What Hi-Fi? Verdict
A perfectly decent Blu-ray deck, but rival machines at this money still have the edge
Pros
- +
Easy to use
- +
price
- +
good Blu-ray picture
Cons
- -
Could upscale DVDs better
- -
lacking on the feature front
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Toshiba is still playing catch-up a little bit with Blu-ray players. Sony is already on to its fifth generation with models at various prices, boasting features that include wireless connectivity and catch-up TV. The BDX2100, in contrast, is only Toshiba's second ever Blu-ray deck.
The BDX2100 has all the basic features that you'd expect at this price: HDMI output, and 1080p/24fps playback. The inclusion of 256MB of built-in memory is a bonus.
It's a Profile 2.0 machine, so you can connect to the web and access online content. Unfortunately, there's no provision for media streaming from the likes of the BBC's iPlayer.
LoveFilm subscription included
Cushioning the blow somewhat is an offer of a 12 months' subscription to LoveFilm's extensive Blu-ray catalogue, included in the box.
Disc-loading times are comparable to those of class-leading machines, although the mechanism's clicking and whirring as it reads the disc is quite noisy.
The accompanying remote looks drab, but the on-screen menus are presented neatly enough. You can fine-tune different aspects of the picture such as saturation, contrast and level of noise reduction, or you can bypass all processing using ‘standard' mode.
Decent images and sound
Spin the Blu-ray of Clash Of The Titans, and the Toshiba extracts a good level of detail from the characters and their costumes.
As Perseus and friends head off in search of the Stygian witches, the wide panning shots are handled without too much resistance, and there's reasonable punch to the whites and depth to blacks.
Class-leading decks are capable of going a step further though, presenting Blu-ray and DVD images that look more pristine.
Whether it's a CD or movie soundtrack the Toshiba sounds neither hard nor insubstantial. Dynamics are slightly stunted when compared to the top machines at this price, though.
Shop around and you can find the BDX2100 for a few pennies under £100. The problem is that the class-leader, Sony's BDP-S370 can be found for similar money. This leaves the Toshiba settling for four stars.
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