Best Cost/Benefit Blu-ray Player?

[jns2001]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and I was inclined to purchase a Toshiba HD-DVD A2 due to its pricing. But after reading your forum I am more inclined to purchase a BR player since more studios support this format and it seems that everybody that watches it seems to like.

I have two Plasma tv's and my main setup is a 50" 1366x768 LG Time Machine and a JVC D702B 7.1 Receiver attached to some Bose Acoustimass 6.1 speakers (I know, not the best option, but at least the wife was happy for not having those monsters speakers in the living area).

I am not an expert in audio and video, but I learn from you guys on how to set up my HT and what are the best components in a certain price range.

Now coming to the Blue Ray players and after reading the reviews, can someone that is more experienced tell me what would be the best cost benefit on a Blue Ray player?

Thanks in advance for any help on the matter.

[whippersnapper]

Your best bets in my mind would be either the PS3 or the BDP-S300. The PS3 goes for $599 everywhere I've seen (if you find a lower price, post it here). Below are a couple of links for the BDP-S300. Amazon (at the time I post this) has only a handful left in stock. The office depot site offers it for a better price but is temporarily out of stock. Both the PS3 and BDP-S300 are sold elsewhere of course. Good luck and enjoy. By the way, my player is a PS3. I like it for its "expandibility", quality of play and robustness.

http://www.techdepot.com/product.asp...affid=10000485

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-BDP-S300-...2266701&sr=8-1

[Rup_Muk]

Welcome to the forum.

I have a PS3 as my Blu-Ray player and have been extremely happy with my purchase. I don't play very many games on the console - but do use it as a photo projector, music console, e-mail screen. So, as far as "bang for the buck" goes - I think the PS3 is it! That's my story - and I am sticking to it!

Rup.

[miked924]

PS3 all the way

[jns2001]

Originally Posted by whippersnapper

Your best bets in my mind would be either the PS3 or the BDP-S300. The PS3 goes for $599 everywhere I've seen (if you find a lower price, post it here). Below are a couple of links for the BDP-S300. Amazon (at the time I post this) has only a handful left in stock. The office depot site offers it for a better price but is temporarily out of stock. Both the PS3 and BDP-S300 are sold elsewhere of course. Good luck and enjoy. By the way, my player is a PS3. I like it for its "expandibility", quality of play and robustness.

http://www.techdepot.com/product.asp...affid=10000485

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-BDP-S300-...2266701&sr=8-1

Thanks for the response, now it comes another question:

Does the players that you mentioned support the technologies of Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD?

In fact my question goes like this, what benefit would I reap by having a player that play those formats in light of the remainder of the equipment that I have? Meaning, I have seen several formats that my receiver plays and among them the aforementioned formats does not exist.

I am puzzled, do I have to change my receiver to have those formats to be played?

[Deane Johnson]

So long as we're on this subject, let me ask a couple of additional questions.

I will use my player to feed a Panasonic AE900U 720P native projector. My receiver has coaxial input for the audio, but no individual audio channels and certainly not HDMI. I have no need to route video through my receiver as I dedicate my player to the projector and use no other sources for video material. I won't ever use if for games. In other words, my setup is dedicated to a front projection theater that shows only movies, no other usage.

I have over 1700 DVD titles in house, so quality upscaling of these is of importance. I don't plan to replace them with Blu-Ray double dips.

It seems to me the PS3 is the best choice for me, regardless of price. Does anyone have a different opinion?

[jedisinclair]

I've used a few models of Blu-ray players (Samsung BDP-1000, Sony BDP-S1, BDP-S300) and they are all nice ... no complaints really. But the PS3 just has so much going for it. Even if you're not a gamer, it is by far the quickest loading player for Blu-ray, has ethernet for quick and painless firmware upgrades, is aesthetically appealing (much nicer to look at than the Xbox) and it's only going to get better and better with Sony's support and attention of it (it improves with every firmware update). If you really have to have a standalone player and you can wait a few months, I think player prices are going to continue to drop before X-mas. But, if you "gotta have it now", PS3 is an EXCELLENT choice! Good luck.

[Rup_Muk]

Originally Posted by Deane Johnson

So long as we're on this subject, let me ask a couple of additional questions.

I will use my player to feed a Panasonic AE900U 720P native projector. My receiver has coaxial input for the audio, but no individual audio channels and certainly not HDMI. I have no need to route video through my receiver as I dedicate my player to the projector and use no other sources for video material. I won't ever use if for games. In other words, my setup is dedicated to a front projection theater that shows only movies, no other usage.

I have over 1700 DVD titles in house, so quality upscaling of these is of importance. I don't plan to replace them with Blu-Ray double dips.

It seems to me the PS3 is the best choice for me, regardless of price. Does anyone have a different opinion?

Deane,
AFAIK, the PS3 upconverts only through HDMI. If this is the case (and I'm sure I'll be corrected if this isn't so), the only way PS3 will be useful in the scenario you describe is if you can connect the HDMI output of the PS3 directly to your projector's HDMI.

Rup.

[bluflu]

PS3 $499.
http://www.gamestop.com/productmerch.asp?groupid=635

BD-P1000 $399.
http://www.tvsdepot.com/product_118558_Samsung.html

BDP-S300 $435.
http://www.techdepot.com/product.asp...affid=10000485

[richteer]

Originally Posted by jns2001

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum and I was inclined to purchase a Toshiba HD-DVD A2 due to its pricing. But after reading your forum I am more inclined to purchase a BR player since more studios support this format and it seems that everybody that watches it seems to like.

Welcome from a fellow newbie! I have no hi def player at the moment (but rest assured that when I do get one, it'll be a Blu-ray player, no doubt), so hopefully my advice will be seen as very objective.

Personally, I think that anyone who buys an HD DVD player now is just wasting money. Yeah, the A2 may be a bit cheaper at the moment, but all that cash will be wasted when HD DVD finally goes the way of the dodo (sooner rather than later, hopefully) and you finally have to buy a BD player anyway. HD DVD just doesn't have the CE and studio support to make it a viable proposition.

From what I've read here, Sony's BD-S300 (I hope I got the nomenclature correct!) currently seems to be the best value player, if your budget or fan noise tolerance rules out the PS3.

[clyon]

Panasonic DMP-BD10A MSRP $599 + comes free with 5 bd movies:
Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest, Transporter and Fantastic 4 & Crash.

I pre ordered mine for $574 & free 3day shipping & no sales tax

[Jodi]

I now own Sony's BDP-S300 Blu-Ray player (my very first "active use" Blu-Ray player, though I also have a PS3), and I think the S300 is a spectacular player!
I have yet to sit down and watch some BDs and some up-converted standard DVDs on the S300, but I can say that the BD performance with "Ice Age: The Meltdown" and "Aeon Flux" are superlative......and I am only running the S300 on 720p! And the DTS sound on these are stunning! I have also spent a bit more time with a standard DVD on this player: "Contact", which is a good reference-quality standard DVD. "Contact" has a much more "tangible" look to it, and the overall presentation closes in on true film-like quality. Even the Dolby Digital sound (I'm not nuts about Dolby anything) sounded very decent through the S300.
I own Sony's excellent BRAVIA KDL-V32XBR2 (32" LCD) with native resolution at 720p max. The S300 is going to be my first "get my feet wet" experiences with Blu-Ray, and I think I am going to enjoy this player for a few years to come -- until companies like Arcam come out with their first Blu-Ray player (which will not happen for at least two years). In the mean time, I will purchase a better power cord for the S300...a better HDMI cable (for video only) for the S300...a better digital audio COAX cable for the S300...and an even better power conditioner for my entire system. Translation: the BDP-S300 is going to look and sound better and better with time and with more breaking in of the S300's electronics.
I can recommend the S300 without reservation, and I'll be more than happy to give you all a more detailed review of the S300 after I get to spend more time with it. Stay tuned.

Jodi

[jns2001]

Another question, my receiver has 2 HDMI inputs and one output, I use one for the upconverter DVD and the other one is empty, question is:

I don't believe that my receiver has the capability to decode the DD HD, or the DTS HD, and my question is, does the PS3 decodes it and delivers it to the receiver on an understandable format that is lossless, or does it convert to some protocol not as good as the original tracks? I have read a bit about it, but I did not understood very well.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by jns2001

Another question, my receiver has 2 HDMI inputs and one output, I use one for the upconverter DVD and the other one is empty, question is:

I don't believe that my receiver has the capability to decode the DD HD, or the DTS HD, and my question is, does the PS3 decodes it and delivers it to the receiver on an understandable format that is lossless, or does it convert to some protocol not as good as the original tracks? I have read a bit about it, but I did not understood very well.

The PS3 decodes Dolby TrueHD out of the box (you need to connect it to the receiver via HDMI) but not DTS HD or DTS HDMA.


fuad

[shadowmoon]

I have a PS3 for my family room with my AVR and HDTV, I also got a 40" Sony XBR3 LCD in the bedroom and Im gonna pick up another PS3 for the bedroom just for BD player

[cawgijoe]

I have the PS3 and can heartily recommend it. It's been wonderful since I got it for my b-day in April.

I'm thinking about buying another BD player for the bedroom, but am holding off to see what happens price and player-wise around Christmas time.

i don't think you can go wrong with either the PS3 or BD-S300.....the PS3 has "more bang for the buck", but it all depends what you are looking for.

[bluraydog]

i have the ps3 and have to say that it is awsome. best buy ive made yet.

[jns2001]

I just won a brand new PS3 on eBay for 526 dollars plus 27.50 for shipping, I believe I have saved 96 dollars. Now let's see if it shows up.

I still have questions on whether this will be the winning format due to its prices, but in light of the multimedia platform, able to read e-mails, upconvert DVD's and the relative low price of HD-DVD, I still can spare another 200 bucks in 6 -12 months if this format does not take off.

Thank y'all for putting me into the right direction.

[jermwhl]

It's pretty unanimous on this site for the PS3. A few other standalones, but most of us have a PS3. Its a machine you will not regret owning.