BD players @ Costco

ken brydson

I was in my local Costco and was looking at the BDP's that they currently have.
Sony BDP- BX2 for $179
Panny DMP-BD605K for $229 - $60 rebate= $169
Does anyone have any experience with either of these players. I'm a total noob when it comes to BD stuff. Googled them both and found very few reviews. Apparently both are special to Costco (incl HDMI cable) and have different model #'s than what other stores have.
I've heard that analog outs are desireable. Neither has them. I don't understand why they are needed. Doesn't everything run thru the HDMI?
The Sony has wireless, the Panny wired internet connectivity. From what I've gathered, the "regular" store versions of both units fare pretty well.
Love to get an Oppo but $500 isn't in the cards right now.

ken brydson

Anyone?

Falcon01

If you can afford the Panasonic BD60 for $169 then go for it. I have its predecessor which is the BD35 and I love it. I also have a PS3 and I use the Panny for bluray because the picture is a little bit cleaner and it Bitstreams the audio through HDMI to the receiver. That way the receiver can do all the decoding.

People with older receivers like the analogue audio outputs on the player because that way they can hook up the player into the multi-channel inputs on the receiver and hear the newer audio codecs (Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD, etc) that way. In this setup the bluray player decodes all the audio (instead of the receiver) and sends it out through the analogue cables as PCM to the receiver.

The Panasonic bluray players get great reviews. Do a search for the BD60 as it is basically the same unit.

I hope this helps.

Marty913

+1 on the Panasonic BD60 for $169 (between the two). I also have the BD35 from last year and love it. Especially great at up-converting standard DVD. If you plan on running it through a receiver with Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD decoding capability then the multi-channel outputs would be of little value. I also agree that the Oppo is probably the best player for the money right now if you need it's other features but for simple standard and BR play quality the Panasonic at $169 is a great buy.

ken brydson

Thanks for the input guys. Anyone have experience with the Sony? The Wifi sounds convenient as opposed to running a cable but not at the expense of performance.

Marty913

ken brydson wrote: »

Thanks for the input guys. Anyone have experience with the Sony? The Wifi sounds convenient as opposed to running a cable but not at the expense of performance.

I tested the predecessor models last year before going with the Panasonic (35) so it may not be fair for these two. The Sony (350) had slower load time and the up-conversion was not as good (which is important to me). I believe the Sony one at Costco is a 360 so may be different. As far as I know from the reviews, neither one has wireless. Bd-Live stuff of any value is almost non-existent so I never use it. I only connect the Ethernet for firmware upgrades. I suppose the net streaming (Netflix, Pandora) would be a nice feature but I think you have to move over to Samsung for that (in that price range). Don't think the Sony or the Panny do streaming. Even then I think the Sammy 1600 which is priced comparably requires a "wireless accessory" kit add-on but it does do wired streaming.

I guess it depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

Falcon01

Honestly, I would still go with the Panasonic. I've never had a single issue with any bluray discs while others, including Sony and Samsung players needed updates to play the same movies. Plus the picture quality is very good and the upconverting of regular DVD's ain't too shabby either.

Great product!