Home Theater Review

In May, Onkyo released its first 3D-capable Blu-ray player, the BD-SP309. This also happens to be the least expensive Blu-ray player in the company's current line, with an MSRP of $249. We have not performed a hands-on review of the BD-SP309, but here is an overview of its features. The player supports Blu-ray 3D, BD-Live, and BonusView, and it offers streaming video-on-demand from Netflix and VUDU. You can also stream content from a UPnP-compliant server. The BD-SP309 lacks the THX certification you'll find in the recently announced step-up player, the BD-SP809 ($599).

Additional Resources
• Read more Blu-ray player reviews from the Home Theater Review staff.
• Look for 3D HDTVs in our 3D HDTV Review section.
• Explore more HDTVs in our LED HDTV and Plasma HDTV review sections.

The back panel features an HDMI output, an optical digital audio output, an Ethernet port, and a USB port. It lacks analog A/V outputs, and this player does not offer the dual HDMI outputs you get on the BD-SP809 (which can be beneficial if you own a non-3D-capable A/V receiver). The BD-SP309 has onboard Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus decoding, but it lacks DTS-HD Master Audio decoding; it will pass all of these high-resolution audio formats in their native bitstream form over HDMI, for your A/V receiver to decode.

The BD-SP309 supports BD, DVD, CD audio, AVCHD, Divx Plus HD, MKV, MP3, and JPEG playback. You can add the player to your home network via the back-panel Ethernet port; it does not offer integrated WiFi or an optional USB WiFi adapter. The BD-SP309 lacks internal memory to store BD-Live content; front- and back-panel USB ports are provided for this purpose. These ports also support media playback. The player lacks advanced control ports, such as RS-232 or IR (both of which are available on the BD-SP809).

Read about the high points and low points of the BD-SP309 Blu-ray player on Page 2.