Blu-ray Yamaha BD-S2900

Publicado pela revista What Hi-Fi

Preço na Europa: £ 700

Avaliação: * * * *

An extremely solid player from Yamaha, but the impressive Pioneer BDP-LX71 prevents it from getting five stars.

For
Full HD audio output support; fine picture quality, particularly with Blu-ray; capable sonic delivery

Against
Pioneer bests it in terms of audio and HD pictures; not Profile 2.0; can’t decode all HD formats on-board

From its recent test performances, it seems abundantly clear that Yamaha is on its way back up.

After a few years being relatively quiet, the company has punched its way back into the mainstream this year with a raft of exceptional multichannel receivers. And now it intends to repeat that success with the BD-S2900 Blu-ray player.

Initial impressions are extremely promising, if not quite overwhelming. The ’S2900 is undeniably a smart-looking and solidly built unit, but it doesn’t impress to quite the same degree as the other two players here. It is a little shorter, though, so those with limited shelf space will be happy.

Anyone familiar with Panasonic’s Blu-ray players will quickly recognise the Yamaha’s menu system – it turns out that the ’S2900’s transport is a custom unit built by Panasonic.

The player itself, though, is built by Yamaha, and has the company’s own video and sound processors. And it is clearly an improvement over Panasonic’s own DMP-BD55.

Great motion handling

Slot in the Transformers Blu-ray, and the Yamaha reveals its premium credentials with a clean and stable picture that’s full of vibrant colours and punchy whites.

The early chase scene also proves that the Yamaha is an excellent handler of motion, making sense of the fast-paced action without judder or smear.

The ’S2900 is undeniably a terrific Blu-ray performer, but in thorough side-by-side comparisons with the Pioneer BDP-LX71, it gives a little away in terms of outright detail and sharpness – and this all the more noteworthy when you consider the £100 price differential.

Weighty, dynamic sound

This feeling continues into the sound performance. In isolation the Yamaha sounds weighty, dynamic and detailed, with both stereo and surround discs, but it doesn’t quite have the extra level of subtlety and expressiveness of the Pioneer BDP-LX71.

What’s more, if you’re looking for HD audio decoding onboard, the Yamaha is even more of a letdown than the Pioneer, with neither variety of high-definition soundtrack being catered for.

Where it certainly matches, and in fact just surpasses the Pioneer BDP-LX71, is with DVD playback. The ’S2900 is just that tiny bit more detailed and stable than its closest-price rival.

And that, too, may influence a fair-few potential purchasers.

However, if you’re paying this much for a Blu-ray player, we expect Blu-ray playback should be your biggest priority – and in terms of both picture and sound the Pioneer just pips this Yamaha, and for a smaller outlay, too.
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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
Yes

HDMI out
1

HDMI 1.3a
Yes

DVI out
0

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
6ch

Video scaling
1080p

24fps
Yes

Dolby Digital Plus decoding
Yes

DTS HD decoding
No

Dolby TrueHD decoding
No

DTS HD Master Audio decoding
No

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)
10x44x32