Panasonic DMP-BD30 or Sony 40GB PS3. Keep, Sell, or Return

[Kage]

I bought the Panasonic DMP-BD30 when it was released and I bought the 40GB PS3 about two weeks ago to replace my Xbox 360 Elite which I sold on Ebay. Both players are connected via HDMI to my Yamaha RX-1800 receiver. Now I have a major problem. The problem is which one to keep. Here are my pros (+) and cons (-) of both units for you to help me out with this decision.

Panasonic DMP-BD30
+ Bitstream Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD and DTS HD-MA.
+ Excellent Blu-ray PQ.
+ Good loading time.
+ Reliable
+ Quiet fan noise.
- Not very good DVD upscaling and deinterlacing.
- LFE issue for uncompressed PCM soundtracks.

Sony 40GB PS3
+ Excellent Blu-ray PQ.
+ Onboard Dolby TrueHD decoding and does not have the LFE issue for uncompressed PCM soundtracks.
+ Very good DVD upscaling and deinterlacing.
+ Short loading time.
+ Quiet fan noise.
- No onboard DTS-HD MA decoder (hopefully the rumor of the DTS-HD MA software update will fix it).
- I read some messages that the blu-ray drive fails within a year.

Currently, I'm 50/50 towards keeping both players, but I might change my mind later. Here are my reasons why that I may want to keep both players:

Panasonic DMP-BD30
1. Will be my main blu-ray player.
2. Bitstreaming Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and DTS-HD MA to my Yamaha RX-V1800 receiver.

Sony 40GB PS3
1. Will be my main dvd upscaling player.
2. Will be my secondary blu-ray player.
3. Will be my gaming machine, but there aren't many games out yet.

[bootman]

Do you have to get rid of one?

I personally prefer standalones but if you game, you only have one choice.

[Kage]

I decided that I am going to return the 40GB PS3 and keep my Panasonic DMP-BD30. The reasons why I'm returning the PS3 and keeping the BD30 are:
1. The BD30 has better blu-ray picture quality than the PS3.
2. The BD30 has sharper dvd upconversion picture quality and can't see any flaws with its dvd upconversion and deinterlacing while watching movies.
3. The BD30 can bitstream Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and DTS-HD MA to my Yamaha RX-V1800 receiver.
4. Panasonic is aware of the PCM LFE issue and problems playing some profile 1.1 movies (i.e Resident Evil 3, Sunshine) and they will put out a new firmware within the next few weeks.
5. I notice that the PS3 fans get loud while watching dvd and blu-ray movies.
6. Not many PS3 games that appeal to me.

With the refund from my PS3, I will put it towards a credit card payment. I'm glad that I made the right decision by keeping the Panny.

[bootman]

I think you did.
Enjoy your movies.

[vinniesuarez]

I just purchased the BD30 and the very first disc I watched was Sunshine. Needless to say, with this being my first experience with this player, I am disappointed. How do you know Panasonic is aware of the problems and will soon release a firmware upgrade to correct the issues? Sunshine plays fine on my PS3 and I was planning to sell the PS3, but now I am not so sure. (PS3 was purchased to be my blu-ray player, but now that prices have dropped on players I prefer a standalone ... IF it works as good as or better than my PS3, but the Sunshine/BD30 experience is making me hesitant.) By the way, before watching Sunshine I did immediately upgrade the BD30 firmware to 1.3, right out of the box. Should I not have done that?

Any insight would be appreciated.

[electric turd]

Originally Posted by vinniesuarez

I just purchased the BD30 and the very first disc I watched was Sunshine. Needless to say, with this being my first experience with this player, I am disappointed. How do you know Panasonic is aware of the problems and will soon release a firmware upgrade to correct the issues? Sunshine plays fine on my PS3 and I was planning to sell the PS3, but now I am not so sure. (PS3 was purchased to be my blu-ray player, but now that prices have dropped on players I prefer a standalone ... IF it works as good as or better than my PS3, but the Sunshine/BD30 experience is making me hesitant.) By the way, before watching Sunshine I did immediately upgrade the BD30 firmware to 1.3, right out of the box. Should I not have done that?

Any insight would be appreciated.

What kind of problem are you talking about? You talked a a whole lot but nothing came out, without telling us what your problem is, was there a point?

[bootman]

Firmware upgrades should only be done if you have an issue.
How do you know if the issue now is because of the upgrade?
If could be the new firmware, it could be a corrupted firmware, it could have been there before.
We won't know since you didn't try the disk beforehand.

BTW, what is the problem?

[vinniesuarez]

Sorry for the lack of specificity but I was referring to the issues alluded to by Kage. There are several instances in which the image briefly freezes (this happens at the same exact moments, despite ejecting the disc AND when using another copy of the exact same title in the machine, and it does not happen when played on the PS3), and two other instances in which the audio briefly becomes distorted (same parenthetical comments). I watched 3:10 to Yuma on the BD30 and it played without incident. As for upgrading the firmware out of the box, I wanted to take full advantage of Sunshine's PiP and surround audio supplements, and I was under the impression that it was necessary to upgrade from the factory installed firmware to be able to utilize these features. As it is, and consistent with threads elsewhere, it is necessary to turn the BD Video Secondary Audio to "ON" (I currently have it set to "off" so that my Onkyo 705 receiver will decode the DTS-HDMA and Dolby True HD tracks), so it seems that in the absence of another firmware upgrade this player has issues with some of the newly released discs (e.g. Sunshine) and it does not allow one to seamlessly unable new features (e.g. PiP).

Again, my original question stands: how do we know that a new FW upgrade will soon be released to correct these issues, which one poster claims are already known to Panasonic.

I guess I have another question: why would it be necessary to wait until one has issues to upgrade the firmware? If 1.3 enables additional features or corrects known issues, why not just go ahead and get the upgrade.

Also, my upgrade file was the exact size it was supposed to be per the Panasonic site, and it installed correctly per the display on the front of the unit.