On the remote, the buttons that you're likely to use most often are sensibly placed but small, making them difficult to press. The remote is neither backlit nor programmable.

The BDP5010 took 77 seconds to start playing a disc, which puts it on the slow side of "reasonably responsive." Once a film was playing, it paused without a discernable lag, and it delayed only slightly when skipping chapters.

The BDP5010 doesn't limit itself to media on 5-inch optical discs. Its SD Card slot lets you use the BD-Live features (with a minimum 1GB card), and play music and view photos taken right out of your camera, audio player, or smartphone. Rather than automatically searching the inserted card for appropriate files, the interface forces you to navigate through folders to find them. Unlike many Blu-ray players, it can play both WMA and MP3 files.

Though Philips has not yet made the manual available online, it has promised that it will do so soon.

The Philips BDP5010 is a decent player that sells for a acceptable price--but it's no bargain. And bargains are available--both from the standpoint of overall value (the ) and from the standpoint of price (the ).