Its even more awesome on a 50 or bigger 1080p set and 5.1 high end hi-fi.its getting harder not to upgrade my 42 to a 50 now that prices have come down.

I just bought a 50" Samsung Plasma and a Panasonic DMP-BD35K Blu-ray player, and I can definitely say that the blu ray picture looks awesome on the tv and the 5.1 DTS HD sound is incredible too!  Highly recommended!  I'm not sorry I finally went hi def and blu-ray!

Last Feb. I boiught a 40" Sony Bravia and the sales guy talked me into the blueray.  Blueray had just won the format war that week.  I knew it was early in, but I bought it anyway at 399 and it was incredible.  I just bought a 2nd similar model in the Sony for 249. 

Panasonic DMP-BD35 is a very nice Blu-Ray player -- very highly rated.

 

Sony BDP-350 is another one that's right in the same class (this is the one I have).

 

Anyone who's thinking of Blu-Ray, avoid the Samsungs -- they are having some firmware issues with a lot of their players.

 

Will you guys please stop it!     I want a BR player.  Wife's not convinced.  Either way....can't afford it right now.   But it doesn't help my case that we've had a regular, up-converting, DVD player for several years and have NEVER rented a movie......have purchased only one.  Only when I started transferring some of my old video tape movies over to DVD did we have some use for the player.  But the resulting quality sucked so I stopped wasting my time.  Now I am drooling over the Panasonic BR player.  My middle son tried several and he felt the audio quality from the Panasonic was superior to all the others......both DVD and CD....when played through his very high end audio system.  But I have no experience with them and haven't done any research on my own so I can't offer an opinion of my own.

I don't think you can go wrong with the Panasonic one I bought.  I love it.  You need to join Netflix first, then you will have a lot of use for a Blu-ray player!  http://www.netflix.com

 

 

I'm using a PS3 for my Blu-ray player and it is fantastic.  It loads quickly and always updates itself with the latest firmware version. 

Thats what makes HD on U-verse nice if you see a movie and its ok then fine but if its great now you can purchase it on Blue-Ray and watch it many times at your connivence.

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JiminSTLouis wrote:
I'm using a PS3 for my Blu-ray player and it is fantastic.  It loads quickly and always updates itself with the latest firmware version. 

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That is the route I am going.  PS3 with a Pioneer Eilte tv.  Bluray is very impressive, it is the one format that I have yet to see anybody complain about.

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RCSMG wrote:

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JiminSTLouis wrote:
I'm using a PS3 for my Blu-ray player and it is fantastic.  It loads quickly and always updates itself with the latest firmware version. 

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That is the route I am going.  PS3 with a Pioneer Eilte tv.  Bluray is very impressive, it is the one format that I have yet to see anybody complain about.

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That's an interesting comment.  About all I see about Bluray these days is people complaining that it's not that much better than standard DVDs to justify the cost.  Not me, mind you.  I love my PS3, but Bluray is getting serious negative press right now.

 

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twentw wrote: 

That's an interesting comment.  About all I see about Bluray these days is people complaining that it's not that much better than standard DVDs to justify the cost.  Not me, mind you.  I love my PS3, but Bluray is getting serious negative press right now.

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Anyone who can't see or hear the difference between regular DVD and a properly mastered Blu-Ray ("I, Robot", "Iron Man", "U-571") either has a blindfold on and plugs in their ears, or has a substandard TV and substandard audio system.

 

Blu-Ray on a large 1080p TV and lossless audio on a powerful 5.1 system is very nearly theater-quality.

 

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twentw wrote:

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RCSMG wrote:

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JiminSTLouis wrote:
I'm using a PS3 for my Blu-ray player and it is fantastic.  It loads quickly and always updates itself with the latest firmware version. 

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That is the route I am going.  PS3 with a Pioneer Eilte tv.  Bluray is very impressive, it is the one format that I have yet to see anybody complain about.

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That's an interesting comment.  About all I see about Bluray these days is people complaining that it's not that much better than standard DVDs to justify the cost.  Not me, mind you.  I love my PS3, but Bluray is getting serious negative press right now.

 

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I heard this also but I have been out and about over the holidays and Best Buy , Costco, etc have all sold out of their good BR players. Trust me once you watch a movie on Blu-Ray nothing else compares except going to the movies. I picked up The Dark Knight this evening and all I can say is wow.... the sound and picture is just really amazing on a Blu-Ray. If you invested money in an HDTV, this will make you glad you did.

 

 

My understanding is that the PS3 is currently the best BluRay player because of disc load speed, ease of updating, also a video game console, also a media streamer.  The reason I didn't get it was because of price.  All I wanted was a blu ray player - I don't need a video game console, and I already have a media player, so the $150 I saved was worth it to me.  However, if I didn't already have a media streamer, I would probably have bought the PS3.

I have always been amazed with the PQ on HD discs. First with HD DVD(Tosh HD-A30) and now with Blu-Ray(PS3), especially on properly transferred and mastered discs. The Departed, King Kong, and Planet Earth look really good. And the Hi-Res audio is amazing.

 

Comparing UV to Blu-Ray/HD DVD is unfair. UV compressed stream running at 6 meg vs Blu-Ray bitrates capable of up to 54 megs, no contest.

 

I just got my copy of The Dark Knight in the mail and can't wait to watch it. Saw it in the theater and it was amazing. My friend says the scenes filmed in IMAX are truly amazing on the Blu-ray disc!

 

I think overall the PS3 is one of the better Blu-Ray players. It has many capabilities; Blu player, video game machine, media streamer, web browser. My only minor complaint is no bitstream of Hi-Res audio, only PCM. If you are not concerned with all the bells and whistles and don't like the high price of the PS3, I think the Panny DMP-BD35$249 and the Sony S-350$249/550$349 are the best stand alone Blu-Ray players available. IMHO

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awhited74 wrote:

I have always been amazed with the PQ on HD discs. First with HD DVD(Tosh HD-A30) and now with Blu-Ray(PS3), especially on properly transferred and mastered discs. The Departed, King Kong, and Planet Earth look really good. And the Hi-Res audio is amazing.

 

Comparing UV to Blu-Ray/HD DVD is unfair. UV compressed stream running at 6 meg vs Blu-Ray bitrates capable of up to 54 megs, no contest.

 

I just got my copy of The Dark Knight in the mail and can't wait to watch it. Saw it in the theater and it was amazing. My friend says the scenes filmed in IMAX are truly amazing on the Blu-ray disc!

 

I think overall the PS3 is one of the better Blu-Ray players. It has many capabilities; Blu player, video game machine, media streamer, web browser. My only minor complaint is no bitstream of Hi-Res audio, only PCM. If you are not concerned with all the bells and whistles and don't like the high price of the PS3, I think the Panny DMP-BD35$249 and the Sony S-350$249/550$349 are the best stand alone Blu-Ray players available. IMHO

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I got the Sony 350 on black friday for 189.00 and love it. Just remember that these players are very fussy about disc smudges and finger prints so for goodness sake keep your kids away from it.

 

I had actually gotten bored with my old Onkyo 5.1 system until popping in a Blu-ray brought back all the joy and wonder. Reviews I read said that there was not much difference in sound for most people and was barely noticeable but on my dad's tv with stock speakers the sound is crisper and the dialog more pronounced.

 

I would put a word of caution in if you have an older receiver or pre-amp that does not accept HDMI or does but does not do internal decoding of Dolby Tru-HD or DTS- Master

you need to opt for a player that does the decoding internally and sends it out 5.1/7.1 analog to your unit if it has 5.1/7.1 inputs there is virtually no difference in sound between

bit-streaming and internal decoding and sending it out analog it eventually has to be done at one point so the speakers can do something with the info anyway. 

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oz wrote:

I would put a word of caution in if you have an older receiver or pre-amp that does not accept HDMI or does but does not do internal decoding of Dolby Tru-HD or DTS- Master

you need to opt for a player that does the decoding internally and sends it out 5.1/7.1 analog to your unit if it has 5.1/7.1 inputs there is virtually no difference in sound between

bit-streaming and internal decoding and sending it out analog it eventually has to be done at one point so the speakers can do something with the info anyway. 

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A very good point.  The only thing I would add is that if your BD player has 5.1/7.1 analog outs, and you put those into a receiver, you may introduce an additional analog to digital conversion.  What is probably happening in that situation (depending on the receiver) is that the BD player is decoding the original audio to PCM internally, converting it to analog for the analog outputs, that is going into your receiver, which is then converting it back to digital so it can be processed (EQ, tone, effects, level, bass management), and then converting it back to analog for amplification and transport to the speakers.

 

If your BD player can do internal decoding of most or all of the audio codecs, but your receiver can't, but it has HDMI inputs, what you probably can do is have the BD player do the decoding, but send the decoded 5.1/7.1 PCM over HDMI to the receiver.  That way the audio stays digital the entire time.  This is generally what the PS3 will do with most receivers.

 

Also remember that the BD players with 5.1/7.1 analog outputs are more expensive than the ones that don't have that.  For example, the Panasonic DMP-BD35 and Sony BDP-S350 do not have 5.1/7.1 analog outputs.  Their higher-end cousins, the DMP-BD55 and the BDP-S550 do.

 

And one further thing to keep in mind is that not all Blu-Ray players support internal decoding of all the different audio codecs.  The Panasonic DMP-BD35 does them all, but the Sony BDP-S350 does not support internal decoding of DTS-HD MA, although it can bitstream it.  If you hook up a Sony BDP-S350 to a receiver that doesn't support DTS-HD MA decoding via HDMI, you won't get the lossless audio, you will only get the lossy core DTS track.  Check here for a comparison list of many BD players and the internal audio decoding they support.

 

One other gripe about the PS3 that I forgot to mention, and am now revisiting due to a new Harmony One remote that I got for Christmas, no IR capability. Sony decided it would be a good idea and forward thinking to use Bluetooth for the remote functionality. That is frustrating when most all programmable remotes are capable of IR or RF or both, but not bluetooth. I could get the Nyko remote and use its usb dongle but then run into some compability issues. I could pursue other expensive avenues (ie; IR2BT, SchmartStuff.com) to add full functionality to the Harmony for the PS3. Thanks Sony for your proprietary use of technology. Sorry for the rant, I thought I had gotten rid of the use multiple remotes.

 

Anyone out there have any suggestions other than selling the PS3 and buying a Panny Blu-Ray player? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

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awhited74 wrote:

 

Anyone out there have any suggestions other than selling the PS3 and buying a Panny Blu-Ray player? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

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Yeah, that is something I forgot to mention also.  I went to Gamestop and bought a wireless PS3 remote.  Usually, once I hit play, I don't usually mess with the remote anymore but when I do want to pause or rewind, I have to use the PS3 remote. 

I have nothing to complain about the PQ and SQ in blu-ray. Excellent so far. It's like the cinema was brought into your house. Especially if you have a home theather set-up to a sound proof dark room.

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jericho

i bet the movie king author would look great on blu-ray. looks real good on a regular dvd...

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awhited74 wrote:

One other gripe about the PS3 that I forgot to mention, and am now revisiting due to a new Harmony One remote that I got for Christmas, no IR capability. Sony decided it would be a good idea and forward thinking to use Bluetooth for the remote functionality. That is frustrating when most all programmable remotes are capable of IR or RF or both, but not bluetooth. I could get the Nyko remote and use its usb dongle but then run into some compability issues. I could pursue other expensive avenues (ie; IR2BT, SchmartStuff.com) to add full functionality to the Harmony for the PS3. Thanks Sony for your proprietary use of technology. Sorry for the rant, I thought I had gotten rid of the use multiple remotes.

 

Anyone out there have any suggestions other than selling the PS3 and buying a Panny Blu-Ray player? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

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I think the only major problem with the PS3 USB IR adapters is that they can't turn the system on.   I don't see that as too big a deal since the unit will power up when I put the disc in anyway.