Which BluRay player

The Sony PS3 is a much better Blu Ray player than the $1400.00 Panasonic, or the $1000.00 Samsung, and I'm sure the Philips too..............here, read for yourself:


http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/hd-...c-players.html


Also, a fellow AVS'er posted a while back that it also holds it's own with the $1500.00 Pioneer Elite BD player, as he had both in his home.


John

PS3 won't work for him since he's looking for analog out for PCM. PS3 requires HDMI for PCM.

I have owned the PS3, S1, Samsung and "auditioned" the Panasonic. The ONLY one I have not owned or tried is the Pioneer. I would get the Pioneer if I had the cash to blow, but my fave of all the rest has been the Sony S1. Its a solid, great, glitch free player and i have owned TWO.

The PS3 was returned to Target after 45-50 days as it crapped out. Kept freezing up the last few days and running loud. Also, i found the BD playback softer than any other player. I also di not like the way it loaded the discs. A few got some little scratched on them from the PS3 slot. Also did not care to use the controller for my remote.

The S1 has sharper playback, a deeper more 3D image and has a "different" look to me over the PS3. Sure the PS3 is the best bang for the buck, but reliability goes a long way and when mine died after 45 days I decided to stick with the S1 (which I just picked up a 2nd S1 for $710 at BB, new in box)

The Sammy also has a VERY good sharp picture with the latest FW, but I had some glitches with it and I do not like glitches.

I would go with the S1 unless you have deep pockets and want to pay 2X as much for the Elite. If I had the cash I would.

My pick would go to either the Panny or the Pioneer...

I'm surprised that the PS3 Blu-Ray is able to hold it's own, let alone beat, stand-alone Blu-Ray players.

Anybody got any ideas why this is so?

Considering you're getting gaming too for the price, I would have taken 'almost as good' as more than acceptable.

I wonder what or how Sony was able to give us such good quality in the PS3 for the price. Unless they shortchanged elsewhere?

I'm thinking about getting a PS3 and it would be as much for the Blu-Ray as for games (last gaming system I bought was Turbo-Grafx from NEC back in 1991 ).

I already have HD DVD and am looking to get a BD player this year. However I don't want a PS3 and the BD players out now seem to have mixed reviews, so I'm uneasy about them. That's why I decided that I'll just pick up one of the upcoming players this year. My question is, which upcoming BD player is shaping up to be the best?

[quote=Jay7]So, based on the responses, the Pioneer is #1, but I don't really want to pay that much for a player. Therefore, it seems to leave me with the Sony or the Panasonic, everyone else dismissed the rest in one way or the other.
[quote=Jay7]

The Panasonic was posted above as being $1,400. Pretty steep if you ask me.

[quote=bmw528is][quote=Jay7]So, based on the responses, the Pioneer is #1, but I don't really want to pay that much for a player. Therefore, it seems to leave me with the Sony or the Panasonic, everyone else dismissed the rest in one way or the other.

I managed to find the Panasonic DMP-BD10 for only $1000 with shipping online, try searching for better prices. The Panasonic player has much better future audio options than the Sony, but no 1080p24 so far.

I just picked up the PS 3 on friday. It serves as a less expensive solution to a bluray player. It also has hdmi 1.3 so when you do up grade your reciever it is ready. It also decodes Dolby truhd out of the box. I found it as a good deal. I got the 20 gig one. It cost the same as my Toshiba, so I got both for the cost of one stand alone bluray player.

Care to explain how?

If you care much about audio quality, then please make sure you research into the players' advanced audio (Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD MA) decoding capabilities. The Philips and Sony S1 do neither! The Panasonic may! Good Luck!

[quote=nick2010][quote=bmw528is]
The Panny is an excellent system and not supporting 1080p24 IMO is nothing short of academic (i.e. makes no difference as the human eye will never see the difference in PQ - and I'm a Qualia 004 owner )

Do you mean Best Buy by BB? If so, I would like to check if it's in store ONLY sale as online it's showing 1K.

forget the PS3, it is not a viable solution because of the analog outs and remote

the Sony S1 is a friggin nice player, amazing build and image, I would try and get one right now if it weren't for lack of funds and no TrueHD/DTS Master or hint of such coming

I am tired of waiting on that, software is out but no player can handle it

I have my eye on a Panny when I can spare the cash as they have promised the sound formats via firmware, so right now I am without player

-Gary

Another thing about the PS3, All of you guys seem that recommend it so much in all the posts need to make sure the people are you recommending it to have a tv that will do 720p&1080i/p 720p, 720 for the games that cant scale up and 1080i/p for the movies that wont scale down. Unless someone has been following along they wont know this stuff. And if they had been following along they wouldn't be asking the question in the first place = )

Gary. what happened to your sammy?

Gary don't try the Pioneer, you will endup even more depressed.

It is the most stable player I tried. For the first time with an HD player I don't feel like I am a beta tester.

I too might be in the market for BD this year. Here's what I've surmised so far:

The PS3 might be the best value BD Player (low cost - good features) but has scaling issues and doesn't do analog out, or IR (a must have for me). The Sony is a good next choice, but doesn't do advanced audio codecs and might not in the future. The Pioneer is overpriced in my opinion and seems only to be a glorified Sony S1, so the Panny seems to be the best choice to get high-quality BD Audio and Video NOW, and possibility of not having to upgrade in the future.

Why does this have to be so hard? It seems to me that BD hardware is a step behind. Should I wait for 2nd Gen BD before getting in line? (or does someone know of an IR hack for the PS3?)

Click here to see an IR option for the PS3. I simply got the BT PS3 remote, but will probably consider this, too.

I had a bill due right now, it was either the Sammy or Toshiba to go and I picked the Sammy to sale

-Gary

can someone answer or give us a good thought to if it is possible or even suggested yet from Sony that the S1 will get DTS-Master capability ?

any word on the same thing for the Pioneer ?

-Gary

I would wait for 2nd gen BD before making the plunge unless you absolutely have to have one now.

Sony showed a couple of 2nd gen players at CES and I would guess we should see these by Fall at the latest.

Prices will also come down.

I love the look and feel of the Sony BDP-S1, but it doesn't do everything it should........patience may be the key here....

Rumors from CES are that Pioneer is developing a firmware upgrade for TrueHD. No rumors regarding DTSHD that I am aware of.

Went to BB when they had the S1 for $899 (this past weekend) - Used my 12% off coupon (rewards zone) - At 1st, it would not ring up at 12% off, but it was taking 4% off. Manager came and entered it manually. So 12% off of $899 =$791.

I went to the car, loaded the player in the trunk and realized I forgot my two free BD discs they were also offering with the S1. Customer service told me to go pick any two, and I did. He then said he did not know a way to just give them to me so he refunded me $75 on the S1 taking it down to $716. He gave me cash back and I gave it right back to him for the two movies.

I then realized, HEY! he gave me a new, cash reciept for the movies only. I went to my other BB and got a cash refund on the two movies ($75) and put the $ in the bank. I got the player for $716, not $710 so I was off by $6.

Still, $716, new in box, from a retail store is pretty good! They have it back up to $999 now.

Blu-ray discs usually have DD 5.1 (not DD+) in addition to uncompressed PCM or DTS-HD MA.

Uncompressed PCM is supposed to be equivalent to Dolby TrueHD but I have not compared them. This audio track is present on many Sony/Disney titles.
You can get this through the player's analog outputs, similar to the HD DVD player.