Sony BDV-E370

The basics

The Sony BDV-E370 is a 5.1 home cinema system with 3D Blu-ray playback and networking capabilities allowing it to access online features (iPlayer, LOVEFiLM, YouTube etc.) and stream from a PC via DLNA.

The good

The system delivers superb pictures from Blu-ray discs, packed with detail and clean colour.

Audio quality is also generally strong, with the five surround speakers equally comfortable when serving up loud surround effects or subtle, more nuanced detail.

It’s easy to set up too (thanks to colour-coded speaker connectors) and loads and starts Blu-rays far more quickly than most of its rivals.

The bad

The overall look of the BDV-E370 is disappointingly nondescript, but more irritating is the lack of HDMI inputs for hooking up other HD sources (a PS3, for instance).

You also have to pay £70 extra for Sony’s own dongle if you want to upgrade to Wi-Fi – non-Sony dongles won’t work. On the performance front, the subwoofer has a tendency to overpower louder scenes with formless booming.

The bottom line

A fine entry-level 3D Blu-ray system. Sound isn’t perfect, and you’ll find more features on certain rivals – but video performance is fantastic.