Do you own a Blu-Ray Player?

[jsquare]

I was wondering how many people here own a Blu-Ray player or use other method to watch HD material?

Cost of the hardware still high compared to DVD, and that's why some of us are not ready to make the transition, these are some of the deals for Blu-Ray hardware as June 2009(US Only):

Newegg sells PC BR drives as low as $80 Linky (http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=598&name=Blu-Ray-Drives) or twice as much for a Burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&SubCategory=600&N=2000100600&SpeTabStoreType=0)
BestBuy has their home-brand Insignia Blu-Ray player for $130 Linky (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8964178&type=product&id=1217029959586)
You could get a Sony PS3 80GB for $250 if you apply for their credit card Linky (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=1&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644595898)

The cheapest deal is a notebook BR/DVD-RW drive for around $50 on eBay, do a search for Panasonic UJ-210.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I was wondering how many people here own a Blu-Ray player or use other method to watch HD material?

I have no BR drive/player yet. But if I ever get one, then I will buy a BR drive for my PC ;)

Certainly I won't buy a new TV screen plus a standalone players (BR or whatever) nowadays. Stopped using my old CRT screen and standalone DVD player long ago :D

The PC is much more powerful and flexible. The perfect multi-media "all in one" device. And since you have a PC + LCD screen at home anyway...

[SeeMoreDigital]

I have a Panasonic DMP-BD35. As todays players go it's not bad at all. And does a good job at up-scaling DVD's too.

I however, see this player only as an "intermediate device". Indeed, given the frequency at which manufacturers are adding functions and features to their new players, I reckon by this time next year they'll be able to play stuff stored on our personal media servers/NAS's ;)

[NobbyNobbs]

I choose "I use my PC with Blu-Ray drive and software player", as that is closest, but really use the blue-Ray drive to get the movie onto the computer, where I convert the movie/episodes to MKV using RipBot264 or MeGUI, and then watch it on the TV using my HDX1000.

[Ghitulescu]

I own a Pio 51FD European model.

Has a very good quality and plays also BD5/9 (all codecs, incl. Java menus) or AVCHD discs (firmware .17), which other BD players cannot. A HDD-player is not necessary yet.

[Ghitulescu]

None of above or I don't care about Blu-Ray? Are they really the same? Maybe I'm interessed into BD world, just waiting for some normal prices.

[jsquare]

None of above or I don't care about Blu-Ray? Are they really the same? Maybe I'm interessed into BD world, just waiting for some normal prices.
Not is not the same, I was going to add another choice to the poll but decided on a 2 in 1 answer instead.
That would be my choice, I own a HTPC and still debating b/w a BR drive for it or a SA unit, but until prices drop below $50 mark I don't think is worth it.

[Gokumon]

The PC is much more powerful and flexible. The perfect multi-media "all in one" device. And since you have a PC + LCD screen at home anyway...

Yes, watching movies on a ~20 inch screen is so much better than watching them on something 50+ inches. :rolleyes: :p

[turbojet]

Here's some things you might want to consider when deciding between pc or standalone playback from someone who does both.

Price:
BD-ROM drive + PowerDVD/Arcsoft = $180+ a remote is another $20+
You can find BD standalones in the USA for < $150

PC advantages:
Could be less of a hassle with backups, depending on what the standalone is capable of playing and what the backups are
streaming support for things other than BD/DVD/CD playback

Standalone advantages:
DTS-HD, TrueHD with a capable receiver
much better BD-Live support
more functions on remote control, greater range
cleaner interface/less steps to play a BD/DVD/CD
better multi-angle support
cooler, uses less power, usually quieter, better looking(?) box sitting by the tv
arguably better picture quality, at least it noticeably is for me

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Yes, watching movies on a ~20 inch screen is so much better than watching them on something 50+ inches. :rolleyes: :p

You know that not everybody is living a huge house with a big living room where it would make sense to have screen of that dimension?

Screen size alone doesn't say anything. It must be judged in relation to the viewing distance.

In my case 22" is more than sufficient, because my chair is located right in front of the escritoire with the screen on it ;)

But even if I had a 50" screen and the room to actually use it, I still would connect it a PC or to a HTPC rather than a standalone player...

[Ghitulescu]

Yes, watching movies on a ~20 inch screen is so much better than watching them on something 50+ inches. :rolleyes: :p

Yes, you can "squeeze" more and more the movies, since you won't be able to see the artefacts caused by the low bitrate. On a 14" you can even say that 700MB DIVX has the same quality as a 30GB BD.
;)

[Wishbringer]

A 20" Screen can have a 1920x1080 resolution too (like a 56" Plasma I own).
And you can see artifacts on both screens from bad encodes of a BD.

It all depends on distance of viewer.
On my Plasma, all pixels are around 1mm,
on my TFT, all pixels are around 0,25mm.

when I sit in front of my tft, there is a distance of 60 cm and I can see the pixels.
when I sit at TV, around 3m, I can't see them.

[Shakey_Jake33]

I have a PS3 (imported US, hardware backwards compatible), but being primarily a gamer, I bought it for gaming.

I bought a US machine because I mostly import my games from the US (although PS3 games are region free, I needed it to be backwards compatible with US PS2 games). However, I was conscious of the fact that I needed a Region A machine, since I import a lot of DVDs from Japan (and can still buy US discs to cover my western wants), and hopefully Blu-Rays when they become a more reasonable price.

I have about 5 Blu-Rays. However, I have no desire to spend more money on Blu-Rays while they are cost what they do now. When they drop below ~£10 and enter the DVD price range, I'll be a little more inclined.

[jsquare]

Although I have 2 HTPCs setups I still prefer to watch my DVDs on my old Sharp 55" RPTV with a JVC DVD Player, and Sat/Regular TV on my TiVo. As far as ATSC a Samsung DTV tuner is used since this TV doesn't have a digital tuner. The living room HTPC is hooked to the Sharp via component @1080i, and for audio to an Onkyo 5.1 receiver. The bedroom HTPC is also my main PC with a Westinghouse 37" 1080p LCD monitor and Creative 2.1 speakers.

Both XP-MCE based HTPCs are mainly used for HuluDesktop/XBMC mix, Hulu offers a variety of TV shows and selected movies with very good PQ, XBMC serves for my XviD collection, YouTube, other scripts and music, MCE is hardly used and all 3 (MCE/Hulu/XBMC) are controlled with the MCE Remote/Receiver using EventGhost for launching Hulu/XBMC and additional remote keys support.

On both setups you can tell the limitations of Xvid quality, using a good decoder like Divx post-processing filters could improve things a bit, but I still prefer Xvid over x264 for encoding.

Once the price of BR hardware comes down I'll make the transition, for now I'm OK with my setup.

[SeeMoreDigital]

On both setups you can tell the limitations of Xvid quality, using a good decoder like Divx post-processing filters could improve things a bit, but I still prefer Xvid over x264 for encoding. Have you ever considered using a hardware player with "network" connectivity support?

[TinTime]

I've got Blu-Ray and HDDVD drives for my HTPC. I always rip movies first and remux to mkv (AnyDVD / eac3to / mkvmerge). Obviously much slower than popping a disc into a SAP but I rip them as soon as I get the disc, rather than when I want to watch them, so the final mkvs just sit on my pc until I'm ready to watch them. In the future I'm going to add more storage space to my home server so I can just store my HD films on that (my DVDs are already there).

[Gokumon]

Yes, you can "squeeze" more and more the movies, since you won't be able to see the artefacts caused by the low bitrate. On a 14" you can even say that 700MB DIVX has the same quality as a 30GB BD.
;)

No you can't unless you're half-blind or sitting 10 feet back.

[Gokumon]

You know that not everybody is living a huge house with a big living room where it would make sense to have screen of that dimension?

Screen size alone doesn't say anything. It must be judged in relation to the viewing distance.

In my case 22" is more than sufficient, because my chair is located right in front of the escritoire with the screen on it ;)

Even if the TV was smaller, most people enjoy watching movies on a couch in their living room then at their desk in a desk chair.

But even if I had a 50" screen and the room to actually use it, I still would connect it a PC or to a HTPC rather than a standalone player...

But if all you want is to play BDs/DVDs buying a PC for that job which will cost more than a standalone player is wasting money that could be spent towards other things.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

But if all you want is to play BDs/DVDs buying a PC for that job which will cost more than a standalone player is wasting money that could be spent towards other things.

Yes. But most people have a PC at home anyway, for office work, for internet/communication, for audio/video processing, for gaming, and so on...

[Ghitulescu]

Here's some things you might want to consider when deciding between pc or standalone playback from someone who does both.

Price:
BD-ROM drive + PowerDVD/Arcsoft = $180+ a remote is another $20+
You can find BD standalones in the USA for < $150

PC advantages:
Could be less of a hassle with backups, depending on what the standalone is capable of playing and what the backups are
streaming support for things other than BD/DVD/CD playback

Standalone advantages:
DTS-HD, TrueHD with a capable receiver
much better BD-Live support
more functions on remote control, greater range
cleaner interface/less steps to play a BD/DVD/CD
better multi-angle support
cooler, uses less power, usually quieter, better looking(?) box sitting by the tv
arguably better picture quality, at least it noticeably is for me

A very good summary indeed.

A few missing points:
A PC will much easily go broken (vira, drivers, incompatibilities, reinstallations - I say this generally because mines do not have such symptoms since 2003) than a SAP.
Is a SAP broken, then you can send it quickly (well ;)) to be repaired, while repairing a universal PC will block everything (internet, games, office work, BD play, MP3 play etc.). Then it comes the "hunt" for drivers, codecs and software. And re-registrations ;).
Also, no matter how slow a SAP is, a PC will always be slower, unless custom solutions are created (in this case is no longer a PC ;) but a PC-based multimedia player).
The big advantage of a PC-based solution is its versatility: you can always change the software player for a better quality, more features or simply to keep up with changes.

In between the SAPs and PCs are the new multimedia players, be they external HDDs with video output and RC or the so called media extenders. These are the worst of two worlds, because they have to obey DRM (usually) and they are (again usually) cheap built since they have to be cheaper than multimedia PCs and they have to compete with "universal" DVD-players (the ones that can play multimedia files from an USB-based external HDD).

Personally I use the PC not as a player (I never did) but as a A/V editing machine. Also I use dedicated PCs for each job (office, inet, video, audio). This way I don't have to worry about vira, or that the latest demo game f**ked up again my system, or internet trojans. And if one PC goes broken I can continue to work on another one.

[Ghitulescu]

No you can't unless you're half-blind or sitting 10 feet back.

Oh, yes, I did that experiment.

I know lot of people ready to swear on the quality of a Divx over the original DVD, and I'm not talking here about divx that were made using various post-processing filters, but made by "1click [trial] software" (generic term for dumb divx transcoders). Most of them accepted the quality loss as a fair trade for HDD space gain, but only after I've told them where exactly to look for quality degradations.

The moral of this experiment is that quality is a matter of personal taste.

[jsquare]

Have you ever considered using a hardware player with "network" connectivity support?
Yes I did, Pinnacle Showcase WiFi Media Center but I wasn't very impressed, it had a few bugs and PQ was similar to Tivo S1. But still have 2 old XBOX running XBMC networked around the house and they do a pretty good job streaming my Xvids/Youtube, family members are not as demanding as me for PQ.

[Lyris]

I have a Region A PS3, a Region B Panasonic DMP-BD35, and a BD-RE drive for my PC. It's the only way to watch high quality movies, especially on a projector.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Yes I did, Pinnacle Showcase WiFi Media Center but I wasn't very impressed...Yep... That was a terrible device. And anything below Wi-Fi "N" is too unreliable for standard resolution video or higher.

[Emoto]

I don't know if a blu-ray player would really bring any improvement to images on my 720p CRT TV. Thoughts?

[Soulhunter]

Cheap LG BR-drive -> Ripping -> MPC -> 24" Eizo :)

[Ghitulescu]

I don't know if a blu-ray player would really bring any improvement to images on my 720p CRT TV. Thoughts?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=146305

[jj666]

I have an Asus Blu-ray drive in the PC which I'm generally only using to back up the disks for playback on Popcornhour media player. I didn't find any PC software that would work in an acceptable way for playback using the HD audio.

Cheers,

-jj-

[Lyris]

I don't know if a blu-ray player would really bring any improvement to images on my 720p CRT TV. Thoughts?
Yes, yes, yes.

[Schrade]

I use my PS3. Absolutely love it. I also like using PS3 Media Server with it to serve my encoded movies over the network, too.

[Shinigami-Sama]

once I can pick up a BD drive for 40$ I'll pick one up
till then its my PC and multi-terabyte library...
on my 24" benQ set to movie mode
I could hook a SAP up to my monitor but I've already got speakers hooked up to the PC..

[G_M_C]

Own a Panasonic DP30 stand-alone BD player. I've switched over to HD last year, upgrading to Onkyo TX-SR875, Panasoninc 42PZ85 and the Panasonic BD player. Never regretted the switch-over, and since then DVD doesnt really "do it" for me anymore. And i'm slowly replacing my DVD-collection with the BD versions.

And i'm now waiting to be able to get my hands on a EU versin of Oppo's BDP-83 (so i'm in the marked for my second stand allone BD-player).

[jsquare]

Well I finally decided for the PS3 Slim, very good deal from Dell last week, $265 shipped including taxes.
I will close the poll now since it seems dead now.