^You can get Sleeping Beauty & The Nightmare Before Christmas if you get a Panny BD35.

http://www.panasonicsleepingbeauty.com/

yes, according to the Sound & Vision review it internal decodes all the lossless audio options as well as having 7.1 analog out

By "it" you mean the BD55 right? I don't think the BD35 has analog outs.

Damn, some of you guys talking about the 550 have me ready to jump in. Especially at the 329.99.

Edit: Fuck it. I jumped in on the deal and I told myself that I would wait for the Oppo.

Mine arrives Friday. I can't wait to test it out. My Panasonic has been 100% flawless, but I'm curious to see how this Sony does, particularly on upconversion.

Yeah, I'm interested in the upconversion as well. Do you have a little more info on the chip that is used and how it compares to the Reon?

yes, sorry the BD55

I wish Oppo would annouce it's player and all the specs, I'm itchin' to buy the Panasonic, but know that if the Oppo is region free, it's a guarenteed purchase.

Same. I might hold out for the Oppo if SACD/DVDA is included for sure.

From blu-ray.com:

Samsung Adds Netflix Streaming to Players

Samsung has announced that owners of the Samsung BD-P2550 Blu-ray Disc player can now update their player to stream movies from Netflix on demand catalog. Similar to the LG BD300, the Samsung player allows Netflix members to watch a number of standard definition movies over an internet connection instantly and at no additional cost.

This represents the fourth partnership between Netflix and a consumer electronics manufacturer, and adds another Blu-ray Disc player with Netflix capabilities.

GTF out (!) that's awsome news! Talk about drastically expanding the number of options since I was thinking about the BD300, but then was disappionted by the lack of analog out. The BD-P2550 has analog out and is a good player, right?

It has the REON chip

Very interesting to see the two CEs who supported HD DVD also support online streaming. Wonder if this has anything to do with the LG 300 and both Samsung models original being Combo players (before HD DVD died) and then later scrapping the HD DVD rive? Regardless this is excellent and surprising news.

Is that good or bad?

I put a post up on AVS on the unit. Sounds like it still doesn't internally decode DTS-HD MA. I guess i'm SOL on finding a player that will internally decode everything, have analog outputs and have added features (e.g. Netflix, meadia streaming, etc.) [Does any player allow files to be streamed to it - excluding PS3?].

I don't think any standalone has file streaming capabilities.

REON is good...very good. By far one of the best chips available to upconvert (The Toshiba XA2, Samsung 1200/5000 also have this chip). My was that its a Samsung

But its still very odd it does not internally decode DTS MA given its added price. The other $400 units (Panasonic S55/Sony S550) do and with the Samsung 1500 now going for $200 or so in the next few weeks maybe this one will get a pricedrop?

I'm still trying to figure out what the difference between the 2550 (Best Buy exclusive) and the 2500 (not yet released) is. The 2550 is now BD-Live and has analog...and if the 2500 does not internally decode DTS MA it may just mean 2.0 out of the box (so 1GB of onboard RAM or included flash drive).

The new LG player works with Netflix's on-demand service.

My S550 arrives today! I'm all a-tingly.

This might be a dumb question, but regarding audio formats - are there any sound quality differences between TrueHD and DTS-HD MA given that they're both supposed to be lossless master tracks? If not, are there discs out there that say, support DTS-HD MA and not TrueHD? Just curious since there seems to be more players out there that can internally decode TrueHD but not DTS-HD MA and how much of a concern that should be.

Telling the difference? I can't personally. There have been many, many debates on this though.

Universal and Fox are 100% DTS MA
Sony is 100% TrueHD
Disney is 95% TrueHD
Paramount is 95% TrueHD
Warner is 100% TrueHD (except in certain Newline cases)
(as well as some PCM tracks here and there)

Don't forget that Disney has been cranking out some DTS HD-MA tracks lately, too ("Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Sleeping Beauty"), and they're planning more ("Pinocchio") down the road. Sony has had at least one DTS HD-MA track, too ("Close Encounters"), and both Sony and Disney used PCM tracks exclusively for the first year or more of the format.

Also worth noting (yet again) is the fact that Warner continues to eschew lossless on at least half of their releases. I realize your figures are representations of the instances where a lossless track is included, but still . . .

That's why I put Disney as 95% TrueHD (DTS MA being the other 5%)
And yeah...Warner sucks, but whats new, right?

Why couldn't they just settle the issue and pick one next gen audio format? Makes it near impossible to find a player that will handle everything. :/

the short answer: CE corporate politics in a free market.

When I bought my first Toshiba machine in December of 98 DTS was an option on the more expensive model. Since so many DVD's were still DD 2.0 or 2.0 with a 5.1 option, I opted for the lesser model. Of course within a year DTS made some great headway in releases and of course I was upgrading. Kind of like I'm having to do now with my SONY 300.

Well according to boyln13 over at AVS:

So it sounds like the 2500/50 will be at 99% capability (it's limit for audio) come 10/30. I may have to keep my eye out on this to be my entry into BR if there is a good deal over the holidays.

My Sony BDP-S550 is out for delivery today from FedEx. Luckily I'm working only half a day. I'm anxious to get my hands on it.

I got mine yesterday!

All I have to watch was 2001, but it looked sweet.