I just cancelled my order for this player. My father always said, "If you're going to do it, do it right." It appears to me, that the Panasonic is the right way.

I doubt it decodes DTS-HD and TruHD..

And I won't believe it until I see it in writing on Sony's site.

Actually, I'll ALMOST believe it when I see it in writing on Sony's site - I'll FULLY believe it when the unit is in the hands of the reviewers and THEY say it does.

Right now I think this thread is complete wishful thinking as there is not one shred of evidence that this is so, and the conversation was with a phone support guys who didn't seem to understand what was even being asked...

I believe josh himself realized he fell prey to Sony hype, as he just cancelled his order.

Josh, I thought you were going for a PS3?

Josh, seriously man, how many times are you going to let the hype machine fuck you over??

I just don't understand why anyone would buy into one of these things until there's a POSITIVE review up there.

I wouldn't mind the Sony at all (still the sharpest looking player out there), but the Panasonic has won me over with its great reviews and availability.

Actually, zero so far. Until he has a machine, it hasn't done anything to him. :)

Good call. ;)

Let us know what you think of the Panny when you get it.

Great reviews for the Panasonic?

*looks around*

where?

And availability??? Is there a big shortage of a certain brand BD machine at the moment???

Well, if he isn't looking to upconvert DVDs over the Panny, then it's a more solid BD player than the Samsung was. And they are promising eventual DolbyTrueHD and DTS-HD MA support. If I were inclined to buy a 1G BD player, I'd go with the Panny.

A lot of people buy them just to tinker around, review them, then return them.

Can someone break down the differences right now between the Sony and the Panny? I'm kinda lost on it right now.

Well, different insides for one thing. The Panasonic has 7.1 analog outs, and have prommised a firmware update to decode DolbyTrueHD and DTS-HD MA. We don't yet know how the Sony will do on upconverting regular DVDs, but apparently the Panasonic is not one of the better DVD upscalers.

Hmm, thanks for the info. I'm still thinking the Samsung is currently the best deal of the first gen units. I can;t see paying that much extra when 2nd gen products are on the horizon.

I don't see the Samsung being much of a deal at all, honestly.

well, if you can pick it up for around 500 its not too bad. I just don't see paying over 1K for any of them.

No 5.1 analog outs, no advanced audio decoding = no sale for me.

What was th point of this entire thread? To find out that Josh still doesnt have a HD player? This whole Josh debacle is rediculous. HDMI 1.3 this HDMI 1.3 that, Now HDMI 1.3 isnt important at this point and he will buy one without it. Sony this Sony that, Now he isnt getting the Sony. The whole thing makes my head spin. The entire Josh debate is completly rediculous. I try to avoid all of it and just not say anything but I will say this.

Josh, do yourself a favor and just stop. Stop with all of the Sony fanboyism, Stop with all of the Blu-Ray, HDMI 1.3, PS3 speeches. I have never seen someone with such little first hand knowledge claim to know so much. Just stop with all of it until you at least get a player in your house and thus get a somewhat informed opinion on what your talking about. As it is right now you make yourself look like a total fanboy whose only knowledge comes from reading internet posts and company press releases. I havent seen someone this bad since my Gamespot days on the Sytem Wars Forum, whuch happens to be the biggest collection of people that think they know everything on the face of the planet.

Looking back on all of the Josh posts only one word comes to mind, rediculous!

PS..

Thanks for your kind words, PS.

HDMI v1.3 is still very important to me, but waiting is no longer an option. The Panasonic is a better option than the Sony. Its that simple.

PS,
You keep using that word. I do not think it <s>means</s> is spelled what you think it <s>means</s> is spelled.

To be fair, lack of owning a BD player doesn't seem to have any affect on HD-DVD owners from drawing conclusions on BD over here.

But the HD DVD side at least has fantastic reviews on its side. That's the big difference.

And regardless of the spelling/grammatical mistakes made above, I think he speaks for a lot of us.

Unless those reviews are soley based on Universal titles, I fail to see how those fantastic reviews don't support both sides.

True, the reviews of recently released BD's and an actual viewing were what prompted me to finally jump into the hi-def game after sitting it out for six months. I'll just leave it at that.

And they've still been mixed...and without extras.

HD DVD set the bar very high. All we're doing now is watching and waiting to see if they can match it. Going beyond it is a pipe-dream, for the moment.

At the very least, we've seen many titles on HD DVD that have been praised unanimously for their quality. BD hasn't.

I'll just leave it at that.