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Anyone familiar with Blu-Ray?

bfisher88

Livin' The Dream
Joined
May 7, 2007
Messages
2,286
I don't know too much about it. What is the difference or capabilities between a $200 unit, and $400? I know I want a Samsung to go along with my Samsung TV. It's a LN46B530 . Any ideas or suggestions on what to get?
 
I don't know about the difference between those units, but for that price you could almost get a PS3 and have a game system along with it. Not sure if that would be an interest to you or not, but I love mine, and I'm not even a hard core gamer.
 
Yeah don't need a PS3. I play XBOX 360 every once in a while but have never been into PS3.
 
While Blu-Ray seems to have won out over DivX, I'm waiting for the price on the discs to drop before I even think about it . . . 1080 upconvert is plenty good enough for me for now, when I can get most of the DVDs I want for under $10 and Blu-Rays seem to start around $25.

~Boar
 
Yeah I agree, way too much. Though I use Netflix, and it's only like 2 bucks more month to have access to all of the Blu-Ray titles so I thought it may be worth it.
 
Blu-Ray was competing against HD-DVD not Divx. Unless there is a feature set specific to an integration between your TV and the player it won't matter if you buy another brand. Right now, the Oppo BDP-083 ($500) is the most feature laden unit and is a true geek machine. On the low end, Best Buy is selling a house brand player for $100. At the moment, the best buy seems to be the Panasonic DMP-BD60K ($200-300). It has all the current audio features, does BD Live if that is important to you, upconverts, and has software updates by internet. I looked long and hard before buying the Panasonic for my system. With a 106" and a 3 tube projector I'd notice if there were any playback problems and so far it has been a great machine in the 6 months I've had it.

While Blu-Ray seems to have won out over DivX, I'm waiting for the price on the discs to drop before I even think about it.
~Boar
 
PS3 is one of the better blu ray players on the market. I would strongly consider even if you have no intent to play games.

Wal mart had a secret sale last year, buy one @ full price and get 10 free blu ray discs. I jumped on this.
 
Well, everyone has an opinion, so here's mine. I bought a Sony Blu-Ray player mainly because that's is where everything is going. Even the HD-DVD manufacturers agreed that BR was the better format.

BR will play both the standard DVD and of course BR; but will NOT play an HD disk. I've go a 50" DLP tv, and when you see Blu-ray, you do see it if it is from the new era. One movie I can tell you is kick butt is; Ratatoullie. You have got to see the eyelashes and the definition of the rats body hair.

I would tell you not to buy movies that we converted from standards to BR, because you will see the failing. The new stuff that was shot for BR is really sharp.

Is it worth it, I think so and I am not a movie buff; but I like my special effects and all the hidden magic that is going on now. If it has a DLP output, I even believe cheap is OK because standards are standards.

And that's all you get for 2 cents.

Pugman
 
Boy, ya get a little coin in your pocket and you wanna run out and buy all sorts of toys! You gonna sit on that new scooter and watch movies now? :laugh:
 
Boy, ya get a little coin in your pocket and you wanna run out and buy all sorts of toys! You gonna sit on that new scooter and watch movies now? :laugh:
LOL Brian. I splurged a little. And saving the vast majority of it. Was about to buy a motorcycle today but didn't end up doing it :D . Thanks DAD!!!! :laugh:
 
Boy, ya get a little coin in your pocket and you wanna run out and buy all sorts of toys! You gonna sit on that new scooter and watch movies now? :laugh:
LOL Brian. I splurged a little. And saving the vast majority of it. Was about to buy a motorcycle today but didn't end up doing it :D . Thanks DAD!!!! :laugh:


:laugh: ...I was wondering if you bought it or not. You have to spend a little bit of it or it will eat away at you.

.....BTW, I'm not quite old enough to be your Dad although I did get an early start! :whistling: :laugh:
 
Not sure about the price differences between the various manufacturers, but if you go Sony - the higher priced units have the capability to link to the Internet via network cable, primarily so that it can update itself. The lower priced units do not have network capability, and must be updated via a burned CD/DVD.

I would watch the Sony outlets. I picked up my low end unit for $99 around X-mas. I've seen sales on them since - in the $99 - $119 range. I've also seen the higher end units sell for as little as $179 at times (from $400).

I have a Toshiba HD DVD as well. I really cannot see the difference between the two but am told it takes at least a 52 inch screen with 1080 to really see the subtle differences. Honestly - I don't know how that would even work (I had the HD DVD hooked up to my 52 inch Panasonic 1080 - and I now have the Blue Ray hooked up to the same TV - and I honestly do not see any difference from what I can recall). It would be nice to do split screen or two side by side... Then again - why???? I now have the HD DVD on my 42 inch 720 in the bedroom - and the picture is awesome!

I do like the HD DVD at the moment - I'm picking up brand new HD movies all over the place for $5 each - most dual format. And there was a recent new release that came out on HD DVD (can't remember the title - but was surprised because I thought they were done producing HD DVD's). The HD DVD players are not cheap, though...
 
I did the same as you want to do, i bought a samsung blueray to match my tv and I could not be happier, i think i paid 250 for it and I would have spent more, I have had no issues at all with it and the picture is amazing. this is he unit I picked up (Samsung BDP1500 Blu-ray Disc) not the most high end out there, but as I said, i could not be happier with it.
 
We have 2 Blu Ray units in the house, a Samsung unit and my PS3. Both of them run great, however the PS3 is much faster on load times and doing updates.
 
I have a PS3 and use Netflix and it has been great. Since buying a HDTV a few months ago I started using Netflix's Blu Ray option and it has been the best so far. I really only got the PS3 for the Blu Ray feature and well I do play Tiger Woods Golf every now and then (the kids use the hell out of the other games), plus it has WiFi and I can cruise CP oon the 47" hdtv, pretty cool.
 
Just an update. Saw this deal online yesterday and made the purchase.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4795794&CatId=4675

I've looked at this model numerous times before at around the $200 range. It is one of the lower end Samsung models but it gets some decent reviews and should be just fine for what I need. Pretty good deal if anyone else is looking...
 
I saw you just bought a unit. Thats great, I am on Blockbuster mail in rental plan, with the blu-ray plan. I can see the difference in Blu-ray, however some are very happy with the up-converting DVD players.

For others reading this, another alternative is the Home Theathre PC. I built one that out-puts to my tv in Blu-Ray or standard as well as allowing me to surf on the web on my TV. There are some challenges to make it work as it is such new technology. However, even with the challenges it was a fun challenge and I got a lot of satisfaction from the project.
 
Nice score. Enjoy your new player, you'll really like it. My buddy has the 1600 and loves it. The "Open Box" thing always scares the crap outa me, I wish you luck with the one you get.

I have a Panasonic & Sony BD (bought at Costco around Christmas for $229 each) as well as a PS3. The BD picture is the same on all three. I like the first two because they update the software when you hook them up through a CAT5/6 cable to the Internet. The PS3 does too, but doesn't give you all the interactive features of a stand alone player....but as Ray said, if you want all that stuff. The Panasonic DMP-BD60K remote functions are way better than both the Sony BDP-BX1 and the PS3 I have. WiFi connectivity to the Internet would have been nice instead of having to run a cable to all of them...which some of the newer (and more $$) models have now.

But if all you want to do is watch movies and occasionally rewind, fast forward, and pause....all of these are fine.

As for the BD DVDs, I've heard of some people that actually make copies of the movies they rent.
 
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