Sharp Aquos BDHP20U 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player

I have mixed feelings about this player...which I must admit I got for free as part of package deal purchase.... What I like 1. The movies look great 2. Movies sound great 3. I have only had 1 movie (Xfiles blu-ray) not play Things I don't like 1. Blu ray movies are slow to load 2. Using Update functionality is difficult 3. Menus are for experts not everyday people as a techie I have managed to use this player extensively without much problem. When I had to update my firmware to play a movie, I used the built in functions... As I work in the computer industry, the counter intuitive instructions were easily overcome and I got the update done. This really is a first generation player and its apparent its buyers are expecting a great deal more than is advertised.

I also have a Sharp Aquos HD TV, and together, they make an excellent home theatre combination. 1 cable only; setup takes less than 30 seconds once you have the device out of the box. The player also attempts to up-convert standard DVDs, so that those produce more clarity and sharpness. I highly recommend going the HD route; it's indescribable how much better HD is over regular cable TV. The blueray player is not very expensive anymore, so why not go for it - even though currently the HD movie choices on blueray are somewhat limited. Hopefully that will improve.

This has to be one of the worst purchases I've made in recent memory. Claims to have Quick Start functionality but this only applies if the movie has already been pre-loaded and the machine is waiting on standby, which is useless unless youre going to watch the same movie continuously. Who watches the same movie over and over again unless youre a 2-year old with Thomas the Train on continual loop? In reality, movies take several minutes to load. The worst part is that you can wait for it to load only to find out that the disc is incompatible with the player. This has happened on at least a third of the discs I've purchased/rented. Wall-E, X Files, The Happening (although I've heard it did me a favor on that one) and others would not play and are currently serving as drink coasters. Sharp does appear to be offering formware updates to address incompatibility but they are slow in coming and customer service is apathetic at best. The unit is also very large (large footprint) and may not fit in some media cabinets. So, if after reading this review, you decide that you still want to buy this puppy, make sure to take the dimensions into account and measure the space you plan to put it in.

First of all, I was very skeptical about buying a bluray player knowing about all the time wasted doing firmware updates and the slow functions. This machine confirmed my fears 100%. This thing is slow, taking nearky a minute for the empty tray to open, and another minute before the disc menu to show. Dreading to do my first firmware update, I had no choice, so I downloaded the latest firmware from Sharps website, and my player would not accept it. I call Sharp and they walked me through the process and it still would not accept the update. So they emailed me a shipping label and 4 days later I get my machine back. Did they fix it? No. It still won't play the same 3 bluray discs "Ironman", "Transformers" and "Resident Evil 3" which are all new releases. I am not looking forward to contacting customer service again, but If they don't refund me, I may send it back in pieces using their free shipping label of course.

This is a very slow operating player. When first turned on it takes a full 45 seconds to initialize. When a disc is inserted it takes another 30 seconds to figure out what type of media it is playing. While it is "changing gears", you see static, good old black and white no signal type of static...