Posted on 11/13/2009 9:05:34 AM PST by The Louiswu
My wife and I are going to get a Blu-Ray player and I was looking for suggestions on a good (medium priced) player with Netflix streaming capability.
Thanks!
Of possible interest to the ping list...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2385646/posts?page=41#41
Special thanks to SunkenCiv for the ping..
LVD
Yes it is HDTV. Just spoke with our daughter, she’s the real tech around here. We are all set for the PS3. We just need to hook up the home theater for surround sound. Looking forward to Christmas.
For those interested I just got Pixar’s UP (Blu ray) for less then $10. Walmart has it for $19 and I used this manufacturers coupon.
http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/up/couponoffer/
Lots of good suggestions already posted here. Me? 30 years in the CE biz, former national trainer for Sony Canada.
Pioneer units are great mechanically and have great video processing and scaling, especially the Elite models. My first choice for a real Bluray unit.
Sony PS3 will give you awesome picture performance. The Toshiba made processor has way more hosrsepower than you will find in a regular BD product because of the need to run HD games.
Panasonic units are very good and affordable. The 80-series model has very good audio quality and is a consideration if you are going to use it a lot for CD audio, but frankly I would recommend having a dedicated CD player, best being a Pioneer Elite D6 or Marantz 5003.
Without shooting the moon? Buy a Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD or BDP-F23FD. Or alternatively any regular line Pioneer unit. A PS3 will give you better picture quality but the Pioneer trumps it for reliability. And get a good HDMI cable, not just a stupid over priced Monster Cable (via Best Buy).
Enjoy!
I have two blu-ray players that can stream Netflix, the PS3 and the latest Samsung model. The PS3 is far and away the better player. The Samsung is glitchy, and seems to occasionally have technical issues (the sound doesn’t match up with the image, constant failure with the wireless connection to Netflix). It seems like there is a firmware update at least once a month, which can be downloaded directly onto the system, but the glitches persist. The PS3, which I’m also using wirelessly, runs perfectly. Just keep in mind to stream with the PS3, you have to contact Netflix and get one of their streaming discs, which is free.
I have no experience with the LG streaming players.
Or WalMart. The display for HDMI cables there was empty of $40 cables.
I recently got a 15ft flat HDMI cable from Monoprice for $15.
That’s a good price if it’s a good cable. Well done. My remark about Monster stems from the fact that a high priced Monster HDMI is likely not a bit better than what you paid $15 for, it just has fancy insulation and packaging. Oh yeah, and a very high profit margin for the retailer. Up here, we call Monster “dime store wire in a nice bag.” There are, however, very good quality HDMI cables and they do make a real difference in terms of connection integrity and picture quality, but you have to be prepared to spend significant money on them. Just like really good speaker wire.
I highly recommend the PS3. It’s a great Blu-Ray player, also does great video games, internet access, Linux OS, and just about everything else you would want a box to do. They have come down in price too.
I fell for the Monster hype a few years ago but fortunately people on the web are letting others know you can get better for cheaper.
I bought a Sony mid-range player for about $250 last year on Black Friday and have been happy with picture quality, features, no dropouts, good sound synch, no HDMI handshake issues (going through an Oppo HMDI switch).
Two downsides. Sometimes it takes forever to get a movie playing, but that mainly seems to be bad BRD design rather than the player. And not all movies support returning to the place you left off if you shut off the player.
My worst problem so far? I bought a Sony VCR/DVD Recorder to transfer some old tapes to digital. I bought Sony AND Sony DVD -R media to assure compatibility. The first disk I made I popped into the BluRay player and the machine would spin up, go ka-chunk/ka-chunk, spin down, then spin up and repeat the cycle endlessly. Sony phone support could not find a way to eject the disk and said to send it in for repair. It was out of service for about 4 weeks and when I got it back I learned that there was nothing wrong with it — Sony only had to remove the supposedly defective disk. I asked them how they got the disk out and they told me they had to disassemble the machine!! So crappy software put the machine into an infinite loop, you can’t get the disk out, and you have to send it in for repairs! They blamed me for not finalizing the disk on the recorder, but I followed all the instructions on the VCR / DVD recorder precisely.
What engineer in his right mind would design a machine to fail like this if somebody didn’t finalize a recorded disk? That’s a HUGE black mark against Sony (Sony, are you reading this?).
I bought a Panasonic player while the Sony was off getting repaired and my results were MUCH worse. The picture would randomly go black every 10 to 20 minutes for maybe 2 or 3 seconds. I used the machine while the Sony was away and then returned it. I sure didn’t want to keep that Panny.
Would I buy the Sony again. Yes, without hesitation. But never put in unfinalized disks that you recorded yourself!
You're right Bob, Monster is a major ripoff and it took me hundreds of dollars in cables and wiring before I found that out....(for what it's worth, Monster makes the strongest speaker wire for clothes lines and other odds and ends that need to be tied down or tied up.....LOL!)
bfl
My PS3 may be the geatest creation known to man.
Especially with the PlayOn software I use with it.
Sony Play Station 3. I have had one for 2 years now.
Dang it. I paid 19.99 at Amazon. Of course I could pick up another one.
I paid less than $80 for the Monster 1000 HD HDMI cable. If their technology ever improves then I can send the old cable to them and they will send me the newest cable for free.
I admit I dropped out of the tech loop awhile ago and am trying to catch up. The question is awhile back we were being warned about blu-ray that there is a new generation coming and to wait for that. Now has that new generation come to all the blu-rays and what should you look for and two how do you identify systems that allow software upgrades?
Thanks
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