Panasonic vs Samsung vs Sony

[Hawkeye379]

Ok, so it seems like Panasonic or Sony is the way to go. Although the Samsung BD-C5500 is supposed to lightning fast. That is tempting.

In regards to the Sony BDP-S570, not one store around me has that model, and it is a 3D player, which I don't need any time soon. There is the Sony S370 which is available around here, but is $50 more than the Samsung or Panasonic.

I've never owned a Panasonic blu-ray player or Samsung blu-ray player either. The Panny seems to be a great player, and reports are that is has quick load times. The Samsung is supposed to be a great player with lightning fast speeds, which I would love to have. Can anyone with Samsung blu-ray player comment on the playback of Avatar? AFAIK it will play flawlessly on Sammy players since the firmware upgrade.

I can say that my Sony S350 is great but can be fairly slow on some discs. It also doesn't decode DTS-HD Master Audio, but that doesn't matter since my receiver decodes all the lossless codecs.

Argh, this is like choosing a new TV.