What is the best Blu Ray player (no PS3 please)

Ok I want to know, what is the best Blu Ray player as of today. And please I do not care for a PS3.

Sadly... the PS3.

Panasonic BDP30. It was a little over $400 before the Warner decision. Since than the price going uuuppppp... It might come down when the BDP50 is introduced shortly.

when is the bdp50 coming out?

kucoloco... between April and May, probably around $699.

Sony Sapphire Blu-ray players (2 models this summer), will be between $400 to $500 MSRP. The Widescreen Review website recently listed the specs for the new Sony Sapphire players - READ HERE

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

I've had the Panasonic BD30 for a while now, and it has not yet failed me. Plays everything perfectly. It outputs (but does not decode) all of the higher audio codecs, and it's Profile 1.1 compliant, meaning it will play Picture-in-Picture, etc. It does not have an Ethernet connection (Profile 2.0), but I've never connected any of my HD DVD players (which have an Ethernet connection from day one) to the Internet, anyway, so for me it's not a loss.

John

Quote:
It does not have an Ethernet connection (Profile 2.0), but I've never connected any of my HD DVD players (which have an Ethernet connection from day one) to the Internet, anyway, so for me it's not a loss.

John, doesn't that make it difficult for the FBI to monitor your viewing habits? Anyway, I admit I did disconnect my PS3 from my home network when we watched "Across the Universe" the other night ... just in case.

"...doesn't that make it difficult for the FBI to monitor your viewing habits?" --Skyhawk

They've tried, and two of their agents died of boredom.

John

John J. how is this player so far in terms of bootign up, and or loading discs?

I dont want my ps3 anymore. and im thinkign of picking this up. I just got an onkyo rec. and also planning on getting a logytech controller to controll everything.

so this baby, is 1.1 without ethernet port. but wondering on the loading. plus me want all the high def codecs.

I'm with John on the Panasonic BD30. It's a fantastic player, and even though it doesn't decode all of the high-end audio I have an Onkyo to do that for me. It also boots up pretty fast compared to my Toshiba HD-A20.

how are the codecs handled.. like the ps3? better?

I don't know, I don't have a PlayStation and will never buy one.

come on, some one share more info on the Panasonic BDP30. i dont think ill wait for the new players, as BD live is not that goo, for a couple hundred more. lol

playback. load times. audio codec details.

The BDP30 can bitstream all the audio codecs. It cannot however decode them and send them PCM over it's analog outputs or HDMI, which makes it a deal breaker for me because I do not have a HDMI 1.3 receiver.

[Post edited by Movielover316 on Mar 10, 2008]

It's a deal breaker for me as well, since I prefer to have the player do the decoding (to PCM) in order to mix in the secondary audio streams. This becomes important to me when more Blu-ray titles featuring PiP and other features that contain secondary audio get more common.

When I decided to get a Blu player to sit beside my Toshiba HD deck i bought the Samsung BDP-1400. With all the latest firmware patches in place my player works flawlessly. The unit has 5.1 analog outs on it and it is able to internally decode everything (including True HD) except for DTS Master. The unit is also capable of outputting ALL audio codecs via bitstream.

For $400 the Samsung made the most sense to me until something better and cheaper comes out in the next year or so.

Yes, the BD30 sends out all the audio codecs to the receiver without decoding. It assumes you have one of the newer receiver that will decode them (like the new Onkyos and Denons, among others).

About the Picture-in-Picture feature, the BD30 will do that, too, internally. You can turn on (and off) its secondary audio for PiP. The thing is, few BD disc include this PiP feature yet. And my guess is that only a few discs will include it for the coming year or two. After all, if you were a studio boss, would you want to field all the angry letters from owners of older BD players that aren't Profile 1.1 compliant, complaining about their not being able to access the PiP? I'd guess that studios will allow the BD 1.1 player market to grow a bit before they start issuing too many movies with PiP. But we'll see. The PiP feature is a great marketing ploy, and maybe the studios will start releasing more such discs just for the publicity they generate (including a big disclaimer in the keep case about the need for a newer, 1.1 compliant player).

John

Quote:
About the Picture-in-Picture feature, the BD30 will do that, too, internally. You can turn on (and off) its secondary audio for PiP.

I'm curious to know how this works. Are the audio mixing options for the secondary audio codec offered in the movie's menu disabled with the BD30? When you turn on the secondary audio for PiP, do you just lose the primary audio completely, or does it automatically switch to the primary's core lossy track and actually mix them and send them out DTS or L-PCM?

Regarding future PiP features, I don't think it's the fact that a very small group of early adopters will get angry (questionable assumption to begin with) about not seeing the feature in PiP mode that will cause the studios to release few PiP featured titles in 2008, but just the ramping up and maturity of the BD-Java platform for doing so. Some studios seem to be further ahead than others in this regard. Check out the upcoming features of Fox's Alien Vs. Predator re-release coming the second half of this year for example. I think once this gets easier for studios (and it will), we'll start to see a landslide of PiP and BD-Live featured major titles going forward.

[Post edited by Skyhawk on Mar 10, 2008]

Sky,

Remember, there are something like nine million "early adopters" out there to annoy with new features.

About the PiP thing: The BD30 normally should be played with the secondary audio turned off in the player (when playing a movie). Otherwise, it doesn't properly output the higher audio codecs. When you need to use secondary audio for PiP, you turn it on in the player's menu, and the movie's normal soundtrack reverts, as you say, to a plain-vanella core track in the background while the commentary and such is playing in the foreground inserts.

John

Quote:
Remember, there are something like nine million "early adopters" out there to annoy with new features.

But of course John, 8 million, 300 thousand of us welcome the new features as we don't have trouble playing them, or not playing them as the case may be

Anyway, that's interesting the way the PiP audio works. So with my PS3 set to internal decoding, I was under the impression that the full lossless was being decoded, and then mixed, and then being sent as PCM... or am I wrong there? What would happen if you choose PCM as your main track and turned on PiP (if/when a title supported that combination)?

so it handles te codec as the ps3? pcm? only that it does dts also. or Im i wrong?

kucoloco, the PS3 can decode all higher codecs to raw PCM except for DTS MA, of which it only outputs the DTS 1.5Mbps core for now. We're hoping for a firmware upgrade at some point to get it all!

the panasonic can do dts ma?

No, the Panasonic can bit stream DTS MA, and let the receiver decode it if it's capable of doing so. The Panasonic doesn't decode any of the higher codecs I believe, only bitstreams it out. This is great as long as you have a receiver that can decode the streams.

Edit: The PS3 is the opposite. It can't bitstream anything but regular DTS and DD 5.1, but can decode almost everything else internally. Apparently the BD50 coming out soon is not only BD-Live capable (Profile 2.0), but can either decode or bitstream anything according to your preferences.

[Post edited by Skyhawk on Mar 10, 2008]

Sky, I have the ONKYO TX-SR 705, and i am also waiting for that firmware update, BUT I heard there may never be one because it is something that a firmware fix cannot handle, and that it was a hardware issue?

It amazes me when I switch to LPCM audio on the PS3 from other formats like dts, etc. The difference in sound is VERY noticeable, and it shows you the higher mbps, when hitting display. The Pan's Labarynth and Ultimate Avenger's Soundtracks especially in 7.1 are amazing.

i though the bdp was better. arrrg.

I want domething that decodes everythign or sends it to the onkyo to decode. carp carp carp. now Ill have to get the bdp50 .. which will cost an arm and a leg.

time to start growing that extra arm.

Blu Bawla, I you're right about PCM and that's why I'm starting to careless about bitstreaming DTHD and dts HD/MA, because the PCM codec is the original and you won't get a better sounding codec. The only difference is a disk space issue between PCM and DTHD/dts HD/MA, but to me the PCM soundtrack is better than the DTHD. Like I said in the Ratatouille post, the 24bit 6.9Mbps 5.1 PCM is a killer. I don't think you can get much better than that.

darn blue. and their suck players. BRING ON BDP50. Im ready.

I want an SA player darnit.