I couldn't turn on the BD-HP50U without wondering what its designers were thinking. As the unit starts up, two annoyingly large and bright lights, sporting the DVD and Blu-ray logos, start blinking. Insert a disc, and the correct logo autoselects and glows steadily, staying on as if to help you remember what kind of disc is inside (fortunately, you can turn the lights off). A huge flap, with windows for the obnoxious lights, covers the entire front of the player. When you open the drive tray, the flap automatically comes down; but when you close the tray, the flap stays down, giving you something to scrape your shin against. Irritating.

The lack of attention to design extends to the setup menu, too. Whether you're controlling the main menu on the left or the submenu on the right is not always clear. Also vague is what buttons you should use to go back and forth between the two.

Pop a disc into the player, and you'll have to wait nearly 3 minutes before it starts playing. You can pass part of the time wondering who designed the ugly, white-on-black 'READING THE DISC' message on your TV screen.

The sluggishness doesn't go away when the movie starts. Skipping a chapter takes about 5 seconds. By comparison, most players do the same in less than 2 seconds--and that 3-second difference is noticeable, and feels like an eternity.

The remote control has some surprising limitations. You can't program the remote control or see its buttons in the dark. The playback control buttons (Play, Pause, and so on) are big, which is good, but they're also inconveniently placed too low on the remote, putting them out of reach of where your hand will naturally rest.