Sharp Aquos BD-HP21U Blu-ray Disc Player

The Sharp BD-HP21U packs lots of metal -- literally. It's large and heavy, so much so that you could mistake it for an old Laserdisc player. In the end, the fairly low price ($220) gets you a Blu-ray player with only hit-and-miss image quality.PC World Test Center judges found extremes of good and bad in viewing our suite of test discs. The Sharp wasn't always, well, sharp. And some images appeared dull and flat.

As you'd expect for its price, the BD-HP21U isn't heavy on extra features. The player supports Blu-ray Profile 1.1 (which all players at this point must support, at minimum), but not the fancier features contained in Profile 2.0 (such as BD-Live for accessing supplemental content via the Internet). Notably, it natively supports Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus audio, converting those high-end soundtracks to standard PCM for amplifiers that don't support them.

Unlike its first-generation player, the Sharp BD-HP20U, Sharp's second-generation model just doesn't impress. The Sharp BD-HP21U does its job without frills, and without oomph.