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Blu-Ray help?

#1
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11/9/08 at 11:03am
  • Joined: October 2008
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I'm completely new to the world of HD. Can anyone tell we what I need to be looking for when it comes to purchasing my Blu-Ray player? And even recommend a player for $600 or less? I have a Pioneer VSX-1018 to power my system and will be purchasing the Samsung PN58A550 Plasma very soon for my display.

I was looking at the Pioneer BDP-51FD, but have no clue what I should be looking for. Please help.
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#2
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11/9/08 at 1:24pm
  • Joined: August 2003
  • Location: SF Bay Area
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Re: Blu-Ray help?

The most important thing to look for when upgrading to BluRay is an HDMI 1.3 receiver. You already have that. BluRay comes in three versions. Version 1.0 which is called the "grace period" profile, version 1.1 (Bonus View) which adds PIP for viewing bonus content and version 2.0 (BD Live) which adds live content via the internet. The Pioneer BDP-51FD is 1.1. Live content via the web may or may not be important to you. It isn't to me. The Panisonic DMP-BD55 (which is getting good reviews) and the Sony BDP-S550 are a couple of others to look at.

The more expensive players will probably have better up-converting chips in them and be sure to buy from an authorized retailer/e-tailer. J&R has the Pioneer 51 for $439.
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#3
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11/10/08 at 4:56am
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Re: Blu-Ray help?

If your Pioneer receiver can decode the newer lossless codecs internally, then you do not need to spend the money on a BD player with built-in decoding of these formats. The Sony BDP-S350 and Panasonic 35 (can't remember the exact model number) both sell for well under $300 and are very capable players.

If your receiver cannot decode the newer audio formats, then a step up in models -- Sony BDP-S550 or Panny 55 -- have built-in decoding and can send the resulting audio streams via either HDMI or analog 7.1 to your receiver. Both of these players are under $400.
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#4
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11/10/08 at 1:58pm
  • Joined: August 2001
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Re: Blu-Ray help?

Actually, if you want to futureproof your purchase, I'd suggest buying a BD player that can decode (and mix) internally, not just pass bitstream, because it seems that bitstreaming will only work for 1 audio stream at a time (unless I'm mistaken).

With BD, you may at some point find that you want to be able to listen to some mix of *two* audio streams simultaneously, eg. PiP commentary, some other extra feature that may make use of BD's 2 simultaneous HiDef a/v streams, including possibly whatever potential (stereoscopic?) 3D implementation on BD that might eventually show up, etc.

Of course, OTOH, maybe this aspect won't matter much, if at all, for you in practice. Even if/when 3D on BD becomes a consumer reality, whatever player you buy right now might not be upgradeable for that, except perhaps the PS3.

So basically, if you want to futureproof, I'd suggest going for a PS3 (though it may not be ideal for you in other respects).

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