What should an excellent Blu-ray disc player have as features? It should have an above-average picture quality. Its disc handling should be speedy. It should have a few extra features. On top of everything, an excellent Blu-ray disc player must have all these qualities at a lower cost than that of the competitors. The latest Sharp BD-HP50U Aquos Blu-ray disc player, priced at $399.99, handles some of these qualities very well but falls flat on some of them at the same time. The area under which it disappoints is the disc loading speed and cost. The player suffers greatly from slow disc-loading times, has a lack of networking options, and carries a price tag which is way too high for a Blu-ray player of this magnitude. The glossy player carries a tinted acrylic face that supports a disc tray mechanism on its right, just above its display. The player also features a row of large playback controls on its left. A dedicated remote adds to the decent features. The remote consists of a comfortable keypad but lacks backlit buttons.
As far as connections are concerned, the rear of the player carries all the video outputs. The outputs include an HDMI port and component video output. As far as audio outputs are concerned, they include coaxial and optical digital outputs. Stereo analog output also finds a place on the player. The player is good on the additional options front with RS-232C and external IR ports. The player supports USB connectivity through a dedicated USB port. The player, however, lacks an Ethernet jack or any other networking option. But the player supports Bonus View (picture-in-picture) feature.
You can get full range output through the HDMI video port on the player. The player boasts of the ability to up-convert DVD video to the 1080p60 format. This results in an error-free, detailed picture. As far as support for audio formats is concerned, the player supports bit-stream output of Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and the DTS-HD formats. The BD-HP50U loads a Blu-ray disc in about 59 seconds, a time that is too much for the new generation Blu ray players. The player offers an operating cost of $0.43 per month (20 watts). Overall, the player offers an excellent performance.
