Help with Blu Ray Purchase

[bryanalban]

Looking to get a Blu Ray player and was wondering what your suggestions are. I'm choosing between the LG BD390 and the PlayStation 3 Slim.

I'm most interested in good Blu Ray and DVD playback, and how it works streaming from Netflix. I'm not a gamer, and while I might buy and play a game or two very occasionally, that isn't a major point (although I guess it is a minor point).

Both are about the same price, and I know when I was thinking about getting a Blu Ray player about a year or so ago, the PS3 was the clear choice, but now CNET and ConsumerSearch, etc, all say the LG is the best Blu Ray player.

One question I do have is the amount of memory. The LG comes with 1GB and the PS3 comes with 120GB. Will I notice a difference? Do I need the extra memory if I'm not going to be saving a bunch of game data?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

ps. I have a Denon 3808CI, so I don't need analog outs for surround.

 

[Ares]

I am big on the PS3, as you said you won't do much gaming so the LG BD390 will be your best choice between the 2, Now to your memory question if you plan on doing digital copies of your Blu-ray titles than a bigger HDD is a nice feature to have the PS3 has an internal 120gb which you could swap out for a larger one, But your best bet is to go with the 390 and get a large external HDD and connect it to the USB port of the 390 to do the same thing. Good Luck and Happy Hunting.

 

[j_garcia]

As mentioned, if you are going to do any gaming, the PS3 is the way to go, because you basically get both the player and gaming in one box. The fact that you say it isn't a priority, I'd probably just go with a stand alone player though.

 

[bryanalban]

Hey Guys, thanks for the input.

So are you recommending the LG because if has better features (other than gaming obviously)?

A friend said that even if I play a game just a few times, it is better to get the PS3. His thinking is even if you think you might play some games, go with the PS3. What do you guys think?

My order of important features is:

1. Blu-ray playback
2. Netflix streaming
3. DVD playback
4. Gaming

 

[bryanalban]

One of the main reasons my friend gave for picking the PS3 , even if you don't really game, was it's ability to upgrade via firmware in the future. He said as better streaming algorithms, DVD up-conversion, etc, you can upgrade you PS3 because it is software based, whereas the standalone Blu-ray players are hardware based.

Is this true, and is that a good reason to pick the PS3?

 

[j_garcia]

Since the LG is a web enabled player, you will be able to update it as easily as the PS3. The difference being that when the LG is about 1-2yrs old, they will definitely stop releasing updates for it vs. the PS3 which will receive updates for years to come. Because the PS3 is a much more powerful unit, it has a lot of other capabilities that can be added to it due to the hardware. Things like 3D capability will be a firmware update for the PS3. They are going to release a kit that allows you to use the PS3 as a DVR, something you definitely won't be able to do with a stand alone player.

What types of games do you play? There are a lot of free and/or cheap games available on the PS3 online (PSN) that are quite fun, so it isn't all about buying full blown games all the time. It already has Netflix and the DVD upscaling is pretty good. I almost agree with the part about gaming, and was going to say something similar, but if you are going to game once or twice a year, it probably isn't worth it. If you think you will play on a regular basis, then as mentioned before even by you, it is a no brainer. I game and I pretty much use the PS3 just for gaming.

 

[Ares]

This is where J and myself agree the PS3 has alot of things going for it, I love my PS3 it allows me to do alot of things like watch movies,gaming and music. If I feel like watching a movie I'll use Netflix or download one from the PSN store, updates for firmware happen often about every 1to2 months and as it stands the PS3 is one of the best pieces of hardware on the market right because it's not limited to what it can do IMO. All things that you can do on the PS3 I had to upgrade my HDD from 40GB to 500GB plus I added an 2TB external HDD from seagate to store music and movies. Looking over your list of what is important to I would go with the PS3,I have a feeling that you will be doing alot more gaming once you have it.