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OFFICIAL "HELP ME CHOOSE A PLAYER" THREAD: Can't decide? Start HERE. - Page 449

post #13441 of 15215
5/11/12 at 6:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dpippel View Post

My experience is exactly the opposite. I found the S790 to produce superior Blu-ray playback in Direct mode than the Panny DMP-BDT320, the BDT-220, and the Oppo BDP-93. Now people will say that bit-perfect video is bit-prefect video, but my eyes and brain tell me differently. I now own the S790 and none of the other above-mentioned players.

Would I get similar performance with the S390 as the S790? I have to choose a player to replace the Panny 220, which is going back. I have to have a subtitle button. However, among players that do have that feature, I want to pick the player that's right for me. I know, that's always going to be a tradeoff.
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post #13442 of 15215
5/11/12 at 8:31pm
Hi,

I just purchased a Samsung PN64D8000 plasma and am looking for a 3D player. I just want the best PQ possible with streaming capabilities. Would the Sony S590 be good for this? What exactly does the S790 do better and do I need it?

And also, would it be ok to place the 3D bluray player on top of a set top box?

Thanks in advance!
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post #13443 of 15215
5/12/12 at 6:16am
Well, having played with the BDP-S590 last night I'm not sure I'm going to keep it.

It wouldn't play back my MKV files, had a hard time with large AVI files, and generally seemed to have issues playing media files from my TVersity server. I'm going to play more with the server tomorrow to see if I can tweek it a bit, but right now those features are a big issue for me.

Also, when playing back a standard def movie over Netflix there was a drop out as well as substantial image dithering at one point. This is hard wired through a GigE switch back to my 12M UVerse connection with no other devices using the internet at the time.

I may exchange it for the Samsung BD-EM5900 and see if that works better. It means giving up SACD, but I stream content from my server more than I listen to SACD.
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post #13444 of 15215
5/12/12 at 9:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muse View Post

Would I get similar performance with the S390 as the S790? I have to choose a player to replace the Panny 220, which is going back. I have to have a subtitle button. However, among players that do have that feature, I want to pick the player that's right for me. I know, that's always going to be a tradeoff.

Not having any direct experience with the S390, I really can't say. All that I can tell you is that the S790 is an excellent player and an excellent streaming device.
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post #13445 of 15215
5/12/12 at 10:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muse View Post

Would I get similar performance with the S390 as the S790? I have to choose a player to replace the Panny 220, which is going back. I have to have a subtitle button. However, among players that do have that feature, I want to pick the player that's right for me. I know, that's always going to be a tradeoff.

Do you have a 4k HDTV to take advantage of the 4k upscaling capabilities (I doubt it)? Do you need dual HDMI outs (do you have a 3D display and a non-3D receiver)? If no to both, the S790 is overkill for you. Get the 390 (no 3D) or 590 (3D).
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post #13446 of 15215
5/12/12 at 4:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BillP View Post

Do you have a 4k HDTV to take advantage of the 4k upscaling capabilities (I doubt it)? Do you need dual HDMI outs (do you have a 3D display and a non-3D receiver)? If no to both, the S790 is overkill for you. Get the 390 (no 3D) or 590 (3D).

No 4k. Could use dual HDMI, don't necessarily need it. Does the S590 have that or just the S790? It's not worth an extra $110 to me to have that, I figure I could accomplish the same thing with an HDMI switch from Monoprice (I already have one, but would need another, they're pretty cheap). Don't have a 3D display either, I'm figuring the 390, but in no big hurry. I only have a few BDs. Hundreds of DVDs, however.
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post #13447 of 15215
5/13/12 at 6:34am
The second HDMI only carries audio. So I don't see how that would be at all useful to you. A switch won't accomplish anything either since those have only one output. For 2 fully functional outputs, you need a splitter. What exactly is your goal?
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post #13448 of 15215
5/13/12 at 7:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muse View Post

No 4k. Could use dual HDMI, don't necessarily need it. Does the S590 have that or just the S790? It's not worth an extra $110 to me to have that, I figure I could accomplish the same thing with an HDMI switch from Monoprice (I already have one, but would need another, they're pretty cheap). Don't have a 3D display either, I'm figuring the 390, but in no big hurry. I only have a few BDs. Hundreds of DVDs, however.

The 590 has only a single HDMI output. You can disable its 3D capabilities for use with 2D systems.
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post #13449 of 15215
5/13/12 at 11:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muse View Post

Could use dual HDMI, don't necessarily need it. Does the S590 have that or just the S790? It's not worth an extra $110 to me to have that.... Don't have a 3D display either

You don't need dual HDMI outs. The only need for it is if you have a 3D display and a non-3D receiver. In that case, you would need to send the 3D video directly to the 3D display, and the audio to your non-3D receiver. Since you don't even have a 3D display, you don't need dual HDMI outs (again, the 790 is overkill for you, and a total waste of money). You only need the 390, unless you may be upgrading your display in the next year or two to a 3D display, in which case get the 590.
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post #13450 of 15215
5/13/12 at 11:54am
Well, one reason for getting a 590 for 2D use is that it has a (simple) front panel display, unlike the 390, which apparently has none at all.
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post #13451 of 15215
5/13/12 at 5:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skippman View Post

Well, having played with the BDP-S590 last night I'm not sure I'm going to keep it.

It wouldn't play back my MKV files, had a hard time with large AVI files, and generally seemed to have issues playing media files from my TVersity server. I'm going to play more with the server tomorrow to see if I can tweek it a bit, but right now those features are a big issue for me.

Also, when playing back a standard def movie over Netflix there was a drop out as well as substantial image dithering at one point. This is hard wired through a GigE switch back to my 12M UVerse connection with no other devices using the internet at the time.

I may exchange it for the Samsung BD-EM5900 and see if that works better. It means giving up SACD, but I stream content from my server more than I listen to SACD.

Try serviio
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post #13452 of 15215
5/13/12 at 6:13pm
Is there a Blu-ray player that can connect to the Internet, has a web browser, and can be used with a keyboard (or has a qwerty pad on its remote)? Or are those features only found on servers?
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post #13453 of 15215
5/13/12 at 6:30pm
While most Blu-ray players seem to be based on a stripped-down version of Linux, they don't expose it to the end-user. (See the license page on Sony Blu-ray players, for example.) If you want full-function access to the Internet and the Web for your A/V system, you need to connect a computer to your receiver. Many can be purchased with HDMI designed into them (like the laptop I'm using right now, which is going through a Marantz receiver to an LCD TV), or you can build your own. See the HTPC forum for details.
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post #13454 of 15215
5/13/12 at 6:48pm
Sony players have a very basic opera browser and can use a usb keyboard. But an HTPC is best, as Selden suggested. My favorite solution, after much trial and error, is a PC and an iOS device with the Mobile Mouse wireless keyboard/mouse app.
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post #13455 of 15215
5/13/12 at 10:07pm
Hi Guys,
i have a synology NAS with both 3D and 2D blu-ray iso's ripped to it. i also have about 2tb of ripped tv series and 500gb of flac music. Is there a Blu-Ray player which will play all of these formats over a gigabit wired connection, with a decent UI? Something similar to xbmc?

If there isn't any player that does them all, the video is much more important - however it must play bd iso (or folders), and tv series in mkv format.

Any assistance is appreciated.
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post #13456 of 15215
5/14/12 at 5:43am
I've not heard of any disc player that plays iso files. Only stand alone streamers like WD and Archos can do that.
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post #13457 of 15215
5/14/12 at 6:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by apw2607 View Post

Try serviio

I installed that last night. Some of my video's playback without any problems, others I get an Invalid File error. I tried copying them to a thumb drive and playing them on the player directly. Both played video just fine, and one played audio (AAC).

I'm guessing there's something in the DLNA spec that prevents it from using AAC over ethernet or some such. Serviio doesn't appear to have a very advanced UI, but I'm going to play around on their forums a bit.

I might end up taking this Sony back and checking into the Samsung BDE5900/ZA. Although, given the lock up issues I've heard I don't know that it might be any better than the Sony.
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post #13458 of 15215
5/14/12 at 10:24am
Hi all - I am looking for a BD player that has a specific set of features, and am hoping you guys can help...

What I am looking for is the following:

- 3D Capable
- Can play 3D MKVs
- DLNA certified, and can play the 3D MKVs over said DLNA.
- Hulu Plus and Netflix capable

Anyone know of a player that can do this? Google is coming up dry.
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post #13459 of 15215
5/14/12 at 4:27pm
Hello!

I'm pretty good at product research, but I've failed miserably at finding a WiFi spec for so much as a single blu-ray player. It would seem impossible to even determine whether or not a player supports gigabit ethernet. I want my next blu-ray player to feast on my internal network's streaming bandwidth, a WD My Book Live (530 Mbps read speed as reported by Cnet) connected to a Cisco E4200v2 (450 Mbps) via gigabit ethernet. Are any blu-ray players confirmed to offer 450 Mbps Wi-Fi or gigabit ethernet? Preferably both!
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post #13460 of 15215
5/14/12 at 6:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by qaburk View Post

Hello!

I'm pretty good at product research, but I've failed miserably at finding a WiFi spec for so much as a single blu-ray player. It would seem impossible to even determine whether or not a player supports gigabit ethernet. I want my next blu-ray player to feast on my internal network's streaming bandwidth, a WD My Book Live (530 Mbps read speed as reported by Cnet) connected to a Cisco E4200v2 (450 Mbps) via gigabit ethernet. Are any blu-ray players confirmed to offer 450 Mbps Wi-Fi or gigabit ethernet? Preferably both!

Holy crap! The data rate direct from BD-ROM is only 54Mbps, Vudu maxes out around 16M and Netflix at around 6M. What kind of stuff are you streaming that requires such bandwidth?
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post #13461 of 15215
5/14/12 at 6:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

The second HDMI only carries audio. So I don't see how that would be at all useful to you. A switch won't accomplish anything either since those have only one output. For 2 fully functional outputs, you need a splitter. What exactly is your goal?

I was thinking there would be times I'd want to use my computer's LCD as a display instead of my projector.
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post #13462 of 15215
5/14/12 at 6:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muse View Post

I was thinking there would be times I'd want to use my computer's LCD as a display instead of my projector.

So we've established dual HDMI output players won't meet that goal since they're designed for secondary audio. An HDMI splitter (starting around $25) plus an HDMI/DVI cable probably will. You may need to do something different for sound when running to the LCD, maybe RCA or optical/coax.
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post #13463 of 15215
5/14/12 at 7:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

So we've established dual HDMI output players won't meet that goal since they're designed for secondary audio. An HDMI splitter (starting around $25) plus an HDMI/DVI cable probably will. You may need to do something different for sound when running to the LCD, maybe RCA or optical/coax.

I've wondered for a long time: The coax S/PDIF (I think the Sony S390 has this output), can it use any coax cable or should it be one specifically designed for that duty? I will run that to my AV Receiver. The receiver doesn't support HDMI, but does support optical and coax S/PDIF.

I also need stereo output from my BD player. Most of the time that's what I use in my HT, using headphones (earbuds). It run it into an amplifier, right now a receiver, will maybe use a headphone amplifier or Class T amp in the future. Does the Sony S390 have stereo outputs?
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post #13464 of 15215
5/14/12 at 7:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdavej View Post

Holy crap! The data rate direct from BD-ROM is only 54Mbps, Vudu maxes out around 16M and Netflix at around 6M. What kind of stuff are you streaming that requires such bandwidth?

I'm streaming 1080P content from my DLNA server, and the network is WPS secured. My Xbox 360 with a 10/100 Mbps ethernet connection can juggle 720p but drops the ball with 1080p. My slowest laptop with a 150 Mbps adapter (2.4 GHz band) can handle 1080p so 150 Mbps would seem to be an adequate bandwidth until I get into 3D content.

It really just irritates me that I can't find the information I'm looking for!
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post #13465 of 15215
5/14/12 at 7:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Muse View Post

I've wondered for a long time: The coax S/PDIF (I think the Sony S390 has this output), can it use any coax cable or should it be one specifically designed for that duty? I will run that to my AV Receiver. The receiver doesn't support HDMI, but does support optical and coax S/PDIF.

I also need stereo output from my BD player. Most of the time that's what I use in my HT, using headphones (earbuds). It run it into an amplifier, right now a receiver, will maybe use a headphone amplifier or Class T amp in the future. Does the Sony S390 have stereo outputs?

Yes, the sony has coax and stereo outputs. Anything usually works ok for very short runs, but a real digital coax cable is best since it has the proper dielectric properties, impedance and shielding for the signal, resulting in less errors. But the real thing is dirt cheap at monoprice anyway, so there is no reason to skimp. Just make sure in the sony you select bitstream, enable DD and DTS, and turn off BD Mix.
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post #13466 of 15215
5/14/12 at 8:57pm
Here's my situation:

I'm moving a Pioneer PRO-111FD up to the bedroom from the basement. A new Samsung PN-51E7000 3D plasma is moving into its spot in the basement. I already own a PS3 (which is 3D capable AFAIK), but need a new Blu-ray player for the bedroom (which originally had a CRT w/ DVD/VHS combo).

Should I go for a 2D Blu-ray player for the bedroom now or try to future-proof my purchase (For a Few Dollars More (C)) and buy a 3D model?

In either case, I'd like something that has WiFi built it and passes all video processing tests (HQV, etc) without any issues. NetFlix, apps, etc. are pretty irrelevant to me ATM.

Thanks.
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post #13467 of 15215
5/15/12 at 5:39am
Is there a BD player that is known to have good compatibility with video files on sd cards and usb drives.

It becomes confusing reading through many threads on which players are known to handle such files well. I do a lot of video editing and would like to view my finished HD movies (mpeg2 or mp4) on my large screen TV)
Would appreciate anyone chiming in who has has successfully used their player's to handle such files off their sd cards or usb drives. Thanks for your help!
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post #13468 of 15215
5/15/12 at 6:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by idreos View Post

Is there a BD player that is known to have good compatibility with video files on sd cards and usb drives.

It becomes confusing reading through many threads on which players are known to handle such files well. I do a lot of video editing and would like to view my finished HD movies (mpeg2 or mp4) on my large screen TV)
Would appreciate anyone chiming in who has has successfully used their player's to handle such files off their sd cards or usb drives. Thanks for your help!

This is pretty common. Do you have a price range?

-Bill
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post #13469 of 15215
5/15/12 at 6:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by moorewapyunco View Post

Are there any blu-ray players that I would be able to stream movies to from my computer or from an NAS? Or does anyone know if it is possible with the Panasonic dmp-bd35k?

DLNA is the network facility used for that and it is a common feature on Blu-ray players. You can run a server on you PC, or most NAS include one built-in.

-Bill
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post #13470 of 15215
5/15/12 at 7:29am
Bill

thanks for your quick reply..i'm looking at players between 150-$200
I recently bought the Panny BDT 215 from Costco, but found it could not handle mp4's but was advised the 2012 models can.
I'm open to any advice. Thanks again!!

Jim
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