Sony whips out better basic Blu-ray box

Sony has shown off the successor to its rather good entry-level Blu-ray Disc player, the BDP-S350.

Unsurprisingly dubbed the BDP-S360, the new machine adds DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD decoding to the S350's base spec - a first for a Sony entry-level BD machine. Sony also claimed the new box will start up in just six seconds, just like the S350. Essentially, this mode doesn't put the machine so deeply to sleep in stand-by, so it wakes more rapidly at the cost of higher power consumption.

Sony's BDP-S360: out goes the blue look

The S360 also sports 1080p playback with support for cinema-style 24f/s playback. It'll do 7.1-channel sound through a suitable receiver, will upscale and play DVD content, and hooks up to your HD TV through a Deep Colour-capable HDMI port.

The machine has a USB port too, to allow you to plug in storage for downloaded content delivered via BD Live discs - so we assume there's an Ethernet port for the network connection too. It also supports BonusView, Blu-ray's picture-in-picture system.

Sony didn't say when the BDP-S360 is due to go on sale, or how much the machine will cost. The S350 currently retails for £220. ®