Toshiba BDX1250 review

There’s no shortage of quality budget Blu-ray players out there. Besides delivering excellent picture and sound quality, some also offer 3D playback and smart functionality, including DLNA certification and access to catch-up TV services such as BBC iPlayer.

Unfortunately, Toshiba’s BDX1250 isn’t one of them.

Nope, this is purely a no-frills model with a cheap but not very cheerful appearance: the player feels more like a £50 deck than one costing nearly three times the price.

Primitive-looking menu
The trend continues with a very primitive-looking menu system, which is navigated using the poor excuse for a remote control.

There’s no real semblance of design and buttons are squashed so close together that your thumbs have a tough time pressing the right ones. When you finally hit one, the player drags the process out by being painfully slow to respond.

Connectivity highlights include an HDMI output, ethernet socket and a USB input capable of handling MKV, AVCHD, JPEG and MP3 files.

Spin Terminator 2: Judgment Day on Blu-ray and the player uncovers a decent enough level of detail on Arnie’s leather-clad character.

Disappointing performance
Edges are robust and sharply defined when the action rolls at a sedate pace, although there’s a loss of cohesion when the player is forced to handle motion. DVD playback fares worse, as the picture suffers from more on-screen noise than rival decks.

Blacks lack depth and detail, while fast and slow motion triggers instability in the picture too.

There’s further disappointment in the sound department. T2’s DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack sounds hard and lean.

As Arnie’s chain gun makes Swiss cheese out of the LA police vehicles parked outside the Cyberdyne laboratory, the rapid gunfire has an unwelcome edginess to it. When the cars burst into flame, there’s a lack of body and weight to the explosions.

To say we’re disappointed by the BDX1250 is an understatement – and, at this price, it looks anything but a bargain.

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