Philips HMP2000 review

Click OK and the next screen gives you a bit more information. For films, you can just click the play button, but TV programmes are a bit smarter. Netflix starts by presenting the first episode of the first available series for you to watch, but you can choose a specific episode instead. Once you’ve finished one episode, the next one is queued up for you to watch. For both films and TV, you can resume watching from where you finished off.

TV shows are handled in a smart way, letting you easily watch a series in episode order

Picture quality depends on the speed of your internet connection – as Netflix uses a clever algorithm that adjusts image quality on the fly – and on the quality of the encoded file. Typically speaking films have the best quality, while some TV programmes are in standard definition.

On our BT Infinity connection, 1080p movies looked fantastic and the HMP2000 had no problems dishing out high quality video. Streaming at maximum speed there’s little to tell between this kind of video and a decent HD broadcast. It helps that the box supports 12-bit HDMI Deep Color, as well as 1080p 24p outputs.

Sound is transmitted in surround-sound, although the quality slightly lags behind Blu-ray audio with loseless compression, but you still get that full cinematic feel. The HMP2000 takes care of the decoding, sending the audio to your receiver as PCM.

The tiny remote isn’t very responsive and its buttons are a bit spongy