Sharp (BD-HP20U) or Panny DMP 30

[Jr Flyers]

WHich would you recommend Sharp BD-HP20U $399 or Panny DMPBD30 $548.

Want the better player in this price range.

Is their something else in the 5 to $600 range you would recommend.

I already have a PS3 but need another.

Thanks

[Blu As Hell]

Originally Posted by Jr Flyers

WHich would you recommend Sharp BD-HP20U $399 or Panny DMPBD30 $548.

Want the better player in this price range.

Is their something else in the 5 to $600 range you would recommend.

I already have a PS3 but need another.

Thanks

Between those two The Panny mos def!!!!

[hc666]

I read nothing but bad things about that Sharp player... stay clear.

[Alaskankaijudude]

Panny. Have had mine for two months now, no firmware upgrades, no issues, love it.

[hc666]

Originally Posted by Alaskankaijudude

Panny. Have had mine for two months now, no firmware upgrades, no issues, love it.

Ditto. Best stand alone out there so far!

[gearyt]

Panny... Panny... Panny !!

[ILOVEBLU!]

go with the panasonic you wont be dissapointed it can do picture in picture and the sharp cant also supports new audio codecs

[yngdiego]

Originally Posted by Jr Flyers

WHich would you recommend Sharp BD-HP20U $399 or Panny DMPBD30 $548.

Want the better player in this price range.

Is their something else in the 5 to $600 range you would recommend.

I already have a PS3 but need another.

Thanks

You can get the BD30 for about $100 less if you shop around.

[Zten]

Originally Posted by Jr Flyers

WHich would you recommend Sharp BD-HP20U $399 or Panny DMPBD30 $548.

Want the better player in this price range.

Is their something else in the 5 to $600 range you would recommend.

I already have a PS3 but need another.

Thanks

I have the Sharp BD-HP20U. I got it for free with the Sharp TV I bought last month. I have watched a few Blue Ray movies and it seems to work quite well and I cannot see flaws in the picture or hear flaws in the audio.

I have had a strange thing happen twice where the player suddenly gets VERY SLOW and gets stalled out when playing discs. Doing a reset on the box (pressing and holding the power button for 10 seconds) has fixed it both times). I did some research and think ESD (electro static discharge) might be the cause. It is quite dry in my house and ESD is much more common in the winter because of this, so it is possible. If anyone knows more about this issue, I'd appreciate responses.

[DisneyKrayzie]

you can get the Sharp at Amazon for $349 now

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B000W8SSXQ

[Zten]

I did the latest firmware upgrade a week ago on the BD-HP20U and have not see this problem anymore, so maybe they did something in SW to fix it.

I am very happy with this Sharp player except for ONE thing. And its kinda a pet peeve of mine, as I remember the first DVD player I bought also did the same thing. When you stop the disc during playback, it will NOT resume where you left off when you hit play again. This is really a pain in the butt becuase with a wife and two kids, it can be a pretty rare occasion when I can watch a 2 hour movie in one sitting. The pause button works for this, but who would put thier player on pause for 10 hours and then come back to resume a movie? My 9 year old Sony DVD player did the same thing, but then a Sony player I bought back about 4 years ago did not. I can't believe this Sharp BD player behaves like my 9 year old DVD player... It should be VERY simple for them to do, perhaps they could even do it in a firmware upgrade. All they need to do is store the disc details and playback status before shutting down, then offer the movie to resume from the last stopping point when turned back on. I'm sure the Sharp has the non volatile memory available to do this.

[petedogg50]

I got my Panasonic BDP-30K for $399 and no tax or shipping from buydigi.com.

[jling71]

the panny.

[arush5268d]

Without a doubt, get the Panny. I love mine.

[Neo65]

Does the BD-HP20U support DTS-HDMA and DTHD audio streaming to HDMI?
Does the DMP30 support that?

[Zten]

I do not know if it supports DTS. I have used it two ways since purchasing it:

1) Dolby Digital 5.1 SPDIF into my A/V reciever and
2) 5.1 analog into my A/V reciever.

[chromemag]

I have gone through two of these and am on my 3rd one now. Sharp has hardware and firmware problems with these players. I have BD's that will play fine on my PS3 but the Sharp player just says they are incompatible disks. It locks frequently, it is very slow to load....even standard Dvd's take longer than they should. I am very dissapointed in this player for these reasons. Hopefully Sharps new model will not have these problems but I doubt it. I have been trying since last November to get these issues resolved to no avail.....its a good thing I bought an extended warranty! 3 Players and counting! BTW, sharps firmware upgrades are very slow in coming and this last one actually caused some of my BD's to not play that used to in this player!

[Zten]

Ouch. Since you're on your third one that for sure is not good. I guess I may have gotten really lucky. On the slowness you mention, have you tried doing a "system reset"? you do this by holding down the power button on the machine for 10 seconds. I saw the slowness suddenly appear twice and it was fixed twice by this system reset. I think the Sharp may suffer from ESD intolerance. It was really cold and extremely dry in my house in January and there was noticable ESD events happening (the kids were zapping each other!) when I saw this issue but I have not seen it in Feb after the temps have warmed up a little bit. I have played 6 or 7 BDs with no issue and have played a few DVDs with no issue.

[CDN Mike]

Like Zten, we too have the Sharp BD-HP20U.
Our machine has played probably 20+ Blu-rays flawlessly, however having said that... the other night after purchasing a copy of "The Great Raid" an older Blu-Ray release, it stated that the disc was incompatible. I shut the machine down and repowered it, only to find it read the disc. I know Sharp Canada has a firmware update for the machine, and we have yet to do it, although we plan too (Sharp USA has updates for US models aswell).
I cannot speak to the Panasonic Blu-Ray, however our Sharp BD-HP20U has been great, except for the one incident.
I must caution you that if you are looking to align yourself with the newest HD Audio capabilities this player is limited. It is Dolby True HD capable, however the DTS capability is not DTS-HD, just "DTS Surround". I have noticed some recent flyers stating that it is DTS-HD capable, however our machine is not DTS-HD capable, maybe Sharp changed this, however I doubt it. Dependant upon your needs for audio (if your receiver supports HD Audio), the Sharp is limited, might be worth investigating your desired audio capabilites and ensure the player you purchase supports all the newer HD Audio formats.
The Sharp does provide a kicking PCM (uncompressed) signal to the receiver! All movies I have viewed using the PCM (uncompressed) were excellent (i.e. Train in 3:10 to Yuma sounded as though it was coming into the room).

You may also want to wait for the newer Sharp BD-HP50 as it will be a 1.1 version player unlike the Sharp BD-HP20U, which is 1.0 version

CDN Mike

Blu-Ray's owned: 7
HD-DVD's owned: 0
Sharp Aquos LC42D62U
Sharp Aquos BDHP20U
Yamaha RXV2700 (7.1 Receiver)
PSB Alpha & Image Speakers

[GTerepka]

Thought I'd leave everyone with something interesting on the BD-HP20U issues. I too have been struggling with the same stalling and lockups on DVD's and BD's and clicking\wavering sound quality on audio cd's from the Sharp unit. Something member ZTEN mentioned about "ESD intolerance" got me thinking. Since I can't return my unit and have done the firmware update, I thought I'd investigate my idea. Basically, isolate the player as much as possible from electical "anomolies"

What I did really seems to have changed the performance in a very positive way.
1. Plugged the BD-HP20U into it's own power strip, into a separate outlet.
2. Removed the HD cable box from on top of the player. The HD box is always very warm even when off, and it sat right on top of the player.
3. Reset player using power button.

I played various audio CD's and both BD and DVD's for four hours with perfect movie performance and only 2 or 3 instances of cd audio clicking. This is much, much better than I've seen in the three months I've owned the player. Hope this helps some of you struggling with these issues.