makes as to a typical DVD player. I was blown away while watching on my 1080p HDTV. The picture was mind blowing. I had no problems with it, everything works just fine. You will love it.

Sony told me this model does not support Netflix streamline movies. The internet function is only useful for firmware updates and BD Live function.

So, it looks great while it works. A little over a year after purchasing it started showing artifacts on screen.
I'm pretty disappointed that a simple device like this can conk out after so little use.

Connected to my Sony Bravia LCD with a nice picture. I was extremely impressed at how well it up-scaled regular DVD's. This is a 2nd Bluray player in addition to the S560.

This Blu-Ray was a good deal. Its design is sleek. The only issues I have it that it takes longer than regular DVDs to power up and start viewing. However, I think this is how all blu-rays are because my other one is the same. The quality of the picture is fine to me, but I'm not techie. If you're looking for a basic blu-ray to view HD, this one will do the trick