Toshiba BDX2700 Blu-ray Player Review

BDX2700 Build Quality and Setup

It's hard to stay on top, and Toshiba is finding itself adrift amidst a veritable sea of Blu-ray players with its BDX2700. While not supporting 3D (for that you'll want to look at the $279 BDX3000), the Toshiba player has everything else you could possibly need: high quality BD playback, upscaling of standard definition DVDs to 1080p, network software like Netflix, Pandora, VUDU and (if they are still in business) Blockbuster Video on Demand. The one feature that sticks the neck f the BDX2700 above water and makes people take notice is its integrated Wi-Fi. That feature alone, means that if you have a wireless router that supports 802.11 a/b/g or n, you don't need to run a cable to your TV in order to enjoy streaming movies from Netflix or VUDU, or enjoy streaming music from Pandora.

First Impressions and Build Quality

Toshiba has included the same glassy front on the BDX2700 that it includes in some of tits top of the line televisions. This gives the player a top-shelf look and ensures it blends well in a minimalistic, aesthetically-focused setting when it's placed out in the open. It's also not very deep. At just over 8-inches form front to back, this is one product that doesn't make a nuisance of itself if you need to put it in front of your flat panel or hang it on a wall shelf below the TV. In short, it's flexible and made to go just about anywhere. Heck, if they had shaved off just another inch I'd probably be recommending users just mount it to the wall behind their TV and call it a poor-man's integrated BD player.

When you get up close to the BDX2700 you'll note the tray cover is blended near-seamlessly with the glassy front face. The Power, Play, Stop and Eject buttons, while not capacitance-style like some other players we've seen, are tasteful and allow you a little tactile feedback when you push them, so you know it worked. The only other item of note on the front is the SD card drive, which came loaded with a formatted 4GB SDHC card in our review system. This card is dedicated for BD-Live storage, but you could insert another in order to play back media files like photos, music or compatible movie files (it supports FAT16 and FAT32-formatted cards).

The rear of the Toshiba BDX2700 has all of the connections you'd expect, and a few more. For those with legacy audio systems, the BDX2700 has 7.1 analogue outputs. With Ethernet, Wi-Fi and 7.1, this is a really well-rounded player.

Set-Up & General Use

One of the nice things about the Toshiba BDX2700 is that it is incredibly easy to set up player. In fact, it has an interface Wizard that takes you through the critical setup process one step at a time, using a series of basic questions. Since it also gives practical defaults, just about anybody could set up this player once activating the wizard. The Quick Setup wizard is located in the Settings menu so it shouldn't be too hard to find. What might be even more helpful, would be if the Wizard was the first thing to pop up when you turned the play on for the first time. We've seen this on some TVs and it's a useful function for those just setting up a Blu-ray player for the first time and unfamiliar with what they need to do.

The Quick Setup menu takes you through the following basic configurations:

• Language (English, French, Spanish) - all primary North American languages
  
• Resolution (HDMI Auto, 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i)
  
• TV Aspect (16:9 Wide, 16:9 Pillarbox, 4:3 Pan & Scan, 4:3 Letterbox)
  

In the scheme of things, these are really the key settings critical to getting new users up and running with the correct settings to have everything show correctly on the screen. The downside, of course, is that without any explanations provided, consumers may not be able to understand which settings they should use given their particular systems and televisions sets.

The Home Screen of the BDX2700 is made up of only two items, until you add more for it to consider. The way it is laid out, it populates itself with more items as they become available. That way, you can't select a BD-ROM when there isn't even one in the player. It's a nice way of eliminating useless error messages and we really enjoyed the layout. As we mentioned, the menu begins with Settings and Connected. Settings is of course where you will configure the player, access the Quick Setup and format your SD/SDHC cards, and Connected is where you can access the Network features like Netflix, Pandora, VUDU and Blockbuster. 

If you want to connect this player to a legacy system, Toshiba has included, as we indicated earlier, full 7.1 analogue outputs. Getting 5.1 analogue outs these days is a tough thing to find, so 7.1 is a rare gem at this price. The player has very minimal configuration for its analogue outputs, allowing you to apply basic bass management in the form of Large or Small speaker sizes. You can also set the crossover frequency (80Hz, 100Hz, 120Hz, Off). And get this, you can use either pink noise, a 1kHz sine wave, or white noise for your test tone to configure the speaker levels (we recommend Pink noise).

Adding content to an SDHC card and inserting it, or plugging in a USB thumb drive will bring up additional items like Video Audio and Pictures, depending upon what is available to view or listen to. The menu system is setup like most new GUIs have been heading of late, what I call the "horizontal & vertical" navigation methodology. You can spruce it up, but your basic left-to-right and up-and-down is still the best way to maneuver through menu systems. Just ask the PS3, Denon, Yamaha, or just about any other manufacturer who has to deal with these types of configuration systems.

Playback wasn't exactly snappy, but that seems to be a factor of Blu-ray - at least with most players we've experienced. The Toshiba had its added quirks, too. It took approximately 37 seconds to get a disc to play when the player was off. From power on to ejecting the tray took about 15 seconds, and from an open tray to playback took around 32 seconds. At one point the BDX2700 seemed reluctant to Eject a particular Blu-ray HD music disc. After testing other discs, and checking others who use the player, we are certain this was a glitch with our particular player-to-disc combination. With other titles it didn't occur.

BDX2700 Remote, Bench Testing and Evaluation

The BDX2700 remote control is pretty well laid out. It's funny to think that the added features of Blu-ray has left us with three Menu buttons: Home Menu, Popup (Top) Menu, and just plain old Menu. Some remotes split off the Home menu from the others, but Toshiba’s SE-R0378 remote lines them all up in a row, just above the navigation controls. Basically, you're bound to hit the wrong one from time to time. The other thing that we ran into was the menu navigation controls and directional arrows are in a concentric circle with the Skip and Volume buttons. That also had us hitting the wrong buttons periodically. Aside from that, the remote layout was great and we liked the fact that the buttons weren't all the same size and shape. That promotes tactile memory and you can soon find yourself using it without looking.

Video Measurements & Testing

For bench testing, we run our players through a series of tests, including both the standard and high definition discs from Integrated Device Technology's HQV DVD and BD Benchmark as well as the new Spears & Munsil Blu-ray test disc, Avia Pro and of course a host of reference test material that we use on nearly every player.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

HQV Perfect Score is 130
Toshiba BDX2700 Benchmark total score: 110

HQV HD Perfect Score is 100
Toshiba BDX2700 Benchmark total score: 75

We were pleasantly surprised when the BDX2700 passed all of the standard definition cadence tests. At this point it is looking as if most of the major manufacturers are really handling video processing to an extent that they previously didn't. The player handled deinterlacing almost flawlessly and the only ting it really lacked was adequate noise reduction - which seemed to be an afterthought. In the Spears & Munsil tests we were further encouraged that this player will do a fantastic job with both standard and high definition sources. It's a great player in terms of its ability to take what's on disc and render it to a large (or small) screen with all of its detail intact.

Reviewer's Note: One thing we noticed during our testing was that, with the HDMI engaged, the BDX2700 transmits a significant amount of RF interference. It was nearly on par with the interference thrown by the PS3. That means that if you are using RF remote control, you may need to be very particular where you place the player in relation to the location of the RF receiver. We tried several other players during our testing, and the Toshiba had a particular issue with this, despite the fact we were using a wired Ethernet connection.

Viewing Evaluation

Picture from this player looked flawless - which is to say, accurate. From test material to current movies, we found the BDX2700 to be a great player that was extremely capable. Colors seem accurate and the detail in Blu-ray discs really popped. It's easier to show in pictures, but we really appreciated how this player looked.

BD: Robin Hood (2010)
Robin Hood had so much to show, we took tons of photos, but only used a couple in the review. This film, dubious as its plot was, revealed a ton of detail in scenes that featured castle walls, sparse terrain, and even facial close-ups.

The film also featured incredibly intricate costumes that really could have done a number on the image, were it not for the proficient rendering of the HD content by the player. Between the detail and the highly dynamic scenes, it was clear this player could deliver all of the range a current-gen HD television is capable of rendering.

VUDU: MacGruber
Worst. Movie. Ever. But it was on-hand thanks to VUDU's streaming movie service and I really liked the interior scenes because they were rich in shadow detail. All the bad guys wore black and it's always fun to me to peer into the dark areas and see what definition is revealed. To get the most out of scenes like this you really need a light-controlled room and a well-calibrated projector (at least in terms of Black and White levels).

I would have loved to have shown some image captures of Val Kilmer's character but 1) he is incredibly overweight and barely fit within the frame, and 2) all his scenes were colored orange to such an extent I wondered if they hired the Director of Photography for CSI Miami.

Conclusion

Toshiba's BDX2700 Blu-ray player is an all-around great player. With wireless connectivity and analogue 7.1 outputs, it packs a lot into its small chassis, especially for just $229. It's not a snappy player, but most BD systems aren't. I think the quality more than makes up for it and it's interesting to see that, at least for video, you really don't need a huge chassis and advanced power supply in order to get excellent video performance. As electronics get smaller and smaller, it's no wonder we shouldn't expect our Blu-ray and other electronics devices to follow suit. For those looking for a lot of features, easy connectivity, and a straightforward interface and remote, the BDX2700 is an excellent choice.

Toshiba BDX2700 Blu-ray Player
$229

www.tacp.toshiba.com/
800-631-3811

About Toshiba Digital Electronics
Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. is owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, a world leader in high technology products with subsidiaries worldwide. Toshiba is a pioneer in HD DVD, DVD and DVD Recorder technology and a leading manufacturer of a full line of home entertainment products, including flat panel TV, rear projection and direct view televisions, combination products and portable devices. Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. is headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey. For additional information please visit www.tacp.toshiba.com.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
High Definition Video Performance
Standard Definition Video Performance
High Definition Audio Performance
Bass Management
Deinterlacing & Scaling
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup
Features
Remote Control
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value