Review Of Philips BDP7300 Digital Media Player

Gadgets — By Ricky on August 16, 2009 at 10:30 am

The new Philips BDP7300 looks absolutely stunning- a smooth, glossy panel with very little buttons dotting it here and there. There is also a USB port on one side for digital media playback.

The BDP7300 is also very sturdily built when compared to the other blu-ray players in the 250 pounds segment.

Since the BDP7300 is a profile 2.0 player, you can download movies and other stuff using an Ethernet connection which is provided behind the player. But what makes this player different is that it has an internal memory of 1 GB we are therefore at an advantage in that we don’t need any USB memory cards/sticks to store downloads. But people who are allergic to cables and long wires be warned, there is NO Wi-Fi support.

Philips BDP7300 Digital Media Player

Another reason to rejoice is that this player features 5.1 channel analogue outputs which allow people without HDMI equipped receivers to enjoy HD audio.The fact that Philips did not further extend it to a 7.1 channel output is regrettable.

The player’s format support is quite formidable, it plays all the ordinary formats such as MP3, WMA, JPEG (in high definition) and DivX Ultra, as well as more rare ones like AVCHD, WMV and surprisingly even WMVHD.DivX HD and MKV are some of the formats that are not supported.

The BDP7300’s graphical user interface is splendid, taking a refreshing approach to design and still managing to be user friendly. The setup menu is well designed with simple yet informative icons with dialogue boxes quite like in windows.

The remote uses the same icons and fonts that have been used on the remotes of most Philips televisions, so people who own Philips TVs should find the layout familiar extremely easy to use. The disk loading speeds exceeds expectations and it is reportedly among the leaders in this segment.

The video performance is truly outstanding. It aced all its performance tests with reassuring confidence. Picture quality is top of the class with minimal flickering and smooth edges. It is equally good when it comes to movies too; every detail is picture perfect whether computer generated or natural.

Even though the BDP7300 is limited to 5.1 output from analogue ports, Philips does an amazing job of decoding HD audio. it lends an admirable feel and depth to Benjamin Button’s Dolby True HD track. It copes equally well in the case of Quantum of solace’s fiery, action packed music delivering an explosive feel to the stunt sequences. However the sound system is not technically advanced, so most hardcore music enthusiasts may not be impressed but to the casual listener, it will make no difference.

The fact that the Philips BDP7300 offers a solid build quality ,a long list of features and crystal clear pictures and videos at around $360 (which is great value for money)but at the same time you can get other players that have more features like Wi-Fi support and PC streaming for around the same price. But if do purchase the Philips BDP7300, you can rest assured that you will not be disappointed.