Review: Sherwood BDP-5003 Blu-ray Player
An affordable introduction to the virtues of Blu-ray
February 24, 2009 By Dave ThomasWhile Sherwood has been creating hi-fi components for decades, the BDP-5003 is their first foray into Blu-ray. With a $299 MSRP (though you can find it for around $200), it's positioned to be an affordable, consumer-friendly entry into the world of hard copy hi-def entertainment.
On this front, it succeeds admirably. Basic setup was fairly easy. A newbie to Blu-ray can have the thing out of the box and hooked up in less than ten minutes. Granted, this is minus a lot of complicated audio hook-ups but, being a fairly no-frills player, there weren't a lot of audio options to begin with. You can choose between coaxial or optical digital audio out or 2 channel RCA output.
The most striking feature of the player, being released in this day and age, is the lack of BD Live support. This is not a Profile 2.0 player. Given the price point, though, the lack of an Ethernet port is part of what you're not paying for.
If you're willing to live without that capability, the player will satisfy on pretty much every other front. The menu is simple and easy to understand, if you need it at all. Most of the factory-standard settings will get you what you want. I made it through all of Iron Man before I even looked at the menu options.
Load times are very satisfactory. The player itself booted up in 20 seconds and A History of Violence loaded in about 30, which is nice considering that just getting the disc out of the packaging took 44.
Picture is clear with a crisp 1080p/24Hz delivery with vivid color and smooth motion. If you're making this your first Blu-ray player, you'll understand instantly what the hype is all about.
That having been said, your standard DVDs will play just fine. I can't say the upconversion (up to 1080p) improves the quality significantly, but you're certainly not going to lose any clarity from your standard definition collection.
Audio is where this player may fall short for some people. As mentioned previously, the only dedicated audio outputs are analog stereo and digital coaxial or optical. That means that if you want to hear either Dobly Tru HD or DTS-HD audio tracks you need to connect it via HDMI to a surround sound receiver that can decode those formats. If you're fine with plain-Jane Dolby Digital or DTS, then the digital outputs will work too.
