Philips BDP7600 review

Blu-ray players have come a long way from when they first appeared; they are no longer limited to just playback and include features such as 3D support, video playback from USB devices and the same internet TV functions found on high-end TVs. The new BDP7600 Blu-ray player from Philips is an excellent example, combining all these features in a stylish unit that won’t break the bank.

It might not blend in with your existing A/V separates, but the silver brushed metal effect finish, flared edges and mirrored LED display all look fantastic; we especially liked the row of touch-sensitive buttons that illuminate when pressed. The design scheme continues to the remote control, which resembles a smooth pebble; it’s fairly basic but has a sensible layout and is comfortable to grip.

You may not need to use the remote at all if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, as the BDP7600 supports the free Philips MyRemote app. It replicates every function of the remote control, unlike some apps that only include the basic controls. There was a delay of about half a second between pressing a button on screen and the player registering the action, but it’s still a very useful piece of free software.

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The BDP7600 might not have the most attractive or flashy user interface, but that actually works in its favour; the simple, icon-based menus are straightforward and nicely animated, with a sensible layout that was very easy to navigate. The interface is also responsive, although 34 seconds from standby to playing a Blu-ray is only average. There aren’t a huge amount of image quality pre-sets, but the comprehensive manual customisation makes up for this. Noise and artefact reduction, sharpness control and upscaling settings, in addition to colour, brightness and contrast sliders, help you find your own perfect image settings.

There’s a good range of audio outputs on the back of the unit, including both optical and coaxial digital audio, as well as analogue 5.1. Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are both supported by the player, so you’ll want to connect a good set of speakers to get the most from your films. There are fewer video outputs, but one composite and a single HDMI port will cover most situations. The SD card reader is only designed as local storage for content downloaded when a BD-Live disc is in the drive, so you won’t be able to use it to view photos from your digital camera. Finally, an Ethernet port connects the player to your local network, but you can use the integrated Wi-Fi adaptor if you don’t want to run a cable from your router to your TV.

All the ports you’ll need – Click on the image to enlarge it

There’s good reason to want to connect the player to the internet; with DLNA media streaming, you can access multimedia files from your PC or NAS, saving you the hassle of copying them to a USB flash drive or external hard disk. We had no trouble streaming most of the more popular file types, including high definition XviD and DivX, but our MKV test footage refused to play. If you prefer to store your files on a flash drive, you can use the single USB port to the right of the disc tray.

Philips has added a fairly comprehensive web portal that lets you stream YouTube videos, catch up on missed TV programmes with BBC iPlayer and even surf the net with the built-in web browser. The remote control isn’t ideal for text entry, but thankfully Philips has added support for USB keyboards which speeds things up considerably. Compared to several other big-name TVs and Blu-ray players we’ve seen recently, there was almost no lag when navigating the menus. Some of the more image intensive apps took a short while to load, but overall the system felt incredibly responsive.

The BDP7600 isn’t a cheap player, but it’s still fantastic value. It has everything you could want from a Blu-ray player; the online features are very useful, as is DLNA media streaming, but it’s how simple and easy to use each feature is that makes this such a great product. There are cheaper models available if you just want something to play Blu-ray discs, but for the full package this is a fantastic option.