Toshiba BDX2150 Wifi-Ready Blu-ray Disc Player - Black

• Full HD 1080p/24 fps video output provides an amazing cinema experience in the comfort of your own home.
• BD-Live opens up a world of online features, with a convenient USB Memory for storing saved content.
• Internet Connectivity makes access to online content from Netflix , CinemaNow , YouTube , VUDU , Pandora , Blockbuster and Picasa possible.
• AVCHD Playback for HD playback of your home movies.
• HDMI w/CEC Connectivity for easy setup to highdefinition video and optimum video playback

First off I'll state I bought this player for use as a second unit for my bedroom hooked directly to my 23" Samsung HDTV so I wasn't expecting much. This is is a budget blu ray player and one of the cheapest I've seen out there at this low price point. Therefore, I wasn't expecting a lot of frills as I expected Toshiba would cut back on features. However, the picture quality is HD 1080p on an HDTV as expected from any blu ray player.

To give this unit a shakeout, I plugged it into my primary home theatre system which consists of a Pioneer 7.1 AV receiver (Elite vsx-94thx), high end Klipch speakers, and a Philips 52" HDTV. I also use an ethernet cable for Internet access so wireless is of no interest to me.

My impressions:

Pro: As mentioned, the video quality is as expected 1080p HD quality. It is adjustable to 1080i or 720p (or lower) if neccessary to match your monitor.

The Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA lossless audio tracks sound just as good as my high end Sony Blu Ray player. For some reason my AV receiver decoders could not recognize the bitstream (no sound) when the player audio is set for "Bitstream HD". Not sure if this is a fault of the player or my AV receiver. I just set the audio in the player to PCM 7.1 and use the player surround decoders and all is good, which is my preference anyway.

I don't use subscription services like Netflix or Blockbuster but these are nice apps to have for anyone who uses them. This was first time I streamed Pandora internet radio and I was suprised at the quality of the audio very good!

Con: This player vibrates and can rattle with some audible noise when loading a disc. This part worries me as I tend to suspect units with significant vibration can break over time. This is my biggest complaint!

The manual could be better written! For a player this cheap I didn't expect a thick tome but some of the explanations could have been better and are somewhat missleading. For example, it gives a full diagram of how to connect to an AV receiver using a digital coaxial cable as if this is the preferred way instead of an HDMI cable. The lossless HD audio (Dolby TrueHD / DTS HD) do not work over a digital coaxial hookup so this should have been documented as a secondary option for this unit with emphasis on HDMI.

Video connectivity is limited to HDMI only. I realize Toshiba is cutting back on features to cut price but at the very least they should have included RCA composite jacks as a connectivity option. I wonder how many people bought this unit and found out later they could not connnect to TV's that don't have HDMI inputs. Not everyone has HDTV yet, still purchases DVD, and standalone DVD players are getting harder to find now. The manual talks about setting the video resolution to 480i if you have an SD TV (yes, blu ray players can work on standard definition TV) but a bit hard to do this without composite cables and that is all that will work for you.

Conclusion: A good buy for a budget Blu Ray player if basic features are all you need, as long as it is understood this is an HDMI centric player with limited connectivity and with no built in wireless internet access "out of the box" (separate adapter required and NOT cheap!). Throw in the extra streaming apps and it seems like a good deal.

My negatives are primarly on the units internal noise and vibrations. Perhaps this is because this player is so small in size! I'll follow up in 6 months if this has any negative impact on this player as far as breakage.

Update May 05/08/2012: Well, 6 months has gone by and this player is still working just fine. No complaints other than the "bang, whirrr, bang.." noise I still hear when a blu ray disc is loading. Once loaded and playing, the player does quiet down. Loading regular DVD discs doesn't produce such a noise when loading.

I am upgrading my review stars for this device from 3 stars to 4 for several reasons. For one, this blu Ray player has not broken down on me even after extensive use. Secondly, I care about the audio (I have since hooked this unit up permenently to an AV receiver for surround sound)and this player has the DTS HD Master Audio decoder built into it! Many manufacturers that sell low end blu ray players are eliminating the DTS HD internal decoders leaving just the Dolby TrueHD. Most blu ray discs I have bought, and I have over 300+ now, are encoded with DTS HD Master Audio, not Dolby TrueHD! This player has the DTS HD Master Audio decoder. My AV receiver cannot decode the DTS HD master audio when the player is set to bitstream. Therefore, to obtain the absolute best audio, I set this player to decode the DTS HD audio tracks found on most blu ray discs and stream it to my AV receiver via 5 or 7 channel PCM over HDMI, and it rocks!

I was critical about the lack of connections in the back. Though I still feel Toshiba should have included composite jacks in the back, I understand why they did not include component jacks. Blame the AACS organization (google it for more info)and its consortium (of which Toshiba is member) for enforcing what is called the analog sunset rule. All new blu ray players sold today, not just Toshiba, must limit the video output from component cables to Standard Definition 480i (not even progressive scan!). Therefore, the only way to obtain High Defintion video 720p and higher is through the HDMI with its copy protection scheme HDCP. Oh well...

Finally, like I mentioned in my original review, my Internet connection preference is ethernet cable. I did not and will not ding this player for not having Wi Fi built in. I knew it didn't have built in wireless capability out of the box when I bought it and didn't want it anyway! I'm fortunate to have a solid ethernet connection to my router, which should be preferred over wireless anyway. To those out there that expect or need a Wi Fi enabled Blu ray player that will work "out of the box" without an external adapter, then do not buy this player and look elsewhere.

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I actually like this player, but there are a couple of annoying features that erode its rating:

1. The internet adapter is separate--and worse--proprietary.

2. It does not remember your location in a disk

3. Every so often, it just can't remember what it is supposed to do with your wireless connection. You will see that you are connected, but that doesn't seem to be good enough for it to actually do anything, and an error message pops up. The machine tries to blame your router. Customer service, while pleasant enough, has no idea what's going on. But the problem is in the machine. If it happens to you, the solution is simple enough: just unplug your player for a minute or so and try again. Turning it off has no effect. Don't mess with your router or the proprietary internet adapter.

It's a strange issue too, because it will happen sometimes in the middle of playing something.

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I just purchased this Blu-Ray player about a week ago. I made the mistake of not really looking into them first and seeing what features each had before buying. There are a couple noticeable issues with this one, although it doesn't really effect the quality of the picture (which IS quite nice!). First issue is that this does not have an automatic playback, as in, if you turn the player off in the middle of a movie, it will not resume where it stopped; you have to completely start from the beginning. Second issue is that it has a long lag time before starting play at all up to five minutes before it reads and starts the disc. All the while it makes a really loud knocking noise. These are minor issues in the long run, but still annoying. I wouldn't have bought this particular one had I known that ahead of time, but I won't bother replacing this either since I already own it.

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This blu-ray player has excellent picture quality. The Netflix,Blockbuster,Vudu work great. You also receive a free movie download with Blockbuster and Vudu if you register the device on their website. Works excellent with a wired connect and as soon as I connected my ethernet cable it update the firmware. And you can attach a flash drive to the usb on the back for extra storage for the BD-Live Content. I used my 20.00 credit from Madden 12 to get the player for 58.00. Even at 78.00 this is a great player.

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I give it a 4-start for the following reasons (or points of improvements):

1. The player does not remember where it stopped playing. So, I have to start from the beginning after power cycle.

2. When the blue-ray disk is being loaded, somehow there is relatively loud noise. Every time. But it is quiet when it plays.