Blu-Ray - What to buy?

[m99]

I guess it's time to go for Blu-Ray now, but what to buy?
So far I have found two cheap players, but I know almost nothing about them, any here who have some advice?

Sony BDP-S350
Samsung BD-P1500

Some criteria I think of now:
It would be nice if it could be made zone free (both Blu-Ray and DVD).
Plays higher resolution DivX etc.
Good upscaling of DVD.
...

[Atak_Snajpera]

I would buy PS3 :)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I'd buy a Blu-ray ROM drive for ~70 € and plug it to my PC ;)

[rack04]

Panasonic BD35/55.

[m99]

What about making it zone free? That is especially important for DVD since I have quite a collection.

[Doom9]

Regionfree is another reason to forego standalones for now.. there's hardly anything modded available. Too bad nobody makes Atom mainboards with a decent onboard GFX card.. those could run entirely passively and together with a Blu-ray drive and the appropriate media player could be an almost perfect Blu-ray and DVD player.
I finally saw a profile 2.0 capable player for below $200 just the other day.. and the only thing that prevented me from replacing the DVD player in the living room was the fact that from more than 100 Blu-ray discs only two are region B.. and seeing that the average price inlocal stores is still at least $35, my region B collection isn't going to grow any time soon. DVDs aren't so much of a problem since I put everything on two 5 bay NAS and got me a Popcornhour, but I need bigger HDs to be available before the same thing becomes viable for Blu-ray (plus I need a networked streamer that handles Blu-ray.. though that seems to be coming soon).

[cwl7454]

Does anybody know of a standalone bluray that will play DL, all the ones that I looked at didn't include DL for some reason and from there need to be sure that it includes pc format playback?

If not, see that there is a wifi for 1080p availible if need be.

[Atak_Snajpera]

PS3 should play everything :) (Xvid in avi , H.264 in mp4 , m2ts ...) or this http://funai.pl/Produkty/cid,8,pid,50

[cwl7454]

@Atak_Snajpera

thanks for the link, see NB500 is availible since 2nd qtr for sale in the states, but what about the B1-M110 or are they the same unit?
Can find reviews on it but not a price or order outlet for the states.

[cwl7454]

I see that the funai is apparantly being marketed and sold under the insignia brand here in the states. $229. or there abouts. Reveiws are ok for the price.

Also found this Panasonic that says that it plays what I need;DMP-BD35
CD , DVD , BD-R , CD-R , BD-RE , CD-RW , DVD+R , DVD-R , BD-ROM , DVD+RW , DVD-RW , DVD-RAM , DVD+R DL , DVD-R DL; 3 places @ $250. Think that I will wait to see what it drops to after Christmas.

Thanks for all your help :thanks:

[MadMonkey57]

As stated in the above post; the Panasonic DMP-BD35 plays a bunch of disc types, and is really fantastic for Blu Ray.
The only 2 things I'm currently struggling with are Blu Ray content on DVD and AVCHD...

Still great player though.

[baudi]

The best multiplayer is the Pioneer BDP-51FD. It reads BD-Rom, BD-R, BD-RE, DVD+R DL, DVD-Rom, DVD-R, CD-R, etc. like no other.

PS3 do not play .mkv files.

Also a good player is TViX 6500 with a very good .mkv support.

And the upcoming Dune HD Center Blu-Ray:
http://www.hdi.co.il/fullhd_players/67-dune_hd_center.html

[urod]

Panasonic DMP-BD35 plays Blu Ray content on DVD and plays AVCHD. No PAL disks however - big minus.

[MadMonkey57]

Panasonic DMP-BD35 plays Blu Ray content on DVD and plays AVCHD. No PAL disks however - big minus.

What player version ? EU ? US ?
If US, firmware upgrade to 1.6 applied ?

[Atak_Snajpera]

The best multiplayer is the Pioneer BDP-51FD. It reads BD-Rom, BD-R, BD-RE, DVD+R DL, DVD-Rom, DVD-R, CD-R, etc. like no other.

PS3 do not play .mkv files.
Show me Blu-ray player which can play .mkvs as well. If this Pioneer BDP-51FD is THE BEST tell me why PS3 is worse ? :) The price is similar + I have good console for games + Internet Browser and so on... Also PS3 is the most forgiving blu-ray player for your custom made AVCHD movies...

Also a good player is TViX 6500 with a very good .mkv support.
I wonder how you insert Blu-ray discs into that device ? :)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Show me Blu-ray player which can play .mkvs as well.

My PC extended with a BluRay drive for 73€ :sly:

[Atak_Snajpera]

My PC extended with a BluRay drive for 73€
Yeah , yeah , yeah ... very funny ... Stick to the topic.

[baudi]

Show me Blu-ray player which can play .mkvs as well. If this Pioneer BDP-51FD is THE BEST tell me why PS3 is worse ? :) The price is similar + I have good console for games + Internet Browser and so on... Also PS3 is the most forgiving blu-ray player for your custom made AVCHD movies...


I wonder how you insert Blu-ray discs into that device ? :)


>> Show me Blu-ray player which can play .mkvs as well.
Dune HD Center Blu-Ray can play Blu-Ray and .mkv files.

>> If this Pioneer BDP-51FD is THE BEST tell me why PS3 is worse ?
My PS3 can not play several BD-R that Pioneer BDP-51FD can. PS3 is noisy whereas Pio 51 is quiet. Pio 51 has better image and sound quality than PS3. Pio 51 can bitstream Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD MA through HDMI.

>> The price is similar
PS3 is cheaper than Pio 51.

>> I have good console for games + Internet Browser and so on...
This thread is intended for Blu-Ray players, not consoles neither Internet browsers, but certainly those are good options.

>> Also PS3 is the most forgiving blu-ray player for your custom made AVCHD movies...
Pio 51 and Pio 71, for instance, are better for AVCHD movies.

Let me say, finally, than PS3 is a very good option for Blu-Ray player, but not the best.

>>I wonder how you insert Blu-ray discs into that device ?
Attach an external USB Blu-Ray player to the TViX 6500 and you´ll see...

Best wishes.

[Atak_Snajpera]

Pio 51 and Pio 71, for instance, are better for AVCHD movies.
I need facts! This simple sentence means nothing for me.

Pio 51 has better image and sound quality than PS3. Pio 51 can bitstream Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD MA through HDMI.
i see no reason why video quality would be worse on PS3 !?!? It supports FullRGB (or 'super white' if I recall correctly). It has also very good upscaler algorithm. I believe that audio issue will be fixed in new firmware.

Attach an external USB Blu-Ray player to the TViX 6500 and you´ll see...
Yep... Great idea... ugly external drive. Another box under tv. No thanks!

[rack04]

Yep... Great idea... ugly external drive. Another box under tv. No thanks!

How about that ugly bluetooth remote? I love that my harmony remote controls everything. :sly:

The reason I didn't get the PS3 is because it can't bitstream advanced audio, it only has 2.0 analog out, and the fact that I wanted a standalone player not a console. I would never use the gaming functions of the console or internet browser. To each is own.

[baudi]

I need facts! This simple sentence means nothing for me.


i see no reason why video quality would be worse on PS3 !?!? It supports FullRGB (or 'super white' if I recall correctly). It has also very good upscaler algorithm. I believe that audio issue will be fixed in new firmware.


See:
http://forums.dvdfile.com/high-definition-hardware/66536-review-pioneer-bdp-51fd-blu-ray-disc-player.html

I suggest you to watch Pio 51 together with PS3 (like I´ve done) to see the improvement on video quality to convince yourself.

Best wishes.

[turbojet]

Does tvix 6500 really play bluray discs or DVD?
I don't own one but I see alot of reports that it doesn't.
Plus it's twice the price of your average bluray player.

PS3 is good but kinda loud as a player. If all you want is to play BD I would suggest the Sony BDP-350 or Samsung BD-P1500. They are some of the more inexpensive players and they seem to have great support for x264 encodes. They offer just as much if not more then more expensive players. Some people are having issues with x264 encodes on Panasonic BD35/55 otherwise I'd suggest them too.

[nurbs]

I doubt it plays BDs and DVDs. It's not mentioned anywhere on their website. If you just connect a drive via USB it can't remove CSS/AACS/BD+ so it won't play the movie. Also for AVC it only has HP@4.0 support while blu-ray players support 4.1. Don't know what VC1 profiles are allowed on BD, but the situation may be similar.

edit:
UDF support which is needed for reading DVD and BD isn't mentioned on their website either.

[baudi]

TViX 6500 can play (I have one with USB BD Player a long time ago) unprotected .m2ts.

TViX support AVC profile 4.1 without problem.

Best wishes.

[Atak_Snajpera]

TViX 6500 can play (I have one with USB BD Player a long time ago) unprotected .m2ts.
What if you want to just watch your bought movies? :)

[galinette69]

Dear All,

Do you know which bluray players work well with H264/AAC videos in MP4 or MKV containers, burned on DVDs? I know the PS3 should play that, but for many reasons I would prefer a standalone player.

Since most of the players support AVCHD, I could also reencode/repack my vids. Do you know a guide for AVCHD encoding? Is it just H264/AC3 in MPEG2-TS burned on DVD-R? Are there any resolution constraints?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Etienne

[turbojet]

Do you know which bluray players work well with H264/AAC videos in MP4 or MKV containers, burned on DVDs? I know the PS3 should play that, but for many reasons I would prefer a standalone player.

Since most of the players support AVCHD, I could also reencode/repack my vids. Do you know a guide for AVCHD encoding? Is it just H264/AC3 in MPEG2-TS burned on DVD-R? Are there any resolution constraints?

I don't know of any bluray player that supports mp4 or mkv containers, including PS3.

For AVCHD/BD encoding there's various guides in the h264 section of this forum. There is a couple of easy gui's that take out most of the technical stuff, a few that come to mind are RipBot264 and BD-RB. The resolution must be 720x480/576, 1280x720, or 1920/1440x1080. RipBot264 will correct the resolution for if you feed it different resolutions then these and you set bluray output.

[galinette69]

Dear turbojet,

Thank you for the reply, it may convince me to buy a standalone if I can reencode my vids to play them. What I absolutely need is to burn them on DVD-R, as BD blank media is way too expensive. So AVCHD is OK for me.

I have a friend that just bought a PS3, he can play MKVs(H264) stored on the PC via wifi, and the interface to do this is very simple and convenient. I dream of a standalone BD player that does the same... I suppose it should also work with MP4's as this is the main format of the PSP, but this has to be tested.

Cheers,

Etienne

[Inventive Software]

Spotted a Panasonic DMP-BD35 touted as Profile 2.0 enabled for a shade less than £200 in my local Currys. Seems Sony and co don't mind losing money on the manufacturing then. :)