Looking at Blu-ray players...

Jawa Ex Machina

Jawa Ex Machina

Veteran
It's starting to be about time I got into buying a BD player.

For the past 18 months all my money has gone into producing and financing MARIANNE, and while it still does, it's gotten to the point where there's no sense anymore in buying DVDs.
BD prices are reasonable enough and I need a new DVD player soon anyway.

Here's my setup:
Samsung 50 inch full HD Plasma TV
Yamaha RX-V440 RDS Reciever
6.1 AudioPro Speakers - 2 Black Diamond, 1 Image 21 Center, 2 Image 11 rear satelites and 2 Image 11 speakers connected as one rear center.

I'm going to update my reciever and speakers in the future when my financial situation has improved, but for now I'll settle for a good, reasonably priced BD player.

I was looking over a couple of different ones yesterday and almost bought a Samsung BD-C5500. It was 60 bucks cheaper than the BD-C6600, and the only features it lacked was wifi and analogue 7.1 audio.
I don't need wifi, so I don't want to pay for it if I don't have to, and I'll use the optical out on it to the reciever anyway since the one I have doesn't have HDMI in or 7.1 analogue in.

Anyone know if this would be a smart purchase, or should I wait until I can afford to upgrade my reciever as well? That might take a few years, depending on how my financial situation develops and if/when I sell MARIANNE and if/when money starts coming in for that.

Or should I look at another player, another brand?
 
I think the general consensus is that the Sony's are the most reliable. I have the Sony BDP-BX1 and I haven't had a single issue with not being able to play a disc. Some Blu-Ray players have encountered problems playing certain discs, usually fixed by updating firmware but sometimes that can take weeks for the manufacturer to fix. DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD can't be delivered over optical out, only HDMI, so factor that into your decision. You'll still be able to play those discs, but they'll be sampled to lower quality before being sent to your recevier. I only found that out after I bought my receiver so I have that problem. They still sound amazing, it's just not the full fidelity those formats are capable of.
 
Batutta said:
I think the general consensus is that the Sony's are the most reliable. I have the Sony BDP-BX1 and I haven't had a single issue with not being able to play a disc. Some Blu-Ray players have encountered problems playing certain discs, usually fixed by updating firmware but sometimes that can take weeks for the manufacturer to fix. DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD can't be delivered over optical out, only HDMI, so factor that into your decision. You'll still be able to play those discs, but they'll be sampled to lower quality before being sent to your recevier. I only found that out after I bought my receiver so I have that problem. They still sound amazing, it's just not the full fidelity those formats are capable of.
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Yeah I wouldn't be able to use DTS-HD and DOLBY TrueHD on my reciever anyway since it's purchased in 2003 (wow, has it been 7 years already!) but from what I hear when they are downsampled they're still downsampled to the best quality your reciever can manage, correct?
Of course, if they can only be delivered via HDMI I have no use for HD audio until I get an HDMI reciever. If I'm stuck with regular Dolby Digital 5.1 and 1080p image I might as well save the money until I can afford to upgrade the reciever.

That kinda sucks.

But at least I have my HD-DVD player and BLADE RUNNER.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
Yeah I wouldn't be able to use DTS-HD and DOLBY TrueHD on my reciever anyway since it's purchased in 2003 (wow, has it been 7 years already!) but from what I hear when they are downsampled they're still downsampled to the best quality your reciever can manage, correct?
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Yes, and I don't think you'll be complaining. My system sounds so good I'm curious what the difference would be. There must be one, though...You have to watch out with the HDMI receivers, as some only pass the signal through, they don't decode. If I were buying again I'd get one that decodes and upconverts all incoming video (component as well) to 1080p over HDMI. I had to run two cables to my projector to hook up my XBOX, where I could have just plugged it into the receiver if it did the conversion and ran only one HDMI cable to the projector.
 
Batutta said:
Yes, and I don't think you'll be complaining. My system sounds so good I'm curious what the difference would be. There must be one, though...You have to watch out with the HDMI receivers, as some only pass the signal through, they don't decode. If I were buying again I'd get one that decodes and upconverts all incoming video (component as well) to 1080p over HDMI. I had to run two cables to my projector to hook up my XBOX, where I could have just plugged it into the receiver if it did the conversion and ran only one HDMI cable to the projector.
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I'm not an audio technician, but my guess is the size of the room and how the furniture is arranged probably is one limiting factor, and a big difference might be in the little details. Like with picture, you might not miss anything you don't notice if you don't have it, but if you have it or you compare it HD audio probably is better.

That's my guess, but like I said, I'm no audio technician.
 
I've got a BluRay drive in my HTPC. It plays every BD that I've bought or borrowed or rented, but when it comes to Blockbuster online, I've received a lot that are bad. Not sure if it's my drive or not. I'm running the latest firmware, but I've had 3 BD that only play the crap before the movie, and then once the movie starts it locks up and says the disc is corrupted. I've had 2 that died about 2/3 the way into the movie. Really frustrating, especially when you go to try again and have to fast forward through the 10 minutes of un-skippable advertising they put at the begining of every disc. I can't believe people put up with hollywood pulling that kind of crap.
 
noworries said:
Really frustrating, especially when you go to try again and have to fast forward through the 10 minutes of un-skippable advertising they put at the begining of every disc. I can't believe people put up with hollywood pulling that kind of crap.
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Maybe, but it was worse in the VHS era.

Of course, trailers were far more interesting back then because the only place you would see them was before a film in a theater or on rental VHS.
 
get a ps3 if you have the money. it's fast and has wifi. sony recently added 3d capability with a system update. you can browse the web and get free video game demos. add a remote and you're set.
 
+! for the PS3..........a lot of bang for the buck and the newer ones are much quieter than earlier models.

OPPO is another great brand but a little pricey.
 
Wow, I just posted asking the same question last week and got... not a single response, LOL! This is a useful thread! I ended up trading in my used Xbox 360 and picked up a used PS3, the difference in the trade-in value and the cost of the used PS3 was $100 so it worked out great, also I read over and over again online that the PS3 is the best blu-ray player on the market.
 
I've had consistently good experience with my Samsung BD-P1500. I think it's basically a mid-low-end competitor but it makes nice pictures on a 67" screen...and several of my DVDs look darned near indistinguishable from bu-ray playback, too.
 
ctb1010 said:
I read over and over again online that the PS3 is the best blu-ray player on the market.
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It's not. I've heard over and over again from audio/video-philes that it's not on the same level as real BD players on that price range.
Also, I think they're a lot more expensive here in Sweden than in the US, so that might be a contributing factor to why people here prefer BD players over PS3.
A 120gb PS3 costs 485 bucks here, while the Samsumg BD-C5500 player I was looking at is 190 bucks. That's pretty much what I can afford to spend anyway, and I'm not a gamer. I've got an Xbox 360, but it doesn't get much use. There's just no time to play games when you produce AND direct.
 
I feel ya on the whole X-Box thing. I spent months researching consoles and looking for the right deal, etc etc etc and after about a week's use the thing just gathers dust...
 
I think you might find the wireless feature useful (unless you can easily hardwire to your network). Not only will get access to media on your PCs, you can get Netflix streaming and other services. I'm finding that these accesses are cheaper than PPV.

Plus you will need internet to update firmware. Almost every player out of the box ned sa firmware update.
 
Dick Campbell said:
I think you might find the wireless feature useful (unless you can easily hardwire to your network). Not only will get access to media on your PCs, you can get Netflix streaming and other services. I'm finding that these accesses are cheaper than PPV.

Plus you will need internet to update firmware. Almost every player out of the box ned sa firmware update.
Click to expand...
I think it's easier to just plug it into the ADSL modem with a cable, and I'm not at all into the whole media box thing that's been hyped up since xbox 360 and ps3 hit the scene. We don't have netflix in sweden either, so I'm not really even sure I'll hook it up to the internet at all.

I just want something to play movies on that's got good audio and video and doesn't cost a fortune. The less features I have to pay for, the better.

But that's me. I'm old fashioned. Like that cop in the sci-fi movie who still uses an old six shooter because it's reliable.
 
I'm liking the LG BD590, dvds and bluray look great, though I'm getting more use out of the Netflix watch it now and Vudu HD streaming option. Another thing I like about it is I can stream shows from my computer with DLNA.
 
Jawa Ex Machina said:
Also, I think they're a lot more expensive here in Sweden than in the US, so that might be a contributing factor to why people here prefer BD players over PS3.

A 120gb PS3 costs 485 bucks here
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that stinks. it's only $299 here. i can see why people choose a standard bd player.

Sad Max said:
I feel ya on the whole X-Box thing. I spent months researching consoles and looking for the right deal, etc etc etc and after about a week's use the thing just gathers dust...
Click to expand...

come on man, get a ps3 and uncharted 2. right now i only have random strangers to play against, i'm hoping some other dvxusers get a ps3. :beer:

Dick Campbell said:
I think you might find the wireless feature useful (unless you can easily hardwire to your network). Not only will get access to media on your PCs, you can get Netflix streaming and other services. I'm finding that these accesses are cheaper than PPV.

Plus you will need internet to update firmware. Almost every player out of the box ned sa firmware update.
Click to expand...

my panasonic blu-ray player doesn't have wifi and it's a pain moving it into the other room to do firmware updates. i would definitely recommend getting one with that feature if you can.
 
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