Best Blu-Ray Player for under £300

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I'm finally looking to plunge into the Blu-Ray market.

I have a budget of around £300. This could stretch further if there was something in close reach!

I'm aware of the Sony BDP S360 - which I can get from Amazon for under £150 which seems a fantastic price for a good player.

The Pioneer BDP320 is at the other end of the range I think in that I could stretch to this as its a What HiFi Best Buy and I like the looks, but I've read its very slow to load, and as I will be playing a lot of DVDs on it, the Layer Change delay seems to be quite noticeable - having said that I have a Sony DVD Recorder and I am used to seeing the layer change delay there aswell.

The Samsung BD-P3600 is also a nice looking machine with built in wireless capability which I am interested in as I have video content on my PC which I would like to be able to stream - I'd be interested in anyone's experiences of how well this actually works.

I don't need Multichannel Analogue Outputs as this would be going into a Sony HTIS100 Surround System and I have the Sony Bravia KDL W40A-12U HD Ready TV - so no full HD either :-(

Any advice would be most appreciated!

Thanks

 

[andywscott]

HI there I would consider this model the SONY BDPS560 BLU-RAY/DVD PLAYER multi region. You can get this for about £299

 

[professorhat]

If you have to buy now and can stretch to it, I'd go for the Pioneer. Yes, loading times are quite slow, but this is true of most players at the moment (with the exception of the PS3 and the unmentionable player), but look at it this way, would you prefer waiting an extra 15 - 30 seconds for a film to load and have sublime picture and sound for the next 2-3 hours, or have it load 15 - 30 seconds quicker and know you're not getting the best picture and sound possible?

On the other hand, if you can wait, I think the Awards issue of WHF out next month promises some reviews of some new players (including possibly the unmentionable player) so could be worth hanging on to see what they're like.

 

[Garth Man]

Go for the Sony S360, or a PS3

 

[Anonymous]

I would have to agree with the pioneer on this one, the pioneer bdp51fd would probably be the way to go for this budget, they are currently £269 from richer sounds and received good reviews by what hi-fi. i showed my mum the picture on my LX70A yesterday and she now wants that kind of picture quality and that is what the pioneer bdp51fd will produce. don't forget to add a good HDMI cable, i used to use the QED but have changed this to the CHORD SILVER PLUS 1.3 cable which i find noticably better.

 

[dave_k]

Remember that extra £100 - 150 over the Sony bdps360 would buy quite a few new blurays to watch on your new player...

All the same I'd love one of those Pioneer players!

 

[RodhasGibson]

professorhat:

If you have to buy now and can stretch to it, I'd go for the Pioneer. Yes, loading times are quite slow, but this is true of most players at the moment (with the exception of the PS3 and the unmentionable player), but look at it this way, would you prefer waiting an extra 15 - 30 seconds for a film to load and have sublime picture and sound for the next 2-3 hours, or have it load 15 - 30 seconds quicker and know you're not getting the best picture and sound possible?

On the other hand, if you can wait, I think the Awards issue of WHF out next month promises some reviews of some new players (including possibly the unmentionable player) so could be worth hanging on to see what they're like.

Sound advice Prof,I agree with you.

 

[Anonymous]

Richer Sounds are doing the Sony BDP-S350 for £119.99 at the moment. Might be last years model but still very good.

 

[Big Aura]

Prof - does the playa that may not be named load quicker?! Is there nothing it can't do?

Exactly how slow are load times?

 

[RodhasGibson]

To some people anything over 2 seconds

 

[Big Aura]

Yeah, but that's the point - as non blu-ray owner, I hear people talking about load times, and mentioning "cuppa time", but I don't drink tea either! In minutes- what's the normal wait time, and how long is an OPPO?

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Aswad:Hi, I'm finally looking to plunge into the Blu-Ray market. I have a budget of around £300. This could stretch further if there was something in close reach! I'm aware of the Sony BDP S360 - which I can get from Amazon for under £150 which seems a fantastic price for a good player. The Pioneer BDP320 is at the other end of the range I think in that I could stretch to this as its a What HiFi Best Buy and I like the looks, but I've read its very slow to load, and as I will be playing a lot of DVDs on it, the Layer Change delay seems to be quite noticeable - having said that I have a Sony DVD Recorder and I am used to seeing the layer change delay there aswell. The Samsung BD-P3600 is also a nice looking machine with built in wireless capability which I am interested in as I have video content on my PC which I would like to be able to stream - I'd be interested in anyone's experiences of how well this actually works. I don't need Multichannel Analogue Outputs as this would be going into a Sony HTIS100 Surround System and I have the Sony Bravia KDL W40A-12U HD Ready TV - so no full HD either :-( Any advice would be most appreciated! Thanks

Having auditioned at home the Pioneer 320 along with A Denon 2500 transport ( £900.00 old price ) the Denon just had the edge but there was nothing to choose between them IMHO you will not regret buying a 320.

There are also very good reviews on your other choice the Sony 360

To further confuse things you fancy the Samsung BD-P3600 £250.00 with WiFi

If I could add the LG-BD390 £290.00 to the mix also with WiFi ,both the Samsung and LG are reviewed this month in another HC Magazine that I am not allowed to mention, the LG seemed to come out on top although it was not a group test.

You really need to arrange a demo to see which of the options you prefer

As for loading times the LG is slightly faster than the Samsung and compares to the PS3 , but I agree with the Prof Quality is key.

Probably only confused things now , it was not my intent

Regards

Andy

 

[professorhat]

Big Aura:Yeah, but that's the point - as non blu-ray owner, I hear people talking about load times, and mentioning "cuppa time", but I don't drink tea either! In minutes- what's the normal wait time, and how long is an OPPO?

Arghhh - you said the name!

Seriously though, it depends on the disc. I just did a quick test and my Sony BDP-S550 took 53 seconds to load Casino Royale, but Watchmen took 2 mins 8 seconds.

No idea how fast the Oppo is I'm afraid.

 

[Alec]

Big Aura:

Yeah, but that's the point - as non blu-ray owner, I hear people talking about load times, and mentioning "cuppa time", but I don't drink tea either! In minutes- what's the normal wait time, and how long is an OPPO?

Cheers

Oh good god you mentioned it! oh, the humanity! I'll have to go for a chemical shower now.

EDIT - yeah, ok, didnt see the proffs post before i posted.

 

[Anonymous]

Big Aura:

Yeah, but that's the point - as non blu-ray owner, I hear people talking about load times, and mentioning "cuppa time", but I don't drink tea either! In minutes- what's the normal wait time, and how long is an OPPO?

Cheers

I'm not sure about the loading times on the OPPO (I've never even seen one of these in a shop, in fact I've only heard about it on this forum which makes me think it's as rare as a unicorn), but my Pioneer bdp51fd took just over 5 minutes to load Sin City (I timed it and it was ridiculously slow). Other discs are better, say 2 minutes or so, and dvds load up quickly.

 

[Anonymous]

Blimey - Now I am really Confused!! ;-)

My current Sony DVD Recorder takes an age to wake up when I switch it on and it does wind me up that I have to wait so long to even put a disc in, having said that its not that slow in actually playing the disc. I do notice the layer change delay which worried me about the Pioneer. You make a good point Prof tho - once its playing - you want the best sound/picture you can get !

5 minutes to load a disc is is shocking though, it would be interesting to have a comparison of the best selling players load times for specific films to see if its the content on the disc which is the material factor or the player itself.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I use the pioneer LX70A and i really can't see what the issues are about with loading times, ok yes when i first bought the player it was a lot slower than it is now but now i have updated it with the latest firmware updates it is alot faster and in my opinion is worth the wait, just to give you an idea from off to film is 1 min 35 sec and while on to change a film is 50 seconds, i timed it using transformers and i think you would agree its not a