OFFICIAL "HELP ME CHOOSE A PLAYER" THREAD: Can't decide? Start HERE. - Page 2

then the Panny BD-10A or PS3 is your best bet.

Or, the Sony BDP-S1 and Elite HD1. Neither does DTS-HD, but they do support 1080P/24 which none of the Panny models feature.

If you have a HDMI 1.3 A/V receiver capable of decoding TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, then I would recommend the Panasonic BD30K.

Otherwise, I would wait.

I don't think you'll have to wait long, see the CES announcements next week.

The BD30 is the WORST player for anyone without HDMI 1.3 unfortunately.

PS3 is a poor bet without ANY WAY to get DTSMA to your receiver. I will not "pray" for an upgrade that adds it.

The $500 Panasonic doesn't do p24?

Panny 30. Good luck.

I would discourage anyone from getting the PS3 because it does not support DTS-HD/MA, either bitstreaming or via internal decoding. And all of the Fox Blu-Ray lossless titles use DTS-HD/MA. Lots of people are willing to tell you that it will be eventually supported, but the PS3 hardware cannot handle bitstreaming, and any talk of internal decoding support is just speculation - Sony is totally silent on this.

I currently own an A2 and a Sammy 5000. I haven't been happy with the sammy for many reasons found in the owners thread. Up until today I was set to pick up an A35 and BD30 to bitstream everything to my Integra 9.8.

In light of the WB move and CES next week, I'm going to hold onto the Samsung and hope for firmware audio fixes. The BD30 can never be profile 2.0 due to no ethernet port and if it doesn't output 1080p/24fps that's another strike.

If Samsung comes through with bitstream support it can "almost" be profile 2.0. It doesn't have the 1gb local storage but there are ways around that with the network connection.

So unless you NEED a BR player right now I'd wait until profile 2.0 players at CES or Samsung to publish some info on their firmware plans.

Because of the Warner announcement, I'm looking for a Blu-ray player, too.

Reading this thread, the Panasonic DMP-BD30 sounds like the one I want to get. But does it have any odd quirks that might surprise me - what I mean an odd quirk is something like this: I was reading the thread on the Samsung BDP1400 and somebody mentioned that if you pause it for more that a few minutes the screen saver will come on, but shortly afterwards it will stop without remembering where you paused. Then, in order to resume watching, you have to start from the beginning and find where you were when you paused. For me, this would be very inconvenient.

The question you need to ask yourself. Do you really care about going on the net with you're player (Profile 2.0), if you don't you can get a PS3 witch is it all (except DTS HD) or get a Panasonic BD30k.

Myself, I'm not sure I ever would care but on the other hand I feel if there is to be future "advanced" content the net is where it would come from. I just recently got in BR and was shocked that an ethernet port wasn't standard. Nowadays pretty much everything is net enabled. I have an 8pt switch behind my display that only has 1 port open.(DTV HR20, Integra 9.8, Toshiba A2, Samsung 5000, Xbox 360, HTPC, wireless bridge getting it all to my gateway)

In addition if the 5000 fails, I'd want to replace it with the lastest and greatest which I feel will be profile 2.0 players at CES.

Ok I need some help I am looking for a more affordable player??? If there is one. I had a PS3 that fried and really wasn't crazy about it anyway (didn't like the gaming console portion), and last night I bought an S300, and was not happy. I have an A2 and while the pictures are the same the menu's etc are VERY quirky. I thought the A2 was a buggy player. This thing is going back today. VERY DISAPPOINTED to say the least. I really want to re-adopt this format (already have BD disks). Am I going to have to spend a lot of money $400+ to be satisfied???

Why do I constantly hear this??? Is there any reason for this.

I have a PS3 (which don't like because of loud fan noise) and also have a Sammy 5000 dual player for about two weeks. Since there probably won't be a great need for the Sammy long term, I may return it and just get another quiet Blu payer. Are there any Blu players that upscale as well as the Toshiba XA2 or as my Sammy 5000? Thanks!

I don't get why folks keep saying the BD30 doesn't do 1080/24. They specs say that it does. Can someone explain?

I'm in the same boat with ya.....so keep the XA2 for upscaling SD DVD?
And buy the Panny BD player?

According to this...."The BD30 is Blu Ray 1.1. PiP=Yes, Ethernet=No. Blu Ray 2.0 players will have ethernet." I should wait for the BR 2.0 format? Ethernet to update the FW has been very nice in the XA2.


I have a Denon 3808CI that decodes the new HD audio formats.

Some of use forget(myself included) and because the BD10 didn't have the feature.

I just went neutral and picked up an 80gb PS3... haven't played any BD on it yet but after 2 hours of motorstorm the thing is still not even audible.... much better than my outgoing xbox 360 (Couldn't even watch HD-DVD's on that cause it was soooo damn loud... bought an A20 for my HD-DVD viewing). My wife is excited that she can finally get disney movies in HD.

- Jon

I don't have a HDMI receiver, so I watched the latest Die Hard using the standard DTS sound track via optical. If you go with a PS3 right now, you're only shutout of getting lossless sound on titles what don't support TrueHD or LPCM.

But the PS3 *does* have a wired and wireless network connection, the BD30 does not have either; so the PS3 can potentially be upgraded to future profiles. The BD30 cannot. The PS3 also has the processing power of a high-end PC so there's likely not a technical reason it cannot decode DTS-HD/MA in to LPCM. It's this processing power which makes it the most responsive player on the market.

On the other hand, the PS3 runs pretty hot and needs good ventilation and it doesn't support IR without a kludgey add-on. The 80GB unit I purchased is reasonably quiet, but it will crank the fan up if it gets hot - which depends on how much processing you ask it to do. Upscaling DVD's for instance seem to be more work for the PS3 than just playing back a Blu-Ray disc.

There's no slam dunk answer right now, but if you have spent a boatload of money on a high-end Plasma or LCD you should see how nice the nextgen console games look. With the PS3 you can download game demos and try most of the games out before plunking down $50 on something you'd rather not play.

I recommend the Sharp Blu-Ray player if you do not have a processor/receiver that will decode the audio. I have it and it is a pretty solid player with great PQ. Decodes the most codecs and has 1080p/24 output.

I disagree with your use of "worst". You can still get lossless pcm audio from the analog outs which is an excellent audio option when the BD offers that option. Also, nothing wrong with good ole DD and DTS via optical. With the BD30, you can always look forward to adding an AVR that does all of the latest audio formats and then have the very best. Hence, I disagree with your assessment.

Also, for those wonderng, the BD30 does indeed offer 24 fps (but not in forced mode). Your TV/projector must be able to flag its 24 fps capability and then you can select that option from the BD30 menu.

Mark

My receiver has HDMI but no internal HD audio decoders. (I know there is no DTS-MA decoding player yet. We get DTS core for now).

1) Do either of the BD10 or BD30 have decoders for DD True HD & DD+ and DTS-HR?

2) Can either output decoded, uncompressed PCM over HDMI? Is it 7.1 or downmixed to 5.1?

3) In addition to HDMI, can the BD10 do the above decoding via it's 7.1 analog outputs in actual 7.1?

4) Does the BD30 do all the above decoding to it's 5.1 analog outputs?

Just ordered the Panny BD30 from J&R!

I'm Purple People

OP, my first choice would be the PS3, then the BD30. The PS3 still is the best value and is fully featured, with the possibility of updating to profile 2.0. Sony's support of the PS3 for Blu-ray playback has been outstanding. It's one tech shortcoming at the moment is the lack of DTS-HD MA support, which may or may not change in the future. There are some complaints about the PS3 using a Bluetooth remote and it's fan noise as well.

I wouldn't waste your time with the rest of the lower end BD players.

My 4 cents (darn weak dollar). I chose the PS3 for several reasons, many of which have already been discussed here including upgradability, and it can still be used as game platform if HD-DVD won (no worries anymore). The biggest reason I chose it over a stand-alone player is the performance. Titles load in seconds instead of minutes.

Now that I have had it for about a week, I can report that it is quieter than my DISH Network VIP722 HD DVR, so I don't even notice it.

I agree with others regarding the PS3. Not something I will be getting for the reasons mentioned(fan noise, odd remote situation, DTS-MA, etc).

when gran turismo 5 comes out I might jump(GT4 is the only game I have for PS2 and the only reason I bought a gaming console).

Since it's obvious at this point that we will have a single format sooner rather than later, and it will be BD, I am really anxious to see the Denon line.

I bought the XA2 HD DVD a month ago when I jumped into the HD arena, BUT it was primarily as a SD DVD upscaler and it comes through with flying colors on that count.

I have a Denon 3910 SD DVD player and have been very impressed with their video products for awhile.

since we now know who the winner in the war will be, I will wait for the Denons to come out, make sure they have everything(ethernet, both multi-channel audios, bitstreamed and decoded, etc).

I will have no trouble dropping serious coin for a fully featured, high quality player knowing that it won't become obsolete as a result of the format war.

I believe the BD30 / HDMI 1.3 comment is directed at internal advanced audio decoding. It can send the bitstreams, but not decode internally.

I prefer the PS3 myself.

For those interested in PiP, you must enable secondary audio decoding if you want to hear it. I have been told that you loose high resolution audio when you do this. Most likely because it must mix the primary and secondary audio and it can't decode advanced audio internally. I am not sure how PCM soundtracks factor into this.

Hi Stacey,

Just to clarify, with regard to your comment about PiP causing a loss of high resolution audio, it that comment relevant to the BD30, the PS3 or both?

Thanks.

Larry

"K" in Panasonic model names usually designates black as opposed to silver.