Confessions of an ex-HDDVD addict

I finally took the plunge. I bought a Panasonic BD30 today which now sits proudly on top of my A-35. Oddly enough, they are about the same size, weight and shape and pretty much perform equally, all this leading my wife to comment "What's the difference?" Good question. I'll watch a couple of selections from my extensive BD collection (4 disks) in the next few days and see.

FYI: CC seems to be well stocked with the BD30, at least around Boston. Steve

Congrats Steve, if you're open minded about Blu-ray and don't have any pre-judgements, you'll enjoy Blu-ray just as much as HDDVD. The Panasonic BD30 is a very smart choice. I'm getting the Panasonic BD50 just for playback of Blu-ray movies and leave my PS3 to gaming. By the way what movies do you own on Blu?

Oh, trust me, I'm very open minded, although it may not have sounded that way at times during the war. I have Flyboys (LOVE that movie), Silver Surfer, Stargate and 3:10 To Yuma.

So far I've watched parts of Silver Surfer and I am very impressed with the pq. For now, I'm running the sound of both players through the Analogue outs with a switch. It's quite acceptable in both cases but the wires are a nightmare. I'll buy a new receiver sometime next year to clean that mess up and to get the new codecs. I've also sampled a Cheryl Crow 5.1 dts cd and a BB King/Eric Clapton 6.1 audio DVD, which also sound great.

I'll watch a movie tomorrow. Tonight, I have to work.

Steve

YO what's crackin Steve! I will be making the movie to Blu like you too on June 12th when I get my gun metal PS3 with metal gear. Although HD was fun while it lasted it is time to move on...

Steve,

The first two movies I watched on my BD30 some months ago were "Casino Royale" and "Live Free or Die Hard." The picture and sound were as good as anything on HD DVD, and on "Die Hard" maybe the best sound I've heard from any disc. I assume your receiver is doing all the decoding? If it doesn't do TrueHD or DTS Master Audio, you'll need to think about upgrading the receiver, too.

Enjoy the player.

John

Steve, how much did your BD player cost?

Steve, let me get this straight...the bluray player is sitting ON TOP of the HD DVD player!?!?!?!?

I'm kidding :p

Enjoy the BD30 and let us know your thoughts on it and the bluray movies.

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I assume your receiver is doing all the decoding? If it doesn't do TrueHD or DTS Master Audio, you'll need to think about upgrading the receiver, too.

...how much did your BD player cost?

...let me get this straight...the bluray player is sitting ON TOP of the HD DVD player!?!?!?!?

Yes, the receiver is doing all the decoding through the analogue externals. I'm planning to upgrade that sometime toward the end of the year. More $$$$!!! (Don't tell my wife...it's a good thing she is so understanding). There are mondo wires behind the players. I'll neaten them up tomorrow and post a picture.

It was $499...that's about the going rate around here Tweeter was the same but they were out of stock. BB was also out but ALL the CC stores had players (maybe they are planning a promotion?). I'm going to watch the Sunday ads carefully, if they go on sale I'll be looking for a rebate.

Yes Falcon, the BD player is on top only because it would be difficult to push it's on/off and eject buttons if it was on the bottom (they are on the top corners of the machine). Hummm...I think I knew a girl like that once!

Can't use it tonight. My wife and daughter are watching some movie on the I Hate Men Channel (Lifetime). Tomorrow, perhaps. Steve

Yea Steve, it's called Lifetime because it seems like one when they get hold of the TV. My wife takes over the bedroon set when it comes to LT.

Man Tony, I am glad to see that I am not the ONLY guy having to deal with LT. Our DTV guy just gave us another HD DVR box for free for giving him a referral, so i am glad she has that upstairs now, and can record all those man hating films and watch them up there!!

I still find it silly to buy a standalone over the game console. Atleast if bluray goes the way of UMD,SACD,MD,BETA....you will still have a badass game console to keep you busy. Are you people afraid of picking up a Dualshock and having a hella of a good time? Do you Nongamers realize just how much fun you are missing out on? Not to mention "Reference"quality Picture and sound on these games. "Call of Duty 4" has rocked my living room harder than ANY movie soundtrack. Think "Private Ryan" and you kind of get the idea....But it hits harder,and you are in control. 3D? Blah....This is virtual reality baby.

bladerunner,

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but has it occurred to you that some of us are a little old to get excited about playing games, that we have perfectly good computers for such things in any case, or that we have other things to do with our lives?

John

On top of what John said there seems to be some questions as to the picture quality on the PS3 for bluray playback.

Playstation 3: Not the best Blu-ray player you can buy

However, many say that the picture quality of the unit is not at par with its stand-alone competition. Being a Playstation 3 owner, my eye caught the following headline in the latest edition of Home Cinema Choice Magazine. "Sony's PS3 is the best Blu-ray player you can buy." The headline was in a "Fact or Fiction" section of the magazine. Guess what: the magazine gave the notion a "Fiction" seal.

The reason they gave: "Increasingly, the Blu-ray performance of the PS3 doesn't really stand up to videophile scrutiny. While its excellent clarity and fine detail reproduction is without question, motion is not the console's strongest point. Fast panning shots in Sony's own flagship 'Casino Royale,' are prone to stutter, whereas the company's own dedicated players render the same scenes perfectly. It is also prone to visual artifacts not seen on the latest dedicated players."

http://www.dvdtown.com/news/playstation-3-not-the-best-blu-ray-player-you-can-buy/5380

Now you see why we want standalone bluray players?

I have an XBOX 360 for gaming, definately do not need another gaming console int the house. On top of the orig XBOX, N 64, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo, oh oh wait I still see the Sega Master Sytem... No more gaming systems. I think if I rumage through the closet I might find the Atari 2600...

I'll wait for the Panasonic 50.

Falcon, it seems that the PS3 will always have some faults when it comes to people looking for a reason not to buy it, heck, I even find some faults. The update process risk should be eliminated. No analogs out but I have the Onkyo for that fix. IR remote is a $10 purchase and can be programmed into a unversal remote. As far as PQ goes, I beleived Henning used the words

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...videophile scrutiny.....

. I myself am no videophile by hobbie or profession so unless the PQ is SDDVD or obviously poor I can't tell any difference.

But what makes the PS3 better than any Blu-ray player to me is.....

1. It's profile 2.0
2. Decode all HD codecs as of Tuesday
3. Media server connectable.
4. WiFi
5. All for $400 bucks, no stand alone can deliver what the PS3 brings in options to the table for $500.

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[Post edited by tony1569 on Apr 13, 2008]

Tony...You and I ...Same page. John...I realize this. But it is ALOT different playing games on a big screen with a full blown surround suite. The computer cannot hang with this expierience. You also mentioned something about "some of us have better things..." and my reply to that is "what,watch movies!?" Is that the precious time you are refereing too? I stand by what I wrote. I am not in no way trying to push the Playstation. I am just a little bit leary of bluray as a format,thats all. Sony doesn't have the best track record when it comes to pushing formats...) It does however have an excellent record when it comes to game consoles. The ps3 is just getting started.

I am going thru some serious PS3 withdrawl.

"some of us have better things..." and my reply to that is "what,watch movies!?" --bladerunner

Sorry. I didn't mean to sound contentious. But besides some people having to work for a living, I was thinking more along the lines of a social life. You know: wife or husband, family, friends, visiting, conversing. Things that seem to have gone out of fashion lately in favor of sitting in front of screens.

John

YO Falcon,

I agree with you 100 percent. That's the reason why I would want to go and get a stand alone player. As of right now, The stand alone players aren't that appealing to me because of update issues, or disk issues that i'm hearing from everyone. The PS3 so far is the best bang for the buck for what I can see right now. I don't really care for the gaming part of it. I just want to watch movies. Becaues it's a gaming machine, it will lack what dedicated players have. But for now I don't mind until a stand alone comes along that can update with no problem and all that good stuff.

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As of right now, The stand alone players aren't that appealing to me because of update issues, or disk issues that i'm hearing from everyone.

The first thing I did this morning was to download the 1.6 firmware to update my new BD30. It was a no brainer and was actually easier to do then the downloaded updates for the Toshiba A-35. The update program was a simple self extracting .exe file burned directly to a cd-r and installed in the machine. The directions on the web page were clear and the whole process went off without a hitch. After that I set the speaker distances, delays, etc. Piece-O-Cake.

I watched The F4 Silver Surfer this afternoon and I was VERY impressed with the PQ. The picture was clear and crisp, perhaps on of the best HD disks I have seen to date. The sound was excellent played through the analogue connections to my Denon receiver, mixed down to whatever it was mixed down to. I can only imagine how the DTS HD will sound. But that's for another time.

So far so good. I really do like this machine. Steve

Edit: I also sampled a part of the SD side of the HD DVD I am Legend in the Panasonic BD player (ironic, isn't it?) and I have to agree with John (I think it was in his article), the upconversion capibility of the Panasonic is not as good as the A-35.

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[Post edited by StevePro on Apr 13, 2008]

Awesome - Congrats Steve!

Another satisfied new Blu-ray owner, and Panasonic makes some of the very BEST Blu-ray players... and it's technology is only going to get better.



-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

Oh yeah John I agree with you 100 percent on the downfall of America. We DO need to spend more time on the important stuff. I was a hardcore gamer for a long time and it did some damage. The darn things can become very addictive. But taken in small doses(Thats why I rec. Cod4) the wife and I find it very acceptable. It is just a very intense game,and I thought that since some of us here might like a game every now and then,I would recommend them directly to that system. I am speaking to THOSE people who are still on the fence about the whole issue of bluray. If I was going to push a game system, it would def. be xbox360 at this point in time. So to clear things all up. "People who like bluray movies and games...duh." To everybody else..."Just enjoy what You have or plan to get."

blade,

Entirely agree.

John

Do any of you own a Wii?? I mean, isn't it like the most sold so far? (regardless of the last couple of weeks)...

Congrats to the OP. I myself made the move to purple a couple of months ago. I picked up a Samsung BD P-1400, not a bad little player for the price. To date I own 6 BD titles and have not had any problems with playback (knock on wood).

I still prefer HD DVD due to less problems with playback, inter-active features, no-region coding, etc.. That being said I think I can get used to Blu-ray and hope they can iron out some of their existing bugs.

i like blu ray over hddvd, i own both formats, ive had a few months to go back and forth and compare, and i think blu is better. People say the PQ is the same but for some resason blu looks better to me, my hddvd titles i have look grainer compared to the blu ray titles i own, so maybe the btter format won. All i care about is getting to watch my movies in hidef i could care less if it was hd or blu. Im just glad the format war is over