Best blu-ray player on the market under $299.

JZsFinest

I know Oppo is the best blu-ray player out right now. But what do you guys think would be the best sub-$299 blu-ray player right now?

Sherardp

The other Oppo BD80 man

Conradicles

Sherardp wrote: »

The other Oppo BD80 man

hehe

JZsFinest

it doesn't have 24p conversion though

cstmar01

The oppo. I personally like Pios but thats me (BDP-51, 23, ect) The PS3 is also good and fits your price point.

punk-roc

Ps3?

wutadumsn23

+1 on the PS3, it is IMHO, the best Blu Ray player at your price point out there. Not even taking into consideration all the other stuff it does, it does Blu Rays very well.

-Jeff

cnh

punk-roc wrote: »

Ps3?

PS3! Yes, they can play blu-rays, game, stream audio and video files. You can upgrade or replace their hard drives for near infinite amounts of storage, browse the web. There are periodic...automatic upgrades for this device, it may be upgradable to 3D and has one of the most powerful CPUs available in ANY computing machine!

And let's face it, when it comes to a blu-ray picture. Unless you're going to use a PROJECTION system that will give you a 90" or greater picture..i.e., if you have a set from 40-65" you're going to be hard pressed to see Picture Quality differences between any major blu-ray manufacturer!

Of course there is the question of upconversion which the PS3 does Ok but which the Oppo, supposedly, does better! Again, not having seen that difference I'm not sure how 'noticeable' it actually is?

Under 299....I'd go with almost anything including the PS3 for blu-ray.

cnh

wutadumsn23

cnh wrote: »

PS3! Yes, they can play blu-rays, game, stream audio and video files. You can upgrade or replace their hard drives for near infinite amounts of storage, browse the web. There are periodic...automatic upgrades for this device, it will be upgradable to 3D and has one of the most powerful CPUs available in ANY computing machine!

And let's face it, when it comes to a blu-ray picture. Unless you're going to use a PROJECTION system that will give you a 90" or greater picture..i.e., if you have a set from 40-65" you're going to be hard pressed to see Picture Quality differences between any major blu-ray manufacturer!

Of course there is the question of upconversion which the PS3 does Ok but which the Oppo, supposedly, does better! Again, not having seen that difference I'm not sure how 'noticeable' it actually is?

Under 299....I'd go with almost anything including the PS3 for blu-ray.

cnh

There, I fixed it for ya, lol. Link below direct from Sony on the firmware update that will make the PS3 3D capable. No date for the update as of yet though, man I love my PS3!! I echo C's comments about the PS3 all day and twice on Sunday!!

-Jeff

http://www.techspot.com/news/37054-sony-playstation-3-to-be-3dcapable-via-firmware-update.html

Sherardp

I hate the PS3, but I have to admit it does have a nice feature set. I won't let my own personal thoughts ruin what the machine can actually do. For a BD player it's pretty good. As mentioned the Oppo BD80, PS3, Pioneers, Pannys, or Sony. I have 3 BD players and they all play well. The Oppo was an improvement in my HT, but that maybe due to the 126" screen.

billbillw

If you are not going to splurge for the Oppo 83, then I don't see any reason to spend more than ~$150 on one of the mid-range Panasonic models. Since you have an SR805, you don't need analog audio output. Amongst the mid-range pack, there is not much difference in upscaling ability either.

dl090465

i love my PS3, i hate the bluetooth remote so i got the chesak NYKO usb IR remote and copied the commands to my AEROS MX 850...just wish I could power it on with my remote...

wutadumsn23

dl090465 wrote: »

i love my PS3, i hate the bluetooth remote so i got the chesak NYKO usb IR remote and copied the commands to my AEROS MX 850...just wish I could power it on with my remote...

Logitech makes an adapter that allows you to turn it on and off with their Harmony remotes.

-Jeff

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remotes/universal_remotes/devices/5732&cl=us,en

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'm actually looking at moving things around in my setup, moving the PS3 to the bedroom and grabbing another Blu Ray player for the living room.

I'm looking at getting the Sony S370, does anyone have a compelling reason why I should look at something different in this price range? It seems to have a decent enough picture from what I can find in reviews, has all the streaming services, has SACD Playback, and will be getting DLNA functionality in July, which should allow streaming of content on my PC.

Gulfstrings

I'm really happy with my Pioneer BDP-320. Now at Amazon (others) for $168. Check the specs.

Dave

flyfisher

Gulfstrings wrote: »

I'm really happy with my Pioneer BDP-320. Now at Amazon (others) for $168. Check the specs.

Dave

I was looking into that model,how is the loading time?

JZsFinest

Aren't the Pioneer *20 series just rebadged Sharp models?

ScottyDog

New
Sony BDP-S570
$249

Features: Full HD 1080p, BRAVIA Internet Video streaming, built-in Wi-Fi, 3D Blu-ray Disc playback capability, iPhone®/iPod touch® remote control, Quick Start/Quick Load, USB slot, DVD playback and upscaling, DLNA Certified™
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666077660

Danny Tse

ScottyDog wrote: »

New
Sony BDP-S570
$249

Features: Full HD 1080p, BRAVIA Internet Video streaming, built-in Wi-Fi, 3D Blu-ray Disc playback capability, iPhone®/iPod touch® remote control, Quick Start/Quick Load, USB slot, DVD playback and upscaling, DLNA Certified™
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666077660

CNET has a "professional" review of the Sony BDP-S570, but there's not much details.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I think I'm gonna go with the S370 and pick one up on the way home. It's basically the 570 but without 3D support (don't want it) and without wireless built in (don't need it)

AsSiMiLaTeD

Jeezus CNET reviews are such crap. It's statements like the one below that completely invalidate anything else they have to say:

Overall, enabling quick start will cost you a little over $6 a year, which is enough to consider just waiting a few extra seconds for the player to boot up without quick start.

Are you serious? If I'm in a situation where $6 a year has ANY effect whatsoever on ANY decision that I make then I should probably be spending my money on something besides a Blu Ray player.

Vankor

You'd think that since Blu-ray was SONY'S baby, that their players would be the best for playing them, PS3 included.

cheddar

Vankor wrote: »

You'd think that since Blu-ray was SONY'S baby, that their players would be the best for playing them, PS3 included.

The ps3 used to be the best player on the market for years as long as you didn't need multichannel analog outs for audio or out-of-the-box IR remote compatibility. It came out back in 2006, basically at the launch of the format. While other manufacturers had problems with Java BD compatibility, horrible load times, etc., the ps3 had fast load times and could view disks other players couldn't. As other manufacturer's players quickly became obsolete, the ps3 kept current through frequent online firmware updates. These updates included things like 24fps movies, DVD upconversion, DTS-HD MA decoding (it already did TrueHD), and will include the ability to do 3D as well. All this made possible because as a game machine, it was overengineered for a blu-ray player with plenty of hardware headroom to add features. And while other players initially cost around 1000 bucks, the ps3 was the cheapest blu-ray player on the market at launch at about 400 bucks cheaper because they traditionally sell game players at a loss and make up the profit later on game software sales. The new slim adds TrueHD and DTS-HD MA bitstream capability.

cheddar

However, there is now too much competition in the market to say any player is the 'best'. You really have to look at your individual needs and match them with a player's feature set. I wouldn't limit yourself to any one manufacturer as they all will compromise somewhat on price vs. features. And the ps3 3d upgrade will probably not be the full 1080p 3d available in the latest players. With refurbs at Frys going for as low as around 239 bucks, it's still a good player for the price (and still in the OP's price range new at $299). But players like the universal oppo player now exceed its feature set in some areas, especially since they took SACD capability out.

mantis

At this price point the LG BD390 is my favorite.
http://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/video/LG-blu-ray-dvd-player-BD390.jsp

This is a fast loading excellent player at this price point.

danz1906

Panasonic BD-85........$249.00

Gulfstrings

flyfisher wrote: »

I was looking into that model,how is the loading time?

Its my first BDP so nothing to compare to. Other have said these are slow. Not aproblem for us.

Dave

Jer.War

My first player, also my current player, is a Samsung- BDP1600. It is the newer version of the old BDP-1500. The performance of the player has been flawless so far, the main reason I went with a Samsung was in interest of brand matching with my tv (I cant handle anymore damn REMOTES!!! The Anynet functionality is nice (Turn the Blu ray on, TV turns on, switches the the right input and settings. Shut the TV off Blu ray shuts down... Not exactly critical I know, but I figured at this low price range ($159 with Dark Knight), the performance of all the Main-Name Brand players would be close.
However, the disc mechanism for this player is pretty loud. Whenever it turns on, or loads a menu a rather lound mechanical hummm is heard. Much louder than my buddy's BDP-1500. Other than the noise though, the sound, picture, and upconversion are very strong with this player. Havent had to uprgade it once either.

JZsFinest

I got a PS3.

cheddar

Congrats on your new purchase. Slim? How big is the hard drive?

If you bought a small hard drive model and you think you might store a lot of media files locally on the hard drive (movies, music, pictures, games, etc.) you might want to change the hard drive earlier rather than later to avoid the hassle of moving all your stuff. It uses generic SATA notebook hard drives. You can find these from 350GB-500GB for 50-80 bucks. Pop the hdd cover off, unscrew one screw, slide the hard drive cage out, transfer the cage to the new drive and reverse. Boot the ps3, follow the prompts to format the drive, done. Not absolutely necessary, especially if you will use it primarily as a blu-ray player. But could save later trouble if you find you like the machine's multimedia capabilities. Play around with it, it may take some time to discover all the things the ps3 can do.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Just a note that I picked up my Sony BDP-S370 on Friday night.

I think it's one of the most well featured players with no 'glitches' at this price. Here are some observations:

The Good:
- Blu Ray Playback is superb, superior to the PS3 in my opinion
- Very fast loading time, significantly faster than the PS3
- SACD support over HDMI and the 2 channel analog stage, I can't test the HDMI, but over analog it's good, about on par with my CE595
- Plenty of 'online streaming' choices, I really only use Netflix but there are lots of options there.
- Netflix looks absolutely beautiful on this machine
- DLNA support, so you can stream stuff off your PC (huge selling point for me)
- I personally like the menu system, but that's more of a preference I suppose

The Not So Good:
- DVD upconversion is ok, but not superb. I doubt any of the players in this class are going to have great upconversion, the Panasonic is probably going to be best at that.
- DLNA isn't functional yet. It is listed on the specs for this player, but with a footnote that it's coming in July.
- Netflix streaming requires more bandwidth than other devices at a given quality level. So if you're at quality level 2 and your PS3 requires 1 MB speed, this player will want 3 MB. Sony tells you this up front, this player lists a minimum connection speed of 2.5, whereas other players list around 1 MB. It's kinda hard to explain, and I don't know why it is, but the bottom line is if you don't have a great connection and want to do Netflix, then this isn't the player for you.

I went into this pretty much knowing what I wanted in terms of features and quality. Something like the Pioneer BD-320 is a great player and is going to have better picture and sound overall, but doesn't have any of the streaming features I want. The two Oppo players fall into the same group, great picture and sound but no streaming support.

What I needed was something with all the features I need, and that's 'good enough' in terms of video and sound, and my budget was $200.

There were really 4 players I was looking at that were in my price range and had the features I wanted: Panasonic, Samsung, LG, and this player.

Most of the Samsung models, including the one I was looking at, have been plagued with quality issues, mostly related to glitches and such during playback. I'm sure it's not every player, but I've seen it come up enough from user reviews and other reviews for it to be enough of a concern to turn mee off from their players.

So it really came down to a toss-up between the Panasonic, LG, and Sony. So why did I choose this over the other players? It really came down to this player having two key features that the other two players didn't have

- SACD support. Like I said, it's as good as my CE595 for SACD playback, so now I've moved that other player into the bedroom rig, so I effectively get another SACD player out of the deal
- DLNA support. Although it's not there yet, this is a huge selling point for me. The Panasonic doesn't have it and isn't slated to get it. The LG doesn't have it, I have to spend another $70 to get the BD-570 to get it. The Samsung has it, but not worth the reliability issues. Also, these are all the 2010 players I've been looking at, so it's unlikely that anything is going to come out this year that has it. So I decided to grab this player and wait for it, maybe they will release it before the promised date, who knows...

So there are my thoughts, overall I'm very happy with my new Sony BDP.