Advice on new BD player? (1 Viewer)

Hi,


I'm in the market for a new BluRay player. I need Netflix streaming with built-in WiFi, decent build quality, and would dearly like fast load times for BD discs (my Panasonic BD30 can be painfully slow in this regard).


I am considering the following:


LG BD590

Sony S570

Panasonic BD85K


Can anyone out there give me their take as to which one of these will best meet my needs?


Thanks in advance.


Randy Margolis

Depending on your budget, you might want to look at the Insignia NS-WBRDVD. Best Buy's house brand player offers built-in wi-fi and Netlix for an MSRP of $179.99. (Currently $149.99.) I've had one since last November (my first and only BD player) and I love it. Load times have always been reasonable and I find that since I've disconnected the USB drive (I have yet to run across any BD Live content that a) works or b) is worth the trouble) it is even faster. I only use the USB connection for firmware updates now.

Just a thought,


Joe

I had an LG 550 worked fine, has the best remote but it does not have as many features (on line services).

The Samsungs have more online services and features like repeat play on U Tube. But no Cinema Now , unless you get the more expensive models.


good luck,

Everett

I should mention that I've seen a lot of complaints about the Insignia remotes, but can't comment on them myself, because I've never used mine. I programmed the player into my (then) Harmony 520 before I even got the thing home and never even put the batteries into the included remote. Still using it happily with my Harmony 880.

Regards,


Joe

I would stay away from insignia. its a terrrible player. same goes with samsung for that matter. I would go with the panasonic 65/85. if you are looking to do netflix. I found the panasonic to be the best one with a stand alone player.


Jacob

I would stay away from insignia. its a terrrible player. same goes with samsung for that matter.

Click to expand...

So how many Insignia and Samsung players have you owned, exactly? Or is this just an assertion based on anecdotal "evidence"? (In which case my anecdotal evidence - "The Insignia is a terrific player" - is just as valid as any other.)


Regards,


Joe

check out the official forum for the insignia and you see that many people are having problems with the player. they are not able to fix the problems. I have read on alot on forum that people having trouble with samsung.. you learn to stay away from the troubled players.


Jacob

I have read many, many posts on the Insignia forum, and many of the "problems" turn out to be user error or other components in the system. When I first got my Insignia it had a handshake problem with my (old) JVC RPTV and its single HDMI jack. But when I took the player in to Best Buy and they hooked it up to several more modern TVs the HDMI output worked like a champ. The problem did not lie in the player, but in the relationship between my new player and my old TV - apparently a handshake issue. That was OK, I got by with component video since my AVR is doesn't have HDMI and my TV only does 720p.

As it turns out, a subsequent firmware revision fixed the "problem", even though it only affected a small subset of older TVs. Today I'm running all my video through an HDMI switch and the Insignia works like a champ. I've seen a number of "it won't play disc X" posts where disc X plays just fine for me.

Forums like that at manufacturers sites are among the least useful places to get information, because of the inherent bias of the sample: Most of the people posting there are having problems. Not surprising. Most people who aren't have problems don't post to the manufacturer's support forum. Many of the people posting are simply not technically competent, and others are blaming the player for problems with discs or with other components in their systems. The "unresolved" problems are often the result of people not bothering to follow the tech support steps they are given. (I do computer support for a living, trust me, I know whereof I speak. Tell someone to do something as simple and disconnect and reconnect a USB cable and they won't do it - but they'll tell you they did on the phone. Then when we waste time and money dispatching a tech he miraculous fixes the problem - by reseating the USB cable.)


Regards,


Joe

Joe,


I did computer support for the last 6 years before I retired, and still get a chuckle out of some of the goofy things the users would come up with.


______________________


Anyone want to chime in on the Sony S570? I've been reading some really good user reviews on it.


Thanks


Randy

I remember having problems where I could not get sound when i was doing netflix. it was a pain to switch over to pcm to do that. I remember that there was an angle button issue on the star trek original tv series. I had those problems with it.


Jacob

very hard to enjoy a tv show when you got the angle button showing up every so often in the episode. I own the panasonic 85, the oppo 83 and the ps3 slim. all3 are better then the insignia and samsung for sure.


Jacob

One of the biggest problems with customer reviews for Blu-ray players on sites like Amazon is that most consumers do not (and in many cases will not) understand that it is necessary to update the firmware on any Blu-ray player as part of the initial installation procedure, and that you may need to update it periodically when a new disc uses more advanced features (or, in the case of Avatar, uses unusually high audio and video bitrates).


It is true that some manufacturers are better at issuing updates than others (Panasonic and Sony usually stay ahead of the curve, while the manufacturers of lower-end players tend to lag behind). Also, some players are easier to update than others. Most players that are Profile 2.0 compliant (BD-Live) either have an auto-update feature and/or an Update Firmware selection from the setup menu, and as long as the player is connected to the internet, it is a fairly simple task.

the panasonic 85, the oppo 83 and the ps3 slim ... all ... are better then the insignia and samsung for sure.

Click to expand...

That's perfectly plausible. I was never arguing that the Insignia was as good a player as those, I was arguing that it was a good player, period. Provided, as Todd rightly notes, that the firmware is kept up to date. Took another look at that Insignia forum and would venture to say that the vast majority of "issues" are related to people not updating firmware. (Others are due, as noted, to bad discs. Remember the early Paramount Saving Private Ryan discs with the sync sound problem? It appears it also had a problem playing on Insignia players, kept looping back to the menu. There was a long thread about this on the site. But the corrected discs never caused any problems. The player was never the issue.) I'd venture to say that all of the problems you mention and which caused you to dump the Insignia were corrected in short order by firmware. I may have to rent the first ST:TOS Season One disc and put my theory to the test.

As an entry-level Blu Ray player with WiFi built-in (as opposed to making the poor buyer shell out for a $70 proprietary dongle to get any use out of a "WiFi ready" player) it is hard to beat on price and features. I paid $130 for my player and it has been running like a champ since Thanksgiving week 2009.

Regards,


Joe

I just looked @ reviews for the new Mits. DLP's & had to lol @ the one star review as it had nothing to do with the tv. The screen was pushed in when he opened the box.LOL !


Everett


I was the instore tech 4,5 years @ Best Buy.

I have the Panny 65 and absolutely love it. The only problem I had to buy a Wireless Lan Adaptor to receive the wireless signal from my Att 2Wire gateway.








Crawdaddy

I would hope so considering the price difference. I would suggest anyone get the Oppo 83 if you can swing the 500 bucks. Panasonic and LG have great products also. I would also try and talk anyone out of getting BestBuy brand products unless it is all you can afford. That doesn't mean they will all suck but it is not a good practice. Just a fact, sorry

We will forgive you for being a "in store tech" at Best Buy. That must have been interesting to say the least.

That is one of the points, who wants to have to keep updating your player because it is a barebones model right out of the box? You have had luck with yours and that is great. Still not a top choice for someone that has the money to get something better. I have always said if you get something cheap it you just might be getting what you paid for and not really saving any money in the long run. But with the way things are improving at a break neck pace buying something inexpensive and then replacing it down the road might have it's worth.

The Panasonic and Sony models you listed are both excellent players, definitely two of the best currently on the market. The LG has been a bit unreliable when it comes to disc compatibility (LG's older units, like the BD390, were MUCH better in this regard.)

I think the Sony has slightly better DVD upscaling, and the Panasonic has slightly better Netflix picture quality. The Sony is a bit faster when navigating menus and such. One thing that annoys me about Sony's Netflix interface is that there is no progress bar in the menus to tell you how much of something you have watched. For instance, if you are watching a TV series and view 30 seconds of an episode and before deciding to watch it later, the episode will be grayed out to show it has been watched. Other Netflix capable devices will show a progress bar, so you can tell if you have finished that movie/episode or left off somewhere in between.


Overall I prefer the Panasonic myself, but either one is a good player.