Page 1 of Considering buying a Blu Ray player.

I`m considering buying a Blu-Ray player next month. I know a lot of you have Playstation 3`s, but I just want one that plays movies, and not games. I am hoping to buy a HD sound system next year, so would like one that would be compatable.

Can you get ones that play normal DVDs, I seem to have read that there`s players that can play dvds, or am I thinking of HD DVD players? Would it be worth getting a multi region player, or should I play safe and just get a normal region player? I have heard that there our dvds that are multi-region, but my worry is for how long?

I`m willing to pay up to £400, unless you know of any good ones for less than that.

Can anyone recommend me one please?

floyd

If you`re only after a player, then the Sony BDPS550 is the one you should go for:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-BDPS550-Profile-Blu-ray-Player/dp/B001ETXJ7C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1256716403&sr=8-3&tag=myrev09-21

All BD players will play DVD`s, although some I believe already come as Region Free. This player can be made to be region free for DVD using a cheap remote.

Chris can give more reasons to choose this player than I can, he was most helpful when I made the leap and I`ve never regretted it - and I am on record as saying I didn`t believe the leap in picture quality to be enough to justify the purchase for a long time.

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer



synth.myreviewer.com

This item was edited on Wednesday, 28th October 2009, 07:58

Here`s the thread with the hack:

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=176&Thread=773181

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer



synth.myreviewer.com

The BDP-S550 is over a year old now. If you`re going to buy one you might as well get the latest models, like the BDP-S360/BDP-S560/BDP-S760 or the Panasonic DMP-BD60/DMP-BD80.

If you want multi-region then the Panasonic players are the best option from somewhere like here, but you`ll pay more for them. You might also want to consider one of the handset hackable Chinese players from Momitsu or similar.

All of those players will bitstream HD audio to new amps over HDMI and - this is without checking the specs - I believe that they will all internally decode as well, so you can use them with older amps and still get HD audio (depending on the connection).

It`s worth noting that the PS3 is significantly faster than any other player I`ve seen and it obviously has other advantages. New slim models can now bitstream as well. Obviously the downsides are noise, power consumption and lack of HD audio support for legacy amps.

The BDP-S760 seems to be Sony`s new flagship BD player (at a reasonable price point) and has a load of new video processing features and wireless N support (useful for updates and BD-Live as you don`t need to have it near a router). Amazon has one left at £344.99.

For the PS3 above it`s worth mentioning the new slim PS3 is generally reported as being near silent in operation (with a few exceptions).

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Could someone please
Remove these cutleries
From my knees...

Just to add to the thread I`m thinking of making the jump to BD too at Xmas - with the S360 Multi region from here

I can`t afford anything over £200, apparently the power on time etc is good from what I`ve read, I`m not looking to get a top of the range one just a decent player - can anyone recommend this one or another one over it for similar price? It`s got to be able to be multi region for DVDs

Cheers

web design chester ¦ offensive 101

If you`re just looking for an entry level player you`ll be happy with either the Panasonic or Sony. Sony`s used to be better for SD playback, but I`m not sure if that still applies to newer models. How are you going to hook it up? Is HD audio important to you?

Thanks Chris, I`d be hooking it up via HDMI (the tv is 1080p) - my current amp has got hdmi input so I presume I could use that for HD audio? Can HD audio be transmitted through coaxial? That`s how it`s connected at the moment.

Also it`s only 5.1 does that matter? Never looked into the HD audio side of things before.

In your opinion is it worth splashing out a bit extra for a higher range model or would it just be for extra features of the player, nothing to improve picture/audio quality (significantly anyway)

web design chester ¦ offensive 101

You can`t send HD audio over coaxial because there`s not enough bandwidth. If yo amp has HDMI you can let the player decode and send to the amp as multi-channel PCM, but this will only work if your amp accepts PCM over HDMI (not all do). Either way you can probably use your amp to pass the video/audio from the player through to the TV via HDMi for a more elegant solution (less wires). You`ll still get standard Dolby Digital/DTS as a bare minimum. What amp do you have?

To be honest only a handful of BDs contain 6.1/7.1 tracks. If you only have 5.1 the extra channels are folded into the surrounds, so you don`t miss any sound per se, you just don`t hear it as separate discrete channels. I only have a 5.1 amp as I can`t accommodate 7.1 in my room.

Not to plug my site, but I wrote a guide to HD audio a few weeks ago if you fancy a look.

I`d say to get anything significantly better than the one you`re looking at you`d have to spend a lot more than your budget. The new Sony 730 has some features that sound good in the blurb, but a lot of them will probably reduce visible detail (all the DNR stuff). The DNLR features and wireless could be useful for some people though.

If you just plan on watching films I`d go for the 360 or the equivalent Panasonic. Both are good players and will serve you well (to paraphrase Luke Skywalker).

This item was edited on Wednesday, 28th October 2009, 16:14

I`ve noticed Richer Sounds advertise some of their players as being multi region for DVD playback only. Liek they used to do with DVD players, some models have 2 prices one no multi region, the other dvd mutli region.

Am i correct in thinking you still can`t get multi region blu ray players?

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Be A Zombie in a British horror film production and help charitable causes at the same time.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 28th October 2009, 16:52