Outlaw 950 owners..what blu-ray player?

starkiller

have an outlaw 950 and want to upgrade from my oppo 970 to a blu-ray player. i would like some recommendations on what blu-ray player to purchase. the upcoming oppo sounds like its going to be way too expensive, even with a possible tradein policy. will only need the player to watch movies with, no gaming or other frills. sound and picture need to be very good along with compatability with the 950.

older models are fine also.
thanks!

shawn474

I use the ps3 and love it.

Shawn

AndyGwis

PS3, also love it.

I think they have an 80gig for pretty cheap now. Got my 80gig Metal Gear Solid Pack and 2 remotes for something like $500. You can get it for much cheaper now.

be83663

Sony BDP-350 or 550. They are capable of sending Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA into bitstreams for your receiver to decode, allowing you to listen to these lossless sounds, whereas PS3 will allow you to only let the PS3 to decode these audio formats into PCM formats so that your receiver does not have to do decoding. I think it sounds better when Dolby TrueHD is decoded by a receiver rather than by a Blu-Ray player or a PS3, whereas PCM sounds better if a Blu-Ray player or PS3 decodes them rather than by a receiver.

millerman 3732

Panasonic BD-55, its will decode all the lossless formats internally and send then out via 7.1 analogs, since your 950 doesn't have HDMI this is the only way you will be able to hear the lossless codecs.

be83663

True, but I think if a Blu-Ray player decodes Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD and send the audio information out as PCM formats to a receiver, then, somehow, it sounds worse, muddled and obscured, than Dolby Digital or DTS sent out into bitstreams for a receiver to decode. I tested with my set-up extensively, and it was the case for some reason.

Sherardp

PS3 if you need the gaming support, if you want a stand alone player, then Panasonic BD30 for a great price of 249-300 bucks, then the new models 35/55

Ron-P

starkiller wrote: »

have an outlaw 950 and want to upgrade from my oppo 970 to a blu-ray player. i would like some recommendations on what blu-ray player to purchase. the upcoming oppo sounds like its going to be way too expensive, even with a possible tradein policy. will only need the player to watch movies with, no gaming or other frills. sound and picture need to be very good along with compatability with the 950.

older models are fine also.
thanks!

What's your budget?

wingnut4772

One more for the PS3.

danger boy

I have an Outlaw 990 pre amp. and this is the Blu Ray player I am going after.

Panasonic DMP-BD55K 1080p Blu-Ray Player

It was just released a week ago.. and it does internal decoding off all the HD audio formats and sends them out via HDMI OR 7.1 analog. I needed the 7.1 analog outputs and to have the player decoded the lossless audio formats..

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001GAOYCI/interactiveda8765-20

MSRP $399 but the above link has it for about $336

dorokusai

The PS3.

starkiller

under $300 if possible. lets hope for some black friday deals

leroyjr1

PS3 all the way

cheddar

be83663 wrote: »

True, but I think if a Blu-Ray player decodes Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD and send the audio information out as PCM formats to a receiver, then, somehow, it sounds worse, muddled and obscured, than Dolby Digital or DTS sent out into bitstreams for a receiver to decode. I tested with my set-up extensively, and it was the case for some reason.

PCM often requires more attention to settings in the Receiver/Pre to make sure it's being processed properly. But it's my understanding that the Receiver/Pre decodes TrueHD and DTS-HD MA into PCM anyways even with bitstreaming. So you're getting the same PCM either way. It's just that the Receiver/Pre knows automatically to do things like boost the LFE channel +10 dbs (the bitstreamed version is recorded -10 dbs to conserve the required LFE bandwidth) but you may have to manually configure your Receiver/Pre to do the same with a multichannel PCM signal depending on the Receiver/Pre. I wouldn't make a blanket statement that all PCM from a player sounds muddled and obscured.

cheddar

starkiller wrote: »

under $300 if possible. lets hope for some black friday deals

TGIBlackFriday.com already lists Sears selling the s350 for $179.99.

starkiller

and the 350 will work fine with the 950??

cheddar

Sorry about that. Read that another person recommended it, but should have checked out the specs on both units myself. Beware a lot of the advice on this thread as some don't realise what components you are trying to match.

Millerman is correct that your 950 doesn't have hdmi which will dictate how you can or can't receive the lossless audio. Seems to be an older component. Do you think you will replace it anytime soon? If so, you might want to think future compatibility with hdmi and just compromise for now since searching for analog outs AND internal decoding of TrueHD and DTS-HD MA will severely limit your choice of players. And it will probably make your search more expensive on the player side as hdmi and bitstreaming will open up far more choice in players/deals come black friday.

But with lossless audio, you basically only have the internal decode/analog out options. And IIRC, the s350 only has stereo analog outs. Likewise, the ps3 can only do stereo analog outs. So for full surround sound compatibility with the 950, you need a full set of multichannel analog outs from a player. You will also want a player that can decode both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA internally (The ps3 does, but the problem is still the number of analog outs.). The third lossless format, uncompressed PCM is almost universally handled by players and receiver/pre's, although again, you need those pesky multichannel analog outs or hdmi.

All blu-ray disks do come with DD and DTS tracks recorded at the maximum allowable bitrates for these older formats. So even if you didn't use analog outs, you could still listen to blu-ray disks by using toslink on players like the ps3. But if you have to have lossless now, again, your options are limited.

On the video front, I believe that some players limit things like upscaling, etc. if it's not over hdmi. So you should do research on the specs very carefully to make sure you're getting what you want through non-hdmi connections if you need them.

danger boy

As long as your pre amp has 5.1 channel analog inputs then you can use the Panasonic DMP-BD55K 1080p Blu-Ray Player.

I'm not familiar with your Outlaw 950's inputs

MKZ

Would it sounds better in TrueHD and DTS-HD MA with those analog inputs than older format with optical toslink connection?

dkg999

I just got the Sony S550 player, using it with the multi-channel analog inputs on my B&K AVR. I think the upconversion on this unit is better than the Panasonic, and it can be had for around $300 if you keep watching. Reviews are mixed, however I think it's a toss-up between the S550 and the Panny BD55K. My preference was for the S550 after a head-to-head comparison.

The funny thing is that my Cambridge Audio 540Dv2 killed them both in upconverted PQ and SQ from SD DVD's.

cheddar

MKZ wrote: »

Would it sounds better in TrueHD and DTS-HD MA with those analog inputs than older format with optical toslink connection?

Provided you have everything configured correctly and the lossless master is a quality remaster, it should always smoke vanilla dolby and DTS over toslink.

shawn474

I have the Outlaw 950 and a PS3 and I could really care less about the Dolby trueHD, etc. DTS and DD sound good enough to me not to worry about upgrading my components to have the latest and greatest formats. I suppose if it is that important to you, you may be better served going with a new pre or AVR that supports it and still get the PS3. I feel it is far and away the best bang for your buck as far as blu-ray goes.

Shawn

Marty913

danger boy wrote: »

As long as your pre amp has 5.1 channel analog inputs then you can use the Panasonic DMP-BD55K 1080p Blu-Ray Player.

I'm not familiar with your Outlaw 950's inputs

The Outlaw 950 has 5.1 inputs, not 7.1. Cheddar summed up your choices pretty well. With or without analog outs on the player, you are limited to 5.1 input on the Outlaw (via Toslink or analog).

I have a 950 and was planning on picking up the Sony 350, however after reading the early reviews on the Panasonic BD55K that will be my new choice. It has excellent up conversion of older DVD's plus you pick up the 7.1 outputs and decoding for future flexibility. The list price is the same as the Sony so why not take the freebies. The Panasonic is a recent arrival so the discounts may be better on the Sony.

starkiller

guess its time for a general question. how much difference in picture quality will i get from a blu-ray player in the $400 and under price range on a 42" plasma at 10ft compared to my oppo 970 playing a "normal" dvd??

reason i ask is that come next february i will be getting a severance pkg from work and will have some extra $ to spend say on a "better" player. so i dont want to spend the $ now if i can either get a much better picture come next feb or the difference in picture quality is not worth the $ either.

thanks!

danger boy

I would just wait starkiller.. Feb isn't that far away.

starkiller

yeah, i was thinking about that but you never know what kind of black friday deals might be in the works, especially w/retailers really hurting right now.

cheddar

starkiller wrote: »

how much difference in picture quality will i get from a blu-ray player in the $400 and under price range on a 42" plasma at 10ft compared to my oppo 970 playing a "normal" dvd??

Now you're getting into an area where the best thing would be for you to compare the image on players directly. People will have an opinion on different dvd upconversions, but they will be looking for things that may or may not matter to you. I have a reon chip in my onkyo that does a spectacular job. But I don't notice any great difference between that chip and my ps3's upconversion on my 45" LCD at around 8ft. Both look just fine with even the Reon looking bad with bad source material. I find that convenience often dictates which one I choose. I just let the ps3 handle everything that goes through it so I'm always getting a 1080p signal from the player.

$400 is actually quite a lot of money as blu-ray player prices come down. The sales are already here. I think Walmart had some sort of one day sale yesterday with a $100 gift card and a ps3. And Kmart is having some sort of Thursday sale with an s350 for around $179. I know these aren't the players you want. But they're examples of the deals that might be around by black friday. So you might want to start demoing some players to see which ones meet your upscaling criteria so you're ready to pull the trigger if one comes up for a good price.

starkiller

wont the s350 work ok??

Ron-P

starkiller wrote: »

under $300 if possible. lets hope for some black friday deals

The PS3 is a great machine, but, being that it's HDMI you will not have access to the HD audio formats. Which may or may not be an issue for you. Myself, it's a big deal. To put it into perspective, DD and DTS compared to TrueHD and DTS-MA is like comparing VHS to SD-DVD, the HD audio codec's are that much better.

There is a rumor that Samsungs BD-P1500 with be around $150 on black Friday, so, if you're not in a hurry wait and see what the holiday sales have to offer.

cheddar

starkiller wrote: »

wont the s350 work ok??

See post #17 above. Your 950 is limited to analog outs for access to multichannel lossless audio. You can go with regular DD and DTS on blu-rays via standard digital connections like toslink and just wait until you upgrade your 950 to hear lossless through hdmi. DD and DTS are recorded on blu-rays at their maximum bitrates of 640kbps and 1.5 mbps. They sound good, just not as good as lossless.

MKZ

Panasonic DMP-BD55K 1080p Blu-ray Player for $310.64, after the FOUR free movies and coupon.

http://www.amazon.com