The bad: The Philips BDP5506/F7 is the only player we've tested this season to offer below-average image quality on Blu-ray movies as well as DVDs. Its suite of streaming-media services also lacks high quality services like Amazon Instant, MLB. TV, and Hulu In addition. And despite its shortcomings, the BDP5506 costs the identical to better, competing Blu-ray players.
The bottom line: We would not recommend the Philips BDP5506/F7 over competing Blu-ray players.
We take Blu-ray playback for granted nowadays, with the vast majority of players pumping out almost identical image quality, no matter the price. The Philips BDP5506/F7 is definitely an exception, failing many of our basic Blu-ray and DVD AND BLU-RAY image quality tests, and it's the first player we've tested this year to do this. It also carries a premium price ($165 street), but is missing most of the premium streaming services available on competitors, like Hulu In addition, MLB. TV, and Amazon Instant. The Philips BDP5506/F7 has its unique MediaConnect screencasting feature, but we found it difficult to obtain working properly and its usefulness limited. For $165, we think buyers is going to be better off with midrange competitors, especially the Panasonic DMP-BDT210 as well as LG BD670.
Design
Philips generally has a knack with regard to unique designs, but the BDP5506 looks like a universal Blu-ray player. The only design flair of note is really a gray notch under the disc drive, but it doesn't do much to create the player stand out. The front-panel buttons are just about all touch-sensitive, but they work well enough that we did not mind them. On the far right is a HARDWARE port, but otherwise the front panel is unadorned.
User interface
The home menu screen on the BDP5506 is among the more straightforward we've seen. "Play disc, " "Browse HARDWARE, " and "Browse Net TV" are the simple options about the home screen, which are more descriptive than on the majority of Blu-ray players.
Once you select the Net TV streaming-content website, the design isn't quite as nice. While competitors like Panasonic and LG feature jumbo-size icons that are readable while leaning back on the couch, Philips has a far more cluttered look, with many smaller icons for streaming providers. There are also tons of services of dubious high quality, which mostly get in the way of finding content you really want. We were happy that the included Netflix app comes with an updated interface, allowing for extensive browsing options and research.
The BDP5506 does also offer the ability to entry Vudu's suite of apps, which includes some solid services for example full episodes of PBS shows like "Nova" and "Nature. " We're less enthused concerning the social media apps, since they don't work as well within the big-screen environment. Of course, it's confusing that some apps can be found on the main Net TV screen and some are just available within Vudu, and overall that makes Net TV feel more slapdash compared to content portals of other manufacturers.
MediaConnect
Philips' main differentiating feature is MediaConnect, which allows the BDP5506 to show the contents of a laptop PC screen wirelessly. The benefit of this feature is pretty limited, however. First off, with numerous streaming-video sources included in the Blu-ray player already, using a laptop as the source seems kludgy and inconvenient. If you need in order to, however, you can get the same functionality by cabling any laptop via HDMI or VGA to any TELEVISION, or wirelessly via products like Veebeam and Intel Cellular Display. MediaConnect is for someone who wants to view Hulu. com or other free Web-only video sources, or display video files stored on the PC, frequently enough to demand a built-in wireless strategy.
Having installed the MediaConnect software, which is only readily available for PCs and comes with robust hardware requirements, we found that while using feature was a mixed bag. When it worked, the knowledge was good: picture quality was basically identical to what we should saw on the PC's screen, audio was in synchronize, and playback was stable as long as we continued to be in range. The only issue was a 2-second delay within the TV's response that--similar to Veebeam--makes performing input-dependent tasks about the big screen well-nigh impossible.
Distance was also a major factor. We couldn't get MediaConnect to operate from the next room, about 40 feet away, despite the fact that the TV's other streaming services like Netflix worked good from there via Wi-Fi. Philips claims a maximum selection of 70 feet with no obstructions, and says the closer the PC and TV are towards the router, the better. We experienced better stability and range whenever we connected the TV via Ethernet instead of using the actual TV's Wi-Fi connection. See Philips' FAQ for more info.
As with any such system, your mileage will vary based on local conditions and hardware, and our testing lab is really a pretty unforgiving location. Overall, however, we prefer Veebeam or Intel Wireless Display if you are considering this kind of functionality, both of which use dedicated hardware that does not depend on your home network's wireless router.
Features
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