What blue-ray player?

[admin_exported]

Hi guys! Ive been looking at getting a new set up and found out one of my friends works at richer sounds and said if i went in with a list of what i want, he would be able to get me a discount. So far im looking at the Sony STR-DA 2400es and the Q acoustic 1010i speaker pack, but im in need of a blue-ray player which will complement the system well. Although i was looking at this set up

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/5153/source/kelkoo

what are your thoughts/suggestions?

Cheers ramzijw

 

[bigboss]

Your link doesn't work. There are a lot of good blu-ray players in the market. What's your budget? Have a look at Sony S360, Panasonic DMP-BD60 & Pioneer BDP-120. They're all very good players. Sony probably will match your system better. The latest What Hi-Fi issue is a good guide to start. They've tested blu-ray players in the £200-£400 range.

 

[Anonymous]

My budget is about £350. The link above has the sony strda 2400es, Q acoustics 1010i package and the sony bdp s500 for £999 and wanted to know if this was a good deal?

But since posting this link i have looked into the Sonys av reciever and started to think if the 2400es is worth the money as all i can see that is different from the the 2400es to the sony strdh 800/strdg 820 is that it doesnt upscale. But this shouldnt be a problem if the blue-ray player upscales anyway. Right? But then again im thinking there cant be £160 price differene just be for the upscaling. Is the sound quality any better between these amps?

 

[Big Chris]

Don't get caught up in specs. The 2400 is from the range above the 800, as well as what may be viewed as modest increase in spec, it'll have better componenents and more power.

If it didn't sound any better, nobody would spend more than £300 on A/V receivers.

 

[bigboss]

I would agree with Big Chris. The 2400 will be superior to 800/820.

There are quite a few excellent players in the market for your budget:

1) Pioneer BDP-320: £349
Renowned for its superb PQ & AQ (maybe the best for your budget), but slightly slow to load.

2) Pioneer BDP-120: £269
Basic player with Pioneer quality. again slow to load.

3) Panasonic DMP-BD80: £280
Panasonic players are good all rounders. Excellent PQ & AQ (almost as good as the Pioneer), better loading times, plus you can access youtube & picasa.

4) Panasonic DMP-BD60: £199
The only difference between BD60 & BD80 is that BD80 has analogue output as well. You won't need this feature, because your receiver has HDMI. Panasonic claims that BD80 has better components, but in real life, there's no difference in the quality. I own a BD60 & am very happy with it.

5) Sony S360: £199
Fast loading time. Excellent PQ & AQ. Some people don't like the absence of eject button on the remote, although you still have to get off the couch to remove the disc from the tray! but if you have a universal remote like Logitech Harmony, you can eject with the remote.

6) PS3: £289
PS3 offers a lot more than a blu-ray player. It's a game console, a wireless media player which can play songs & movies wirelessly straight from your PC to play on your sound system, & view pictures from your PC wirelessly. You can also access the internet & watch youtube etc. (you can access any website).

Even as a blu-ray player, it's excellent. It has the fastest loading time, still unsurpassed. It was my main blu-ray player until last week. The only reason I went for the BD60 was because I wanted a player which can play multiregion DVDs & PS3 cannot be multiregioned. I'm still trying hard to convince myself that BD60 is better than PS3 in audio quality (not convinced so far). Picture quality is on par with the best players in the market.

Even Samsung & LG players are supposed to be very good & have very fast loading times. I don't have much experience about them, so can't comment.

IMHO, buy a basic blu-ray player for £199 & spend the rest of the money on buying a better receiver.

Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers chris and big boss! Some great advice and info there! Will be having a look at the some of these players in town tomorrow! Although i did sell my ps3 as i wasn't using it at all! lol But as you said Boss if there isnt any difference, i may just spend the extra £50 just in case a game come out that i like! Also what did you mean at the end of your comment by saying spend £199 on a player and buy a better reciever? Better than the 2400es?

Cheers again guys!

 

[Sliced Bread]

I looked at a few players before settling on the Pioneer 320. I can't speak for the Panasonic, but (for what it's worth) I found the Pioneers to have a an edge on the PS3 with both picture and sound.

 

[Anonymous]

ahh cheers for the info there John, will have to ask them to demo this out, hopefully i find something worth while as theres nothing worse than buying something and seeing something u wanted 10 days later

 

[Sliced Bread]

Yeah I hate that feeling too

 

[pete321]

Depends what else you want your blu-ray player to do. If it's mainly going to be used for blu-rays, then I don't think you'd notice a massive amount of difference from a Sony BDP-S350 to a more expensive BD player in terms of HD picture quality. If playing DVD's and CD's is going to be part of it's duties, then you'd probably be better off looking at one of the new Pioneers.