The BDP-S560's box is well made, with a spring-loaded flap that covers the entire front and closes when the tray closes. The Power and Eject buttons are well situated in the upper-left and -right corners of the front panel. The only other buttons, Play and Stop, are clearly marked but feel chintzy.

The BDP-S560 started playing the Blu-ray disc in 59 seconds, a bit faster than average.

When you first turn on the BDP-S560, a helpful wizard walks you through setup, sometimes with the aid of useful onscreen illustrations. The wizard will ask you whether you want to turn Quick Start on; it's off by default, to save power. With the Power Off option switched on (again, the default), the BDP-S560 shuts off after 30 minutes of inactivity.

The main menu is a typical Sony crossbar. The onscreen descriptions of your options are usually helpful, if you know some basic terminology. For instance, TV Type is described as "Set the screen aspect ratio of your TV." If you press the remote's Display button while watching the movie, the BDP-S560 will give you some technical details and either the time elapsed or the time remaining (you can toggle between these), but not the chapter number.

Despite its small, hand-friendly size, the remote control leaves a lot to be desired. The arrow buttons are well placed, but the play buttons (Play, Pause, Skip, and so forth) are hard to reach. The huge Home button, which brings up the player's rarely needed setup menu, occupies the middle of the remote, while the buttons for more-frequently-used disc menus are tiny. Oddly, there's no Eject button at all.