Want to thank everyone right off the bat for their thoughts and recommendations. Big help! Tinman, what panasonic Blu-ray do you have? It's funny that you recommend Sony & Panasonic as they are two of the 3 brands I have been considering. ( Panasonic BD85k , Sony BDP-S570). Been looking hard at those and was leaning towawrds the BD85k. But also I see that the new 2011 Panasonic (DMP-BDT210) & Sony Blu-rays will be out in March at the same price point. Swoly-D, from my reading on the Avsforum and cnet I think I was leaning towards Sony & Panasonic. I came into this Blu-ray research brand new. Mostly, for features, the key items are PQ & AQ with blu-ray and upconverted DVD. WiFi seems to be a smart get as well. Faster Disc loading times. I am guessing those are the key points. DMC89, hold up, you have a OPPO 95? I thought those did not get released until March? I have to say, I never heard of OPPO before, but when I did BD research, man that brand seems Bulletproof! People slobber all over those players. So many great reviews. I have considered the OPPO93 but it is expensive compared to the other ones I have looked at. You have the Sony BDP s570, how does your OPPO compare to that? (and PS3)? Is the extra cost justified? Would really love to hear your thoughts on that.
Np. My neighbor is well-connected in the A/V industry, and I purchased this early release/tester model through him. So far it's really good, not perfect. I'm not certain if this is because of my bare-bones model or that it's still so new, but I'm having major issues with WiFi connectivity, hearing a loud clicking when turning off the system, cheap-sounding loading tray when opening or closing, and some momentary hangups within menus for certain movies. A firmware update should fix some of these issues. For SACD and DVD-A, it sounds great, but quite different to my friend's Oppo 93 (we compared both side by side). I'm running this on a JVC HD 990 projector, and can easily say the PQ is a notch better than on my PS3 and Sony. Why I choose this as my primary BP over the other two: -PQ -Sound, SACD and DVD-Audio with very high quality DACs. CDs also sound better. -Faster load times -Dedicated hardware. -"bulletproof", as you said. In the end, it is all about diminishing returns. Sound and picture quality mean everything to me, so I will spend twice as much as competitor for an extra 5% improvement. The PS3 and Sony would get a 95% rating from me whereas the Oppo would be closer to a 99% (just on sound/video alone). In fact, I could only detect a slight difference when I cycled all three players for an hour, and this was on a very good projector. I took this to a co-worker's house to test on his Panasonic plasma (TC P50 S2), and he couldn't tell a difference between his PS3 and the Oppo So, if you don't have the high-end A/V gear to accommodate this purchase, I'd say get the PS3 or S570.
I used to love my PS3 but now am thinking to get something else. I have the fatty model and the fan noise is crazy. How is the fan noise on the Slim? Is it common for most bluray players to also play SACD and access netflix?
*Correction My three are high-end displays (the above projector and two Kuro plasmas) could show a notch better PQ quality. My Vizio 42" LCD (home gym tv) could not.
how do you have your PS3 stored? I don't hear a peep out of my ps3 fatty. Mine is just sitting on the tv stand though. My friend had one and had it stored in a tight area on his TV stand and the fan was pretty loud. You might not be getting enough airflow.
It gets plenty of airflow. I have it standing and it has nothing above it. It might be an ambient temperature difference between our rooms. Mine is relatively close to a massive plasma which raises the temp of that part of the room a few degrees. Which model fatty do u have? Mine the the first of the 80GB. I read that each later model of fatty got a little more energy efficient.
I have heard about the PS3/fatty noise problem. That would drive me crazy during movies. I suspect the PS3/Slim is better with fan noise, but by how much? Is it stupid for me to say that not having digital display on the front of the PS3 (versus a dedicated player) is a big factor? Maybe that's me being a dinosaur. dmc89, thanks a ton for that info. I guess you have to wait for the firmware update until the 95 is "officially released" lol.
Same. I had the 60GB 1st gen fatty and now have the 160GB slim, never noticed the fan problem. Both were used on horizontal TV stands, room temp, and they had their fans air dusted every now and then.
i have an old bd35k, works great. a little slow since it's old, but picture quality for dvd/bluray are excellent.
Bluray - Panasonic DMP-BDT 210 Wanted to come back in this thread to post what Bluray I ended up getting. I went with the Panasonic DMP-BDT 210. It has on board WiFi which is nice. Already was able to update the Firmware via WiFi. It streams YouTube and Netflix video very nicely. Picture quality is pretty good and supposedly Netflix will offer Dolby Digital Plus with their streams. Regular DVD upconversion is very good and BluRay PQ/Audio is excellent (and I am running an older AVR that is only getting Toslink audio instead of HDMI lossless -- The Audio is amazing and can't wait to get the full lossless down the road.). On screen GUI is well done and for past Panasonic models is a big upgrade. For under $200 I think it's a pretty good value compared to the others on the market. The Oppo looks awesome, but I just could not justify the price premium. Definitely recommend this BluRay!
True but a 720p will do the trick with blu-ray. We have both 720p and 1080p sets in the house and the 720p does the blu-ray justice for sure. Funny you should mention this because my buddy is an audio/video junkie and has owned (that I can remember) Sony, LG and Samsung blu ray players. He bought an Insignia for his bedroom because it was so cheap and ended up moving it to the living room because he liked it better than any blu-ray player he has owned.
