Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater I need advice on blu-ray players

I want to first, thank you all for helping me pick out my speakers.M60,and 2-600 subs.VP150,QS8 .Now I need some help on blu-ray players.The main thing is that not to have trouble reading some burn movies.90% percent of the time,my movies won't be blu-rays,but I think down the road for gifts,I'll be getting blu-rays,but not to replace my old movies.Some people told me to stay with Sony bdps350,some say go with samsung bd-p2500.THX

If you're not in a big hurry, I'd wait and see how Oppo's new BR player shakes out. It will not be available for a couple months yet.

I do not have any first hand experience with the players you note. I have a Panasonic BD 30 and it has worked very well. On that basis, I'd say look at the newer versions, BD 35 and BD 55. Depending on your receiver's capabilities, you may need a player that decoded the formats or not. Another player that is getting a lot of praise is the new Pioneer. It is apparently the only player to output a 10 bit video stream. I have not looked into it with much energy, yet...

Go for the new Denon that was mentioned in one of the other threads, it will decode any disc out there for a mere $3800.

I'm always a big supporter of the PS3. It's served all my needs, looks, sounds great, updates keep it current. But the panasonic BD 35 is getting great reviews

I watched a standard-Def DVD of Elf last night on my Pannie BD-35 and I have to say I think it was the best looking upscaling I've seen in my setup. I have an Oppo 981 and Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player that I have been using before this Pannie.

It's tough for me to say without A/Bing, but while I was watching the movie I found myself thinking that there's no big reason to buy Blu-Ray over standard def DVDs unless it's a real epic or blockbuster!

The sad/funny thing is, I haven't set up the Panny at ALL yet... haven't even gone into the menu once because I was waiting to set up the new receiver and re-do my whole rack. It's probably upsampling to 1080P by default and my TV is only 720P... I have no idea!

Dang, you have to get a new TV, too?

First thing's first. Which receiver do you have? Does it decode all HD audio codecs? DTS-Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD etc?

Sssshhh... I can't hit Joyce with that too soon after the receiver!

Enjoying BD movies with my Sony S550 and XBR6.

The 350 is the same except no analog outs. S/B just as nice.

I just posted this on another thread, but since I don't know how to hyperlink to it, I'll just take up a few more bits on the server and repeat my best-blu-ray advice:

“Which is the best blu-ray player out there right now other than PS3(Up converting is critical to me!)”

It case it helps, know that the PS3 actually does upconvert, and it does a very fine job at it. I hate Sony, but I must admit that as an adult, this "gaming" system is damned impressive. It upconverts my old DVDs to near-BR quality on a 720p TV. It wirelessly connects to my home network and lets me play all music, pictures and videos on my TV, without the wires or complex networking. And it is stellar at Picture Quality (PQ) and Sound Quality (SQ). The PQ and SQ issue was paramount for me, as my gaming days are mostly behind me. Playing concert BR's, like Dave Mathews (just for example) is an incredible experience on both fronts. Movies are as good as it gets, as I even the Megaplex near my home does not give the PQ or SQ I have at home. But don't trust me on that, read the reviews, the PS3 is one of the best out there. My Denon 3300 can't tap the super-high fidelity audio options, but from the many reviews I have read, those are well worth the investment.

Finally, I have to give Sony public praise for keeping the PS3 updated on a monthly (or more) basis. When I got mine, it could not upconvert. Then, like magic, I new update fixed that. Every problem you notice, just goes away if you wait a few weeks. (Now, they took away SACD playback on the new machines, but so be aware of that, but the old models still have it.) They have made it future proof (up to the point the PS4 comes out, anyway) by packing enough processing in to do anything and constantly updating the soft and firmware to meet all new features. It is, in my humble anit-Sony opinion, a watershed product that will change the way the AV industry works. For the money, it is the best product I have owned in the AV market, followed by my Denon AVR. (I hate to admit that, but on the other hand the new Sony portable DVD player I bought my kid died after about 3 months, so I still hate Sony!)

Oh, and the games are pretty freaking impressive too, even if you just rent one every now and then to show off the surround sound and HD of some of the games; it is a nice addition to a fine BR player.