sm8680

I've been neutral for over a year. I'm probably going to buy within a week or after CES.

Please let me know your thoughts. Price difference is within $50. Which doesn't matter to much to me. I have 3 Hdmi inputs so I won't be out of luck there. My TVs are the Samsung 71 series 40 & 46 inches. The free discs that come with HD or blu ray have little value to me other than resale since I have everything I need.

If there are other players I should look at let me know.

Thanks for the possible insights.
Steve

insanecollector

What kind of surround sound will be hooked up to this?

sm8680

I'm hooking it up via HDMI to the TV set for now. But in the future I could see myself buying speakers and more components.

Kocheese99

as it stands right now i would go with the A35 and BD30. The samsung is still rough around the edges that hopefully will be fixed with a firmware update. But until they put out the firmware update i would go with the other two.

Drexl

What players do you have now?

Arpeggi

Panasonic/Toshiba, fo' sho'.

sm8680

An HD-A2 which has been passed on to my Dad.

BluRay player I had planned to purchase all along. Just never got to it. But with a stack of 25-35 discs I need to purchase soon.

For a gaming system I debated PS3 - Xbox360 or continue using the rarely used xbox.

Mr. Cinema

The A35 is disappearing from many online sites. Supposedly, Toshiba is phasing out their low and high end players, which may explain why the A35 is out of stock at several websites.

I would still rather have the Panny/Toshiba combo. I don't have much confidence in Samsung players, especially reading all the problems with their 1200 and 1400 models.

TGM

I dunno... for the same reason I never liked those combo tv/vhs/dvd things... if it breaks and you have to send it out for repair, then you are screwed all away around... at least if you have probs with the br player you still can watch the hd stuff, and vice versa.

PhantomStranger

Definitely get the separate players if space is not an issue for you. Jack of all trades, master of none I say. Combo players are nice...in theory but rarely work as well as dedicated components.

Gizmo

Apparently Toshiba will handle the mid range players, while other brands will handle the lower and higher end version of HD DVD players. We will know more at CES.

TheKobra

I too also say get both if you have the room. That is what I did!

QuePaso

Since you will be using TV speakers for your sound via HDMI, i say PS3 instead of the BD30, the only reason to go with the BD30 is bitstreaming of the HD codecs, and since you are not going to do that, ps3 is the best bet.

buckee1

Well, I have two of the players you have listed and am pretty happy all the way around. Igot the Samsung BD-UP5000 and the panasonic DMP BD30K on yesterday and so far I have had little to no complaints. The Panasonic has played everything perfectly and the Samsung played perfectly on everything I've thrown at it with the exceptions of Resident Evil Extinction BR & Pan's Labyrinth HD. Everything else worked like a charm. I'd say go for the Sammy. It plays both formats well (with those exceptions) and I really don't have any real complaints.

I have the A2 and the the Samsung 1000 in my living room and they both play perfectly. If I had any real complaints here they would be about the A2's audio outputs. But again, other than that no real issues.

RockStrongo

I have the Sammy 5000....its a great player, BUT it does have some issues...

1. No advanced audio support (only TrueHD 2.0). Supposedly, this is coming in a firmware update soon. That information came from a couple reviewers.

2. No profile 1.1 for BD discs. Also, coming soon via fw update. Supposedly, this is coming this month from Samsung. Again, the information comes from reviewers.

3. Some compatibility problems with some discs. Unlike the 1400, Live Free or Die Hard and other Fox discs have played just fine in my 5000. The only disc that did not work properly was Pan's Labyrinth HD-DVD (someone on avs confirmed that the BD does work). I believe this issue has to do with the internet connection check that this disc does when loading. Thats just a guess. Hopefully, Samsung will fix this soon.

4. HDMI handshake issues. Ive had some issues with handshake with my Onkyo 604 receiver. Very similar to the XA2 issues when it first came out. Hopefully, Samsung will identify them and solve just like Toshiba did.

As you can see, these problems are similar to issues that other players have had.

Ive watched numerous HD-DVDs, SD DVDs and BDs without problems though. The pic quality is GREAT (same Reon chip as the XA2).

If you can stand the bugs for now and want to risk it, go for it. I believe it will turn out to be a great player after they solve these problems.

Well see though.

Bleddyn Williams

Amen!

RockStrongo

While I agree with that theory in some cases, not here.

Do you have a separate DVD player? Essentially, an hd-dvd and bluray player is also an upconverting dvd player.

The PS3 has shown that it can be a decent gaming system (no jokes here ) and bluray/dvd player.

I would NOT equate this with problems that can be caused by a combo VCR/DVD player.

RockStrongo

The straw that broke the camel's back for me was HD-DVD cancelling their press conference. I feel that they are tumbling and about to crash over.

I am planning to return my duo player since I am still in the return period. Ive already replaced most of my warner discs with bluray versions. Economically, I did the numbers and it makes sense for me to do it now. I wont lose much if anything. Yes, I did a spreadsheet.

I purchased the Panny and will be returning my duo player this week or next. Im moving my A3 from my living room tv into my home theater so I can continue to watch my Universal/Paramount/homemade hd-dvds.

Im sure it will be there a long while and I will slowly replace those hd-dvds as time goes on (if those studios switch or go neutral).

akolang2

Does anyone know whether Best Buy will allow me to return the A3 I bought without the bar code, since I already mailed it in for the free discs? I suspect I'm out of luck as far as a return goes, but I figured it was free to ask here

buckee1

I'll admit, it doesn't look good for HD DVD but I'll hold off on returning my dual format player. I have probably 75-85 titles in HD already. With the Samsung FW updates, I'm sure that their flawless playback on my 5000 will continue. I hvae two BR players, two HD players and the one Dual format player. Win lose or draw, I'm not too worried about HD DVD's impending tumble. RockStrongo Out of curiosty, why return the Dual format player? I know you plan on replacing them with BR editions as they are available but, why not just keep the player and not replace what you have on HD?

Deftones

About almost always they will refuse the return, but you might get lucky. YOu never know until you try.

David Levine

If they are anything like Circuit City they will. I recently had no problem returning a 3 week old HTB after I had already thrown the box away. All they cared about was it had all the parts. They really only looked for the remote and manual.

RockStrongo

My main concern is for the support by Samsung for this player. I havent returned it yet and Im curious to see if this player is mentioned in their CES press conference/event. That may be the determining factor.

Since I have an A3 in the living room that I never use, Im thinking I should just have that be the player for the few HD-DVDs that I will have left. If im only out mainly for the price of an A3, its not a huge deal to me.

Basically, its all about positioning. Another factor is that I can get free movies with another player, but I didnt get any with this one.

We'll see what happens.

buckee1

Good point on the support issue. As it is one of their higher end (if not the highest) players, I'm hoping that they'll incorporate it withing their future plans. I guess we'll find out some time this week.

RockStrongo

Well, Samsung had their press conference and announced a cheaper dual player!! $599 for the BD-UP5500 coming in May. Oh well, my 5000 is going back.