What BD player?

[admin_exported]

Good morning everybody,

I'm struggling trying to find which is the best BD player to add to my new Panasonic 42G10 plasma TV and to my old A/V receiver Yamaha 620 (it's old but it still works fine).

My budget is around 350 £ and the features I'm looking for are basically as follows:
[*]good upscaling of my dvds (I own a lot)[*]extended compatibility with different formats (I also own a lot of DVD+R for instance)[*]general reliability (I don't think I won't change it in the next 3/4 years)
Since I'm gonna connect it via digital output to my receiver, if I'm right, this last one will take care of all audio decoding tasks (DTS, DD, but also linear PCM on audio CD). If this is correct, I don't think that audio features of the player woulld be an issue. But, if this is wrong, then 4th main feature becomes audio behaviour of the player, especially with audio cds.

Now, with all these premises, I've choosen 4 players but now I'm stuck. They all seem to be excellent players (I've read reviews here and elsewhere), but all of them have some cons:
[*]Panasonic BD80 (yawning loading times?)[*]Sony BDP-S550 (bad upscaling with DVDs?)[*]Pioneer BDP-51FD (it doesn't play DVD+R?)[*]Samsung BD-P3600 (I never trusted this brand)
Any advice would be appreciated

Thank you in advance

Riccardo

 

[professorhat]

Can you confirm your amp is the Yamaha RX-V620?

If so, your main feature you should look to get is to ensure the BD player has multichannel outputs - this is because your amp has no HDMI in, so the only way you can get HD audio will be to use the multichannel outputs from the BD player into your amp (digital optical and coaxial do not have the bandwidth to carry the HD formats, only standard Dolby Digital / DTS).

Of the ones you've listed, personally I would look at either the Panasonic DMP-BD80 or the Pioneer BDP-51D (can't help you on the DVD+R issue I'm afraid, though there are a few people on the forum with them so hopefully one of them can test for you). They'll give you the best picture and sound (IMHO) and both have the crucial multichannel outputs to enjoy Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio.

As for loading times, I'd look at it like this - would you rather have a film load in 30 seconds and have average picture and sound quality for a couple of hours or have it load in 45 seconds and have much better picture and sound quality for a couple of hours?

 

[Garth Man]

I would go for the Pansonic, the 550 does not upscale dvd's badly if anything its brilliant!!!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Garth Man:I would go for the Pansonic, the 550 does not upscale dvd's badly if anything its brilliant!!!

I can also confirm that the S550 plays DVD+R, Divx, MKV (once converted) and virtually everything I've thrown at it.

 

[Anonymous]

Have a look at the new LG BD390 is has a fast load time and plenty of other features, will play any format you throw at it, front USB connect. I can't comment on its pic/sound quality though. Anyone?