Sony BDP-S790 or Panasonic DMP-BDT230?

[tom_mk]

My partner bought me a Sony BDP-S5100 as a birthday present. Unfortunately we've discovered that this model doesn't have a Optical Digital Out, which would be used to feed audio into my rather old AV amp (which is also my old DVD player). And although the blu-ray player has a Coaxial Digital Out, the amp does not. I don't want to have to buy a new AV amp, not yet anyway, so I've looked at the options and it appears to come down to either the Sony BDP-S790 or Panasonic DMP-BDT230, both of which have a Digital Optical Out? (Luckily she bought it at John Lewis and asked the guy what the main differences were and explained that we had some older technology, he forgot to mention the outputs so they are happy for us to switch to another player.)

My kit: AV amp (and DVD player combo) is (as I said an old) Sony DAV-S550. The TV / screen is a plasma Panasonic TH-37PX80B. I also have a YouView (1TB) box. Nintendo Wii.

I'm aware that the Sony BDP-S790 has features that I am not going to be using for a good while, for example the 4K HD. It could also be argued that I don't really need the catch-up services provided by the Sony player as I have the YouView box (which I have to say I'm quite happy with). So are there any features on the Sony that I would really benefit from.

So, the big question is based on my kit (listed above), which of those two blu-ray players is going to give me the best and noticeable results? Is the Sony going to be worth the extra £50 (or so).

Should it make a difference, with regard to future proofing, the most likely purchase over everything else will be to replace my existing AV / surround sound system with a sound bar, however this is a) a way off yet and b) selecting one will be a challenge due to the shape of our living room. (If you can imagine this, it's long and narrow, 10m x 4m and our TV is situated half way along the long wall and our sofa is on the opposite wall, slightly towards one end of the room - we can't put it directly in line with the TV, so bouncing the sound around to get he effect is going to be a bit of a challenge and I don't know how a sound bar would cope with that room arrangement - but as I say it's all a good while yet.)

 

[abacus]

You can convert what you already have with this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Coaxial-Optical-Toslink-Converter/dp/B001VMWSII/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&qid=1375392045&sr=8-38&keywords=optical+convertor#productDescription which will be cheaper then buying a more expensive Blu-Ray Player.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[bigboss]

Or look at Panasonic BDT500 which has 5.1 analogue outs.

 

[tom_mk]

Hi Bill,

Thanks very much for the suggestion and certainly worth considering. To be honest I'll probably steer clear because it means having to power yet another device (not sure how many power sockets I've got avaliable at the moment - and don't want to have to buy a bigger multi socket) and it would mean buying additional cables.

I also figure that the fewer connections in the chain the better, so if it can be avoided I probably will.

Thanks again for making the suggestion.

Tom

 

[tom_mk]

Hi BigBoss,

Thanks for the suggestion although not sure the additional budget will go down to well Whilst the RRP for the Sony is £230 I've found it available for around £190 and I think the Panasonic RRP is £300 but can be found for £230.

I'd be interested to see / hear which player is considered the better in terms of visual and audio quality, irrespective of the prices.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Tom

 

[Alantiggger]

Buy the Sony, it's brilliant !

 

[bigboss]

Hi BigBoss,

Thanks for the suggestion although not sure the additional budget will go down to well Whilst the RRP for the Sony is £230 I've found it available for around £190 and I think the Panasonic RRP is £300 but can be found for £230.

I'd be interested to see / hear which player is considered the better in terms of visual and audio quality, irrespective of the prices.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Tom

Bear in mind that the Sony does not have analogue outs, so you will lose out on HD audio. Optical / coaxial connections do not carry HD audio.

 

[bigboss]

Panasonic BDT500 is available for £219.95 here:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/blu-ray/panasonic/dmpbdt500/pana-dmpbdt500

 

[D3CYPH3R]

Hi BigBoss,

Thanks for the suggestion although not sure the additional budget will go down to well Whilst the RRP for the Sony is £230 I've found it available for around £190 and I think the Panasonic RRP is £300 but can be found for £230.

I'd be interested to see / hear which player is considered the better in terms of visual and audio quality, irrespective of the prices.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Tom

Bear in mind that the Sony does not have analogue outs, so you will lose out on HD audio. Optical / coaxial connections do not carry HD audio.

His amp is an old sony 5.1 system, so it won't support HD anyway, any future amp upgrade will do this over hdmi

 

[bigboss]

His amp is an old sony 5.1 system, so it won't support HD anyway, any future amp upgrade will do this over hdmi

That's exactly the point of a blu ray player with analogue outs. The blu ray player will decode HD audio, so it will work even with older amps.

 

[tom_mk]

His amp is an old sony 5.1 system, so it won't support HD anyway, any future amp upgrade will do this over hdmi

That's exactly the point of a blu ray player with analogue outs. The blu ray player will decode HD audio, so it will work even with older amps.

Hi BigBoss,

Thanks again for the feedback /suggestions. The one thing that I think I'm realising at the moment is that I will need to upgrade my amp sooner rather than later (or rather following the blu-ray player, that will be the next piece to be upgraded, whenever that is.) I'm also understanding that I don't (or no longer) understand much about the world of audio visual interconnects - but hopefully I'm learning, slowly.

Unfortunately my amp, which as I said is an old (in fact I'm thinking of upgrading this status to archaic) amp / dvd combo unit, doesn't actually have separate 5.1 audio inputs. It only has a number of left and right input options available. Based on this, I'm starting to realise that even using the optical digital input may only result in stereo audio with additional 'boom' from the sub-woofer. (Is that a correct assumption/realisation?)

I'm therefore assuming that the Sony Blu-ray player when outputing the audio signal through the optical digital output will convert the audio signal into a stereo signal which can be successfully 'consumed' by the old Sony DAV-S550 amp unit.

Whenever I do get around to getting a new amp or soundbar, the Sony will be able to connect to that using the second HDMI port and the TV using the first. (One day I'll understand exactly what the coaxial and optical versions of the digital output delivers.) I managed to purchase the Sony for £179.90 through John Lewis using their "Never knowingly undersold" promise. John Lewis matched the price of a web site that I had found where they also have a physical shop that you can visit and buy the unit selling it for that price, even though the shop in question was in Colne, Lancashire, nearly 200 miles away from where I live. John Lewis matched it because, even though the shop in question wasn't local to us it was only 25 miles from another John Lewis store. (Always worth bearing that in mind if John Lewis do actually sell a product you are looking to buy.) And I got a 2 year warranty with it as standard.

Thanks again for your help and points.

 

[D3CYPH3R]

His amp is an old sony 5.1 system, so it won't support HD anyway, any future amp upgrade will do this over hdmi

That's exactly the point of a blu ray player with analogue outs. The blu ray player will decode HD audio, so it will work even with older amps.

Not all in one systems well at lease not his all in one system.

 

[tom_mk]

Now, now. play nicely! :cheers: And thank you to all for their comments / suggestions. :star:

His amp is an old sony 5.1 system, so it won't support HD anyway, any future amp upgrade will do this over hdmi

That's exactly the point of a blu ray player with analogue outs. The blu ray player will decode HD audio, so it will work even with older amps.

Not all in one systems well at lease not his all in one system.

 

[sirclive]

Ive got the sony via hdmi to sony 3500es amp using sacd it sounds better than a £20.000 chord I was surprised as well plus sonys have very good net stuff I have rented loads of films from it. And between you me I once repaired a pany and was shocked on how cheap it was in side very poor

 

[visionary]

Son-in-law has optical out from the TV into his DAV-S550 which works well. Have you tried that?