Product Description

Now you can enjoy the best of 1080p video on your Sharp AQUOS HDTV. Especially designed to work with AQUOS LCD TVs, the BD-HP20U AQUOS Blu-Ray Disc player provides seamless operability via the AQUOS LINK™ function, through the HDMI connection. Performing as if it were all one system, the BD-HP20U's Quick Start feature lets you begin enjoying gorgeous Blu-ray Disc video with the touch of a button in less than 10 seconds.* The BD-HP20U provides outstanding versatility and is compatible with a wide variety of formats including BD-ROM/RE/R, DVD Video, DVD-RW/R and DVD+RW/R. Additionally, the BD-HP20U plays audio CDs as well. With eight terminal outputs including HDMI inputs and 1080p as well as DVD up-conversion to 1080p, you'll enjoy full digital high-definition video and high-fidelity audio. The piano black finish and slim profile design make it the ideal HD source for a large screen AQUOS TV. *Quick Start time may vary depending on movie content, type of video connection, and type of monitor being used.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1860 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Black
• Brand: Sharp
• Model: BD-HP20U
• Released on: 2007-09-24
• Dimensions: 2.69" h x 13.19" w x 16.94" l, 10.00 pounds

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

Manufacturer's Description -- July 20, 2008
Now you can enjoy the best of 1080P video on your AQUOS LCD TV. Especially designed to work with AQUOS LCD TVs, the BD-HP20U AQUOS Blu-ray Disc player provides seamless operability via the AQUOS LINK function through the HDMI connection. Performing as if it were all one system, the BD-HP20U's Quick Start feature lets you enjoy gorgeous Blu-ray Disc video with the touch of a button in less than 10 seconds1. With eight terminal outputs including HDMI outputs and 1080P as well as DVD up-conversion to 1080P, you'll enjoy full digital high-definition video and high-fidelity audio.

Features

HDMI Output – Simple One Cable Connection
A one cable connection carries complete digital audio and video connection between your HDTV and the BD-HP20 player for the best high definition video and the highest fidelity audio in home theater today. Blu-ray Disc technology brings the multiplex experience right to your home.

Full HD Resolution – An Amazing Home Theater Experience in the Comfort of your Home
The Blu-ray Disc format has full 1080P resolution capability – that's the maximum picture resolution available today. 1080P = 1,080 lines of vertical resolution, progressively scanned.

High Fidelity Audio – Real Life-Like Sound
Blu-ray technology lets you take advantage of the latest surround sound formats such as Dolby TrueHD. This means you will enjoy high quality lossless 7.1 Channel digital surround (48KHz only ) that is bit for bit the equivalent of a master recording.

HDMI Up-Scaling – Backwards Compatible
Even your existing standard definition DVD library can look better than ever because Blu-ray Disc players are backwards compatible with your DVDs. By optimizing standard DVD playback signals to 1080P (when displayed on a 1080P capable HDTV with HDMI technology), the BD-HP20 can deliver more picture and sound quality.

AQUOS LINK Function – Seamless Operation among Sharp Audio Video Products with One Remote Control
Why use two remotes when you can use one? The AQUOS LINK function allows you to control both your AQUOS LCD TV and your AQUOS Blu-ray Disc player together. When you connect your AQUOS LCD TV to the Blu-ray Disc player via an HDMI connection, you will have seamless interoperability between your AQUOS LCD TV and BD-HP20 Blu-ray Disc player.

Quick Start – Enjoy Movie Content Quickly without Delay
A proprietary Sharp technology allows you to enjoy viewing high definition content on your big screen quicker than most other Blu-ray Disc players. Unlike many other Blu-ray Disc players, the BD-HP20 has an impressive startup time allowing you to begin watching your movies in approximately 10 seconds. Quick Start time may vary depending on movie content, type of video connection and type of monitor being used. Blu-ray Disc must also be preloaded for Quick Start operation.

Specifications

Customer Reviews

Great for blu-ray but CD playback doesn't work
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.
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
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.