What do you think? Pioneer or Panny Blu-Ray Player

[pete321]

It's time for my Sony BDP-S350 to become the bedroom player and get a better player for use with my Pioneer 5090 plasma and Onkyo 905 amp.

I'm looking at the Pioneer BDP-51FD or Panasonic DMP-BD55. BD Live is not required, I'm purely interested in the best picture and sound quality for Blu-Ray, CD playback maybe a secondary consideration. Upscaling DVD's is also not an issue as I'll set what ever player I get to 576i output for DVD playback and let the HQV in the Onk to take care of the 1080p upscale.

I guess I'm edging towards the Pioneer, available for £325 (multi-region DVD) at RGB Direct. Has anyone got any advice before I spend my dosh?

I don't know whether I'd get permission to spend that much, but the Denon 2500 does look good at £599 at TLC Broadcast, is it £275 better than the Pioneer 51FD?

 

[Anonymous]

The BD55, superb as it is, is unfortunately out of stock in most places. You'll have a tough time getting your hands on one.

At the price you quoted, the Pioneer appears to be a good deal, moreso that you're aware it's Profile 1.1.

 

[pete321]

Is anyone from the What HiFi team able to comment on pure HD picture and audio performance. I'm not interested in outputs as long as it's got an HDMI, don't need BD Live, so profile 1.1 is fine (I always loved the Superbit DVD's, no disc space wasted on rubbish special features).

Also, is the Denon 2500 £275 better than the Pioneer or Panny, or is it just a marginal improvement?

Thanks

 

[professorhat]

pete321:Also, is the Denon 2500 £275 better than the
Pioneer or Panny, or is it just a marginal improvement?

That's a question only you can answer. Certainly the 5 star rating of the player in this month's issue would suggest WHF think it's a worthy improvement, but only you can say whether it's worth the extra £275 to you.

 

[pete321]

professorhat:

pete321:Also, is the Denon 2500 £275 better than the Pioneer or Panny, or is it just a marginal improvement?

That's a question only you can answer. Certainly the 5 star rating of the player in this month's issue would suggest WHF think it's a worthy improvement, but only you can say whether it's worth the extra £275 to you.

Very true, but unfortuantely I don't think I'll be able to get all 3 players on loan to test on my system, so I was hoping that the What HiFi team would be able to shed some light.