Pioneer 320 or Panasonic BD60?

[PCFan]

I'm looking for a blu-ray player with good image quality and quietness. I was considering a Panasonic BD60 or a Pioneer 320. The one thing that is holding me off on getting the Panasonic is that I read that some people are having freezing issues on some blu-ray disks for a few seconds and I'm not sure if they have defective players or it's a particular common issue with that player.

[Vor4]

I was reading some of your posts and it seems that you can't decided on a bluray player for almost a year.

The Panasonic DMP-BD60 and Pioneer BDP-320 are in two different catergories.
BD60: Entry level
BDP-320: Mid-range

The freezing problem in the Panasonic has been caused by a firmware update and Panasonic does not know how to fix it. With my experience with the BD60, the blu-ray tray caused some discs to viberate, some dvds froze on it, and the fan on it was probably the loudest fan of all standalone blu-ray players. Thank goodness I sold my BD60 on ebay before the firmware update that caused movies to freeze for a few seconds.

The Pioneer BDP-320 is a very solid blu-ray player, but it has the longest loading times of any current generation blu-ray player on market. The dvd layer change on it can last up to 3 seconds. It has slow bootup process and slow disc format recognition.

I would probably recommend the Sony BDP-S360 (under $250), JVC XV-BP1 (under $250), or the Oppo BDP-83 ($500) if you have use for most of its features.

If you have a tv that the screen size is under 40 inches you'll may not notice a difference between blu-ray and dvd.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

I haven’t noticed any freezing issues with the latest firmware update for the Panasonic.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Originally Posted by Vor4

If you have a tv that the screen size is under 40 inches you'll may not notice a difference between blu-ray and dvd.

That's simply not true. You need to sit closer to a smaller screen, but as long as you’re within the recommended viewing distance for 720p at a minimum, you will see a noticeable difference between SD and HD sources unless you have vision problems.

[PCFan]

I can see the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD on my 26 inch 768P LCD at a distance of about 5 ft away. I used to have a PS3 and have tried out a few Blu-Ray Players.

[katala]

Originally Posted by PCFan

I'm looking for a blu-ray player with good image quality and quietness. I was considering a Panasonic BD60 or a Pioneer 320. The one thing that is holding me off on getting the Panasonic is that I read that some people are having freezing issues on some blu-ray disks for a few seconds and I'm not sure if they have defective players or it's a particular common issue with that player.

If you join the AVS forum there is a detailed and long discussion thread on it.

A poll suggests about 30%+ of owners experience it. I bought the BD60 recently knowing about this issue because despite it, the PQ and sound has consistently been outstanding.

At this time, I have 106 hours of playtime and had 9 freezes. The freezes are under 5 seconds long, are random in location and impossible to reproduce. Its like someone pressed the pause button without you knowing it. If the freeze lasts any longer than 10 seconds or so, few people would tolerate it and the BD60 would not be given the kudos it has had.

As is, I think its the best player for under $200 and I would buy it again.

Disk noise, vibration etc., is something rarely complained off in the forums. Its possible on all players, but its certainly not one that was a big issue for other users other than the post here.

Sorry, don' tknow anything about the BDP-320.

[Vor4]

Originally Posted by PCFan

I can see the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD on my 26 inch 768P LCD at a distance of about 5 ft away. I used to have a PS3 and have tried out a few Blu-Ray Players.

If I were you I would definitely get upgrade to a 1080p tv. Your current tv will have to apply scaling to the 720p or a 1080i signal to get it to 768p, this means you would have double scaling happening which is best avoided and may produced artifacts.

[PCFan]

Originally Posted by Vor4

If I were you I would definitely get upgrade to a 1080p tv. Your current tv will have to apply scaling to the 720p or a 1080i signal to get it to 768p, this means you would have double scaling happening which is best avoided and may produced artifacts.

Even with all the scaling involved because of my 768P TV I noticed that Blu-Ray still looks much better than DVD on my TV. DVD on the other hand in my opinion looks more natural leaving the PS3 I used to have at 480p for my TV even though it's slightly softer looking. Maybe with a 1080p TV it would be different. I was considering selling my TV and buying a 23" 1080p computer monitor with HDMI to hook a blu-ray player to it but I prefer watching movies on my couch and not at my computer desk and eventually will buy maybe a 32 inch 1080p TV.

[Sonny]

I have both and they are very solid players. The BD60 is a little faster and does 24p for DVDs also, which is a nice feature. The 320 is basicly the Elite 23 which is very sweet and I love the player to death. I have had ZERO issues with freezing or anything else. All I can say is out of the 15+ BD players I've had since Oct 2006 these are the best so far. you'll be happy with either one. Just figure out which one you digg the most...

[gates70]

All I can say is that I replaced my Sammy 2550 with a Pioneer 320 and wow what a machine ! I replaced the Sammy cuz of bugs and such so I thought the PQ would be pretty much the same on both but Pioneer is clearly more solid, clear, and fine. Excellent machine.

[jibucha]

Hello

Interesting

I watch on a 30" CRT at 13', and not only is the difference of Blu-ray and DVD very apparent; the differences of over 24 Blu-ray players is easily discernible, with my appreciation of the best player a daily joy of movie and television watching.

Thank You

Originally Posted by Vor4

If you have a tv that the screen size is under 40 inches you'll may not notice a difference between blu-ray and dvd.

[enricokael2005]

Can Pioneer 320 output HD audio in bitstream form to receiver over HDMI?

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by enricokael2005

Can Pioneer 320 output HD audio in bitstream form to receiver over HDMI?

Yes.

[ImTurningBlue]

I own the pioneer bdp-320 and if you dont mind waiting a little longer for it to load the disc,its a amazing player,pq and aq are both outstanding,plus its profile 2.0