Yamaha BD-S2900 Blu-Ray Player

BD S2900

BD S2900

Yamaha has chosen a $1,199 price point for the BD-S2900, landing it squarely in the high-end category. On the video side, the back panel features HDMI, component video, S-video, and composite video outputs. For HDMI, the output-resolution options are Auto, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p/60, and 1080p/24.

The setup menu includes an option to enable 1080p/24 output if your TV accepts this signal type; once you enable the feature, the player will always output 1080p/24 when it is available on Blu-ray discs. For component video, output-resolution options are 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i. The setup menu offers a nice set of picture adjustments, including four preset picture modes and a user mode in which you can adjust contrast, brightness, sharpness, color, gamma, and 3D/integrated noise reduction.

Given the player’s higher price point and the current Blu-ray landscape, Yamaha has made some questionable decisions on the audio side. Audio connections include HDMI, coaxial and optical digital audio, and 2- and 5.1-channel analog audio outputs. Most companies that choose to include multichannel analog outputs now go with 7.1 channels, not 5.1.

Of course, this point is somewhat moot because the player lacks internal Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoders anyhow. It will pass these high-resolution formats in their native bitstream form over HDMI, for your A/V receiver to decode. It can also pass 7.1-channel PCM audio over HDMI, and the setup menu includes size, level, and delay adjustments for a 7.1-channel configuration.