Holding Off on Blu-ray and thinking OPPO

[itschris]

For the past few years, I haven't had the environment to even have a decent setup. There was no watching tv or listening to music in peace. My daughter would rather dance in front of the tv rather than watch. Frankly, besides the news, I rarely even watched much tv. I'd catch a movie now and then, but that's about it. Now that my daughter's 14, she's actually just as excited about this stuff as I am, so that why I did the big remodel.

It's been a few years since I even had a big screen, there was no point, so once everything gets delivered this week and next, I'll be in hog heaven for some time. I'll be so happy just watching well converted DVD's on a nice TV that I don't even care about blu-ray all that much. For me right now, I'm okay with enjoying all the new stuff I'm already going to have. I'm more excited to just have great audio again since that's what I enjoy the most. Believe me, if I already had all this stuff for the past couple of years, I'd already have the PS3 because at the time, there was no better option.

I'm expecting my first pieces to be delivered this week (the mits DLP, the Elite 94, and Oppo DVD) The Def Techs were backordered but should be arriving in a couple of weeks or so. I just finished cleaning the Sunfires and I have this 10 year old ADCOM 5 disc changer that I just love, so I might even hook that up to just for the helluva it.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Oh I agree with you, you want your gear to be appealing, that's part of the A/V equation and like I said I'm of the camp that stayed away from the PS 3 because it's a "toy," BMTRIX pointed out that pluses of the machine, but I would like to own a dedicated stand alone, I'm just questioning my logic and reasoning behind my prejudice against owning a PS3 as a blu-ray only player, especially when all the attributes seem positive. Come Black Friday, hopefully, I will go one way or the other.

I'm in agreement with you - I don't WANT to own a PS3, but I do want the best possible gear in my rack. When I say rack - I mean rack. Middle Atlantic faceplates for everything, so I don't get to see the curve of the PS3 at all.

Yet, I would still rather own a stand alone.

But, stand alones can't touch the PS3.

Don't kid yourself on this, the Pioneer, Denon, and Panasonic aren't in the same league as the PS3. This is covered above, and is detailed in Home Theater Magazine reviews and S&V Magazine. It's covered on forums ad-nauseum, and ignoring the gamers - by Audioholics around the world.

So, while #2 does play into my decision when I'm looking at similarly priced products that perform close to the same, when I actually have the opportunity to get something that is the same, or less money than the competition, and blows the competition away, it just makes sense.

Some people buy gear to show off... Other people buy it to enjoy it. Where the priorities lay depends on the person. Personal opinions run amock, and none are 'correct' when it comes to preference. Yet, if you take a PS3 and put it into a typical A/V case (black box), with no rounded corners, there are still a ton of people whou would argue that it doesn't make sense because it is a 'toy'.

That arguement simply fails on so many levels its disgusting. The PS3 is no more (or less) a toy than a big screen TV, a front projector, or the A/V receivers we use. It's incredibly complex electronics, and has a reported fail rate of about 2-4% which is inline with the best electronics manufactured today.

Yep, you can feed your HD display SD DVD all you want and wait for something better to come along. That's always each person's own choice. But, I've been enjoying HD for almost 18 months on a player that has outperformed every piece of competition that has come down the road.

The toy that bests Samsung, Pioneer, Panasonic, and the rest of the Sony offerrings?

No, definitely a ways away from being a toy.

 

[stratman]

Like I say B you make a compelling case indeed! I'm getting over the "toy" mindset though, but I still want to wait till Black Friday to see where the market is. I have so many priorities on my plate right now that purchasing a BD player has been relegated to the end of the year.

 

[allargon]

I can understand not wanting a PS3. (It's beyond ugly, and the IR/Bluetooth remote workarounds add to its unsightliness!) There are other options besides Oppo. You can get a Toshiba HD-A20, HD-A30 or HD-A35 on the grey market for well under $200 (really around $100 for the A20/A30). Those all have Anchor Bay scalers that do a great job. (Many say it's better than the every Oppo other than the new 983.) The HD-A35 has analog outs. All 3 will bitstream (HDMI or Toslink) or internally decode DTS and Dolby Digital. The HD-A35 will do 5.1 analog to a receiver or pre/pro. There's also the LG BH200. It will do Blu-Ray profile 1.1 (and likely be upgradable to 2.0), but it doesn't have multichannel analog outs. The Samsung BD-UP5000 does Blu-Ray profile 1.1 with multichannel analog outs, but it is not known whether or not it will be upgradable to profile 2.0. It's got a Reon processor similar to the excellent Toshiba HD-XA2. Grey market pricing for the Sammy BD-UP5k puts it at around $350. The LG BH200 is about $400 via grey market.

I will give props to the PS3 if analog outputs are not needed. In addition to upscaling DVD's and playing all profiles of Blu-Ray and internally decoding all lossless audio formats, the PS3 also plays WMV, DivX and Xvid files. A lot of online trailers (see movies.yahoo.com) and porn are available in these formats. It's a nice addition.

 

[stratman]

What are PS3s going for now??

 

[mouettus]

What are PS3s going for now??

Still 400$ for the 40Gb. If you want to buy the larger one (I think 600$), it will play SACDs. You don't need the larger hard drive though as I think you just bought a dell computer for your multimedia server. Costs the same as the cheapest blu-ray player out there, but 5 times its performance

 

[mtrycrafts]

Still 400$ for the 40Gb. If you want to buy the larger one (I think 600$), it will play SACDs. You don't need the larger hard drive though as I think you just bought a dell computer for your multimedia server. Costs the same as the cheapest blu-ray player out there, but 5 times its performance

Yep, now that the HD is history, there is no rush to lower the prices

 

[mouettus]

Yep, now that the HD is history, there is no rush to lower the prices

Even though, price for the base model is worth for what you get. Sad that you're paying 200$ more for 2 usb plugs and 20Gb. A 250Gb costs about 100$ today.

 

[stratman]

Criiiipes!!!! Can this be wrong??? Vann's has the 80GB for $679.88 and the 40GB model for $499.98, both out of stock!

 

[Mr.M-500t]

Thanks for all the fine information folks.
I'm almost sold on a PS3.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Criiiipes!!!! Can this be wrong??? Vann's has the 80GB for $679.88 and the 40GB model for $499.98, both out of stock!

Yes, that can be wrong! That pricing made me think you were in Canada or Europe or Australia or something...

http://www.ebgames.com/Browse/Search.aspx?N=141+196

The 80GB model is currently out of production I believe, but they are coming back in with it in a month or so with a 'grey' edition (instead of black).

If you don't need SACD though and don't have a bunch of PS2 games you are dying to play, then the 40GB model should be perfectly fine for most people.

Apparently Sony is saying that the $400 model is still not at a price where they make a profit on it and they are hoping to break even at that price by the end of the year.

It's still a great deal on what you get stuffed inside that box.

 

[mouettus]

Yes, that can be wrong! That pricing made me think you were in Canada or Europe or Australia or something...

** Canadian prices are the same as in the states, sold MSRP.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10098867&catid=24714

 

[Midcow2]

PS3 already upgrade to 2.30 and you can get a traditional controller.

Why wait when you can get a PS3 now? It has been explained several times why this machine is the best all-around blu-ray player. And you get other functionalities for the same price of another player. What got me is the speed. Almost as fast (if it isn't) than a DVD player.

I never understood why some of you hate the PS3 just because of the "it's a game machine" mentality. No it ain't! It's a multimedia platform. It IS pretty in an equipment rack. That's as far as your money can get you for a Blu...

Second choice would definitely be the Panny BD-30. I saw this player in action and it is good.

The PS3 has frequent firmware upgrades and is already up to 2.30. if you don't like the idea of a game maxhine you can get a traditional DVD controller and pretend it isn't a game machine.

Right now, I have a Panasonic DMP-BD30 and a PS3 80gig. The brute force of the PS3 is amazing, it loads DVDs much faster than the Panasonic.

 

[itschris]

Thanks for all the fine information folks.
I'm almost sold on a PS3.

If you have to have Blu-Ray today, than either the Panny bd30 or the PS3 are excellent choices.

However, if you're like me, and don't mind waiting a bit, then why not wait through summer just to see what becomes available as an alternative. I'm sure every PS3 owner will say that's stupid, ridiculous, PS3 is the best, and all that, but if there are reasons beyond just capability that cause you to pause on the PS3, you're likely to find the new crop of players that are coming will do it all very well. From what I've read, just about every new player expected to come out this summer will both decode and/or bitstream all of the lossless formats. It's an option.

 

[BMXTRIX]

If you have to have Blu-Ray today, than either the Panny bd30 or the PS3 are excellent choices.

However, if you're like me, and don't mind waiting a bit, then why not wait through summer just to see what becomes available as an alternative. I'm sure every PS3 owner will say that's stupid, ridiculous, PS3 is the best, and all that, but if there are reasons beyond just capability that cause you to pause on the PS3, you're likely to find the new crop of players that are coming will do it all very well. From what I've read, just about every new player expected to come out this summer will both decode and/or bitstream all of the lossless formats. It's an option.

I agree, it most definitely is a very good option, especially with the Panny BD50 coming down the line.

The biggest downside is the horsepower issue of the PS3 which makes it actually response very quickly to almost everything, which no stand alone player has come close to touching from any company.

It's so bad with my A2 that my wife refuses to watch DVDs on the A2 and now strictly uses the PS3 for playback despite the more limited remote controls available on the PS3. Just having to wait about 45 seconds for the disc to eject from the A2 drives her nuts. This is very similar to how long it takes to eject a disc on the new $2,000 Denon Blu-ray player, and seems consistent across most players on the market right now.

I am hopeful, but have very low belief that this year will bring us players that approach the speed of the PS3 so, on a level that touches quality, usability, and overall performance, you better believe PS3 owners are going to recommend that course. The main arguement against it remains that some people simply don't like that it's a PS3. Yes, some people would like the body of a Ferrari with the engine of a Civic... I will continue to push the body of a Civic with the engine of a Ferrari until we can get the best of both worlds.

 

[itschris]

I always find it interesting realizing the differences between people... like what drives one person absolutely batsh*t will make litte or no impact to someone else. Movie night for me will be maybe once every two weeks and there will have to be a little planning involved to actually be able to enjoy the movie. We'll make a bit of deal out of it and get all prepared and everything with popcorn and what not. If it takes 50 seconds to load the disc, I'm okay with that. At that point, I'm there to actually relax (which I rarely get to do) so not much trivial stuff is gonna bother me. Now ugly speaker cable attached to beautiful monoliths is a entire different story! I'll start punching people!

 

[moggi1964]

itschris..............I hear you

 

[mouettus]

I will continue to push the body of a Civic with the engine of a Ferrari until we can get the best of both worlds.

What's wrong with the Civic? Looks nice to me

 

[Mr.M-500t]

If you have to have Blu-Ray today, than either the Panny bd30 or the PS3 are excellent choices.

However, if you're like me, and don't mind waiting a bit, then why not wait through summer just to see what becomes available as an alternative. I'm sure every PS3 owner will say that's stupid, ridiculous, PS3 is the best, and all that, but if there are reasons beyond just capability that cause you to pause on the PS3, you're likely to find the new crop of players that are coming will do it all very well. From what I've read, just about every new player expected to come out this summer will both decode and/or bitstream all of the lossless formats. It's an option.

Thanks itschris,
I've been out of the home theater loop for awhile concentrating on Audio mostly so I'll take what you said under advisement.

 

[itschris]

I was out of it for about 8 years. When I had my last setup, Dolby Digital and DTS were king and component connections were the latest big thing along with progressive scan dvd players. I had one of the first mitsubishi 16x9 ses along with a 55" 4x3. I thought there's no way you can get any better than that.

Things have changed so much over the past several years. I've been back into this stuff for about 2-3 months now and I'm just now really getting this all straight in my head. It takes time.

To be fair, the PS3 is a fantastic machine. For me though, it just doesn't fit in the scheme of what I want my stuff to be in my head. I'm so stoked about getting all my new stuff and getting it setup and what not that I'll be more than happy for a few months just revisiting the entire home theater experience again. I've concentrated on audio the past few years, so this will be like a whole new experience again. With that being said, I won't miss not having Blu-Ray for a couple or few months. I think the Sony and the new Panny players are going to be fine machines and the prices will probably be at a level that is reachable for more folks this go around.