Arcam FMJ BDP100 Blu-ray Disc player

Very metal

Codec support quirks

While the player doesn't open the door to any trendy IPTV portal - or even venture beyond the creative wasteland that is BD Live - it does play media from external drives, although codec support seems a little ragged. My motley assortment of test files - culled from a personal collection of entertainment and chosen only because they cover most file types - met with only partial success.

The BDP100 will play content off connected drives - but check your formats

MP3, WMA and AAC music files played, but not Flac, AIFF or OGG. My test AVIs failed too, but MKV-wrapped video content worked OK.

The player itself doesn't offer universal formal support and does not recognise Super Audio CDs or DVD-Audio discs.

Disc loading speeds depend on the complexity of any given disc, but this player seems unlikely to win any awards for pace. The remastered Goldfinger Blu-ray from Fox Home Entertainment took a lengthy one minute 14 seconds to bring up the 007 logo. By way of comparison, a 2010 Sony player did the same job in 46 seconds.