Bluray player for Lovefilm/iPlayer on TV

[SnowyJohn]

Hi all,

I'm comtemplating buying a bluray player for my parents but the main use would probably be Lovefilm or iPlayer rather than Blurays. Wifi is pretty much a must here...

Can anybody provide any experience on the matter; are the userface's simple to negotiate etc? I have used lovefilm and iplayer on a wireless network (to Laptop) before without problems but am slightly concerned that such functionality on bluray players might be worse due to things like RAM and CPU speed and what have you - is this the case?

I'm torn between getting an all in one bluray player or just getting a media player type thing (WD Live / Apple TV etc).

Thanks for any input

 

[Chisy1]

Apple TV2 wont help with the iPlayer unless they have an iDevice to airplay from and similarly with Lovefilm. The Apple TV2 does have access to Netflix though. I can't comment on the bluray side of your question though

Chisy

 

[bballtom]

I currently watch love film and iplayer on an xbox and playstation, the quality is ok for drama or comedy but you wouldn't want to watch a special effect based film as you would lose a lot of it that way. Don't know if its the norm or because my internet speed isn't great.

I think all the current Sony blu ray players support both Love Film and Iplayer with the higher end models having built in WIFI. They use a very simple menu system that is pretty easy to understand, its called XMB and is used in most Sony hardware at the moment.

 

[John Duncan]

The interface for both iPlayer and Lovefilm in the Sony players is simple and nice, and I can recommend it. I haven't seen any others to compare tbh. Not sure which one has wifi (the S-580?) but you could always add a wireless extender to your network to put wifi behind the lesser-spec'd players.

Just for clarity - you do know that you need to be a Lovefilm member to use the internet service, don't you? Which means you'll be getting discs through the post anyway, so I think a bluray player is worthwhile.

 

[Anonymous]

Our TV and BD both have Smarthubs so can access Lovefilm and BBC iPlayer. Netflix isn't yet in the app store for our kit.

Both are about 2' away from the router and connect via ethernet so for us wifi isn't an issue.

Broadband wise, we're on BT. Infinity doesn't get here till June but even on twisted copper we get 15/16 Mg on our Broadband 2 package, 40 Gb a month. I test the speed weekly. Couple of films and TV shows a week and we're still well within the cap.

LF quality is OK on streaming, looks equivalent to SD. On BBC I tend to watch it in HD eg The Killing, and Borgen. Quality here is brilliant. You can't download though, even where that's an option with a PC.

The interfaces are both much simpler than the computer equivalents and are easy enough to navigate. We can manage our Lovefilm rental list too from the app. With LF, I still feel blu-ray provides the better experience. Once your chosen stream starts, it's more down to your connection I think, rather than the app itself.

Can't help with the alternatives, but with smart TV/BD, try it in Currys etc and see what you think.