Blu-ray Sony BDP-S5000ES

Publicado pela What Hi-Fi
Preço: £ 1200
Classificação: * * * * *

Wow. The Sony produces one of the finest Blu-ray images money can buy and it sounds fabulous to boot

For
Serious high-end looks and build quality; breathtaking Blu-ray images; awesome DVD upscaling; hugely entertaining with movie soundtracks

Against
A little heavy-handed with CD playback

Sony has already had great success with its entry-level Blu-ray players. The Japanese giant is now turning its attention to the top end of the market.

The BDP-S5000ES is an entirely different proposition to Sony’s entry-level players. And the first thing that grabs your attention you is the player’s purposeful appearance. Note the serious-looking, partly slanted, solid aluminium fascia.

The machine is considerably larger than any other player in Sony’s range and, at 10kg, significantly heavier. With regards to design and engineering, nothing has been overlooked.

The ‘S5000ES features a FB (Frame and Beam) chassis whereby different thicknesses of metal are used throughout to ensure minimal interference from internal and external vibrations.

To help further cancel out the effects of unwanted vibrations, even the feet and the blots that fix them to the chassis have been positioned off-centre.

All the components used are of the highest quality and include high-performance capacitors and digital-to-analogue convertors.

The ‘S5000ES is also the first Sony player to feature a Precision Clock Conditioner, designed to reduce the effects of jitter.

Processing technologies are first class
To help achieve optimum picture quality, the Sony player is packed with picture processing technologies. The player’s HD Reality Enhancer allows you to fine-tune the picture on the fly, giving you access to picture settings such as colour, contrast and alter levels of noise reduction.

Precision Cinema HD and Vertical Edge Correction both claim to help produce a smoother, sharper picture. If you’re feeding the picture to a flatscreen TV, you can turn on Sony’s Super Bit Mapping Technology to help match the image to the bit depth of your TV (whether it’s a 8, 10 or 12-bit panel).

The Sony is tooled up with sockets and connections. It’s Profile 2.0 enabled, so there’s a recessed USB input on the back of the player, together with an Ethernet connection for accessing interactive Blu-ray content or merely updating the player’s firmware.

There’s an eight-channel analogue output as well as a dedicated pair of phono outputs for CD playback. Component video, S-Video and component video outputs are also included.

Superb upscaling, excellent sound
The remote control is identical to the intuitive backlit wand that comes with Sony’s BDP-S550 player. Turn the player on and you’re also greeted with the XrossMedia Bar (XMB) menu system that works so well Sony’s other players and top-of-the-range TVs.

With standard definition DVDs, the Sony manages to produce a crisp, detailed and natural picture – it’s easily one of the best upscaling Blu-ray players that we’ve ever seen.

Spin a Blu-ray disc and you’ll be shocked to the core. Images are unbelievably clean and the resulting sense of realism is truly breathtaking.

Justin Timberlake isn’t everyone’s favourite artist, but his Futuresex/Loveshow Blu-ray looks fantastic. The sense of depth and three-dimensionality given to Madison Square Garden is stunning – it’s like you’re actually there in person.

When the lights go down, blacks look superb and when the picture explodes into life, the image turns vibrant and punchy. Edge definition is rock solid too. And, the same Blu-ray disc confirms this player’s musical, entertaining nature.

Every track combines solidity and weight in the treble, a vocal, expressive midrange and a top end that sparkles as brightly as Timberlake’s teeth.

Spin a CD track such as Alicia Keys’ Karma, and the ‘S5000ES produces natural-sounding vocals and string instruments although the player is a little heavy-handed in the bass.

There aren’t many high-end Blu-ray players out on the market but those that are should be very worried by the all-round brilliance of the ‘S5000ES.

Tech Specs

HD DVD
No

Blu-ray
Yes

DVD-Video
Yes

DVD-A
No

SACD
No

CD
Yes

MP3
Yes

DivX
No

DVD-R/-RW
Yes

DVD+R/+RW
Yes

DVD-RAM
No

HDMI out
1

HDMI 1.3a
Yes

DVI out
1

Component out
1

RGB Scart out
0

S-Video out
1

Composite out
1

Optical digital out
1

Coaxial digital out
1

Phono audio out
1

FireWire out
0

Multichannel analogue out
8ch

Video scaling
1080p

24fps
Yes

Dolby Digital Plus decoding
Yes

DTS HD decoding
Yes

Dolby TrueHD decoding
Yes

DTS HD Master Audio decoding
Yes

Dolby decoding
Yes

DTS Decoding
Yes

PCM decoding
Yes

Dolby Digital Plus HDMI output
Yes

DTS HD HDMI output
Yes

Dolby TrueHD HDMI output
Yes

DTS HD Master Audio HDMI output
Yes

PCM HDMI output
Yes

Dimensions (hwd, cm)
13x43x37