Blue Ray Players

Yamaha is an International Company which has produced a number of products in a variety of fields and has got itself established as“Multi-personality”!! Yes, many of the products in different fields like sports, Electronics and above all, the musical instruments carry the tag “Yamaha”. In the field of Blue ray players, it is still a baby though. The company has ventured into the production of the blue ray players, an electronic item whose demand graph has been steadily increasing right from the time it was brought into the market. The BD S2900 is its first trial and it has tried its best to sport this one out successfully. But since it is just a toddler, expectations have to be within the range too. The Yamaha BD-S2900 is a Blu Ray player with very basic features. It might be better than the normal DVD players, but does it out-stand and out-live the other competitive ones? Let us study the product in detail to know whether this is a worthy kit or just another little piece of addition in Yamaha’s book of inventions.

Design and Ports:

Black has become the colour of fashion and interest these days. Most of the electronic items take up the black colour and so does this S2900 model. It is made of pure black and has a glossy outer coating. The player looks simple yet pretty. It has a non-slip base which can come in very handy at times when there is more probability for the player to fall down. On the front side is the reflective panel which displays the current status, like the home menu or open or loading condition. The orange LED display actually gives the player a prominent and a professional look. Moreover, users having other Yamaha electronic products like the receivers, speakers etc., are at the positive side because on purchasing this BD-S2900 Blue Ray Player they achieve uniformity which makes the entire array of products seem meticulous and the room looks good with an unanimity.

The control buttons are present on the front side of the player. Beginning from the left side, there is the standby/on button which is used to switch on the power of the player or can be left in the standby mode. In the centre is the big glossy display. Below the display is the SD card slot. This slot is quite useful since the users can enjoy the virtual package with the SD cards. The SDHC memory card has a capacity of about 2GB. On the right side, there are the buttons like, play/pause, rewind, forward and stop button. The buttons are not of much use since the remote control replaces its function. These are the normal buttons but their presence is obviously important. This black rectangular box is 10 cm in width, 44 cm in height and 32 cm in depth. The player is not really heavy since it weighs 12.8 lbs which is acceptable for a blue ray player. Turn the player to the other side and the users will find some of the important audio and video ports. There is an AC in plug for power supply. At the centre there is the HDMI port. On the right side are the important plugs like the optical/digital, coaxial and component out.

Remote Control:

The BD S2900 Blu Ray Disc Player comes in with a remote control. The remote is simple and has a neat layout of the buttons that facilitates easy and comfortable use. The size of the remote is also of the normal range.

Profile 1.1:

The Yamaha BD-S2900 is a profile 1.0 version 1.1 compatible player and so it has all the features that a 1.0 and 1.1 profile player ought to have. This means that this is the Bonus View player, that is, the users can have the delight of watching video commentary in a small window with the movie running in the background. This is one of the most interesting features since the users can actually watch as well as hear the actor or director talking about a particular scene in the film. This is because the player supports secondary audio and video.

HDMI:

The presence of a HDMI port at the back side of the machine enables the users to watch the contents of the Blue ray discs in a big screen with all the effects of watching the movie in a theatre. In short, the High Definition movies can be watched at the comfort of your couch by playing the discs in your Blue ray player and connecting it to a big screen TV through the High Definition Multimedia Interface port.

DVD Upscaling:

Too many Old DVDs? You can easily upscale them to 1080p with the help of the DVD Upscaling Technology in the Yamaha BD S2900.

Audio and video functioning:

The Yamaha S2900 Blue Ray DVD Player gives the video out at 1080p and 24 frames per second. The movies are generally shot at 24 frames per second and at 1080p resolution. This is the highest quality that can be watched on a big screen. The users can watch the movies or videos as and how it was intended to be in the director’s mind. Also, because of the presence of the SD card slot, the contents of the memory card, mostly images or videos can be watched in 1080p resolution. The deep colour technology has been implanted. Using this technology, colour perfection can be achieved. The 12 bit deep colour technology transmits the colours with such clarity that it is highly impossible to differentiate between the real and the reel. The different shades of a colour can be obtained with good accuracy. Also, there are three illumination modes, bright, dim and auto. By choosing the particular illumination, the lighting of the screen can be adjusted as per requirement. Thus the video functioning is remarkably good. Moving on to the audio performance, the Yamaha BD-S2900 1080p output blu ray player provides full support in decoding the high level signals like the DTS HD and Dolby Digital.

Execution and Performance:

The machine has a Java logo inscribed on its back side. This means that the machine has undergone a number of tests with a positive result. The player is safe to use with a neat design and good quality. But how good is the quality? The audio and video performances are good though not remarkable. There are some audio formats that the player does not support at all, a downfall in that area. But overall the Yamaha BD S2900 has done a good job indeed.

No Firmware updating:

The main disadvantage with this player is that it is not a BD 2.0 player which means it does not support BD Live. There is no ethernet port for getting connected to the internet. The absence of BD Live and ethernet implies that it is not possible to update the firmware or download the contents from the internet. This player is devoid of many features since it lacks the ability to access the BD Live contents. Also, the users have to forget borrowing movies from the services like the Cinema Now, NetFlix or watching the most popular videos of You Tube.

Verdict:

Yamaha is only an amateur in the Blue ray field. It still has a long way to go to get its name carved in the hearts of blue ray lovers! As a baby, yes, definitely it has done a great job! But when other manufacturers have already grown up, this little baby is left stranded in the middle. Well, overall, the BD S2900 is a good model that can play ordinary or blue ray DVDs at a reasonably good audio and video quality. But then, beyond that, there is nothing much to expect. This player is not for those who wish to cross the horizons but it is definitely a good choice for those who would just like to own a simple blue ray player with average performance rate.