Panasonic is the most reliable in my opinion. Sony is very good as well. The new Panasonic DMP-BD60 comes out next month with a list price of $299. I would wait for that one. You should be able to find it for $250 or less online.

Logic would dictate that the SONY's should be dropping in price because the end of the line is near. Unfortunately the lack of supply is keeping retail prices near $300. I think you can still find an s350 online for $225ish.

Samsung 1500 = $299
Samsung 1600 = $299

CE's won't be doing much dropping since the retail channel has very limited inventory right now. If he does not care about features grab a Magnavox/Insignia. They appear to be decent players.

thanks guys i was looking on ebay and they are going for a good price i might try there

My local BB has the LG BD370 in stock so I will be buying it tonight and give it a quick spin with my Blu-ray copy of Twilight. Bye-bye Sony S550!

How much?

Didn't you say you preferred the upconverting in your LG over the Sony? I wonder if the 370 will be the same for that.

$299.

Yes, I did (the BH200 had the QDEA (?) chip though so that's why DVDs look so nice).

Netflix + YouTube + CinemaNow + Yahoo Video (Soon) + Pandora (at least on the BD300...so soon) + Divx = Hell yeah. Only crappy thing is BD-Live requires a USB stick and the port is on the front under the flap...so you would have to leave it plugged in all the time if you don't want to be bothered. Stupid design. I may return it for the BD390 when it comes out (1GB Built in, WiFi, Analog) since I have a 45 day return policy at Best Buy.

On blu-ray.com, they had scoring for several players last year and the LG 300 scored higher than alot of them on a few different depts.

I wonder if the same chip is being used in the 370 that the 200 used.

Can you turn off the front LED display completely on LGs? Most don't care about that feature, but I hate seeing the run time displayed. That's the one thing I hate about Panasonic. You can dim the display, but you can't turn it off completely.

My Toshiba hd just died, won't even turn on. Has anyone else had this problem? I'm gonna try to sell it or just throw it away.

p.s. If I want to sell/exchange some hd's anyone interested? Will post list asap.

[Mod note: We don't sell hardware here.]

Just for my BD370. So far so good. The remote has a faux leather feel to it and it opens/closes like the A1/XA1/XA2 Toshiba Remote. I'm in love

Quickie review on LG BD370.

Pro's
- Fast Loading (faster then my S550, LG BH200)
- Picture is stunning
- YouTube works perfectly (have not tried Netflix yet)
- Really cool design
- Love the remote

Con's
- 1 USB port on the front of the unit (Thumbdrive required for Profile 1.1/2.0 features - but not for YouTube)
- Not all features promised are available (CinemaNow, Pandora, Yahoo, Divx)

Watched Twilight Blu-ray last night and had no issues with playback. Picture looked great and I really like the unit. Sadly, having the USB port on the front may make me return it for the BD390 (1GB built-in, WiFi) when that hits.

I understand that there is no region-free BD player yet. My near-term goal however is to be able to play region-free BD discs from Europe which frequently have extra materials in PAL SD. Is there any BD player that would play R0 PAL SD materials?

BH200 is region free, DVD region free and plays PAL content.

Any player that is currently available in retail and $300 range?

The BH200 is the only one available - period. The BDA simply won't allow players to be Region free (from what Oppo has said).

I am not looking for a region free BD player, but rather one that can play R0 PAL (extra) materials on region free BD discs.

So, I take it from this that the LG BD370 does not play DIVX?
Dammit! DIVX and Region free are the two deciding features for me, but they seem very elusive. I have a load of DIVX discs and PAL DVD's, and I hate to have to keep a 2nd unit hooked to the TV, but it looks like I'm gonna have to...

Has anyone tried out the Momitsu BD-899? According to HKFlix's Ad the player is region-free for both Blu-Ray and SD.

Well....others have claimed it does (in the UK) but I couldn't get it to work. It IS possible there is not a firmware update out yet for us Americans to enable that function since there is no CinemaNow, Pandora etc. that was promised. As it stands, I will give this one another week or two of testing before I decide if I am going to keep it or not.

The new Panasonic DMP-BD60 is now in stores. I was at Best Buy earlier and saw 2 huge stacks of them. They probably had at least 20 on the floor. $299. I may opt for this one over the LG as I prefer Panasonic gear. But I may wait until Best Buy sends another 10% off reward zone coupon.

I may have to check them out. My LG BD370 is going back today - apparently Divx, MKV only works on European 370s and not the American versions. That, combined with the required USB Drive sticking out at all times means this player is a dud to me.

HHGregg has the Samsung 1600 for $239. But I'm still a little weary of actually buying a Samsung BD player, given their apparent inconsistency regarding playback. It seems the 1500 was a huge improvement over their older models, though. Using Sony or Panasonic units, I never worried about playback issues. I think I still would with the 1600, even though this is their...5th? generation unit.

Bought the Panasonic BD60 last night at Best Buy. It looks like a BD35 clone with streaming capabilities. That's not a bad thing though. It takes about 15 seconds or so to power on. There's a quick start mode as well. Load times are fine. I think the Sony units may load a tad faster. Also, it's still a tad more sluggish on java menus compared to the current Sony models.

Regarding streaming, it worked pretty well for YouTube. One thing I really hate and I hope it gets corrected via firmware. EVERY SINGLE TIME you make a streaming selection, there is an extremely annoying beep sound. This gets old really quick.

Just like the 35, there's a small flip down tray on the right hand side for USB and the SD Card (for BD Live), and it contains basic playback controls. DVD upconversion was fine. About as good as my Sony 550.

Aside from being very reliable, the other thing I love about Panasonic is how quickly they release their firmware. This unit has been out for about a week and there's already a new firmware, version 1.5. I assume any firmware is to allow playback of new Fox titles.

Chris Boylan of Big Picture Big Sound has a review up of the Panasonic DMP-BD80:
http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Pa...c_Player.shtml

That was a very good review. Thank you for the link!