Should I get the Sony 350 player or panasonic 30k?

[JiJi]

I need an answer quickly please because I placed an order on amazon for the Panasonic DMP-BD30k player but after that I read reviews about the new Sony BDP-s350 and they have been very positive.
Can someone please tell me if I should cancel my order and get the Sony player instead?

[JasonR]

If you do cancel your order I would give the Sony at least a month to see if any problems arise.

[JiJi]

I guess I should wait then .... even though I'm looking forward to getting my first blu ray player, I want to make sure I get the best one that's currently available.
The main reason I got excited about it now is because we're moving into our new home in about 3 months and I wanted to set it up there, so I guess I should wait ...

Now let's see if they'll agree to cancel my order lol.

[Ectoplasm]

I don't buy anything these days until a product has been out a while, and without lots of input from people on sites like this. Reviews on popular sites like A___n are no longer trustworthy. My wife's former company employs the use of part timers to do nothing but write positive reviews for her company's product. It translates into sales. I have noticed that a great many high-profile sites now suffer from the same tactics. I'm not saying Sony does this, but I think you get my point.

[JiJi]

I don't know why it never crossed my mind that companies are reviewing their own products, but it makes a lot of sense.
Since we won't be moving in at least 3 months I think I should wait till then to get my player.

[bwillcox]

Originally Posted by Ectoplasm

I don't buy anything these days until a product has been out a while, and without lots of input from people on sites like this. Reviews on popular sites like A___n are no longer trustworthy. My wife's former company employs the use of part timers to do nothing but write positive reviews for her company's product. It translates into sales. I have noticed that a great many high-profile sites now suffer from the same tactics. I'm not saying Sony does this, but I think you get my point.

My way of combating this is to mostly ignore the positive reviews and focus on the negative ones to see if the problems mentioned might impact me, and to get a feel for the overall quality of the product. Of course, I wouldn't put it past companies hiring folks to write negative reviews on their competitor's products.

However, on the other hand, I have had good success returning things to amazon that I didn't like or didn't work out.

[alphadec]

I own a BDP S500 and I see no reson why I should get the new players, yes it got Profile 1.1 but to download trailers that is not enough to get me spend more ona new player when the one I got works fine.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by JiJi

I need an answer quickly please because I placed an order on amazon for the Panasonic DMP-BD30k player but after that I read reviews about the new Sony BDP-s350 and they have been very positive.
Can someone please tell me if I should cancel my order and get the Sony player instead?

Tough call, but personally, I would cancel and get the S350. If you even remotely care about BD-Live or being able to update firmware over the internet, anyway. As for waiting and seeing what problems arise with the S350, generally good advice with any product, but Sony hasn't had any dealbreaker issues arise with any of their BD players to date, so I doubt they're going to start now. Plus, they've been great with firmware updates, so even if a major issue arose, it could almost certainly be fixed.

Originally Posted by alphadec

I own a BDP S500 and I see no reson why I should get the new players, yes it got Profile 1.1 but to download trailers that is not enough to get me spend more ona new player when the one I got works fine.

Well, Profile 1.1 is BonusView (IME PiP stuff), not BD-Live (internet access to download trailers and stuff). But, yeah, if you don't care about either of those, I'd keep using the S500 (though it's not DTS HD MA capable). Its a very good all-around player, just lacking certain features you may or may not care about.

[SatinKzo]

Having owned a BD30 and loved it (like and idiot I sold it to buy a samsung 1500 even after I got burned by their 1400 after only a week of owning it) I would say you are safe with that choice as Panasonic is solid and keeps their FW up to day and actually fixes issues and acknowledges them (unlike samsung).

Having said that, the same can be said about Sony, at least the fixing stuff and keeping FW up to date. I just took my 1500 back (after 60 days or so cause it pretty much melted down) and bought a S350 and so far I have to say it is the best stand-alone I have owned. I DID want BD-live for my kids and the upcoming Disney titles so that is why I did the 1500 first, but I am glad the 1500 took a dump cause the S350 is a nice solid little BD player so far and like stated, no big issues with any Sony players have crept up. It should be a huge headline day if any samsung player model every can go 90 days without something major happening and affecting many people.

[JiJi]

Thank you so much everyone. I decided to get the S350. You guys have been great help!
I usually prefer Sony products because they're not only great in quality, but they always look great too.
I'll wait until we move and get the player, and maybe by then an even better one would be available, who knows.

[blackend]

Originally Posted by JiJi

Thank you so much everyone. I decided to get the S350. You guys have been great help!
I usually prefer Sony products because they're not only great in quality, but they always look great too.
I'll wait until we move and get the player, and maybe by then an even better one would be available, who knows.

it is good you decide to get the s350 but if you are in KSA,go to panasonic and you will find the BDP 30 REGION FREE,(A,B FOR BLU RAY) AND FREE REGION DVD for only 2000 rayal(540US),even i live in UAE the dealer her they have them BDP30 region free for 2000 dhs,right now i own PHILLIPS BDP 7200 AND PANASOINC 30k region free and tommorw i will resive the sony s350 by DHL.......so that time i will check the sony and i will tell you about it

[BTBuck1]

I've now owned 3 stand alones.

BD-p1000
BDP-s300
BD-p1400

and I just got the BDP-s350 yesterday.

SO FAR SO GOOD!

this player loads quickly (even on BDJ discs) and functions without hiccup (unlike every other player i owned).

Sure it doesn't have mulitchannel analog outs, But i no longer need that anyways with my receiver upgrade (yammy rxv663)

ps3 is still the best BD player....but i finally feel like this stand alone can measure up. And I will say this, testing Spiderman 3 with trueHD vs. PCM i always felt like the PCM sounded a tad better via ps3....however bitstreaming to my receiver from the s350, the trueHD track to my Yamaha now, it sounds WAY richer,fuller, louder etc. It gave me a nice smile to see just how good TrueHD can sound when the receiver decodes it.


I say go for it!

This is the first stand alone player IMO that functions like a product thats been around awhile, and should satisfy you quite nicely.

[SatinKzo]

Originally Posted by BTBuck1

This is the first stand alone player IMO that functions like a product thats been around awhile, and should satisfy you quite nicely.

That is a perfect way to explain this player.

[JiJi]

Originally Posted by blackend

it is good you decide to get the s350 but if you are in KSA,go to panasonic and you will find the BDP 30 REGION FREE,(A,B FOR BLU RAY) AND FREE REGION DVD for only 2000 rayal(540US),even i live in UAE the dealer her they have them BDP30 region free for 2000 dhs,right now i own PHILLIPS BDP 7200 AND PANASOINC 30k region free and tommorw i will resive the sony s350 by DHL.......so that time i will check the sony and i will tell you about it

Are you sure about that? Because I'm in Dubai right now (going back home tomorrow) and I went to the Panasonic store here and they told me that the BDP30 wasn't region free and that's why I didn't get it. But I'll ask when I get back to Riyadh.

But you know, even if I did find it, I think I'll still get the S350 based on everything I've heard so far.

Quick question though, BTBuck1 said something about needing a TV that decodes or whatever (I really don't understand all this technology talk lol) so I wanted to ask about my TV. It's a Sony Bravia but I don't know what model, will this be a good TV to watch Blu-Ray disks or will I need a better one?

[Ranger-R]

this is the next player i'll be picking up. Once it drops to 350 at best buy. Looks good currently i'm still running the ps3 and insignia blu-ray.