Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
After starting up for the first time, the S760 presents you with its Easy Setup menu. This simply asks for details such as the language you want to use, the type of video cable, and whether or not to allow an Internet connection. Once the initial set-up process is complete the player’s Quick Start feature subsequently turns it on and goes straight into the ‘XrossMediaBar’ graphical interface in just six seconds. Loading up our Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Blu-ray disk packed with extras took another 15 seconds, which is certainly snappier than some other BD players that we’ve seen in the past.
Image playback is possible from USB storage media
Sony does say that the S760 consumes more power when left in standby mode with Quick Start activated, as the fan may continue to run if the room temperature requires the player to be kept cool. You can therefore turn Quick Start off if you want to, which seemed to roughly double the start-up and loading times. Power-consumption with Quick Start activated varies, depending on how much fan cooling is required, but standby mode consumes 0.19W without Quick Start, while power consumption is 32W while playing disks.
We decided to start by checking the upscaling of standard-definition DVDs, and were pleased to see that the S760 did manage to add a noticeable sharpness and clarity to the image on our Spiderman and Brokeback Mountain DVDs – although it’s certainly not equivalent to true 1080p, as the spec sheet on Sony’s web site seems to imply.
We’re not fans of Sony’s XrossMediaBar interface but, thankfully, there’s a secondary ‘options’ menu that can be activated from the remote control. This menu is overlaid over the video image and allows you to quickly select important settings such as the various image presets. We also like the backlight option on the remote itself, which will come in handy if you’re watching in a darkened room.
Some Blu-ray disks were next – although the spec sheet for the S760 degenerates into a kind of alphabet soup at this point, throwing around terms such as ‘Deep Colour’ which is supposed to produce “more colour variation” and ‘Advanced Super Bit Mapping’ which also produces “more colour variation”.
The Reality Enhancer emphasises image details while avoiding colour tweaks
However, the standout feature of the S760 is the ‘Reality Enhancer’, which leaves the colour alone and just concentrates on fine-tuning the detail within a scene. This works particularly well with films such as Terminator Salvation where there’s a lot of gleaming metal to catch the eye, and explosions that allow you to admire the tiny falling fragments of dust and metal.
COMMENTS
Hmm...
Some bizarre ideas on the comments as ever.
The LG is licked in the features and quality department for things that really matter... divx playback on a Blu ray player... ok if you really want, personally i quite like it to watch blu ray on not some crappy downloaded film. As for hacking of multi region wow the Sony can be too, with an all in one remote for £4 from eBay, most blu rays are released around the same time anyway so multi region blu ray isn't necessary and requires hard ware modding anyway.
If you compare the LG to this Sony, you're missing the point of Blu ray by a margin and a half. The LG is a cracking player, but it's not in the same league as this one...
And as for the PS3, again not quite the same really is it.... picture quality isn't as good, no analogue outputs, no deep colour support etc.... fine if you have a PS3 it's a decent player, but this is a far better one if you really want to extract the best from blu ray and have the rest of the gear to go with it.
Criticising a top flight player for not being able to playback shoddy home recordings or divx etc misses the point so much... buy a WDTV for that sort of stuff it's designed for it - or build a MediaPC and try it that way, but i welcome the lack of superfluous shite that has no place in a high end player, introducing all sorts of crap in the signal path that no-one wants.
The only really sensible comment is that of taking note of the quality based on how you actually watch it... sit 15ft from a TV and you really need a 50 inch model as a minimum to really appreciate the picture difference... the audio benefits however just need decent speakers!
I've refused to buy sony products for some time now
Their CD and DVD products have been notorious for their flaky support of recordable discs, or any variation to the standard that Sony themselves don't have a crippling patent on.
You look in the average households attic, and there, under the thick layer of dust will be a £200 sony CD/DVD player, which can't play blue tinted CD/DVDs, usurped from it's position under the telly by a £15 player from Aldi that reads the full rainbow of disc colours, can play Divx/Xvid and nearly any other variation you can find.
This product with have a useful lifespan of approximately 2 years, max. Beyond that, the owner will become increasily frustrated by the ever increasing pile of media that he/she cannot play because this device doesn't support the clever new variations and features that have been added to the format by other organisations.
Sonys products are bought by brandname drooling idiots with more money than sense.
If you want a TRUE media center, then this is worth a look
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166561
Chuck in a £40 external writer, and a £30 DVB-T dongle, you have 100 times the functionality, 5 times the the functional lifespan, and change for a few nights down the pub!
But it doesn't play anything:
<quote>Yet it’s disappointing that the S760 doesn’t support playback of digital music and video file formats other than the obvious audio CD, DVD and Blu-ray.</quote>
Haven't they learned from the DVD disaster? Nobody has Sony DVD-Players anymore as they were essentially worthless, not even playing VCDs.
Now they are bringing out players which can only play their own format which nobody has. You cannot even play back your legal recordings of TV with that box.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
