Premium Blu-ray with the best streaming features

[Dan Turner]

Hi - I'm contemplating an upgrade to my Sony BDP-570 Blu-ray player. I want to go for a premium model to achieve better DVD upscaling, and (most importantly) decent media streaming capabilities. If I get better picture and sound quality as well then so much the better!

Budget is £800 (I'm certainly don't want to spend all of that if I don't have to).

Whilst on paper the Sony has some pretty decent media streaming features, in practice it has made an enemy of me through being infuriatingly unreliable. For instance if I want to stream photos to display on the TV it will work fine for a few and then randomly start diaplaying a distorted picture which is partially/mostly obscured by multi-coloured jagged diagonal lines and i have to toggle back and forth between images to get it displaying the correctly again (they're just jpegs for crying out loud!). Also whilst it will play back MKV video files (great!) it refuses to play them if they have a DTS soundtrack, which most of mine do.

I can plug my Mac-book in and use Plex media player, but that's a faff and I'd rather not have to do that, and the fact that it involves plugging and unplugging things means that the Mrs isn't likely to try streaming a media file without me around.

So what i'm after is something reliable, well engineered, with a great interface, wide format compatibility and of course great picture and sound quality. Does such a machine exist or am I a couple of years too early and with unrealistic expectations having gotton used to using Plex?

I should also mention that it needs to be able to decode the HD audio codecs as my AV amp, whilst HDMI equipped, can only handle hi-res audio in LPCM format (I'm sure it goes without saying that players in this class would do this, but better to be safe than sorry).

Cheers!

Dan

 

[John Duncan]

Define 'decent media streaming capabilities'? Are you expecting a nice UI as well?

 

[bigboss]

Which TV have you got?

 

[Dan Turner]

JD - yes a decent interface if possible, but i'd settle for an adequate interface as long as it was reliable and had wide format-compatibility

Big Boss - My TV is a Panasonic 50G10

Thanks guys

 

[John Duncan]

Which formats? My Cambridge 751BD does the following:

MPEG2, MPEG2 HD, MPEG4, MPEG4 AVC, VC-1, XviD, VCD, AVCHD, MPEG ISO, AVI, VOB, MKV (4.1), JPEG, JPEG HD

(I have no idea what this means). The UI for UPnP/network client is prosaic at best though - the Sony was much better in this regard...

 

[DandyCobalt]

I've tried streaming via my Cambridge Audio BD751 blu-ray player. It took 8 minutes to scroll down to the album I wanted to play (Paul Simon amongst approx 11,500 songs - but that's not a lot these days?).

Therefore, if going this route, try out any player with your own hard drive attached and see how user-friendly it actually is to find and play your own music, not just the dealer's thirty song playlist.

Oh, and then the player played some types of files, but not others, so if you've been building up a collection on computer over the years, then this could also be an issue.

 

[Dan Turner]

Which formats? My Cambridge 751BD does the following:

MPEG2, MPEG2 HD, MPEG4, MPEG4 AVC, VC-1, XviD, VCD, AVCHD, MPEG ISO, AVI, VOB, MKV (4.1), JPEG, JPEG HD

(I have no idea what this means). The UI for UPnP/network client is prosaic at best though - the Sony was much better in this regard...

Thanks, your Cambridge does seem to be wiely compatible. I can live with prosaic, as long as the UI is logical and it works reliably (i.e. playing back the files is says it will and not producing any random wierd behaviour). The Sony's interface isn't bad, if only it worked properly!

So when you say 'prosaic' is that euphamism for clunky, or do you just been basic/no-frills? The former would probably do my head in; the latter I could live with.

 

[Dan Turner]

I've tried streaming via my Cambridge Audio BD751 blu-ray player. It took 8 minutes to scroll down to the album I wanted to play (Paul Simon amongst approx 11,500 songs - but that's not a lot these days?).

Therefore, if going this route, try out any player with your own hard drive attached and see how user-friendly it actually is to find and play your own music, not just the dealer's thirty song playlist.

Oh, and then the player played some types of files, but not others, so if you've been building up a collection on computer over the years, then this could also be an issue.

Oh dear - that sounds like exactly what I want to avoid! Although I'm going to be using it to display photos and play back video files - but I guess the same issues would apply, albeit i'm not likely to have the same quantity of films or photo albums as music albums

 

[bigboss]

I have no idea about the streaming features of the Oppo, but it is one of the best DVD upscalers out there. PS3 is a brilliant media streamer, but doesn't support all formats.

Why don't you invest in a separate media streamer?

These may be something to watch out for:

http://www.whathifi.com/news/ces-2012-sony-launches-google-tv-powered-blu-ray-and-network-media-players

http://www.whathifi.com/news/western-digital-adds-bbc-iplayer-and-netflix-to-its-tv-live-player-announces-new-personal-cloud

 

[John Duncan]

So when you say 'prosaic' is that euphamism for clunky, or do you just been basic/no-frills? The former would probably do my head in; the latter I could live with.

A bit of both to be honest. The menus aren't as nice as the Sony's, certainly, but I think they have their UI particularly well sorted.

Note that this was using it as a UPnP client, I didn't really try 'network' (ie navigating to folders on a network or HDD and playing files there, both of which it will do). It would sometimes freeze a bit and then perform the action I'd pressed the button three times for, well, three times, and this was just for music. When it comes to films I tend to think that's what the disc tray in the front is for

I'm personally of the view that, whilst audio streaming is easy, video streaming has a long way to come...

 

[Dan Turner]

I have no idea about the streaming features of the Oppo, but it is one of the best DVD upscalers out there. PS3 is a brilliant media streamer, but doesn't support all formats.

Why don't you invest in a separate media streamer?

These may be something to watch out for:

http://www.whathifi.com/news/ces-2012-sony-launches-google-tv-powered-blu-ray-and-network-media-players

http://www.whathifi.com/news/western-digital-adds-bbc-iplayer-and-netflix-to-its-tv-live-player-announces-new-personal-cloud

Thanks bigboss. you might be right but I'm loathe to get another box....nevertheless I will keep my eyes peeled for separate media streamers such as those

 

[Dan Turner]

So when you say 'prosaic' is that euphamism for clunky, or do you just been basic/no-frills? The former would probably do my head in; the latter I could live with.

A bit of both to be honest. The menus aren't as nice as the Sony's, certainly, but I think they have their UI particularly well sorted.

Note that this was using it as a UPnP client, I didn't really try 'network' (ie navigating to folders on a network or HDD and playing files there, both of which it will do). It would sometimes freeze a bit and then perform the action I'd pressed the button three times for, well, three times, and this was just for music. When it comes to films I tend to think that's what the disc tray in the front is for

I'm personally of the view that, whilst audio streaming is easy, video streaming has a long way to come...

Doesn't sound like the Cambridge is going to be much of an advance on the Sony really! I think you're right. Maybe I should bide my time and see what else emerges.

cheers

 

[John Duncan]

What you really need is a jailbroken Apple TV v1 with a few terabytes of storage hanging off the back :-D

 

[Dan Turner]

What you really need is a jailbroken Apple TV v1 with a few terabytes of storage hanging off the back :-D

I'll investigate! Or a mac mini maybe...i was toying with the idea of getting one for video files since i know Plex is a great interface (and if i've got it permanently plumbed in then it won't be a faff), plus high-res music.....seems a bit extravagant though for the amount i watch video files (once or twice a week) and for the number of high-res albums I've got (1!), hence i was hoping to be able to combine the video piece with my Blu-ray player......

 

[bigboss]

This one seems to be a good contender, but no news on UK launch yet:

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/blu-ray-players/new-kid-on-the-block-universal-blu-ray-player

 

[Dan Turner]

This one seems to be a good contender, but no news on UK launch yet:

http://www.whathifi.com/forum/blu-ray-players/new-kid-on-the-block-universal-blu-ray-player

Thanks bigboss - think i need to bide my time and wait until the right player comes out. I'll check the Asus out when it's launched

 

[micks_address]

I have the Oppo 93 and a ps3, the ps3 is much friedlier for browsing mp3's etc.. but to be honest you're never going to get the same from streaming that you will from attached a hard disk (or in the case of the ps3 copying to the ps3s harddrive if you prefer)

I have a pretty large collections of Mp3s that I had in folders per album, but to make browsing bearable on the Oppo I sub sorted them alphabetically by artist, so on my harddrive i have a Music folder, with sub folders A through Z and each artist alphabetically ordered.

The Oppo is mega flexible in terms of what it will play back and can hadle ntfs file systems as opposed to the Fat32 limitation of the ps3 and other players.. and of course it will playback .flac files for music which is great, and .iso images of blu-rays or dvds if you want to backup your films to hard disk..

if you havent a wired connection from your pc to the player then id say streaming wont work very well at all.. i tried it to my tv and i got stuttering video and slow browsing.. just not worth it really..

Happy shopping ,.
Mick

 

[DandyCobalt]

I'd highly recommend the Oppo 95 or the Cambridge Audio BD751 for their excellent video and audio capabilities. I use an Apple TV2 (very discrete) for any streaming of photos etc, as I don't have a hard drive attached (I still enjoy tangibles - CD and vinyl).

If I recall, I had problems with Apple high-res files via the Cambridge, and I have problems with wav files etc with the Apple TV - music shouldn't be this complicated |(

 

[DandyCobalt]

doublepost

 

[micks_address]

only go for the Oppo 95 over the 93 if you intend using the analogue outputs of the 95 to your receiver - otherwise they are pretty much on par performance wise.. plus the 95 has a fan so you might find the noise a bit distracting

I'd highly recommend the Oppo 95 or the Cambridge Audio BD751 for their excellent video and audio capabilities. I use an Apple TV2 (very discrete) for any streaming of photos etc, as I don't have a hard drive attached (I still enjoy tangibles - CD and vinyl).

If I recall, I had problems with Apple high-res files via the Cambridge, and I have problems with wav files etc with the Apple TV - music shouldn't be this complicated |(

 

[Anonymous]

I´d say pass over to the new Pioneer BDP-LX55...

I have its cheaper brother, the BDP-440 and new Pios do media streaming just FINE...

All you need is some decent media server in your PC (like Mezzmo, for example) and the player will eat it amazingly...

Streaming is pretty fast, no problems with music files, video and photos whatsoever...

The player has a "DLNA search" in menu, it responds great and your servers are on screen immediately...

I even stream any music from my old Nokia N95, which has a Home Media app pre-installed...

You of course have iControlAV2 app for iOS and Android for Pioneer AVRs + BDPs as well, works pretty decent, too...

Speaking of PQ+SQ, the BDP-LX55 stood against Oppo BDP-95 pretty even...

It has Marvell Qdeo chip, pretty decent SD upscaling, 2 HDMI outs, 2 USB ports...

It also supports 1080p MKVs, .m2ts (these are extraordinary with HD audio), .mp4, .m4v and all DivX HD formats you can imagine...

SATA + NTFS are supported as well...

I´m not sure about the price at the moment, I guess I saw it somewhere for 300 GBP...

I pretty much think that brands like Cambridge, NAD, Marantz, etc. have nothing much more to offer, you simply pay the price tag for branding and "decent construction"

 

[Dan Turner]

Interesting jleholeho.....I have all my stuff on a NAS which has a DLNA compatible upnp server running on it, so I guess that's all I need for the Pioneers to be able to work with it right?

 

[Anonymous]

Exactly

the only thing that drives me crazy is that I just can`t get damn DVD-only multiregion capability on my Pio...

There`s a lot of offers on the web, making it even BD+DVD MR by a simple hardware mod, they`re just too expensive...

All I need is DVD-only MR for my reg. 1 DVDs, I had a long chat with a guy from avland.co.uk (they sell both BDP-440 and LX-55 DVD MR straight away), he tried to convince me about how difficult is to get it done by some software and stuff like that, when I asked him to take my own player so he can do it himself, he stopped responding...

 

[manicm]

As far as I'm concerned any streaming is in its infancy - well for hi-res/video anyway. Wired streaming is just an abomination for Joe Blogg's average home. I take my hat off to Sonos - at least they developed proprietary technology where vanilla wifi is not good enough.

You have standards for home entertainment installations like Cedia, so why the hell not develop technology standards too. This is my beef with Linn, and to a lesser extent with Naim et al.

 

[Anonymous]

I stream DVDs I've ripped from my laptop to PS3 wirelessly. Works like a charm (no skipping at all) and plays any format (Tversity transcoding). Only DVD quality so far. though. The laptop is pretty powerful though (i7 quad core).