Panasonic vs Samsung vs Sony

[Hawkeye379]

Hey all.

A couple days ago, my parents' DVD player died. It wouldn't turn on and a terrible high pitched sound emitted from the TV speakers when the power/eject buttons on the player were pressed. It was quite odd.

Anyway, I told them they might as well buy a blu-ray player. I suggested that since I am the one with the better TV/sound system, that they get my current Sony S350 and that I will get a new player. That suggestion seemed to work so now I have to choose a new player.

My choices right now are:

Panasonic DMP-BD65 - SD Card Slot (Up to 32GB I think) & USB
Samsung BD-C5500 - 1GB of built in storage?(?) Not entirely sure
Or maybe a Sony player?

I've heard of playback issues on some Samsung blu-ray players, specifically Avatar recently, but has since been corrected to my knowledge. Are there any other playback issues?

For those of you that own the Samsung BD-C5500 does Avatar play without a problem? How is the speed of this player? I've read that it is one of the fastest players out there. What do you think of this player overall? Any negatives?

For owners of the DMP-BD65, what do you think of this player overall? Any How fast/slow is it? Any negatives about it?

As for the prices of these players, I can get the Samsung for $198.99 (It's on sale for $179.99 until May 20th) and the Panasonic is $229.99 with a $25 rebate. (The $25 rebate slip from Panasonic that is included with Avatar) So essentially they are both around $200.