Same with me. Just hoping that Sony doesn't raise the price on the S550.

Pictures of the Panny BD50, including back panel shots:
http://gizmodo.com/387607/panasonic-...mp+bd50-at-700
It is confirmed that it is 5.1 analog (there was some speculation that it might be 7.1).

Also, there is one report that the BD50 won't come with the Profile 2.0 required 1 GB of persistent memory onboard but, rather, will require a user-supplied SD card. If true, that would be a pretty tacky thing to do on a $700 disc player, so I prefer not to believe it for now.

Lizard, it comes with 1GB onboard. Some are getting the "includes SD port" confused as giving us a 1GB SD car to act as onboard memory.

Oh my, Pioneer has just issued the press release on two new players, the expected BDP-05FD, $800 and a budget model, the BDP-51FD, $600:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PU...ter+Experience

The specs of the BDP-51FD are pretty close to the BDP-05FD, including on-board decoding and 7.1 analog out. Both are Profile 1.1. DTS-HD MA decoding was previously reported to require a firmware update on the players; Pioneer didn't want to delay the players' release due to the difficulties in implementing Master Audio (which have been much discussed here).

The talk about the Pioneer players is that the proprietary algorithms can be expected to offer very good upscaling and PQ (In contrast to the Panny BD30, which has poor upscaling, according to reports and tests). They also have been working on short load times. The actual load times should be coming soon.

Differences between the two models:

• The 51 uses 108 Mhz 12 bit video encoders and the 05 uses 297 Mhz 12 bit video encoders. As I understand it, this only matters if one is using component and shouldn't matter if one uses HDMI to the display. (Please correct me if I'm wrong about that!)

• The 05 has gold plated connectors and the 51 does not.

• The 05 has an aluminum front panel and the 51 does not.

• The 05 has capacitance touch buttons and the 51 does not.

• The 05 has a 2 year warranty and the 51 has a 1 year warranty.

Panasonic
Pioneer just pwned you

But who the heck is going to pay that much for a 1.1 player? I have my oppo for upscaling so I could care less about the better upscaling features.

Yup. For those of us who have no interest in Profile 2.0 ( ), a $600 full-featured Pioneer BD player is a big deal.

Now to see what Sony's S550 is like and whether they hold the price at $500...

The market for these $600-700 (and steadily up) is limited at best. This is a missed opportunity for these manufacturers, and for Blu-ray in general.

I plan to purchase a PS3 as soon as I can, and it looks like it's going to be a very long time -- if ever -- before I buy a stand-alone.

My reading suggests that Pioneer players tend to be discounted significantly from MSRP. Whether that happens in this case remains to be seen. But it does put pricing pressure on other manufacturers, which I consider good news. It also explains why the Pioneer 51 was a close-held secret until today.

What this player has that most do not is 7.1 analog out and on-board decoding. The latter is particularly important because it also allows for mixing of audio and output over analog or as PCM over HDMI (audio can't be mixed when one is bitstreaming). Yes, the $400 PS3 can do decoding and output as PCM over HDMI, but the PS3 is not suitable for some of us, for various reasons that have been much discussed already. In my case I need analog out and decoding.

Yes, it is still a pricey machine, but it can do it all, save for the 2.0 stuff, which is worthless, IMHO.

Some people have been paying $2000 for the Denon 3800, the only other full-featured Profile 1.1 player available.

I'd pay $500 for a Pioneer BD player. I haven't read any complaints about their players.

True, but Pioneer has never really been a "lowest common denominator" mass market CE manufacturer. It would appear that the Funai clones and Phillips are going for that market. The PS3 remains an anomaly (and its main function is to sell $60 video games, hence the loss-leader pricing).

A couple of years from now I expect that we will finally see mass market priced machines below $200.

Panasonic's $699 price for the BD50 seems very, very foolish. I know the CEs want decent profit margins, but many of those who are waiting for a full-featured, BD-Live standalone are likely to wait even longer now until the prices come down out of the sky. If the Sony S550 sticks at $500 MSRP, and Panasonic doesn't budge, they'll be lucky to move even a few BD50s.

My guess is Panasonic is launching at $699, fully intending to drop the price after a few months to an amount that more closely matches the S550 and other 2.0 players that will be hitting the market at that time. Not a bad business strategy for one company to employ, but it certainly will not help expedite the consumer adoption of Blu-ray.

Best Buy has now changed the in-store pickup option of the Samsung 1500 to "available at most stores". These should start showing up soon. None of mine have them in yet.

One thing that really sucks is in the production description, it says the player decodes TrueHD audio, but only 2.0. This is a 4th Generation unit, and we still can't have 5.1 decoding up front. I hope a firmware upgrade will change this.

2.0 TrueHD is the same as the UP5000 that has yet to be fixed..so its probably true.

What's the buzz on when the Sony BDP-S350 will hit the street?

I've heard June - do we yet know if that's early, late?
On time? Behind schedule? Early?

Rumor is June for the 350 and August for the 550.

A look at the Pioneer players at Big Picture Big Sound:
http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/pi...5fd-1552.shtml

Includes a photo of the back panel of the BDP-05FD.

The Pioneer one looks nice!! but pricey.

I want to pick up a standalone for the living room since the PS3 is in my bedroom. I am leaning towards the Panasonic DMPBD30 or the Sony BDPS300, but kind of getting turned away from the Sony because of the long disc load times.

The BD30 is far superior then the Sony...period.

I had a Panny BD30 which was great. I used it to bitstream DD TruHD and DTS HD-MA through HDMI. It's got 1080P/24 output capability for video as well.
This is a great budget BD player if you have an AVR that can decode all the latest audio codecs.

However, it's being replaced by a Pioneer 05FD if I can get my hands on one.

Lizard should update the OP with the news that the Samsung 1500 and Funai players are now available.

C'mon Sony...give me my 550!

^I did that, but I am still looking for specs on the Funai players and confirmation of the specs on the Samsung 1500. Where are these available?

Check AVS....several people own both the 1500 and Funai.

It is confirmed that the Samsung 1500 does NOT have 5.1 analog output. It does bitstream Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, as expected. It is reported to be profile 2.0 capable, with a firmware update and, perhaps, the addition of an external 1 GB flash drive. A street price of $348 has been reported.


The Funai/Magnavox NB500MG9 is confirmed to have no 5.1 analog output and be Profile 1.1. According to the manual, it can decode Dolby TrueHD but not DTS-HD MA. It can bitstream Dolby TrueHD but not DTS-HD MA. The S/PDIF output is coax, as opposed to an optical toslink.

A street price of $288 at Wal-mart has been reported. The owner's manual can be seen here:
http://funai-corp.com/6pdf/om/NB500MG9.pdf

LG is stopping production on dual format players and will introduce a BD only unit at IFA.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...123_24018.html

They previously announced in late February that they would continue to produce dual format players.

i am pretty set on purchasing the Panny BD30 standalone for now til profile 2.0 come out, but from what i read on user reviews on CNET.com several people said they have some problems working with Samsung LCD and Plasma sets, hooking up via HDMI causes handshake problems making the screen flicker and causing white snow as well as signal lose.

I bought my Samsung plasma last year and i hope not the case.