Our good friend Gary Merson the HD Guru reviewed Sony's BDP-S350 and Panasonic's DMP-BD50, the latest Blu-ray players from each company, Battlemodo style. Both BD players scored high marks on video performance, with a slight edge to Panasonic, but Panasonic's $600 BD50 smoked Sony's S350 on pretty much everything else.
Panny's player can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD 5.1-channel audio on any 5.1 surround system without a hitch, while the $400 S350 will only do this with HDMI-based receivers (it downconverts the audio otherwise). In addition, the Sony player isn't equipped with BD Live features out of the box—it'll take a software update, not out yet, to bring it up to profile 2.0.
If you're looking for a Blu-ray player in the near future, the HD Guru suggests you should spend the extra Benjamins on the BD50. (
Or you know, get a PS3.) Hit the link to read the nitty gritty.
http://hdguru.com/first-review-of-sonys-latest-blu-ray-player-exclusive-sony-bdp-s350-vspanasonic-dmp-bd50/256/
