DVD Upconversion PS3 vs. Panny BD30?

[BD_Newbie]

I went into Best Buy to get the Panny BD30 because I felt like a standalone player was the way to go for me. They were sold out, so I opted for the cheaper player - the PS3. I have 30 days to try it out and bring it back if I don't like it... I'm a little irked about the lack of IR (won't work with the Harmony) and some other quirks like not upconverting SD "bonus features."

But those are minor issues in the grand scheme of things and firmware updates could fix many of them.

I know that 90% of you will say the PS3 is the superior Blu-ray player, but how does it specifically compare with standard DVD upconversion to the BD30?

I have a fairly modest DVD collection that won't be getting replaced with Blu-ray completely any time soon. I want to make sure I'm not getting short changed with the PS3 in that department.

Any experience with both of these players would be great to hear!

BTW - I am waiting on my Amazon shipment of my first Blu-ray movies and my HDMI cables from monoprice.com. I took advantage of the Buy 2, get 1 free offer. I'm really excited to see Blade Runner in 1080p!

[jingoboy_78]

Hi,

I just got a BD30 a few months ago and my first DVD was P2 which I played it last week.It looked pretty good to me..I don't know about PS3 as I haven't used it.I would say its(PS3) the best bang for the buck.. But personally I like a stand alone and I am not much into games.If you are looking for a stand alone I would get the BD30.It looks like its doing a good job... good luck

P.S : If you are getting the BD 30 you will need a high end receiver as it will only only bitstream the high resolution audio fprmats(DTS-HDMA. Dolby trueHD...).But PS3 decodes all the HD audio internally so that you will need just a receiver which is capable of doing a multichannel

Hope it helps!

[BD_Newbie]

jingo -

thanks for the input. I'd be willing to put in the extra cash to upgrade my receiver to handle the HD audio via bitstream if I knew that the BD30 was far superior in it's upconversion of SD DVDs.

Can anyone vouch for the PS3's upconversion? Does it upconvert at all?

[Truckondo]

if you want your Harmony to work, get the ir2bt. It converts IR to Sony's Bluetooth Remote codes. I have one and it rocks. ir2bt.com for more info. They are sold out at the moment but the site says more will produced.

[BD_Newbie]

Originally Posted by Truckondo

if you want your Harmony to work, get the ir2bt. It converts IR to Sony's Bluetooth Remote codes. I have one and it rocks. ir2bt.com for more info. They are sold out at the moment but the site says more will produced.

Thanks for showing me that! It's a little pricey, but that means I can return the BT remote and use the PS3 controller until I can get my hands on the ir2bt.

That's one major issue resolved with the PS3.

Do you have any opinions on it's upconverting of regular DVDs?

[jeffcapfiat]

I watch upconverted dvds on my PS3 and I think it looks pretty good. I don't have the bd30 so I can't compare.

[jingoboy_78]

Originally Posted by BD_Newbie

jingo -

thanks for the input. I'd be willing to put in the extra cash to upgrade my receiver to handle the HD audio via bitstream if I knew that the BD30 was far superior in it's upconversion of SD DVDs.

Can anyone vouch for the PS3's upconversion? Does it upconvert at all?

No problem..I think it matters with the TV screen size too.My TV is 40"..So I cant feel much of a difference. I guess the bigger the screen size , the lesser is the clarity of the upconverted DVDs..Not sure..Somebody correct me if I am wrong.Any 50, 60,70 inchers out there ?? lol

[Entertainment72]

Originally Posted by BD_Newbie

Can anyone vouch for the PS3's upconversion? Does it upconvert at all?

The PS3 does a great job and upconverting SD-DVD's.. most at the AVS forums thinks it does a better job than the BD-30.

[theater-one]

I have had the bd30 for awhile now and the upconversion looks better than the ps3 that my friend has connected. we both have 110'' screens with panny projectors. so i may be a little biased with panny.

[BD_Newbie]

Originally Posted by jingoboy_78

No problem..I think it matters with the TV screen size too.My TV is 40"..So I cant feel much of a difference. I guess the bigger the screen size , the lesser is the clarity of the upconverted DVDs..Not sure..Somebody correct me if I am wrong.Any 50, 60,70 inchers out there ?? lol

Mine is a 40" too. I'm not looking for anything spectacular, so it's good to hear that you don't see much of a difference.

[coolmilo]

I have a BD30 and have never used a PS3. However, at the moment I think the PS3 is a better all around blu-ray player (performance and value). It has all the features (BD Live, support for all lossless codecs, etc.) and it plays games.

The problem I have with the BD30 is it seems to have continuous issues with new movies. There are audio drops with Walk Hard, Enchanted, plus others and we had an LFE bug a month ago (which is finally fixed). It seems like one thing is fixed on this player and 3 more things pop up. If Panasonic would keep up with fixing bugs I would be a much happier customer. But as of now I have become a very unhappy BD-30 owner.

Otherwise the BD30 is a nice player.

Personally I am waiting for Sony's 550 coming out later this summer.

[Entertainment72]

Helpful links

hmmm

[BD_Newbie]

Originally Posted by Entertainment72

The PS3 does a great job and upconverting SD-DVD's.. most at the AVS forums thinks it does a better job than the BD-30.

Great to hear that. I'd be happy with equal or just about as good as the BD30. To hear that some people actually perfer it is comforting.

theater-one seems to disagree, but the 110" screen makes it hard for me to directly compare to my setup. I am guessing I wouldn't see the difference between the two on my 40" Samsung.

[jingoboy_78]

Originally Posted by coolmilo

I have a BD30 and have never used a PS3. However, at the moment I think the PS3 is a better all around blu-ray player (performance and value). It has all the features (BD Live, support for all lossless codecs, etc.) and it plays games.

The problem I have with the BD30 is it seems to have continuous issues with new movies. There are audio drops with Walk Hard, Enchanted, plus others and we had an LFE bug a month ago (which is finally fixed). It seems like one thing is fixed on this player and 3 more things pop up. If Panasonic would keep up with fixing bugs I would be a much happier customer. But as of now I have become a very unhappy BD-30 owner.

Otherwise the BD30 is a nice player.

Personally I am waiting for Sony's 550 coming out later this summer.

What about BD50?it will be out later this summer I guess.. its a full profile BD player..Lol may its just because its panasonic??

[BD_Newbie]

Originally Posted by Entertainment72

Helpful links

hmmm

Extremely helpful, thanks! Looks like I made the right call. I'm starting to agree with the majority (especially after the 4/15 firmware update) the PS3 looks like the best all-around Blu-ray player on the market right now.

The BD50 will be awesome, but as far as I could find, there was uncertainty on the time frame and price. I needed to set up a new home theater this month and I wanted Blu-ray. If the BD50 lives up to its hype, I'll pick one up around Christmas time on sale and test it out.

[coolmilo]

Originally Posted by jingoboy_78

What about BD50?it will be out later this summer I guess.. its a full profile BD player..Lol may its just because its panasonic??

I think the BD-50 will be a BD-30 with BD live added. I am switching back to Sony because Samsung players also have tons of issues. It seems that the most stable Blu-ray player at the moment is the PS3.

As for upconversion, I believe the PS3 and BD-30 are about the same and neither has a great reputation for upconverting SD DVD's. But I have no complaints with the BD-30 for upconverting SD DVD's. It's the other issues that is ruining my home theater experience.

[Chocolatejas]

Originally Posted by Truckondo

if you want your Harmony to work, get the ir2bt. It converts IR to Sony's Bluetooth Remote codes. I have one and it rocks. ir2bt.com for more info. They are sold out at the moment but the site says more will produced.

Pick up a Nyko Bluwave as a cheaper option. Just plug in the receiver. Does that same thing.

[BD_Newbie]

Originally Posted by Chocolatejas

Pick up a Nyko Bluwave as a cheaper option. Just plug in the receiver. Does that same thing.

Thanks, I saw that on Best Buy's website and I was wondering if it would work with the Harmony remote. After reading reviews at Amazon, it looks like that might be a much cheaper solution. Now I just have to decide if I want to pay a $35 premium to have an IR receiver that doesn't take up a USB port on the front...

I'm guessing that I'll be able to live with 1 USB port in the front...

[Blu Falcon]

Originally Posted by Chocolatejas

Pick up a Nyko Bluwave as a cheaper option. Just plug in the receiver. Does that same thing.

+1

That's what I'm using with the Harmony One and it works great.

[chasarms]

I have the BD30 and I am beginning to realize that the quality of the upconversion has as much to do with the source disc as it does the player. I can't pretend to understand why, but some discs look really bad, almost as bad as SD TV, while others look VERY good. Most are somewhere in the middle.

I dropped my premiums from DirecTV and have been watching a lot more discs from Netflix, BD if available but, not all films are. The PQ is all over the place.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy looks so good, you might be convinced you are watching True HD. In fact, it was on TBS HD a couple of weeks ago and it looked no better than the upconverted DVD. The sound was worse than the DVD.

I watched my DVD copy of Forest Gump not too long ago and it was pretty poor PQ, which leads my to say:

"DVD upconverstion is like a box of chocolates . . . "