Sony BDP-S360 and surround-sound friends: It's a Blu-ray player, innit
The Sony BDP-S360 connects to the Internet for pointless extras, but it also plays Blu-rays and is aided in that noble endeavour by the HT-SS360 and HT-FS3 surround-sound systems
Stop what you're doing. Hold everything. Sony has announced a new Blu-ray player: the S360 is a consumer-friendly model that supports BD Live for extra content and picture-in-picture for things like onscreen commentary, which should reveal why most directors stay behind the camera.
As an example, forthcoming platter The Spirit is the first to link up with Lionsgate's BD Live effort Lionsgate Live for updated, downloadable bits and bobs from games to commentaries and trailers, as well as ephemera such as ringtones, wallpapers and widgets. A USB port means you can download content from the Web and save it to USB. Probably won't make The Spirit any cop though.
Precision Cinema HD upscaling feature punts standard-definition signals up to 1080p (as far as you can), so that's DVDs taken care of. The Xross Media Bar interface makes things easy to use, if difficult to pronounce.
The sticky's still sticky on the Editor's Choice sticker we slapped on its predecessor, the Sony S350. Sony reckons the new S360 is 12 per cent smaller than the previous model, and consumes 15 per cent less juice while playing.
Sony claims the S630 will start up in just six seconds, so we wonder how it will fare in our Blu-ray speed test. We'll snag one soon as for in-depth and exhaustive reviewing, probably involving watching The Dark Knight again.
The S630 comes with a pair of surround-sound systems to round out your home cinema, all of which can be controlled via Bravia Sync from one remote control. The HT-SS360, pictured above, includes satellite speakers with 1,000W total power output.
The 2.1-channel HT-FS3, pictured above, also tunes into FM and AM Radio if you like to kick it old school, crackles and all. We'll have a crack at testing these systems, too. Probably involving watching The Dark Knight REALLY LOUD.
That is all on the Sony S360, because Sony doesn't give out pricing until a product hits shelves. You may now return to your work, surfing YouTube, or whatever you were doing to block out your colleagues talking about that ghastly Britain's Got Talent woman. Don't worry, it's nearly home time anyway.
Update: Sony has got in touch with us to let us know that the S630 will arrive at the beginning of July, and although pricing is yet to be finalised it'll "most likely be around £230".