I don’t often think “sexy” when I look at a Blu-ray player but there’s something about the Philips BDP7300 that’s got that kind of Naim/NAD utility chic about it. It’s the minimal black design. Shame they didn’t go the whole hog with the angle cut corners and matte finish but you can’t have it all, I suppose.

Still, what counts with these things is the insides and there the BDP7300 doesn’t disappoint. Again, there’s a minimal feel to what Philips has on offer but what there is, is solid.

Naturally, it does all your bog standard Blu-ray playback at 1080p/24fps but, as we’ve come to expect with most of these machines these days, it’ll upgrade your DVDs to an approximation of HD quality too.

As well as your discs, it also supports DivX Ultra, WMV, MP3, WMA and JPG files formats via the USB port on the back. There’s also a 1GB internal memory for downloading and saving any BD Live extras you might want to bore yourself to death with before you get up off the sofa and go and buy another film.

Audio-wise it decodes both Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio Essential 7.1 to make sure you’re getting the sound as the director intended. You will, of course, need a proper amp and enough speakers to appreciate that, though.

It’s out this month for £249 but you will be saving a few pence and the planet as you go too. It only uses 0.2W in standby. Of course, you could always just switch the thing off when you’re not using it and do everyone a favour.

Buy it here