Blu-Ray Players

We've got a Panasonic DB60, which was under £200 and is very good. We mainly chose it as it links easily to our Panasonic telly and can use the same remote, but it may be worth a try.

Nigel

I got a Kuro KRP 500A last April and its picture is brilliant. I splashed out £100 to get the little speakers that attach to the sides and these are fine for watching BBC1 etc but no match for the Naim hifi.

I also bought a Pioneer LX08 Blu-ray player. Again, a brilliant picture, both with Blu-ray DVDs and also with standard DVDs. I feed the LX08 via HMDI to the KRP 500A and this sends both the picture and the sound to the screen/side-speakers. Picture 10/10 Sound 2/10!!!

I also send the sound via decent analogue cables to the Tuner input on the 52 preamp then via the 135s to my Wilson System V speakers. I can then listen to much better sound quality off blu-ray and standard dvds. Sound 5/10. But....the picture quality draws you into the AV experience and overall, and the sound quality seems to improve to about 7/10 on some DVDs

The LX08 cost £600. It is neat and visually matches the KRP tuner box so Mrs D likes it! (10/10).

I asked my dealer whether an AV2 (and extra amps/speakers to provide a 5.1 system) would improve things. He said "not really". He stated that the LX08 wasn't able to deliver a good enough sound to the AV2 and that I would need to buy an LX91 blu-ray player to deliver satisfying sound - cost c.£1,800. He also suggested that within the year, much (much) better blu-ray players would hit the streets. I'm still waiting!!

Cheers

Don

Panasonic DMP-BD60EB-K - job done £160. Your aspirations are realistic and this has all you need. Anything else is wasting money IMO.

Cheers

Jim

I bought a Samsung TV and the lower of 2 Bluray players which is a wonderful match $300. A friend set me up with wifi so I can download from Netflix. It's just jaw dropping with HD at 46" and sound is definitely ported thru my stereo kit. Second rate with normal TV but the tech friend said I need to find the way to not have the TV force regular screen to full scale with pixelation. I'm just not interested in fiddling with the remote to reduce the size, that means putting on my glasses and creating havoc for 10 minutes.

I'm sure in a year the same kit will be reduced in price but I WANT IT NOW! Damn the cost.

As we have a Sharp 37" TV, the Sharp BD-HP22H could be a choice. Has anyone a comment about this BR player?. I have seen it at £95.

I have a Pioneer 5090 and AV2+150x+175 and after having a PS3 & Panasonic BluRay I cannot recommend highly enough my current player Oppo BDP83. The Oppo is a very high quality player and can easily put to shame the £1000+ BluRays even though it RRP is only £450. It is also an amazingly fast operating BluRay, faster than any standalone player I know. My Panasonic for example took 30-45 to power on and open the drawer, the Oppo takes around 5 seconds, it is equally quick to load and play. It has a fully set of 7.1 analogue outs so I can get full HD audio with my AV2. For amps with no 7.1 analogue in it has a very neat trick in that it can also down convert all HD audio to the highest rate DTS that is supported by most older AV amps.

They are not widely known in UK shops and magazines as this is officially a US only machine, but I bought a mod kit (£50 extra) which makes it completely region free for DVD & BluRay. Do a search over on AVForums and it gets great reviews. The only UK suplier of these is CRT Projectors. They will sell them fully already modded and guaranteed.

Peter, I'd go for a Pioneer BDP-320, as it seems like a very good idea to match screen and player brands (from a functional point of view at least). This one will cost you around 400€.

If you need to have it multi-region them some are easier to "adapt" than others.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to contribute your thoughts on this subject.

By coincidence on my way home from a cycle today I passed a richer sounds branch where the manager was outside having a cigarette! He suggested the Pioneer 320 for compatibility with my tele albeit this was the only model he had in stock.

This thread could prove quite a good resource for others on the forum and I'll keep looking in and taking notes!

Peter

I would wait and get the new Sonys ending with -70 in a couple of months (see CES).

KR,

Patrick