What BluRay palyer to get?

[admin_exported]

OK, I was just about to get the EP35, which is on hold now. Went to a Sony dealer yesterday to look at a BlueRay player (I do like the 6 free disks they offer

) and I had a demo of the older S1 BD player. To be honest, either there was something wrong with the setup or the image quality of that player is totally awful, in particular the colours. Skin colours were totally out. I have V+ on a 3* Sharp 42" LCD (LC-XD1E) and BBC HD looks gorgeous. I had hoped that a BluRay Player is at least as good if not better. What am I going to do??? Is the BDP-S300 a better player? Do I need to get the BDP-S500? I have never been in to games so the PS3 is not really on the horizon. Although, saying that I might actually look into whats available in terms of games (family, quiz and strategy games for example). Also, I love my Arcam Stereo setup and would be keen to get an Arcam AVR, in which case the player would need to offer 5.1 analog outs, but I don't want to spend more than £500 either. The EP35 was to be had for £269!

Any thoughts anyone?

Gorge

 

[Andy Clough]

Tricky one, isn't it? We've a two-page test of the Sony BDP-S500 in the Feb 08 issue of What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, on sale from January 10, so you might want to look at that before making a final decision. We gave the original BDP-S1E model five stars when we tested it in October last year, and thought it offered brilliant sound and vision at the time.

But things have moved on. The BDP-S1E was £700, but the BDP-S300 is £400 and we gave it 4 stars - Full HD pictures are smooth and detailed, but motion tracking lacks the rigour of the very best. And it can't send undecoded digital HD audio via HDMI, so in our view it's not worth 25% more than the PS3.

The Toshiba EP35 is excellent value, especially at £269, but then there's the issue of which film studios are backing which discs, as you can read here, and only Toshiba are currently producing dedicated HD DVD players.

I wish I could give you a more definitive answer, but as you'll read on numerous threads on this forum, the whole Blu-ray/HD DVD debacle is frankly a mess and I have no idea how it's going to play out. Keep an eye on the latest news here on the site from our roving reporters at CES in Las Vegas as there are bound to be numerous announcements from both camps over the next few days.

 

[Anonymous]

PS3. Even if you never play a single game. But you will because you will download the free demo's!!. Go to avreview.co.uk . There is a Sony Blu-ray player comparison.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses! I'll get the first Feb issue of WHSV I come across - no change there really - and have a good read.

Gorge

 

[Anonymous]

I looked at the Sony BDP-S500. At the time it was a Profile 1.0 player (it also didn't do HD-MA decoding). I haven't checked but it probably doesn't include the hardware needed to make it a Profile 1.1 through a firmware update.

If you can wait for Profile 1.1 players then do so, no point spending £500 when new players are hitting the US shelves now and due here soon.

I refuse to buy a Profile 1.0 player, it's yesterdays technology. I'd buy a PS3 if it wasn't noisy and had multi-channel outputs!