MR

I'm thinking about getting a Blu-Ray disc player and wanted to know if anyone has one and if you have any advice for me? i.e.-What to look for, what brands to get or stay away from, etc... Thanks!

do you have kids?

The best bluray player out there is the Sony Playstation 3.
For $299 you get a system that plays blurays , DVDs, CDs.,.,,and of course Playstation 1 & Playstation 3 games.
The best part about this unit compared to many stand alone Bluray players is the fact that once in a while when the firmware needs updated for more features in the future, PS3 does it through the internet , if you connect it to your home internet.
Speaking of which, you can also browse the web and watch youtube videos on the PS3.

You will be amazed by the quality of the picture on a bluray vs DVD...... cool thing is that PS3 upscales your exisiting DVD's to a 1080p resolution which makes them even look a bit better.

Behshad wrote:The best bluray player out there is the Sony Playstation 3.
For $299 you get a system that plays blurays , DVDs, CDs.,.,,and of course Playstation 1 & Playstation 3 games.
The best part about this unit compared to many stand alone Bluray players is the fact that once in a while when the firmware needs updated for more features in the future, PS3 does it through the internet , if you connect it to your home internet.
Speaking of which, you can also browse the web and watch youtube videos on the PS3.

You will be amazed by the quality of the picture on a bluray vs DVD...... cool thing is that PS3 upscales your exisiting DVD's to a 1080p resolution which makes them even look a bit better.

spot on.

I just bought a samsung 1600 from best buy. It was priced at 199.
When I got to the checkout, I was told that this particular player was on promotion and I got a $50 best buy card along with the purchase!


Once I plugged it in, I was hooked. Naturally, the first blue ray movie I watched was Curse of The Black Pearl.....if the clarity and detail in audio/video doesn't blow you away, you're likely blind, deaf, both or dead!


I also discovered a cool bonus with the player. This particular player has a netflix component. So I registered for netflix and connected the player to my netflix account. I now have access to a ton of movies I would otherwise not be able to watch on Directv (even with their shitty VOD service)....Just last night, I watched Full Metal Jacket...a movie I love, but haven't seen for years....


I highly recommend a blue ray. Make sure you do some research and if you're connecting your player via hdmi, make sure you get a player that reportedly works well with your tv...since they have to do a digital handshake of sorts. I got the samsung because I have a samsung LCD tv....they communicate better than any married couple I know of....


Good luck!

strangegrey wrote:I just bought a samsung 1600 from best buy. It was priced at 199.
When I got to the checkout, I was told that this particular player was on promotion and I got a $50 best buy card along with the purchase!


Once I plugged it in, I was hooked. Naturally, the first blue ray movie I watched was Curse of The Black Pearl.....if the clarity and detail in audio/video doesn't blow you away, you're likely blind, deaf, both or dead!


I also discovered a cool bonus with the player. This particular player has a netflix component. So I registered for netflix and connected the player to my netflix account. I now have access to a ton of movies I would otherwise not be able to watch on Directv (even with their shitty VOD service)....Just last night, I watched Full Metal Jacket...a movie I love, but haven't seen for years....


I highly recommend a blue ray. Make sure you do some research and if you're connecting your player via hdmi, make sure you get a player that reportedly works well with your tv...since they have to do a digital handshake of sorts. I got the samsung because I have a samsung LCD tv....they communicate better than any married couple I know of....


Good luck!

Even better than You & Phyl !?

Is it true that you need a 1080p TV to really see the Blu-Ray advantage? I got a 50" LG tv, but it's only 720p.

Ehwmatt wrote:Is it true that you need a 1080p TV to really see the Blu-Ray advantage? I got a 50" LG tv, but it's only 720p.

Yes.
You will notice a little bit better pic quality right now if you go from DVD to BLURAY , but not the max resolution that the Bluray was intended for.
to get the best out of a bluray player, as Frank mentioned above, you need to hook your player to your (1080p) TV using an HDMI cable....

Behshad wrote:

Ehwmatt wrote:Is it true that you need a 1080p TV to really see the Blu-Ray advantage? I got a 50" LG tv, but it's only 720p.

Yes.
You will notice a little bit better pic quality right now if you go from DVD to BLURAY , but not the max resolution that the Bluray was intended for.
to get the best out of a bluray player, as Frank mentioned above, you need to hook your player to your (1080p) TV using an HDMI cable....

Yeah, that's why I'm holding off, a 1080p TV is still a while away for me. That and the discs are still pretty pricey.

Ehwmatt wrote:

Behshad wrote:

Ehwmatt wrote:Is it true that you need a 1080p TV to really see the Blu-Ray advantage? I got a 50" LG tv, but it's only 720p.

Yes.
You will notice a little bit better pic quality right now if you go from DVD to BLURAY , but not the max resolution that the Bluray was intended for.
to get the best out of a bluray player, as Frank mentioned above, you need to hook your player to your (1080p) TV using an HDMI cable....

Yeah, that's why I'm holding off, a 1080p TV is still a while away for me. That and the discs are still pretty pricey.

You can get a lot of the new releases (bluray) for about $20 or so online,,,,of course if you go to a Best Buy they want $34.99 for the same movie,,,,,

Behshad wrote:

Ehwmatt wrote:

Behshad wrote:

Ehwmatt wrote:Is it true that you need a 1080p TV to really see the Blu-Ray advantage? I got a 50" LG tv, but it's only 720p.

Yes.
You will notice a little bit better pic quality right now if you go from DVD to BLURAY , but not the max resolution that the Bluray was intended for.
to get the best out of a bluray player, as Frank mentioned above, you need to hook your player to your (1080p) TV using an HDMI cable....

Yeah, that's why I'm holding off, a 1080p TV is still a while away for me. That and the discs are still pretty pricey.

You can get a lot of the new releases (bluray) for about $20 or so online,,,,of course if you go to a Best Buy they want $34.99 for the same movie,,,,,

Still kinda pricey. I'd pay that for a concert DVD, but not for a movie I'm only gonna watch once or twice with a few exceptions.

1) The PS3 updating its firmware via your wireless network is VERY handy

2) The Netflix feature Frank explained is becoming more common and should be considered. (Frank..does the netflix thing upconvert the movies or are they already in HD?)

3) There are 1080i and 1080p HDMI cables, so make sure you get the P if you spend the extra bucks on a Blu-Ray player.

Panasonic makes some very highly rated Blu-Ray DVD players. Check out sites like www.cnet.com for reviews. Amazon.com is probably the best site on the planet for unbiased reviews if you have a particular model number you'd like to look into.

I don't see the need. I already have hundreds of DVD's and I think it would be silly to go buy them all again. It's not like I will be saying, "That Jim Carrey movie was 10 times funnier on blu-ray! It was worth the hundreds of dollars to pay for the machine and the thousands of dollars that it took to replace my DVD library."

I'm sure the picture is a little clearer but my eyes ain't getting no better so I think the DVD player will be fine.

Voyager wrote:I don't see the need. I already have hundreds of DVD's and I think it would be silly to go buy them all again. It's not like I will be saying, "That Jim Carrey movie was 10 times funnier on blu-ray! It was worth the hundreds of dollars to pay for the machine and the thousands of dollars that it took to replace my DVD library."

I'm sure the picture is a little clearer but my eyes ain't getting no better so I think the DVD player will be fine.

1. You can play all your DVD movies on it and enjoy them with a bit better resolution
2. If you gonna think that way,then whyd you switch from VHS tro DVD? did THAT make it 10 times funnier to watch Jim Carey movies?
3. the pictue is more than a little better, with the right TV

But to each and their own

Behshad wrote:The best bluray player out there is the Sony Playstation 3.
For $299 you get a system that plays blurays , DVDs, CDs.,.,,and of course Playstation 1 & Playstation 3 games.
The best part about this unit compared to many stand alone Bluray players is the fact that once in a while when the firmware needs updated for more features in the future, PS3 does it through the internet , if you connect it to your home internet.
Speaking of which, you can also browse the web and watch youtube videos on the PS3.

You will be amazed by the quality of the picture on a bluray vs DVD...... cool thing is that PS3 upscales your exisiting DVD's to a 1080p resolution which makes them even look a bit better.

Ooooohhhh- So my Journey Houston concert DVD and the video DVD will be close to HD? Okay, sort of kidding but still excited. Thanks.

Esc wrote:do you have kids?

No kids.

Behshad wrote:

Voyager wrote:I don't see the need. I already have hundreds of DVD's and I think it would be silly to go buy them all again. It's not like I will be saying, "That Jim Carrey movie was 10 times funnier on blu-ray! It was worth the hundreds of dollars to pay for the machine and the thousands of dollars that it took to replace my DVD library."

I'm sure the picture is a little clearer but my eyes ain't getting no better so I think the DVD player will be fine.

1. You can play all your DVD movies on it and enjoy them with a bit better resolution
2. If you gonna think that way,then whyd you switch from VHS tro DVD? did THAT make it 10 times funnier to watch Jim Carey movies?
3. the pictue is more than a little better, with the right TV

But to each and their own

I didn't tell you I am still watching a Zenith 19" black-and-white TV that I bought brand new in 1987 with my own hard-earned money. That picture is still as clear as the day I bought it - who needs to upgrade?

strangegrey wrote:I just bought a samsung 1600 from best buy. It was priced at 199.
When I got to the checkout, I was told that this particular player was on promotion and I got a $50 best buy card along with the purchase!


Once I plugged it in, I was hooked. Naturally, the first blue ray movie I watched was Curse of The Black Pearl.....if the clarity and detail in audio/video doesn't blow you away, you're likely blind, deaf, both or dead!


I also discovered a cool bonus with the player. This particular player has a netflix component. So I registered for netflix and connected the player to my netflix account. I now have access to a ton of movies I would otherwise not be able to watch on Directv (even with their shitty VOD service)....Just last night, I watched Full Metal Jacket...a movie I love, but haven't seen for years....


I highly recommend a blue ray. Make sure you do some research and if you're connecting your player via hdmi, make sure you get a player that reportedly works well with your tv...since they have to do a digital handshake of sorts. I got the samsung because I have a samsung LCD tv....they communicate better than any married couple I know of....


Good luck!

Great! Thanks. Captain Sparrow in HD, Yummy. I am already with Netflix so that'll work well for me.

Thanks for the advice. I will definitely check out the Panasonic and Samsungs.

Suzanne wrote:Thanks for the advice. I will definitely check out the Panasonic and Samsungs.

yes, you're better off with a stand alone unit than a PS3.

Not that I dislike Blu Ray... but the days of disc based movies are numbered... the only limiting factor right now is bandwidth available to consumers, which providers are purposely choking because they want to charge consumers incrementally as they dole it out.

Meanwhile... American consumers get the shaft from their telco providers.... Asian consumers, and their telcos are leading the way... on-demand video and P2P is exploding over there... with South Korea on track to offer 1GBps by 2012 (1GBps = 1000Mbps.) This will make streaming DVD/HD/BluRay ubiquitous.

Americans max out at about 20Mbps... which is sad.... just sad

American ISP's are still trying to impose their old school metering methodology... which will kill most bandwidth intensive activity (online gaming, P2P). The blowback from American consumers will most likely cause them to fail at this, but along the way we'll fall further behind Asia as the telcos try to nickel-and-dime the American consumer to death.

Just got a Samsung Blu ray home theater system, love it.
My Sony system finally crapped out after 15 years.

One more question because I'm apparently new HD equipment challenged:
I bought the Blu-Ray player, have one HDMI cable. I need two apparently to hook from the player to the sound system, then one from the sounds system to the TV, right? Well, what about the HD satellite box? It doens't need to hook into everything with an HDMI cable?

slucero wrote:Not that I dislike Blu Ray... but the days of disc based movies are numbered... the only limiting factor right now is bandwidth available to consumers, which providers are purposely choking because they want to charge consumers incrementally as they dole it out.

Meanwhile... American consumers get the shaft from their telco providers.... Asian consumers, and their telcos are leading the way... on-demand video and P2P is exploding over there... with South Korea on track to offer 1GBps by 2012 (1GBps = 1000Mbps.) This will make streaming DVD/HD/BluRay ubiquitous.

Americans max out at about 20Mbps... which is sad.... just sad

American ISP's are still trying to impose their old school metering methodology... which will kill most bandwidth intensive activity (online gaming, P2P). The blowback from American consumers will most likely cause them to fail at this, but along the way we'll fall further behind Asia as the telcos try to nickel-and-dime the American consumer to death.

I think you answered yourself in your post without even realizing it.
Its very simple,,, as long as the ISPs in North America withhold us from the fast bandwisth that is available in Europe and Asia, the DVD & Bluray will not go away.

Plus, the whole movie scene is a tad different than CD & music..... no matter how much digital media is available to us when it comes to movies, the bg "moviebuffs", will always wanna buy the actual DVD/Bluray, to show off their collection......

Suzanne wrote:One more question because I'm apparently new HD equipment challenged:
I bought the Blu-Ray player, have one HDMI cable. I need two apparently to hook from the player to the sound system, then one from the sounds system to the TV, right? Well, what about the HD satellite box? It doens't need to hook into everything with an HDMI cable?

does your blurayplayer have optical sound out?
and if so, does your stereo system has an optical sound in ???

You wont need to hook the sound from the stereo system to your TV,,,, just from Bluray player to your sound system.....


so what brand did you get and How much !?

Behshad wrote:

Suzanne wrote:One more question because I'm apparently new HD equipment challenged:
I bought the Blu-Ray player, have one HDMI cable. I need two apparently to hook from the player to the sound system, then one from the sounds system to the TV, right? Well, what about the HD satellite box? It doens't need to hook into everything with an HDMI cable?

does your blurayplayer have optical sound out?
and if so, does your stereo system has an optical sound in ???

You wont need to hook the sound from the stereo system to your TV,,,, just from Bluray player to your sound system.....


so what brand did you get and How much !?

Could you please speak english? LMAO Actually, I'm not at home right now so I can't look at the sound system- BUT I think I understand what you're asking. From the looks of the instruction book, I think I need two HDMI cables to go from the player to the surround sound, then from the surround sound to the TV. Anyway, I got a Vizio player on sale at Walmart for $168. It wasn't the cheapest but not the priciest. My stomach hurts, I hope I made a good buy.

Suzanne wrote:

Behshad wrote:

Suzanne wrote:One more question because I'm apparently new HD equipment challenged:
I bought the Blu-Ray player, have one HDMI cable. I need two apparently to hook from the player to the sound system, then one from the sounds system to the TV, right? Well, what about the HD satellite box? It doens't need to hook into everything with an HDMI cable?

does your blurayplayer have optical sound out?
and if so, does your stereo system has an optical sound in ???

You wont need to hook the sound from the stereo system to your TV,,,, just from Bluray player to your sound system.....


so what brand did you get and How much !?

Could you please speak english? LMAO Actually, I'm not at home right now so I can't look at the sound system- BUT I think I understand what you're asking. From the looks of the instruction book, I think I need two HDMI cables to go from the player to the surround sound, then from the surround sound to the TV. Anyway, I got a Vizio player on sale at Walmart for $168. It wasn't the cheapest but not the priciest. My stomach hurts, I hope I made a good buy.

Hm, not to rain on your parade, but from what I understand Bluray players vary drastically in quality. For about $130 more you coulda gotten a PS3, which is kinda the industry benchmark at the moment and not too too bad. Or you could have even gotten some in the middle of that range with a lot more brand/quality. Vizio's not a bad brand, but I can't imagine that's gonna be a killer BRD player

Behshad wrote:

slucero wrote:Not that I dislike Blu Ray... but the days of disc based movies are numbered... the only limiting factor right now is bandwidth available to consumers, which providers are purposely choking because they want to charge consumers incrementally as they dole it out.

Meanwhile... American consumers get the shaft from their telco providers.... Asian consumers, and their telcos are leading the way... on-demand video and P2P is exploding over there... with South Korea on track to offer 1GBps by 2012 (1GBps = 1000Mbps.) This will make streaming DVD/HD/BluRay ubiquitous.

Americans max out at about 20Mbps... which is sad.... just sad

American ISP's are still trying to impose their old school metering methodology... which will kill most bandwidth intensive activity (online gaming, P2P). The blowback from American consumers will most likely cause them to fail at this, but along the way we'll fall further behind Asia as the telcos try to nickel-and-dime the American consumer to death.

I think you answered yourself in your post without even realizing it.
Its very simple,,, as long as the ISPs in North America withhold us from the fast bandwisth that is available in Europe and Asia, the DVD & Bluray will not go away.

Plus, the whole movie scene is a tad different than CD & music..... no matter how much digital media is available to us when it comes to movies, the bg "moviebuffs", will always wanna buy the actual DVD/Bluray, to show off their collection......

I read the manufacturers give disc based media about "5 more years"... that's where my comment about their "days being numbered" came from...

In order for America to compete globally we're gonna have to have comparable broadband as Asia - and that's why I think the telcos will lose in their attempt to monetize bandwidth through metering it... and ultimately the consumer wins because of it.

slucero wrote:

Behshad wrote:

slucero wrote:Not that I dislike Blu Ray... but the days of disc based movies are numbered... the only limiting factor right now is bandwidth available to consumers, which providers are purposely choking because they want to charge consumers incrementally as they dole it out.

Meanwhile... American consumers get the shaft from their telco providers.... Asian consumers, and their telcos are leading the way... on-demand video and P2P is exploding over there... with South Korea on track to offer 1GBps by 2012 (1GBps = 1000Mbps.) This will make streaming DVD/HD/BluRay ubiquitous.

Americans max out at about 20Mbps... which is sad.... just sad

American ISP's are still trying to impose their old school metering methodology... which will kill most bandwidth intensive activity (online gaming, P2P). The blowback from American consumers will most likely cause them to fail at this, but along the way we'll fall further behind Asia as the telcos try to nickel-and-dime the American consumer to death.

I think you answered yourself in your post without even realizing it.
Its very simple,,, as long as the ISPs in North America withhold us from the fast bandwisth that is available in Europe and Asia, the DVD & Bluray will not go away.

Plus, the whole movie scene is a tad different than CD & music..... no matter how much digital media is available to us when it comes to movies, the bg "moviebuffs", will always wanna buy the actual DVD/Bluray, to show off their collection......

I read the manufacturers give disc based media about "5 more years"... that's where my comment about their "days being numbered" came from...

In order for America to compete globally we're gonna have to have comparable broadband as Asia - and that's why I think the telcos will lose in their attempt to monetize bandwidth through metering it... and ultimately the consumer wins because of it.

I don't ever see "owning movies" as in having a bunch of shelves going out of fashion. There's a big difference for the average person in owning a hard copy of a movie vs owning a hard copy of a CD. What the difference is, I can't explain it, but I just know there is for the average person.