Yamaha BD-S2900 Blu-ray Player Reviewed

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Performance
3 Stars
Value
3.5 Stars
Overall
3.5 Stars

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The BD-S2900 is Yamaha's first entry into the Blu-ray marketplace; interestingly, while many big-name manufacturers are scrambling to cut prices in the Blu-ray realm, Yamaha has chosen a $1,199 price point for the BD-S2900, landing it squarely in the high-end category. This is a Profile 1.1/BonusView Blu-ray player, which means it contains the secondary audio and video decoders needed for picture-in-picture playback. However, it does not offer the BD-Live Web functionality you get when you move up to Profile 2.0.

Additional Resources
• Read more Blu-ray player reviews from HomeTheaterReview.com.
• Find an LCD HDTV or plasma HDTV to pair with the BD-S2900.

We have not performed a hands-on review of the BD-S2900, but here is an overview of the player's features. On the video side, the back panel features HDMI, component video, S-video, and composite video outputs. For HDMI, the output-resolution options are Auto, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p/60, and 1080p/24. The setup menu includes an option to enable 1080p/24 output if your TV accepts this signal type; once you enable the feature, the player will always output 1080p/24 when it is available on Blu-ray discs. For component video, output-resolution options are 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i. The setup menu offers a nice set of picture adjustments, including four preset picture modes and a user mode in which you can adjust contrast, brightness, sharpness, color, gamma, and 3D/integrated noise reduction.

Given the player's higher price point and the current Blu-ray landscape, Yamaha has made some questionable decisions on the audio side. Audio connections include HDMI, coaxial and optical digital audio, and 2- and 5.1-channel analog audio outputs. Most companies that choose to include multichannel analog outputs now go with 7.1 channels, not 5.1. Of course, this point is somewhat moot because the player lacks internal Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoders anyhow. It will pass these high-resolution formats in their native bitstream form over HDMI, for your A/V receiver to decode. It can also pass 7.1-channel PCM audio over HDMI, and the setup menu includes size, level, and delay adjustments for a 7.1-channel configuration.

The BD-S2900 supports BD, DVD, CD audio, MP3, JPEG, and AVCHD playback through its disc drive, and it has an SD card slot that supports the JPEG and AVCHD formats. As we mentioned, this is not a Profile 2.0 player, so it does not have an Ethernet port to access BD-Live Web features or perform quick firmware updates. The BD-S2900 does offer RS-232 and IR in/out ports for integration into an advanced control system.

Read about the high points and the low points of the BD-S2900 on Page 2.

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  • Comment on this article

  • By greg

Let me first say, that I like Yamaha as a company, and their products. I had my parents purchase a Yamaha receiver for my sister back in the day. But, this has to do less with Yamaha, but with it seems higher end products. Especially in receivers. The fact that this Blu-Ray player is not fully equipped. There is no reason that you can tell me, why at this price level, it does not have 2.0, 7.1 channel outputs, internal high resolution audio decoding.
This happened with Mark Levinson, Classe, and some others. To get here, and not be fully equipped, makes absolutely no sense.
I can not recommend or endorse it.

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