Best PQ?: BD35, BD60, BDS-P350 or BDS-P3 360?

[Roman5]

Out of these 4 players, which has the sharpest resolution or are they all as good as each other?

[blujacket]

I doubt you could tell a difference between them.

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by blujacket

I doubt you could tell a difference between them.

That's what someone said to me yesterday between the LG370 and the sony 360, but I could tell the difference.

[CasualKiller]

There most certainly would be differences in PQ. I think the problem is that you're not going to find anyone who has actually compared the models you listed. All you're going to do is subject yourself to more frustration due to posters like the above.

Best bet is to head out and see for yourself and pick the one you enjoy the most.

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

There most certainly would be differences in PQ. I think the problem is that you're not going to find anyone who has actually compared the models you listed. All you're going to do is subject yourself to more frustration due to posters like the above.

Best bet is to head out and see for yourself and pick the one you enjoy the most.

True. I really liked what I saw of the 360 PQ last night. I'd be happy to buy the sony 350 since it's cheaper if someone can confirm if it's the exact same bluray sharpness as the 360.

[blujacket]

All you're going to do is subject yourself to more frustration due to posters like the above.

You two must have perfect vision to see differences on a 32" tv.

[CasualKiller]

Size is not a factor in picture quality, we aren't talking about resolution here.

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by blujacket

You two must have perfect vision to see differences on a 32" tv.

Heh, I certainly don't have perfect vision, but I can pick out sharpness differences on imaging. I watch from about 6 foot away so the screen looks quite large, large enough to pick out subtle differences. Also, yesterday I watched a bluray being run through 4 different 32" TV's and there was a difference to my eyes in clarity on one of them, the sony tv.

[Roman5]

I've decided, it's going to be the BD35 based on these absolutely glowing reviews below as well as what people have said about the BD35 being slightly better than the 350. I think the £149.95 version might not be available anymore at richer sounds, it seems they now sell an MR version of it for £179. It's also got an open/close button. That's it, once I have it, it will close my search for good, I just can't see how I could be disappointed with it



Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray Player Review - Home Cinema Reviews - TrustedReviews

"But when it comes to picture quality, the DMP-BD35 is in a class of its own at this price. Connected to a Toshiba 40ZF355D and set to 1080/24p, the BD35 produces astonishingly good images, the quality of which you’d expect to see from a deck costing twice as much.

The moment we loaded up The Assassination of Jesse James… we couldn’t quite believe the depth, sharpness and vibrancy of the pictures on offer. Devilishly dark blacks give the picture a punchy, cinematic flavour – best demonstrated by Brad Pitt’s waistcoat and trousers, which look truly deep but avoid the ‘black hole’ trap thanks to the sharply resolved shadow detail within.

It resolves an incredible amount of detail elsewhere, making the movie’s captivating photography look as beautiful as the director intended. The player teases out the texture in tree bark, clothing and dusty landscapes with searing clarity, and provides a spot-on colour balance that reproduces muted, stubble-specked skin tones with a natural feel."

And another great review from a purchaser of both the 350 and BD35:

"Video for BOTH Blu-ray discs and standard DVDs: The Sony's video was ok, but the Panasonic's video was fantastic. The skin tones were more realistic and the colors were more vibrant with the Panasonic. The Sony seemed to have a thin gray film over everything -- like looking through a filmy-dirty window. The Sony had 4-star video, the Panasonic and its upscaling gets an easy 5 stars!"

And another:

'Blown away by Blu-ray'

"I tested the deck with a variety of material and was generally blown away by its performance. Blu-rays are ruthlessly revealed, with the player offering stunning detail retrieval. What's more, this BD range is the first from Panasonic to offer a high level of DVD playback. "

That's what we want, ruthlessly revealed detail! These reviews have more than convinced me. I can't wait to get my hands on this little beauty, maybe even tomorrow!

[will0775]

Exellent choice. The 35 was consired blu ray player of the year I many publications see the reviews at cnet and home theater magazine

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by will0775

Exellent choice. The 35 was consired blu ray player of the year I many publications see the reviews at cnet and home theater magazine

Yep, apparently so. Loads of awards!

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_G...322/index.html

It's a pity I hadn't researched this player from the start, could have saved myself money. Because although the shop will let me return and exchange the LG 370, they'll now probably charge me 15% of the cost of it because it's opened. On the plus side, at least now I realise how bluray players aren't all the same quality PQ. I will miss the fascia of the LG and the very clear display, definitely the best looking bluray player of all of them, no question. And fast loading.

Also, I'm hoping they still have the cheaper non MR BD35. But if they only have the MR one, then maybe they'll let me off the 15% since I'll be paying them a bit more for the MR version. They didn't make me pay the 15% when I exchanged a 19" samsung for a 32" so who knows. Regardless, I'll just be happy to have this player knowing I'm getting as good a bluray PQ as I can for a budget player. I can't sleep and it's 6.30am, I'm too excited, like a kid at xmas. I've been carefully, EXTREMELY carefully, repackaging the LG and the sony BDP-S360 to return to 2 shops tomorrow. Can't have any breakages or scratches now or I'll be stuck with them

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by Roman5

Lol, you're a bit of a twit obviously. I've already seen the difference between 2 players tested side by side last night in my house and I wasn't imagining it, believe me. It was like a veil was lifted and extra clarity came through. We're talking about subtleties here, fine detail, not glaring differences.

It could have, and in my opinion probably was, just one of the players processing the image with an after-effect of some kind or perhaps some edge enhancement. I know that my own Panasonic BD-30 has a "sharpness" setting in it that by default adds edge enhancement, as well as a myriad of other settings that change the way the picture looks in slight ways.

There should not be any noteworthy differences in the way two QUALITY players decode an encoded image. A low end player might not decode as well, but two players of similar quality value by two quality companies should look the same when judged in a non-biased way.

Pick a quality player from a quality company and you can't go wrong. Your deciding factor for choice should be things like load times and extras (like maybe Netflix streaming), NOT the anecdotal opinions of others who claim to see a difference when none should exist.

[Roman5]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

It could have, and in my opinion probably was, just one of the players processing the image with an after-effect of some kind or perhaps some edge enhancement. I know that my own Panasonic BD-30 has a "sharpness" setting in it that by default adds edge enhancement, as well as a myriad of other settings that change the way the picture looks in slight ways.

There should not be any noteworthy differences in the way two QUALITY players decode an encoded image. A low end player might not decode as well, but two players of similar quality value by two quality companies should look the same when judged in a non-biased way.

Pick a quality player from a quality company and you can't go wrong. Your deciding factor for choice should be things like load times and extras (like maybe Netflix streaming), NOT the anecdotal opinions of others who claim to see a difference when none should exist.

Well, it was my LG BD370 v sony BDS P360. The sonys image sharpness, and that really is all I'm talking about, sharpness, was more defined than the LG's. Normally I take professional reviews with a pinch of salt and What Hi-Fi's review essentially said that the LG 370 doesn't make blu ray look as good as it should and that images have softer edges and lack of definition.
Now I see exactly what they mean because that's correct to my eyes. Though the LG's PQ is very good, very nice colours etc, there is definitely something lacking in resolution. I had to turn my TV sharpness up to about 20 when using the LG to try and match the sharpness of the sony bluray player which is excellent when on 0 sharpness setting. In short, the sony 360 PQ stood out from the screen a bit more giving more of a 3 dimensional edge whereas the LG, good as it is, comes across a bit flat and uninspiring. I'm not trying to sound like some purist nerd, its just what I witnessed. I presume different brands of bluray players use different video components, some higher quality than others, much like in audio hifi with amps, speakers, etc.

[titulin]

I have both the sony 350 and the panasonic BD60.
There are connected to a 46 LCD Sharp calibrated and IMO the Panasonic has better PQ than the Sony.
I know a lot a people discuss that it`s not possible to see any difference, but in my setup I prefer the Panasonic better.

[beefytwinkie]

I have the Panasonic BD35 and I think you will not be disappointed. The only other blu-ray player I can compare it to is the Sony Playstation 3 but I have no idea which is better. They look the same to me on my Samsung LN-T4665F.

Nothing beats a PS3 in load times, though. OMG... ridiculous.

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by Roman5

True. I really liked what I saw of the 360 PQ last night. I'd be happy to buy the sony 350 since it's cheaper if someone can confirm if it's the exact same bluray sharpness as the 360.

I have owned all 4 players before settling on the S360. The PQ between these players are very, very close. It's a tossed up. But I would say the S360 has sllightly better PQ than the S350. The Panny BD35 and BD60 are identical in PQ and they are pretty much even with the S360 in PQ. The reason I decided to go with the S360 is because the controls and the menus are faster and more responsive than the Panny's. The Panny's are great features packed players with great PQ but they feel and play clunkier than the Sony's players. I the other words, the Sony operates almost like the good old DVD players and the Panny does not. Add to that that also own a Sony LCD and a Sony sound bar.

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by Roman5

I've decided, it's going to be the BD35 based on these absolutely glowing reviews below as well as what people have said about the BD35 being slightly better than the 350. I think the £149.95 version might not be available anymore at richer sounds, it seems they now sell an MR version of it for £179. It's also got an open/close button. That's it, once I have it, it will close my search for good, I just can't see how I could be disappointed with it



Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray Player Review - Home Cinema Reviews - TrustedReviews

"But when it comes to picture quality, the DMP-BD35 is in a class of its own at this price. Connected to a Toshiba 40ZF355D and set to 1080/24p, the BD35 produces astonishingly good images, the quality of which you’d expect to see from a deck costing twice as much.

The moment we loaded up The Assassination of Jesse James… we couldn’t quite believe the depth, sharpness and vibrancy of the pictures on offer. Devilishly dark blacks give the picture a punchy, cinematic flavour – best demonstrated by Brad Pitt’s waistcoat and trousers, which look truly deep but avoid the ‘black hole’ trap thanks to the sharply resolved shadow detail within.

It resolves an incredible amount of detail elsewhere, making the movie’s captivating photography look as beautiful as the director intended. The player teases out the texture in tree bark, clothing and dusty landscapes with searing clarity, and provides a spot-on colour balance that reproduces muted, stubble-specked skin tones with a natural feel."

And another great review from a purchaser of both the 350 and BD35:

"Video for BOTH Blu-ray discs and standard DVDs: The Sony's video was ok, but the Panasonic's video was fantastic. The skin tones were more realistic and the colors were more vibrant with the Panasonic. The Sony seemed to have a thin gray film over everything -- like looking through a filmy-dirty window. The Sony had 4-star video, the Panasonic and its upscaling gets an easy 5 stars!"

And another:

'Blown away by Blu-ray'

"I tested the deck with a variety of material and was generally blown away by its performance. Blu-rays are ruthlessly revealed, with the player offering stunning detail retrieval. What's more, this BD range is the first from Panasonic to offer a high level of DVD playback. "

That's what we want, ruthlessly revealed detail! These reviews have more than convinced me. I can't wait to get my hands on this little beauty, maybe even tomorrow!

If you have a large size of SD DVD's and are going to be watching them a lot, I would reconsider. The Pany BD35 had and still has an issue resuming playback on SD DVD's. So if you are watching a an SD DVD and you have to stop it because you go to bed or whatever, the next time you power the unit on, it WILL NOT pick off were you left off. It will start again from the beginning. This was one of the issues the Panny BD35 had and Panasonic has not corrected the issue yet, and at this point with their newest BD60 out ( which does resume playback), I'll doubt they will ever correct it.

[Roman5]

Thank you everyone for your comments, much appreciated.
A few replies came in after I'd already bought... the BD35
I have just got home and will be opening the box and checking it out shortly.
It's the MR version so cost a bit more (£179.95) plus I had to pay a handling charge of 10% for the LG (bah!) because it was returned opened. So effectively, this panasonic cost me £15 more, £195.

Regarding SD DVD and upscaling, really not too bothered tbh, I don't own any except chronicles of riddick and am only interested in running bluray discs. I have a few DVD RW's I recorded from tv I'll want to run.The guy in the shop reckoned the load time for the BD35 is not that fast, but I'll have to see if I find it a problem or not. I'm sure I can wait a few seconds more for it to load. Quite excited, will let you know what I think.

Originally Posted by CasualKiller

Seriously, and I don't mean this as an insult at all. Seek professional help.

+1

[phish00]

I work for Sony and from what I can tell the 350 and 360 have the same pq I am using a 350 right and love I recommend it I've seen the 360 and there's no big difference between the 2 for the cheaper price I would go with the 350 plus it's Sony.

[Roman5]

Wow, awesome player this BD35! There's a 'display' button on the remote which lets you select picture mode. I selected 'Fine' and the resolution is off the hook. Absolutely superb PQ, there is so much sharpness, clarity and fine detail it's incredible. Just what I wanted. This is at least as good as the sony 360 but I do think it's actually better too, noticeably when the fine setting is on. Details on faces in particular is truly revealing and lighting in general from scene to scene is very vibrant. Loading not as fast as the other players with a rather dull "reading.." logo instead of any fancy disc spinning animation. But it's a small sacrifice. Love this player, I can see why it got such rave reviews.