Gold plated contacts/connections.
Easy hook-up.

Unacceptable standard DVD playing with brief, intermittent digital freezes.
Will not play DVD audio or SACD discs.
Fairly long initialization process, not uncommon to other listed Blu-Ray players.
Unable to find any reviews on this product, prior to purchase.

Updated Sony 2007 Blu-Ray player with v. 1.3 HDMI output for 1080P. Attractive player with a fairly long time to ready to load disc. All gold plated contacts on the back, including 5.1 analog output. Sony has added CD playing to this model but will not play DVD audio or SACD discs.
Easy set-up overall: used optical digital out to an Outlaw Receiver along with HDMI directly to Sharp LCD Aquos TV. Loaded the first disc - a standard DVD (largest collection for most) and during the playback, very noticeable intermittent brief digital freezes for some scene switching. Did not freeze up completely. Disc had played fine in a standard DVD player. Otherwise, the 5.1 surround sound was very good and seemed to be normally distributed.
Because of "out of the box, intermittent brief digital freezes", the unit is not acceptable and I returned. Disappointed but not surprized.

Customer Service

Easy return to Costco.

Similar Products Used:

None yet. Trying to research all other Blu-Ray product reviews prior to making another purchasing mistake.