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| Sharp Aquos BDHP20U 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player | 
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| Brand: Sharp
Category: CE
Buy New: Too low to display
New (11) Used (5) Refurbished (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 2446
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 10
Dimensions (in): 16.9 x 13.2 x 2.7
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: BD-HP20U
Model: BD-HP20U
UPC: 074000354791
EAN: 0074000354791
ASIN: B000W8SSXQ
Release Date: September 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Full HD 1080p/24 fps video output | | • | HDMI digital Interface | | • | 7.1 Channel digital audio output | | • | Quick Start Mode: enjoy content quickly without delay |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 Great for blu-ray but CD playback doesn't work October 4, 2008
This review is for the BD-HP20X which is essentially the same as the HP20U (takes the same firmware) but is the localised Australian variant. I took a plunge on this player after seeing it advertised for an irresistibly low price through an internet mail-order vendor.
Here are a few words about my experiences with this player so far (applies to the latest firmware revision which I downloaded and installed via USB memory stick) -
* I'm using the Sharp's analog 5.1 audio outputs (onboard decoder) as my Yamaha AV receiver is an older one that lacks HDMI and support for newer sound formats. The analog sound quality is quite adequate for movies although I wouldn't really recommend it for serious music listening - the DACs are ordinary sounding and markedly inferior to those you would find in any decent standalone AV receiver. But for movie viewing the analog output certainly suffices.
* Blu-ray playback is excellent - the picture quality is stunning and of course a major improvement over DVD. The only thing I noticed is there will sometimes be a tiny pause in playback when the blu-ray disc is first started, but after this initial hesitation playback will be perfectly smooth.
* I like how the front panel display can be completely shut off during playback of a disc, to avoid any distractions in a darkened room. Just press the "LIGHT" button on the remote control toggles the display off...
* I hooked up this player to a Samsung 32" Series 4 LCD TV which automatically detected the Sharp player as an "Anynet+" device over HDMI. And when you switch the source to the Sharp player through the Samsung TV, the Sharp player springs to life automatically! This came as a rather pleasant surprise.
* Sometimes I noticed a strange behaviour, where the Sharp player resumes from standby and fails to recognize a previously loaded blu-ray disc, displaying the message "incompatible disc" (this happened to a disc that had been loaded and recognized okay before). Ejecting and reinserting the disc resolved this problem.
* I haven't thoroughly tested playback of regular DVDs, but the unit definitely does upscaling via HDMI to your TV
* CD playback is terrible! There are constant audible glitches (clicks) during CD playback, and this happens even with commercially-pressed CDs. This totally ruins the listening experience, needless to say. I imagine the problem would be even worse with CD-Rs you burned yourself. It's as if the CD functionality was tacked on as an afterthought with zero attention paid to quality control and testing.
In conclusion - I can recommend the Sharp for anybody seeking an affordable blu-ray player. The inclusion of analog 5.1 outputs is a boon for those like myself with older AV receivers. Just realize that the onboard DACs are far from audiophile quality. Obviously, this won't be an issue if you stick to the digital audio outputs.
And you can completely forget about playing audio CDs with this unit.
 Movies, okay. TV shows, sorry. September 10, 2008
If you only plan to watch movies on Blu-ray then you'll probably be fine, but if you plan to watch TV shows on Blu-ray, like Heroes or Mad Men, forget about it, you'll get so frustrated you'll feel like destroying the player. :( The player is also very finicky, i.e. don't push eject without stopping the disc first. If you do, you'll have to hard reset the machine. Something I've done many dozens of times in the past few months I've owned this. My advise, pony up the extra dough and get a Sony, you'll thank me later.
Sometimes slow, stutters, and dies mysteriously August 30, 2008
I bought my BDHP20U in Feb 2008 and it worked OK, if almost glacially slow (minutes to power on, roughly a minute just to open the [empty] tray) until July when, following one of Sharp's software updates (two previous worked great) the machine would no longer power on. Sharp apparently has quite a bit of experience with this kind of thing (not necessarily comforting) and quickly emailed me a link to a FedEx page with shipping labels -- unfortunately they sent it on Wednesday evening (while I was out), and it expired at midnight /the same day/! So it ended up taking TWO WEEKS to explain that I needed replacement shipping labels. Then things went quickly, but they shiped it back to the wrong address and it took three extra days to get it from FedEx.
After all that fun, it worked fine for a few weeks, then one night after watching a movie, it powered down when I asked it to eject the disc I'd just viewed. And it won't power on again. I'm not looking forward to repeating the repair cycle again, especially since it now seems likely I will be doing this every month from now on (if not more often).
It is a good thing that the price on this is coming down, because it certainly isn't worth the $362.49 it cost when I bought it. In fact, I expect to buy another BluRay player (from anyone but Sharp) as soon as I can afford one.
 Pass if you are burning your own disks August 27, 2008
The player as a player for movies is very good. However, if you are making your own videos and burning them to BD-R disks, this system does not play. I have spent hundreds of dollars trying to get disks to play without any luck. I have the latest firmware and still no luck.
 Amazing Player! July 8, 2008
After reading some slightly negative reviews, I think it will be unfair if I don't write mine.
I have owned my Sharp for almost 6 months now. Have run the newest BDs available, just yesterday I watched 'vantage point', awesome picture and sound. Loading is pretty fast too, I would say less than 40 secs. Have never faced a single problem whatsoever. Sharp just posted a new firmware but I won't load it unless I see any probs with my existing one. I did play 'Jumper' and I did not have any problem.
Call me lucky or whatever, I would blindly go for another Sharp BD player if I had to make a decision.
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