best blu ray and amplifier?

[admin_exported]

i am looking for the best blu ray player for picture quality etc for up to £700 and are the players at this price far superior over the budget players?

also looking for an amplifier to go with it for around the same price for best sound quality for movies and to use with sky hd and xbox. anyone any ideas what to go for?

cheers

 

[d4v3pum4]

Have you read the reviews on the main site? There was a bluray supplement in last months mag. I personally have seen some of these higher end players and tbh, in my opinion, do not offer the levels of performance to justify the increase in cost. If and when I do upgrade to a stand-alone machine, I will probably pay no more than £400-500 and will go for a machine that is fully profile 2.0 compliant, loads reasonably quickly etc. The Oppo and latest Panasonic/Sonys will be on my radar. Are you planning on demo'ing the players so that you can appreciate any apparent differences in picture quality for yourself? From what I gather, all players (flame suit on) sound identical when sending bitstream audio to the amp.

Pretty much any AV Receiver will be capable of delivering good movie and gaming sound. What speakers are you using? That is the important question when choosing an amp. There are various models at around that price from Onkyo, Denon, Sony, Yamaha, Pioneer and Marantz (amongst others). I suggest getting hands on to familiarise yourself with how they operate and are setup and most importantly how they sound. There is a major shortage of receivers at the moment due to the weak pound, so my advice would be not to rush in and simply buy what is available now. Be patient and demo when you can. The Yamaha 863SE, Denon 2309 & Marantz SR6003 would be my picks at this pricepoint.

 

[Anonymous]

well ive read the reviews on the bluray players and there doesnt seem to be much direct comparison between players there is a lot of reviews of players from 300-800 pound which all receive 5 stars and all have excellent pic quality but dont know which are better than others so dont know what to choose also what price range. so if u see my problem i dont know if there worth the extra money and how beeter pic quality is.

with regards to the amp i have simular prob, there is a few that have 5 stars and sound good but with the different range of models etc dont know where to start.

havent got any speakers yet as im upgrading my system. only got a home cinema in a box surround sound. recently bought a sony 46 w4500 and wanted to get a good blu ray amp etc to complement the tv.

 

[d4v3pum4]

As you're pretty much starting from scratch, you have the ideal opportunity to demo everything together, which should enable you to get the best kit for you. This is particularly important with the amp and speakers, simply picking 5 star products will invariably work but to get the best sounding system for your ears, by all means use the star ratings as a guide but don't dismiss a 4 star product as it may sound/look better to you and that's what counts.

 

[Anonymous]

from the reviews theres the pioneer 51 fd at £350, pioneer lx71 £600, pioneer lx08 £700 the panasonic bd 55 at £390, panasonic bd35 £220, or at a higher price the denon 2500 £899, and the sony s5000 £1100.




the last 2 are a bit high priced but thought id include them to see how the others compare and if for the price the pic quality is that much better. the pioneer 51 is a good price and wonder if theres much difference between the pioneers and how the pansonics fair up and the difference between the two. which has a better pic quality etc. i know ive named a lot of players but any insight into these would be grateful.

also how much better would these all be compared to say the original panasonic bd30 as it was best when that first came out.

cheers

 

[Anonymous]

any ideas anyone?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Hi

Pioneer BDP-LX71 definitely the rest are not realiable looking at £500.00

That gives you £900.00 on the amp. Could go for the pioneer sc-lx71 amp

or onkyo 876 can get one on seveoaks clearance website for £700.00

 

[Anonymous]

You just need a Blue ray player to be able to Bit stream to a decent AV Amp and let that do the processing.

Spend your money on the best sounding Amp that fits in your budget, also it is important to consider what speaker system you are pairing it with.

Just remember the potential to upgrade the performance you hear in the shop by sorting out a cleaner mains supply and decent cable configurations.

 

[hunnyy]

trevor79:You just need a Blue ray player to be able to Bit stream to a decent AV Amp and let that do the processing. Spend your money on the best sounding Amp that fits in your budget, also it is important to consider what speaker system you are pairing it with. Just remember the potential to upgrade the performance you hear in the shop by sorting out a cleaner mains supply and decent cable configurations.

trevor79, are you saying that if bitstreaming to a decent AV amp, (and I am, a Yamaha RX-V3800), there is no merit in buying a "superior" blu-ray player? I have the Panasonic '35, which I am very pleased with, but have wondered if I would notice any discernible increase in picture or sound quality by upgrading to, say, the Denon '2500.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah thats what im thinking if there would be a good picture increase for the money and which blu ray is best to go for.

 

[Anonymous]

You've got it!

With Bit steaming it sends the info to the AV amp for processing, so bitstreaming is reading the info off the disc and sending it down the line to the Amp.

So the question is how good do you want excellent to be?

Now you can buy a top of the range Player and pair it with a budget amp and pass through to the TV and get all the benefits of budget AV quality to your surround system, or can buy a cheap bitstream player paired with a better AV amp (preferably IMHO the last heavily discounted model) and get a fuller musical performance.

Oh, and you might have some money left in your pocket to spend on better speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi....I have a Pioneer BDP-51 FD (£300 now) and a Yamaha DSP- AX 763 (£340 now)....These two units blow me away every time I use them in tandem...the picture and sound is absolutely awesome, to the point I cant believe you could get much better. But obviously you can as all the reviews state and price for that matter. My point is, how much are you willing to spend extra for the improved performance..!! If your budget is £700 for each of the units, then I would recommend the upgrades of my units....The Yamaha DSP-AX 863 or RX-V1900 and the Pioneer BDP-LX71. If they are a step up from my system then you cannot go too far wrong...But as always.. try and test them out for yourself...!! Good Luck.

 

[Anonymous]

If you want the best players around your budget then you're looking at either the Sony BDP-S5000es which can be found for £850 online and the Denon DVD2500BT which can be found for £580 online. You just have to hunt around. They're the best buys in my view. Denon is HDMI only, Sony is all singing all dancing with analogues as well as HDMI outputs. Depends what you need.

 

[hunnyy]

Will Harris:If you want the best players around your budget then you're looking at either the Sony BDP-S5000es which can be found for £850 online and the Denon DVD2500BT which can be found for £580 online. You just have to hunt around. They're the best buys in my view. Denon is HDMI only, Sony is all singing all dancing with analogues as well as HDMI outputs. Depends what you need.

Will,my question is, if I am bitstreaming to an "HD" A/V amp, the excellent Yamaha RX-V3800 amp in my case, am I going to notice a discernible improvement in picture/sound quality by changing from a quality budget blu-ray player to a mid or high-end player.

trevor79 is clearly intimating that if bitstreaming to a decent amp there is no point in buying a more expensive, "better", blu-ray player, (e.g. Panasonic '35 to Denon '2500).

 

[Tom Moreno]

hunnyy:
Will Harris:If you want the best players around your budget then you're looking at either the Sony BDP-S5000es which can be found for £850 online and the Denon DVD2500BT which can be found for £580 online. You just have to hunt around. They're the best buys in my view. Denon is HDMI only, Sony is all singing all dancing with analogues as well as HDMI outputs. Depends what you need.

Will,my question is, if I am bitstreaming to an "HD" A/V amp, the excellent Yamaha RX-V3800 amp in my case, am I going to notice a discernible improvement in picture/sound quality by changing from a quality budget blu-ray player to a mid or high-end player.

trevor79 is clearly intimating that if bitstreaming to a decent amp there is no point in buying a more expensive, "better", blu-ray player, (e.g. Panasonic '35 to Denon '2500).

If you are bitstreaming the audio to an accomplished AVR then the quality of the audio should be entirely dependant on the AVR's processing. This however doesn't necessarily apply to the video. The video on the Blu-ray disc is encoded in a compressed format and needs to be decoded and processed in the player before output at full resolution via the HDMI. Different BD players have different video processing suites and will output differing levels of picture quality. Some inexpensive players such as the Panny BD-35 and 60 offer excellent results at their pricepoint, but inevitably upgrading to the DVD-2500BT and more so to the S5000ES give you greater picture depth and detail as a result of their more expensive video processors.

 

[hunnyy]

Tom Moreno:hunnyy:

Will Harris:If you want the best players around your budget then you're looking at either the Sony BDP-S5000es which can be found for £850 online and the Denon DVD2500BT which can be found for £580 online. You just have to hunt around. They're the best buys in my view. Denon is HDMI only, Sony is all singing all dancing with analogues as well as HDMI outputs. Depends what you need.

Will,my question is, if I am bitstreaming to an "HD" A/V amp, the excellent Yamaha RX-V3800 amp in my case, am I going to notice a discernible improvement in picture/sound quality by changing from a quality budget blu-ray player to a mid or high-end player.

trevor79 is clearly intimating that if bitstreaming to a decent amp there is no point in buying a more expensive, "better", blu-ray player, (e.g. Panasonic '35 to Denon '2500).

If you are bitstreaming the audio to an accomplished AVR then the quality of the audio should be entirely dependant on the AVR's processing. This however doesn't necessarily apply to the video. The video on the Blu-ray disc is encoded in a compressed format and needs to be decoded and processed in the player before output at full resolution via the HDMI. Different BD players have different video processing suites and will output differing levels of picture quality. Some inexpensive players such as the Panny BD-35 and 60 offer excellent results at their pricepoint, but inevitably upgrading to the DVD-2500BT and more so to the S5000ES give you greater picture depth and detail as a result of their more expensive video processors.

Thanks, Tom, for a very clear explanation. So, it seems that changing from a Panasonic '35 to a (say) Denon '2500 will produce no audio improvement, as this is bit-streamed to my Yamaha RX-V3800, but there should be a noticable improvement in picture quality.

Presumably with an HD-ready TV, (mine is a 50" Samsung plasma), I will not see the full visual benefit of the likes of the Denon '2500 or Sony S5000ES unless/until I have a full-HD display?

 

[professorhat]

Tom Moreno:If you are bitstreaming the audio to an accomplished AVR then the quality of the audio should be entirely dependant on the AVR's processing.

Without wanting to bring down hell on earth, surely the quality of the player's output is going to have an effect. So less errors introduced into the signal by a pricier player = a better sound, even with bitstreaming.

(Yikes, digital signal, errors, better quality =

)

 

[Tom Moreno]

professorhat:
Tom Moreno:If you are bitstreaming the audio to an accomplished AVR then the quality of the audio should be entirely dependant on the AVR's processing.

Without wanting to bring down hell on earth, surely the quality of the player's output is going to have an effect. So less errors introduced into the signal by a pricier player = a better sound, even with bitstreaming.

(Yikes, digital signal, errors, better quality =

)

I would like to present to the jury exhibit A in which the defendant clearly exonerates them self from making an absolute statement in the carefully laid use of the adverb "should".

In digital theory 101 where we live in a perfect world, there should be absolutely no difference between player A and player B if the audio is being bitstreamed in native form via a suitable HDMI cable that meets requirements. However being as it is that we do not live in a perfect world (and try to compensate for this in attempting to create a perfect theatre in one's abode so as to never have to go out into said world), the debates as to quality of digital cable and source equipment with regards to transmission of digital signal and the percentage of errors that need to be corrected by the receiver of said signal can continue.

The point I'm trying to make for the newcomer to the ranks of Blu-ray love, is that the difference between a budget player and a high-end player will certainly be played out more obviously on the video side of the equation and that differences in audio shouldn't be as obviously apparent in said configuration.

 

[professorhat]

Objection withdrawn, m'lud. The prosecution rests.