Panasonic DMP-BD30, or PS3?

[AOD]

Originally Posted by Nailhead

A bulky and ugly BluRay player

But I am still leaning towards the PS3 simply because the panny is a little banged up from being a display unit, and it might not come with a remote. I think I will head down and see if my pretty boy looks can convince them to cut the price down some, $400 seems a bit high for a slightly scuffed up player, especially if it doesn't even come with the original remote. I just wanted some advice as to how the two compare strictly as BluRay players, so thanks that was some good advice!

There's a Best Buy 10% off coupon floating around that would bring a new BD30 within $50 of the display one you are looking at.

[Nailhead]

Originally Posted by greddy1

There's a Best Buy 10% off coupon floating around that would bring a new BD30 within $50 of the display one you are looking at.

Thanks for the tip, but even if I could find the coupon it's not giving much of a savings making the player worth it to me. Yea $50 off is nice, but it's still $50 more than I want to pay. I really don't even want to pay $400, so I'm probably just going to wait and see if BestBuy will drop the price on this used player. It wouldn't kill me if someone else bought it, but if I can get it for $300 that'd be pretty sweet, so I'll play the waiting game.

Now if I could use that coupon on this open box player, awesome, but I doubt it. Still though, I'd be interested in reading the details behind that coupon if anyone knows about it.

[chasarms]

If you are willing to wait, I would speculate that you will be able to buy a NIB BD-30 for $400 or perhaps less as soon as the BD-50 hits the market.

I am not familiar with the PS3. I know there are many who love them. But, I do own the Panasnic, and I am very pleased with it.

The big benefit of the standalone IMO is the analog outs. With these, even though you can't decode TrueHD and DTS HD MA, you can enjoy the BDs that feature lossless PCM by analog output to a receiver with no HDMI input. (although most new receivers will have HDMI)

One thing I think I would not like about the PS3 is that it doesn't use a standed IR remote.

[tennisman20042]

You can also wait for the BD-50, which is released on May 1 (it looks exactly like the BD-30). Like you, I am not crazy about the BD-Live features but the BD-50 can bitstream and internally decode Dolby True HD and DTS HD MA.