Blu Ray player recommendation...

[Professor Zoom]

Hey All,

I'm thinking about getting a blu ray player... and I'm looking for recommendations.

We just got a 780 32 inch flat screen... and I have about a 10 year old DVD player.

Now, I probably wouldn't be getting a new dvd player, blu ray or otherwise, except for netflix.

I want to stream my netflix to the TV. We have an xbox--but I'll be damned if I pay an extra 40 to 50 bucks to microsoft so I can watch netflix.

At first, I thought about a roku box, but then, well, I realized, there are internet blu rays...

The only other question I have, on these internet blu rays, can you surf? My wife watches Indian television through a website, so I would want to be able to go there.

So, I'm looking for a reasonably priced blu ray, that connects to the internet (for netflix and some surfing), that is backwards compatiable (which I assume all of them are now)...

Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[RoJoHen]

Sounds like a PS3 to me!

It plays Blu-Rays, DVDs, has Netflix Instant Streaming, and has an internet browser.

 

[Zaku]

You can't have DTS HD or Dolby Digital TrueHD from PS3

I suggest this player

http://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/video/LG-blu-ray-dvd-player-BD570.jsp

It can play mkv files from ntfs partitions too!

From the site:

Wi-Fi Connectivity
Yes
NetCast™ Entertainment Access
Yes
Internet Services
Netflix®, Vudu™, YouTube™, Roxio® CinemaNow, Pandora®, Picasa™, AccuWeather®
Blu-ray Support
Yes
Full HD 1080p resolution
Yes
Upscale Standard DVDs
Yes
USB 2.0 connectivity
Yes
No. of HDMI Ports
1
Express Reaction Startup
Yes
Disc Capacity
1
Disc Playback Capability
Blu-ray™ Disc, BD-R/RE, DVD, DVD±R/RW, Audio CD, CD-R/RW
Video Content Format
DivX®/DivX HD, MPEG4 AVC, HP@L4.1, MPEG2, HP@ML, SMPTE VC1, AP@L3, MPEG2, HP@ML, AVCHD, MKV
Home Link Playable Content Format
DivX®/DivX HD, MPEG2 TS/PS, MPEG1 SS, XVID, MKV, AVI, WMA, MP3, AC3, AAC, JPEG, PNG
SimpLink™ connectivity
Yes
Limited Waranty
1 Year Parts/90 Days Labor

 

[Professor Zoom]

Sounds like a PS3 to me!

It plays Blu-Rays, DVDs, has Netflix Instant Streaming, and has an internet browser.

I already have an xbox, and I'm not a huge gamer, so it woulda sorta be a waste for me...

You can't have DTS HD or Dolby Digital TrueHD from PS3

I suggest this player

http://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/video/LG-blu-ray-dvd-player-BD570.jsp

I had seen it that one... I am leaning towards an LG...

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

The OPPO BDP-83SE is a truly incredible machine...

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83se/

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

The OPPO BDP-83SE is a truly incredible machine...

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83se/

 

[Professor Zoom]

The OPPO BDP-83SE is a truly incredible machine...

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83se/

Woah. Looks cool. On Amazon it's about 500 bucks. A little bit more than I want to pay.

I'm looking at spending under 200 dollars... but... if I had all the money in the world...

 

[propita]

We were given netflix “watch instantly” for 6 months as a Christmas present. So we can have it on the iphones, the computers, and my nephew’s xbox, but not otherwise on the main tv (52”).

What are our options for the main tv (besides moving my nephew’s xbox to the living room)?

Great part about this is that the old Doctor Whos are available on my phone for while I’m at the gym. My first Doctor was Tom Baker, but I rarely saw many episodes way back then.

 

[PsychoPere]

I suggest this player [LG BD570]

I purchased an LG BD570 earlier this year and I'm quite satisfied with it.

What are our options for the main tv (besides moving my nephew’s xbox to the living room)?

You can browse all of the available options here.

You're basically looking at using a gaming console (such as your nephew's Xbox, though of course you still have to have an Xbox Live Gold account to access Netflix there); a streaming player (such as Apple TV or a Roku player); or an internet-capable Blu-ray player.

If you didn't want to move the Xbox into the living room, a streaming player such as a Roku would probably be the "easiest" method, though it's only used for streaming media. You might as well get an internet-capable Blu-ray player so that you can play DVDs/Blu-ray Discs and stream media. With mine, I also plug an external hard drive in to watch video files on there.

 

[propita]

I suggest this player [LG BD570]

I purchased an LG BD570 earlier this year and I'm quite satisfied with it.

What are our options for the main tv (besides moving my nephew’s xbox to the living room)?

You can browse all of the available options here.

You're basically looking at using a gaming console (such as your nephew's Xbox, though of course you still have to have an Xbox Live Gold account to access Netflix there); a streaming player (such as Apple TV or a Roku player); or an internet-capable Blu-ray player.

If you didn't want to move the Xbox into the living room, a streaming player such as a Roku would probably be the "easiest" method, though it's only used for streaming media. You might as well get an internet-capable Blu-ray player so that you can play DVDs/Blu-ray Discs and stream media. With mine, I also plug an external hard drive in to watch video files on there.

Thanks. I’ll show this to Hubby. I’d kinda hate to have to buy another blue-ray player. We’ll likely wait to see if we want to continue this after the gift part expires. We never bothered with netflix before. No time and a few hundred dvds already here.

 

[TheSeeker]

You can't have DTS HD or Dolby Digital TrueHD from PS3

I'm no expert but a quick google search would seem to disagree with that statement: http://hd.engadget.com/2009/04/21/hd-101-how-to-use-dolby-truehd-and-dts-hd-with-your-ps3/

 

[Starbreaker]

You can't have DTS HD or Dolby Digital TrueHD from PS3

Ummm.... yes you can.

 

[PsychoPere]

Thanks. I’ll show this to Hubby. I’d kinda hate to have to buy another blue-ray player. We’ll likely wait to see if we want to continue this after the gift part expires. We never bothered with netflix before. No time and a few hundred dvds already here.

Since you already have a Blu-ray Player, you could ask yourselves if you're okay having another device and another remote, and instead purchase a streaming media player rather than a new, replacement Blu-ray Player. Such devices are pretty compact, so any size issue should be minimal. I haven't used one myself, but they do look easy to set up.

Netflix does become a very convenient source of movies and television that's difficult to give up once you've gotten used to having it around, eh?

 

[Zaku]

You can't have DTS HD or Dolby Digital TrueHD from PS3

Ummm.... yes you can.

Ummmm... ok, I was wrong. And right. PS3 doesn't output Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD, you have to use LPCM. And probably most receivers have a better DAC than ps3...

 

[Trekker4747]

Honestly, the PS3 -while expensive- makes for a fantastic BD player. It often does software updates/patches including a recent one that converts it into a 3D Blu-Ray player! The PS3 makes a great BD player although the current software on it seems to have "issues" with burned DVDs unlesss any recent patches I've yet to get has corrected that.

 

[BillJ]

Honestly, the PS3 -while expensive- makes for a fantastic BD player. It often does software updates/patches including a recent one that converts it into a 3D Blu-Ray player! The PS3 makes a great BD player although the current software on it seems to have "issues" with burned DVDs unlesss any recent patches I've yet to get has corrected that.

This. I absolutely love my PS3 and I'm not much of a gamer.

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah, I'm not a gamer at all, but my PS3 is easily one of the best purchases I've ever made. It just keeps getting better.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Honestly, the PS3 -while expensive- makes for a fantastic BD player. It often does software updates/patches including a recent one that converts it into a 3D Blu-Ray player! The PS3 makes a great BD player although the current software on it seems to have "issues" with burned DVDs unlesss any recent patches I've yet to get has corrected that.

This. I absolutely love my PS3 and I'm not much of a gamer.

I'm not *any* kind of gamer (well, unless you count Atari 2600 ). So a PS3 would not be of much use to me.

That being said, I do have a standalone Blu-Ray player, the BDP-S560. It has built-in WiFi, so it updates itself. And I have no use whatsoever for 3D, so this is all the player I need.

 

[TheSeeker]

Yeah, I'm not a gamer at all, but my PS3 is easily one of the best purchases I've ever made. It just keeps getting better.

Yeah. I just installed Netflix on it a few days ago and so far am fairly impressed.

I also use PS3 media server almost every day.

 

[TV-Tastic]

You can't have DTS HD or Dolby Digital TrueHD from PS3

Ummm.... yes you can.

Ummmm... ok, I was wrong. And right. PS3 doesn't output Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD, you have to use LPCM. And probably most receivers have a better DAC than ps3...

It's not necessary for a BD player to output HD Audio. What's necessary is having a receiver that can handle it. Think about it like this: what's the point of HD multichannel audio if you are only using your TV speakers or if you are using an antiquated receiver. You're not going to get HD multichannel audio anyway under those circumstances so whether or not your BD player outputs it is irrelevant.

I have a fat PS3 and for the money it's the best you can get just based on the software updates and ability to turn it into an all purpose media server. The Netflix app is fantastic and if you're a baseball fan and an mlbtv subscriber you can watch out of market games through it as well.

That being said, I would love to have an Oppo. They are the best.

Honestly, the PS3 -while expensive- makes for a fantastic BD player. It often does software updates/patches including a recent one that converts it into a 3D Blu-Ray player! The PS3 makes a great BD player although the current software on it seems to have "issues" with burned DVDs unlesss any recent patches I've yet to get has corrected that.

Any issues that the PS3 has with burned DVD's is usually the result of cheap media but sometimes the result of the software that was used to burn to begin with. This happens with all optical drives.

I only use Verbatim and Sony now as I have had too many bad experiences with the cheaper brands that seem to work fine with some devices but not with other. Good media will play in anything.

-The 'Tastic