The Panasonic fans are probably going to scoff at me, but I'm probably going to get the Sony. I can't get by the fact that Sony has been good to me and I've never owned Panasonic. In all honesty, the differences between the players seem negligible, so I think I would feel better in the long run getting the brand I've had good experiences with.
No scoffing. Do as you please.
The reason why I recommend Pana is for the superior PQ. Its visible subjectively, and its been discussed a whole lot, whether measurably, in controlled test shoot-outs, consumer shoot-outs, etc.
IOW, the differences are not negligible. Not to me at least. They might be negligible on a smaller display. To me the Sony seems to look like it has more "noise".
But Sony has treated you well, so why not. I do think the Sony looks better cosmetically; I've hooked up and checked out the bd30, bd35, sony350.
Some others also prefer the Sony for ergonomics. Ive played with all three above, and I'm not seeing this, but I thought I should throw that out there.
Here is one pro reviewer's thoughts, just posted in the aforementioned
thread yesterday.
"I've seen demos of pretty complex high definition material on the BD35 vs. the BDP-S350 and the BD35 pretty handily beats the BDP-S350 for Blu-ray performance when it comes down to fine color detail. If the 550 is using the same processor as the S350 then it will rate similarly to the 350.
The Panasonic player is accurate with color output (they both are), where it beats the Sony is in color detail. It interpolates color values for pixels which were not on the original disc (lost due to the Blu-ray mastering/compression process) effectively restoring the 4:2:0 color information stored on the Blu-ray disc to 4:4:4 output with color detail for each pixel in the 1920x1080 array. This becomes evident on really large screens where you can see strong, clean borders between colors on the Panasonic where the Sony (at least the S350) loses a bit of sharpness and definition at these edges.
I have not tested/measured the BDP-S550 but I have evaluated the BD55 in depth and done some preliminary testing on a BD35 and I can say they are both impressive pieces of hardware, in terms of performance. The Panasonic player's standard def upconversion is solid but not best of breed. But the same could be said about the Sony.
At this level of performance, on most common screen sizes (even at 50 inches from 8 feet away), you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference on Blu-ray material, even with the advantages of the new UniPhier chip in the Panasonic. So, to a certain extent, you can't go wrong with either, just pick based on features and ergonomics.
As BIslander said, the BD55 audio settings are convenient in that you can set it to PCM or analog out (depending on your receiver's requirements), leave secondary audio ON and still enjoy the lossless codecs. This affects not only PiP commentary tracks (BonusView), but also menu clicking sounds, which frequently cannot be defeated in the disc menu and will force a player that bitstreams to revert to the lossy codec. Sure, you can always go in and out of the menus adjusting the secondary audio or switching from "direct" to "mix" mode but getting in and out of these menus interrupts playback and brings you right back to the beginning of a disc (at least if the disc has BD-Java), and who wants to take a 2 to 3 minute break, just to adjust your audio settings?
So, keep your eyes peeled for deals this holiday shopping season and go with whichever one best fits your needs from an ergonomics perspective. Either player is a huge step up in performance over regular DVD.
-CB"
