The BDX3100 is the first Blu-ray player from Toshiba that we've ever tested. As well as being available for a very affordable price, it also offers support for Blu-ray 3D discs.
Making a product as affordable as this means that Toshiba has had to make a few savings on the hardware and features on offer. In fact, you only get the bare minimum, with a very basic design in the menus. The choice of inputs and outputs is also pretty limited, with just one HDMI port, component video and 2.0 analogue audio out alongside a USB port for connecting external storage devices and an Ethernet port.
That gives you the chance to access the manufacturer's online services, but also to find audio, photo and video content stored elsewhere on your DLNA-compatible home network. Alternatively, you can plug a hard drive or flash memory stick into the USB port at the front. However, the media player can only access devices formatted using FAT32, which means it can't handle files larger than 4 GB, which can include some HD films. Of the other files we tried, most of our videos encapsulated using MKV worked fine, but the MOV format isn't supported.
As well as offering a rather basic choice of connectors, the BDX3100 is also rather slow: it takes 29 seconds to boot up, compared to just 19 s on the Philips BDP7500 MK II.
There were no unpleasant surprises in this department, and the BDX3100 produces a great HD picture in both 2D and 3D, with neutral colours and plenty of detail.
When we measured the accuracy of its colour reproduction, we found the results were very close to those produced by the PlayStation 3. However, Toshiba's player has a slight tendency to add a blue tinge, but this is a very subtle effect and not many viewers will notice it.
Things are a lot less impressive when watching a DVD: the upscaling is too weak for our liking, and the PS3 clearly does much better.
The BDX3100 can handle all HD audio formats, but only has a stereo analogue audio output for them, as well as a digital audio and HDMI 1.4 port.
That means you'll have to rely on the latter to enjoy HD sound. Otherwise, you'll only get the basic aspects—the Core—from Dolby Digital or DTS signals sent via the optical audio output.
During our energy consumption tests, the Toshiba BDX3100 pushed our equipment to the limits—but in a good way. On standby, we measured consumption of 0 W, from which we can infer that it's somewhere below 0.05 W. It's just as impressive when switched on, varying between 14 W and 16 W depending on the content it's showing.
Hardware
Making a product as affordable as this means that Toshiba has had to make a few savings on the hardware and features on offer. In fact, you only get the bare minimum, with a very basic design in the menus. The choice of inputs and outputs is also pretty limited, with just one HDMI port, component video and 2.0 analogue audio out alongside a USB port for connecting external storage devices and an Ethernet port.That gives you the chance to access the manufacturer's online services, but also to find audio, photo and video content stored elsewhere on your DLNA-compatible home network. Alternatively, you can plug a hard drive or flash memory stick into the USB port at the front. However, the media player can only access devices formatted using FAT32, which means it can't handle files larger than 4 GB, which can include some HD films. Of the other files we tried, most of our videos encapsulated using MKV worked fine, but the MOV format isn't supported.
As well as offering a rather basic choice of connectors, the BDX3100 is also rather slow: it takes 29 seconds to boot up, compared to just 19 s on the Philips BDP7500 MK II.
Image Quality
There were no unpleasant surprises in this department, and the BDX3100 produces a great HD picture in both 2D and 3D, with neutral colours and plenty of detail.When we measured the accuracy of its colour reproduction, we found the results were very close to those produced by the PlayStation 3. However, Toshiba's player has a slight tendency to add a blue tinge, but this is a very subtle effect and not many viewers will notice it.
Things are a lot less impressive when watching a DVD: the upscaling is too weak for our liking, and the PS3 clearly does much better.
Audio Formats
The BDX3100 can handle all HD audio formats, but only has a stereo analogue audio output for them, as well as a digital audio and HDMI 1.4 port.That means you'll have to rely on the latter to enjoy HD sound. Otherwise, you'll only get the basic aspects—the Core—from Dolby Digital or DTS signals sent via the optical audio output.
Energy Consumption
During our energy consumption tests, the Toshiba BDX3100 pushed our equipment to the limits—but in a good way. On standby, we measured consumption of 0 W, from which we can infer that it's somewhere below 0.05 W. It's just as impressive when switched on, varying between 14 W and 16 W depending on the content it's showing.Pros
- Support for Blu-ray 3D discs
- Great image quality in HD
- No fan
- Low energy consumption: average 15 W
Cons
- Mediocre remote control
- Upscaling SD video too rough
- No 7.1 analogue audio output (stereo only)
- Media player doesn't support NTFS or many video formats
- Small blue tinge in video output
Conclusion
The Toshiba BDX3100 represents great value for money. Other products offer better quality and more outputs, but with a higher price tag.
OUR SCORE
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