Help me choose a Blu-ray player....

[Chopin_Guy]

So here is the situation -- I am fed up with the noise that the PS3 makes while watching blu-rays -- being that its housed in my A/V cabinet which I sit close to while watching movies...SO I have decided to get a dedicated player for Blu-ray and hopefully DVD as well.

I love the audio end of my Denon DVD-3910 and actually want to keep that for CD's -- and besides I know the video side of the 3910 is fairly dated as it's a 2005 product, so hopefully upconversion of DVD's can be helped as well with this new player.

I am on the fence between several players -- the Oppo 83, Oppo 80, and the Denon 2010ci. I was going to get the 3800bdci to replace everything in my rig but missed out on the awesome price Listen Up had on E-bay ($579 shipped!!). The Oppo 83 and Denon 2010ci can be had for about the same price and then the Oppo 80 is about $225 cheaper. Already having an amazing PRO-111FD display I know the Blu-ray performance will be on par with all three players -- but will I notice any difference in standard DVD's with any of these players connected through the PRO-111?? Or is the video processing in the Pioneer more than sufficient when combined with any of these players???

Sorry for the long tangent, but this is where I am at in the decision...

 

[jostenmeat]

Hm.

Well, personally, I'll take the Oppo if only for the bonus of having SACD/DVDA. I've never had this capability, but there is a lot of classical stuff on SACD.

The harder part is deciding between 80, 83, 83SE, IMO.

Ok, in my subjective thoughts regarding the relative improvements with VP on SD-DVD, well, IMO, they seem at times to be rather miniscule when compared to BD. Like, if SD on one player was 20% of BD quality, then perhaps a better DVD player would be 25% of BD quality. (I know BS #s, but just trying to impart my opinion . . . ) So, anyone will take 25% over 20%, but for how much money? Only you can decide.

Doesn't Oppo themselves say the ABT is more worth it once we are talking FP?

If you want the Pio to do all VP, make sure that any player you choose can be forced to output 480i. (For I am under the impression that Panasonic players could not do this, not 100% sure, because I honestly don't care about watching DVD.) However, most players seem to be able to do so.

I can only think of two pertinent questions to ask right now.

How far do you sit from the TV? (Obviously, the farther you are, the less important will the subtle differences in VP be.)
How important, or what % of your media enjoyment, is DVD viewing?

My instinct is to say Oppo 80.

 

[PENG]

I also have the PS3, DVD-3910 (among others) and the Pro-111 display. If I did not have the 3910 then I would have the Oppo 83 SE for sure though ideally I wish Oppo would make a stand alone BD player as well as a stand alone SACD/DVDA player. The fact that you have the 3910, I see no reason to go with the Oppo unless you prefer to have everything in one box. I do not own an Oppo but my educated guess is that the 3910 should be at least in par with the Oppo 83 SE in terms of audio quality.

According to most reviews the Oppo 83's DVD upscaled playback is top but I would bet that you can hardly perceived the difference it can do to your smallish pro-111 over regular BD player such as the Pioneer models (except for the low end BDP-120/121) or Panasonic models, or even the PS3.

Again if you prefer to have just one player that plays all, then the Opp 83 is a good choice.

 

[Chopin_Guy]

Thanks for the input gentlemen....

Peng -- I am keeping the 3910 for CD/SACD audio playing as I love the audio quality on that unit. I am simply looking for a Blu-ray player that won't make a ton of noise like the PS3 and hopefully do a good job on upconversion -- not that it's an end-all being that I only have the 50" PRO-111FD which video processing is probably already top notch...

 

[jostenmeat]

Thanks for the input gentlemen....

Peng -- I am keeping the 3910 for CD/SACD . . .

Oh. Oops. So you already have SACD, my bad.

Well, I believe all of the players that you are looking at have "source direct" mode, which outputs the native rez, so that any external VP can be used (in this case, the TV's). Pioneer should have the same feature. I don't know how convenient it is with Sony players, but they have historically been enabled to output 480i. With source direct engaged, 1080i should be sent as 1080i, so that your Pio can do the deinterlacing (if so desired). Etcetera.

I use a $130 Panasonic, with a double digit feet wide screen, JVC PJ, in what is for most intents and purposes, a cave, and if I thought the Oppo would give me 1% better BD performance, I would have coughed up the extra money.

However in this case, I think it's worth spending $100-150 more for the combined feature set of the Oppo, not just for the brand name, but also what is probably much quicker loading, and of course the source direct.

The Denon would be cool because then you have matching players. Heh. OTOH, if the 3910 ever kicked the bucket, you would still have SACD with the Oppo. Oh, your sig shows a Denon receiver too.

I say you geek out on Denon then, haha.

Ok, the most important deciding factor could be FW support. Pana is tough to beat there, IMO, and Oppo seems to be very good (hey, they're about CS), but it is with Denon that I really have no idea, but I would think* they would be at least decent. The only times I've heard of bad support, really, were with Samsung and Pioneer, during different times. Anyways, I think that is a topic worth investigating.

 

[lsiberian]

Thanks for the input gentlemen....

Peng -- I am keeping the 3910 for CD/SACD audio playing as I love the audio quality on that unit. I am simply looking for a Blu-ray player that won't make a ton of noise like the PS3 and hopefully do a good job on upconversion -- not that it's an end-all being that I only have the 50" PRO-111FD which video processing is probably already top notch...

The PS3 fan can be replaced with a quieter one if you want to try that route. It's a lot of work though.

 

[PENG]

Thanks for the input gentlemen....

Peng -- I am keeping the 3910 for CD/SACD audio playing as I love the audio quality on that unit. I am simply looking for a Blu-ray player that won't make a ton of noise like the PS3 and hopefully do a good job on upconversion -- not that it's an end-all being that I only have the 50" PRO-111FD which video processing is probably already top notch...

I can assure you that the $150 Pioneer BDP-320 is very quiet and its upscaling performance is excellent. The Oppo 83 is likely better but the difference will be so little most people probably can't tell the difference. From my own experience the quality of the transfer makes much more difference in PQ. Pioneer BD players are not the fastest though, so if speed is important to you then you need to get one of the latest LG or Samsung models. Oppo is reportedly one of the quickest but it is $350 more expensive than most high quality stand alone BD player.

Other than that, for under $150 the Panasonic models are apparently tough to beat. I have no idea how quiet they are but Josten should be able to tell you.

 

[jostenmeat]

Other than that, for under $150 the Panasonic models are apparently tough to beat. I have no idea how quiet they are but Josten should be able to tell you.

I am reluctant to offer any input there, because it is never quiet in my HT, and the noise floor of my projector might mask any noise it makes. Some people are more obsessive about noise floor than others, but in my situation, there is not much I can do about it.

If I had a Denon receiver, and Denon cd/sacd player, I'd think I'd want to match with other Denon products, haha, but I do see that the price of admission is rather high. Typically, I like the idea of trying different brands with successive purchases, but well I guess I find that I am on my second Pana bdp, on my second Onkyo processor (though it would be great to try Denon one day), and if I ever upgrade projector, it would likely be another JVC . . .

I'm going to vote, with some admitted guilt, for wasting money on matching components.

Maybe lsiberian can provide a linky for the fan mod.

 

[PENG]

I am reluctant to offer any input there, because it is never quiet in my HT, and the noise floor of my projector might mask any noise it makes. Some people are more obsessive about noise floor than others, but in my situation, there is not much I can do about it.

It is funny that while I know my Pioneer is quiet to the point it is inaudible from where I sit even when nothing else is on, yet I also cannot recommend it without reservation because it is quite a bit slower than the PS3. From reviews I read the Panny models are pretty much in par with the PS3 in speed, may be just a touch slower.

I am also interested in a link to a fan mod. My PS3 slim is barely audible from my sitting position when it is first turned on but it gets much louder half way through a movie when the fan speeds up.

 

[Chopin_Guy]

Thanks gentlemen for the help -- I actually decided to go with the Oppo BDP-80 after alot of reading and then talking with Oppo about it. For my 50" screen and the processing in the Kuro -- there's no justification in having the 83 with the VRS. Oppo said they tested the 83 against the 80 on a Panny 50" G10 (my bedroom set by coincidence) and the difference was minimal in terms of standard DVD picture quality between the two...

Should be here in a couple of days and am thrilled to not have to listen to the PS3 fan during movies anymore...thanks again...

 

[indulger]

I think you will find that you can live with that choice. I own the 80 and have watched DVD's on a 100" projection screen with an epson 8100 projector. I compared the 80's processing to the processing of the 4310CI. No large scale difference. I was happy with both in most cases. Some DVD's were just made better then others. On my 50 in plasma, no difference what so ever.

 

[PENG]

Some DVD's were just made better then others. On my 50 in plasma, no difference what so ever.

In my opinion (just that), it is exactly as you said, some DVD's were just made better than others. Reon and/or ABT VRS do not make much difference to human eyes. Hypes, hearsays, plus placebo based on reported/published visible results using test discs do wonders.

For best possible PQ, I would stick with BR and only selected DVD's. Examples of DVD's that almost seem as good as sub par BR's are Austin Power series, Bond series, The Proposal, House of Flying Daggers. Examples of DVD's that don't look that great regardless of Reon, ABT or not are Finding Neverland, Lord of the Rings Extended version.

 

[Ares]

Here is what the PS3 Whisper Fan looks like:

and here is a link to Talismoon who makes the fan.

 

[PENG]

Here is what the PS3 Whisper Fan looks like:

and here is a link to Talismoon who makes the fan.

Will it fit physically without modifications and is it 100% compatible in terms of air flow, variable speed controlled by temperature etc.?

 

[Ares]

Will it fit physically without modifications and is it 100% compatible in terms of air flow, variable speed controlled by temperature etc.?

The Whisper will fit in all PS3's models,it is compatible but it will move more air than the stock 15 blade or 17 blade fan. The Whisper is modeled after the original 19 blade fan that came with PS3's when production was in Japan.

 

[Ares]

The Whisper will fit in all PS3's models,it is compatible but it will move more air than the stock 15 blade or 17 blade fan. The Whisper is modeled after the original 19 blade fan that came with PS3's when production was in Japan.

I will like to make a correction to this, the Whisper fan will fit in all PS3 Fat models not Slim. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[PENG]

I will like to make a correction to this, the Whisper fan will fit in all PS3 Fat models not Slim. Sorry for any confusion.

Thanks, I thought that's what you meant anyway. Unfortunately mine is a slim.