Panasonic BD-50K through Sony DAV-500...overkill? (1 Viewer)

I'm about to wander out for a Blu-Ray player, and I think I've narrowed it down.

My constraints/system:

Sony DAV-FX500 HTIB (5.1 system) connected to
Samsung 1080p DLP with HDMI cables

The Wife Speaks: Thou shalt not get a game console!

(Truth be told, I don't really want one. No. Really.)


Anyway, I was heading straight for the Panasonic BD-50K. Fully featured, etc. But is it overkill for my system? I like the reviews, except for the mutterings about SD upconversion.

Any thoughts from this well informed peanut gallery?

Doug

Could you please tell me how to post my first message in forums on this site. I'm new here and find it rather confusing. Thanks.

And I guess one more question, since I'm not entirely familiar how chains of devices work.

What's the best way to have the BD-50K and the Sony DAV-FX500 receivers co-exist? I want to ensure my 5.1 output gets to the right place and that I don't lose the 1080p signal from the BD-50K.

Is HDMI an effective "pass-through?" That is, if I have HDMI coming from the BD-50K, will I be able to extract the sound through the receiver and get it to my speakers, as well as moving the 1080p video signal to my TV? The DAV-FX500 is a 720p/1080i system, but I'm not sure how all the signals will be handled.

Don't want to do anything foolish, like hook them up in a way that I wind up degrading the resolution of the new BD player.

Okay. I looked up a bit of info on the DAV-FX500. From what I have read there is no HDMI input on this unit; therefore, there is no way to pass an HDMI signal from the BD50K to your receiver. From what I can see the FX500 is a combination DVD player and receiver with selectable 720p/1080i upconversion of DVDs thru an HDMI output.

Does your Samsung 1080p set have more than one HDMI input? If so, your best bet is to hook the BD50K directly to your set via HDMI. You would hook up the audio from the BD50K to your 500FX receiver via the coax or optical audio connection.

The HDMI connector from your 500FX would be connected to the second HDMI connector on your TV set. The HDMI connector on your 500FX, from what I have read and understand, is a video output only for the DVD player. The reason I'm suggesting this set up is due to your concerns over upconversion of DVD. Setting things up like this should allow you to see whether the 1080i upconversion on your 500FX is better than the 1080p upconversion of the BD50K. Honestly, IMO, I highly doubt the upconversion on your FX unit will be better than the BD50K.

The simplest method would be to connect the BD50K to your Samsung via HDMI and connect the audio from the BD50 to your receiver via the optical or coax connection. You would then use the BD50 for all of your Blu-ray and DVD upconversion and the receiver portion of the FX500 purely for the audio.

Yep. That's what I wound up doing. Also wound up going with the Sony S350, since it had most of what I wanted for $200 less.

But you are right about the inputs/outputs. Now I just have to figure out what sound mode my older receiver should use. I'm thinking ProLogic II Movie mode. When I set it to "standard," I lose the surround.

I don't have the Sony BD player, but what have you got its audio mode set to output? If your receiver can decode Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 from standard DVDs, it should certainly be able to extract those sound mixes from Blu-rays. Prologic II would not seem to be the best you should be able to get.

In other words, if you set your receiver for "standard" for regular DVDs, it should stay there for Blu-rays. It's the audio output of the Sony player that you need to tinker with.

Thanks. This occurred to me as I was watching, and I tinkered with the output settings. I had to set a few of the preferences for the optical output to ensure they picked up multichannel formatting, and that did the trick.

I still may wind up upgrading to a more modern HDMI receiver, like the Sony SS2300 model, if for no other reason than to cut down the number of remotes.

You will NEVER regret upgrading your receiver to allow it to decode the HD audio encodes on Blu-rays. The difference in the quality of the sound and its expansiveness in your viewing area are pretty startling. (And fewer remotes are always a plus if you don't have a universal device! )

Preach on, brother. But you do have to accept that you'll be spending in excess of $700 to get a decent unit.

Are you including the price of the BD player as well? What do you consider "decent?" When one is upgrading from something that's fairly incapable as it is (say, just the through-the-TV sound), wouldn't you say that nearly any system will be an improvement? For a room like mine, which is maybe 11x14' or so, nearly any surround system will fill the room with quality sound; in fact, for that room (and I built it with soundproofing in the walls, as a movie room) a 6.1 or 7.1 system would be overkill, would it not?