Audio: Better on low end BD or high end DVD?

[blademan88]

Hi all,
I'm looking for a temporary product to watch movies on with my surround sound. I plan to ultimately upgrade to a high end blu ray player in the summer once more products come out, but in the meantime I want something that particularly focuses on audio. Would I be better off going with a specialized high end 300-400 DVD player from Denon, or getting a very cheap blu ray player such as a PS3? Tips and advice are appreciate :help:

Thanks

[kingofgrills]

Hands down pick up an 80 gig PS3. If you're concerned with audio, you'll find the PS3 does an outstanding job upsampling the sound from standard DVDs and CDs. The 80 gig model also offers Super Audio CD playback, which none of the other Blu-ray players does. The PS3's SACD playback is fantastic - both with 2 channel analog output and 5.1 over HDMI.

I wouldn't call the PS3 a low end Blu-ray player. It's a heavily subsidized Blu-ray player with a Cell processor, built-in hard drive, and internet connectivity. It also acts as a PC media streamer for HD videos, audio tracks, and photos. The PS3 will remain the most up-to-date Blu-ray player you can get for years to come due to firmware upgrades. The PS3 is also the first Blu-ray player to offer BD Live 2.0, as of this week.

You'd be shooting yourself in the foot to spend more money on a standalone player. Denon offers the DVD-2500BTCI for $999 and the DVD-3800BDCI for $1,999, which will be good machines, but they don't have BD Live, SACD playback (surprising for Denon), or any of the other great features found on PS3.

[Danger Duck]

PS3, you can get the 40 gig fairly cheap these days. I believe it does the Super Audio CD playback as well.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Danger Duck

PS3, you can get the 40 gig fairly cheap these days. I believe it does the Super Audio CD playback as well.

Nope, the 40GB dropped SACD support.

[blademan88]

Aside from SACD, does the 80gig have any advantages over the 40gig? Also, King, how did you give your Harmony PS3 support?

[Thegide]

See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3#Hardware

There are several differences between the 40GB model and the 80GB model, ultimately accounting for the $100 price differential between the two systems.

The 40GB is the latest model and was stripped of some "extras" to reduce manufacturing costs and help the console be more competitive with the xbox360. It also runs cooler than its 80gb counterpart.

I would go for the 80 though, even if just for the extra USB slots and the card readers. Really appreciate them on my 60gb. Also, if you are a gamer, know the 40gb is not backwards compatible with PS2 games.

[Blu Haze]

Umm high end DVD :LOST: Go Getta a PS3!

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by blademan88

Aside from SACD, does the 80gig have any advantages over the 40gig? Also, King, how did you give your Harmony PS3 support?

Enabling PS3 support for PS3s is very easy. The NYKO Blu Wave remote, uses I/R and not Bluetooth, so it comes with a USB remote port. Coincidentally, Harmony remotes can access the PS3 via the I/R port. There's a little setup that needs to be done first, so here's what to do.

First, you need to have an I/R remote USB dongle. Buy this one:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=7790592

Second, connect your Harmony remote to your PC and enable the configuration management program. Set up PS3 to be the designated player for movie playback (I also set mine for music playback for SACDs and CDs). Although Harmony remotes don't normally control PS3's due to Bluetooth incompatibility, Logitech programmed in PS3 buttons and functions in order to control the PS3. I don't know if this was done anticipating release of an I/R dongle of their own, but it hasn't come yet. It probably won't be cheaper than the $17 price for the NYKO Blu Wave remote/dongle combo.

One you have the PS3 set as your player for movie viewing, the next step before completion is triggering the learn a command feature. In order for the Harmony remote to interface correctly with the NYKO USB I/R dongle, it will need to learn all of the NYKO remote's commands. For this you'll need to have the NYKO remote handy and loaded with batteries.

Once you enable the learning feature in the configuration program, you can easily walk it through each command. When prompted, point the NYKO remote directly at the I/R window in the bottom of the Harmony remote, and press the designated command. For example, Circle, square, triangle, and X will all correspond from the face of the NYKO controller to the LCD designated slot (on the 880 and 890 anyway) of the Harmony remote. Once you've finished with all the primary buttons, there will be a list of secondary buttons you need to map over.

Once it is all programmed, give it a test run. Some possible issues that have been reported include lag time and double entries (left, left instead of just a single left, etc.) If you encounter these issues simply hook your Harmony back to the configuration program. There's a section where you can adjust the lag time and frequency of command excecutions to adjust what it learned from the NYKO remote.

If you've programmed it correctly, everything will be supported except for the PS button functions, meaning you'll need to turn it on manually. I don't miss that feature at all. I'm making this sound a lot more complicated than it is actually. From start to finish the whole process took me less than 10 minutes to get the Harmony working perfectly. It's well worth the effort, because it truly brought me back to having a 1 remote solution that is really simple to use. Plus, I can see what I'm doing when viewing movies in the dark. It's well worth it!

This info should be stickied somewhere...

[Musashi]

Get the Blu-ray player now. That way when you get a high end player, you'll already have a good selection of hi-definition movies.

[theknub]

the audio on blu-ray trumps DVD. even on "low end" dd tracks, they are encoded at 1.5 mbps while on dvd they are at something like 780 (iirc).

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by blademan88

Hi all,
I'm looking for a temporary product to watch movies on with my surround sound. I plan to ultimately upgrade to a high end blu ray player in the summer once more products come out, but in the meantime I want something that particularly focuses on audio. Would I be better off going with a specialized high end 300-400 DVD player from Denon, or getting a very cheap blu ray player such as a PS3? Tips and advice are appreciate :help:

Thanks

Way better off with a blu-ray player. There will be little gains in a high end dvd player from a sound perspective. There are large gains with a blu-ray player via the lossless tracks.

Even a very cheap blu-ray player is going to sound great as you will be getting at minimum 16/48 for any lossless tracks with many of the newer titles being 24/48 and specialty (concerts, etc) 24/96. This will completely eclipse standard DD or DTS on DVD.

As always...sound is going to be dictated by other equipment in your audio chain and your room. If your equipment can handle PCM over HDMI your all set for HD audio, if not, and you plan on using optical, keep in mind that HD audio will only be 2 channel.

[guitarist155]

i say get a ps3 you won't regret it

just a note on the ps3 and harmony check out this guy he sells sweet one that won't stick way out on the front of your ps3 like the dongle and he has one that has the remote turn on and off http://www.schmartz.com/main.sc

[lgans316]

PS3 sucks when your the Blu-ray has advanced audio formats and your receiver supports only TOSLINK connections.

The PS3 doesn't convert DTHD / LPCM audio to DTS or DD at a healthy bit rate.
It only bitstreams as DD @ either 448 Kbps or 640 Kbps. This can be highly frustrating over a long run when plain DD tracks and downgraded lossless audio almost sound the same.

Resident Evil : Extinction Dolby True HD track is bitstreamed via TOSLINK @448 Kbps and not even 640 Kbps.

300 : Dolby True HD is bitstreamed via TOSLINK @640Kbps.

At this stage I would wait for standalone Profile 2.0 players that will have more balanced audio support.

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by lgans316

PS3 sucks when your the Blu-ray has advanced audio formats and your receiver supports only TOSLINK connections.

That's because TOSLINK sucks - it's not the PS3's fault that TOSLINK does not have the bandwidth to support the HD codecs....

[guitarist155]

Originally Posted by MatrixS2000

That's because TOSLINK sucks - it's not the PS3's fault that TOSLINK does not have the bandwidth to support the HD codecs....

i agree, i have never seen a player that could send it over toslink

the only thing the ps3 should have had was a breakout cable for analog 5.1/7.1
but in the long run this won't matter