Pansonic experts? I want to add blu ray?? HELP

[admin_exported]

Ok so me I and my partner moved into our new home last March and we decided to treat ourselves to home cinema now our living room was of a suitable size. So we decided to go ahead and purchase Panasonic Plasma and DVD Home Cinema as our budgets were quite tight.
I currently have:
Plasma: Panasonic TH-46PZ80
Home Theatre: SCPT860EBK
Connected to this I have Nintendo Wii connected via the Component video and audio inputs, Virgin media cable which I currently have connected via HDMI to plasma and Optical out into the DVD surround. You can see my TV's connection options @ No you can't: please read the House Rules - MODS

I have decided that I now need Blu-ray and I am a little stumped- First, what player to get on a budget of £300 and secondly, how do I connect this so I can use the blu-ray to play the disc and still use my existing SCPT860EBK for its surround sound. The more I read on the subject the harder it gets! Can you help/suggest anything?

 

[Anonymous]

Is it the SC-PT850EB-K? Either way, there should be an optical audio input, into which you can feed the digital audio from your new BD player. You will then want to feed the digital video signal directly to the TV via HDMI. So as long as you select the correct inputs on the TV and the Surround Sound amp, you can experience the BD player in Surround Sound.

What I'm not clear on though, is the audio decoding abilities of the amp. It will decode the full range of Dolby codecs, but I don't know how good it is at it. You might therefore want to play it safe and leave the BD player do the decoding.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Mez,

Yes i do mean the SC-PT850EB-K- i understand the set up a little clearer, i will just have to sacrifice the optical connection from my cable (Virgin) to the home cinema amp i guess?

I am not sure either about the decoding abilities of my systems amp, so if the best case scenario is buy a BR player to do the job itself, what would you suggest? (Around the £300 mark- give or take?)

Thanks

 

[daveh75]

Connecting a BD player to your existing DVD all in one system via optical connection mean's that you'll be missing out on the New HD audio formats, simply because an optical connection doesn't have the bandwith for these formats.The best you'll get is DD 5.1.

 

[Anonymous]

What's his better solution daveh75? There's no hdmi-in on the amp as far as I can see, but you'd lose video quality doing it that way anyway.

As for a Blu-Ray player under £300, you could look at the Sony BDP-S360 or, if you want to keep with Panasonic, the DMP-BD60 (the BD80 is probably still just outside £300) I've got the BD35 which is the predecessor to the BD60 and it's still a cracking player.

 

[daveh75]

Mez:
What's his better solution daveh75? There's no hdmi-in on the amp as far as I can see, but you'd lose video quality doing it that way anyway.Save up for a bit longer,and replace his current all in one with either a blu-ray all in one, or go the seperates route. IMHO there is no point in making the move to blu-ray if you're not going to be able to take advantage of the HD audio as well as the better picture quality.

 

[d4v3pum4]

I would go for the DMP-BD60 from Panasonic. You will also need a 3 way manual optical switch and 2 more optical cables. The cable box and BD player will connect to the switch and then from the switch to the single input on the home cinema system. By going for a Panny player you will have Viera Link so your TV should automatically go to the HDMI AV channel when you turn it on and allow you to use one remote. That said, I have heard of a few niggles with these HDMI CEC functions but it seems to work on my parents system which is all Sony.

 

[Anonymous]

You could also look at the pioneer bdp 51 or denon bd1800 if they're still about. Also the new pioneer 320 can apparently be found near your price.

Daveh75,

I'm sure most people have surround sound on this site, but I am glad that it is your opinion and not stated fact that blu ray is only worth it if you can take advantage of hd audio. I watch films through my tv speakers because of noise and neighbours, and while I realise that I'm not getting the most out of the format, were I to follow your line of thought I'd probably be stuck on vhs, internally debating whether or not to buy dvd, since without dd 5.1 there would be no point. (picture has always been more important to me anyway - don't know why).

I apologise in advance if the tone sounds angry, it really isn't - maybe a bit argumentative.

 

[Anonymous]

If I were Mr Richwood, being married to Mrs Richwood I would want to be making small but signficant steps towards the daddy of Home Cinema set-ups I secretly dream about, while looking after the pennies that Mrs Richwood is so vocal about saving, rather than spending them on "another toy" (yes, I've been married twice).

So I'd be looking at my kit and saying "what am I missing most right now?". Answer: Blu-ray. Get the Blu-Ray player. Next question: "What am I saving for in 6 months' time?" Answer: A decent A/V receiver to enable me to get the most out of all the other little boxes of tricks I'm going to upgrade to over the next year or so.

He wants progress, she wants to know he's not being stupid.

Simples

 

[Andrew Everard]

This place gets more like a branch of Relate every week...

 

[Anonymous]

I thought I recognised your photo!!

 

[Anonymous]

I think Mez knows where i am at! I have been looking around and i am thinking of the Pioneer BDP-320 as a player to connect to my existing setup, any thoughts? This is an interim solution until i have more disposable income, later down the line!

For now at least i could enjoy blue ray with the Pioneer BDP-320, even though i will have to settle for the DD 5.1