The carpenters So far, we have

The carpenters

So far, we have watched 3 Netflix Movies, used it for YouTube, watched an Amazon On Demand movie and also watched Blu-ray discs. The performance of Netflix movies has been great. Out of the box, I had to do an update, but the system did it automatically the first time I tried to access Netflix. I was very pleased with the picture quality, which I would describe as near-DVD. The Amazon on Demand worked flawlessly the carpenters links to your existing account if you have one. I purchased the Linksys Wireless Bridge with my unit and am connecting via a Wireless G Network. I was worried I would have to upgrade to N to get good performance but that hasn t been an issue. I also the carpenters a 16 gig. flash drive installed on my unit which is supposed to help with the buffering of streaming content. Having looked at all options including the Roku, Apple TV, etc. , I think this is a great solution. The only feature I dislike is that in Netflix you can only see movies that you have put in your Netflix queue. You cannot browse available titles as you can in Amazon on demand. I highly recommend this unit. As a bonus, it works very well with our existing Sony TV. Finally SONY recognizes that they are one player amongst many in a crowded and commoditized consumer electronics marketplace, and brings us an AFFORDABLE Blu-Ray player solution with the promise of Enhanced Features that make this device appear to have some advantages, like access to Amazon On Demand and Netflix content. I have a Sony Bravia LCD TV and a Sony AV Receiver system. I connected this Blu-Ray player to my AV receiver via HDMI, added the setup to my Logitech Harmony Remote in about 5-minutes, and I was off and running without a hardware glitch. I took receipt of this unit on a Saturday and set it up on Sunday December 20th. I played a couple of Blu-Ray discs the quality and performance was comparable to a PS3, but thankfully without the Boeing 777 roar of the PS3s cooling system kicking in all the time. Conventional DVD upscaling was adequate, though in a side-by-side comparison with my aging and ridiculously cheap Philips upscaling player, the two were neck and neck. Now, onto the enhanced features Unfortunately, I cannot report on them yet. Sony has never been one for having a cohesive or even usable series of Web sites that glue their entire technology and media empire together. Enabling these Enhanced Features requires you to create an account at a Sony URL for a thing called My ESSENTIALS I wish Sony would stop inventing a brand name every time someone there sneezes it s confusing to end users. I went to that domain, which required the carpenters entries. An email address and password. In theory an account gets created and you enter a code that this BD player displays on screen.