mdc3000

Well, Merry Fucking Christmas to me - the blu-ray drive on my PS3 is dead! Woo Hoo. The last week it had been acting up, only recognizing discs after 2 or 3 tries, but last night it officially bought the farm - not reading ANYTHING. Contacted Sony and due to it being 21 months old, it's going to cost me $190cdn to fix the damn thing - and will probably take 2 weeks or more - which means the mountains of blu-ray discs and video games under the Christmas tree this year are going to just sit there for a while... BALLS.

fryinpan1

Firmware Version 4.40 Update Available for BDPS-300:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/mod...=BDPS300&LOC=3

JimRochester

Just updated mine. Now is supposed to decode all the audio versions however there is no way to verify what is being sent to the receiver. Display only shows the times and bitrate. Anyone know how to verify the audio on a s300?

Gizmo

I doubt it decodes DTS MA....

Michael T Hudson

I noticed yesterday Sams has the BDPX1 for 224 at least in Austin.

Tsar Chasm

God, 17 pages of Blu-Ray choices. The summary on the first page is great, but appears to be a bit out of date. Someone want to be my personal shopper?

I have a Denon AVR-1909 receiver with HDMI switching
50" 1080p Hitachi plasma
5.1 speakers, could be added to provide 7.1 at some date if it is really worth it
I already have 2 xbox 360s, not really in the market for a PS3.
I'd like something that can read divx/xvid, I currently have an upconverting LG that has an SD card slot that I find very handy.

I went into the local sony store only to be told that there are basically 2 choices. The starter model or the $2000 model. The salesweenie wasn't very forthcoming with why I should go with the more expensive model.

Help me DVDTalk, you're my only hope.

JimRochester

I finally called SONY after hearing all the different stories. They are claiming it decodes TrueHD and DDplus but downconverts to DD.

I assumed if it decodes it it would play it.

DVD.guy

Any idea if the Sony BDP-S350 will stream netflix in the future?

Mr. Cinema

There's a rumor that the PS3 will stream using Blockbuster. And possibly other Sony BD players. This could happen in Q1 '09.

Michael T Hudson

I just purchased your same receiver before Christmas with the Sony BDP-S350 and I have been happy iwht the results.

lizard

The reason I haven't updated the list in the first post lately is that the information is current, so far as I am aware. There are a couple of players I don't have in the list, such as a new Sharp model. but I can't get specs on it, even from the Sharp website. And Sharp BD players have had very bad reviews. If people here know of some information in my list, such as changed MSRPs, that is out-of-date, I'd appreciate it if they would post about it here.The only player at a reasonable price that handles divx is the Panny BD55, so far as I know. Perhaps someone else will know of others. I know nothing about xvid, whatever that is.I'm a bit surprised that a salesperson in a Sony store would be so ignorant. You can see from my list in the first post that there are several affordable BD players from Sony (but none that handle divx, so far as I am aware). I know nothing about your Denon receiver, so without details about how it handles audio via HDMI, I can't suggest a player that is the best fit.

But, if it decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, you could use the Sony S350 or Panasonic BD35. If it doesn't decode the lossless codecs but does handle PCM over HDMI, the best player would be the Panasonic BD55 (because it decodes both lossless codecs and can send them via PCM over HDMI). The Panny BD55 is $350 at Amazon. It was as low as $325 several weeks ago but then the price was raised and hasn't come back down. Stores just don't seem to do much in the way of deals on the higher end models.

Whether or not you want to upgrade to a 7.1 system is up to you. At present, there are very few Blu-ray Discs that use 7.1. For most, a 5.1 system is fine and any of the BD players can handle that.

lizard

Panasonic DMP-BD35 discontinued.

Reports from AVS, and the fact that the player is OOS at many outlets that used to have it, suggest that the Panny BD35 has been discontinued. The player reportedly isn't even available on the Panasonic website anymore.

I presume that Panasonic will announce a replacement player at the CES next week. The BD55 is still available, for now, but prices have increased.

If you want the BD35 and find one at an acceptable price, you might want to grab it now. Or you can wait to see how the replacement player will be priced (and whether it is reviewed as well as the BD35 was).

DthRdrX

Odd. They must have the next model ready to go already. Looking forward to next week to see what's what.

SonOfAStu

I just took a survey from Walt Disney trying to determine customer interest in Blu-ray players in vehicles.

Spiky

I can't say I'm surprised about the BD35. The 55 is running out of stock, too. Costco has the 35 for $230 starting Monday.

Just Lurking

I go the same survey.

lizard

The Memorex (Funai, I think) BD player is $150 at Hastings through January 10. Not sure which model, but it is probably the older MVBD2510 as opposed to the newer MVBD2511 (reportedly made by a different manufacturer).

User reviews of the 2510 have been "mixed" to put it politely.

DthRdrX

New Samsung player is 39mm thick

Timber

Meh, I guess I'm alone in my desire for all of my components to be sort of the same size and shape. If it was thing and angular that would be fine but that won't fit in with anything.

obidawsn

When I first saw it, I thought it was pretty sleek, but then I realized it reminds me of the PS3. I know having such a sleek design is attractive, but not very useful in an entertainment center where you have components stacked on top of each other.

fumanstan

BD-P2500 Firmware Ver 2.4
Date: Jan. 06, 2009
This Firmware update provides the following benefits:
1. Supports DTS-HD HRA/MA Decoding

Waiting for the P1500 update to come out that supposedly does the same.

Gizmo

The 2500...does that have the broadcom ship inside of it?

fumanstan

Yeah, I believe so. Broadcom 7440 chip.

The update for the 1500 is supposedly out as well via the online update.

Drexl

It looks like a PS3 (20GB, without chrome trim) with the bottom half cut off.

Gizmo

Wonder if that means the LG 200/Samsung 5000 can get the internal DTS MA update then?