I've been using my PS3 as a Blu-ray player for over a year now, and while it's a great piece of equipment, I've always been distracted by the fan noise. I know the noise tends to vary unit by unit, but by luck of the draw, I got one that is usually a bit noisy while a BD is playing (it kicks in after 15 minutes or so). It's probably not too bad compared to others, but I'm blessed/cursed with very good hearing and I can definitely hear it during quiet scenes and am getting a bit OCD about it.

So, while I'll still be happy to use it for games and streaming media (the fan never kicks in at all when I do the latter), I'd prefer to buy a quieter, standalone machine to play BDs.

There is so much out there, so I was just hoping for recommendations. Here's what I'm looking for (and not looking for):

-Quiet, quiet, quiet, that's the most important thing. I'm guessing all players have to have some sort of fan, due to the advanced processing they have to do, but I'm looking for something you can't hear unless you have your face right in front of it. I have an A3 HD DVD player and I can hear the fan in that, but it's quieter than the PS3 so I can deal with it. If I can get a BD player quieter than that, I'd be very happy.

-Dependable. Doesn't have problems with discs freezing, skipping or having issues with certain discs. I have to admit that my PS3 has been great in that respect.

-Not too expensive, preferably under $500. Right now, I'm not looking for features like analog audio outputs, or anything too special regarding audio at all. I currently don't have a surround sound system set up due to the location of everything (no rear speakers at least). Someday I'd like to set up a dedicated home theatre room, but by the time that eventually happens, I can just buy another player, so this one doesn't have to be fancy

-I don't really need the 2.0 profile players coming out. If I really need to see some feature that requires 2.0, I can just use the PS3.


So the two important features for me are quiet and dependable. Can anyone throw some suggestions out there based on personal experience? Thanks!

Apparently the 40gb PS3s are a lot quieter, maybe you should trade down?

Just a suggestion what I do (being blessed with very good hearing aswell):
when I bought my Toshiba XA2 last year (doesn't matter if it's HD-DVD or any other peace of equipment, just as an example)
I was disturbed by the fan noise too, though the unit wasn't that loud, just my hearing to good:-)
So I opened up the brand new unit and made some small modifications to the fan,
resulting in a small installed device that let me reduce the fan speed by turning a dial counter-clockwise (or increasing it by turning clockwise) at will.
Since those fans use very small connectors a little tweaking was needed but in the end it worked.
Now I don't hear it any more, sitting 3 feet behind me.

Thinking about doing the same to my PS3, just for the fun of it, but since the unit is further away from my seat I almost can't hear it, so there is no urge right now.
I do modify any fan in my equipment that is getting on my nerves (PC, HD-DVD and any other piece of hardware that needs to be dealt with).
the reason I'm doing this is because I haven't seen (or heard? laugh) any product with a fan that was quiet right out of the box:-(
I understand your frustration. You'll find the items needed for those kind of modification in a good PC hardware store.
regards

Warrior

I've heard that, but I've also heard the opposite too. If I knew someone locally who had a 40gb one that I could check out first, and I could verify that it was dead silent to my ears, I'd gladly do a straight trade (the backwards compatibility of the 60gb version doesn't mean much to me). Otherwise, I'd hate to have to buy/trade one without hearing it first to make sure I'd be happy with it.


Warrior: that sounds very intriging, I wish I was more secure in my mechanical abilities to try something like that. As it is now, I'd be scared to try that.

I have a 40g ps3. And I never hear it. Even when all the audio is off.

Same here.

Panasonic DMP-BD30

I have a 40 gig, which is very quiet, and a Panny BD30 which I don't hear either.

Agree! I love my player!

I never hear my 60GB and it is in an open entertainment rack. Guess I have the volume up high enough to drown it out.

Yeah - I think this is alittle extreme - I have pin drop hearing also, but I wouldnt open my unit to mod anything... Then again my luck is alittle different than most.

My PS3 doesnt make any noise.

Damn, it always bums me out when I hear other people with quiet PS3s. I wish I knew that mine was louder than normal when I first bought it or I would have exchanged it. Too late now.

Thanks for the recommendations about the Panny. I'll look into that one.

Is it generally assumed that the early Samsung models aren't very good? That's what I've heard, but I could probably get a good deal on a used one if I wanted to.

I'll third the recommendation. Mine is dead quiet, load times are fast (not quite as fast as the PS3, but close enough), I've never had a hiccup or glitch of any kind, and it's played every disc I've put in it. Some people have experienced trouble with the Blu-ray of "Sunrise," but that seems to have been fixed with the latest firmware update. Picture quality is outstanding.

You should be able to find one for about $450.

Mine has also not given any trouble -- load times are slower than standard dvd, but not too terrible. Haven't heard any noise.

What is this about "Sunrise" on blu-ray? You're not talking about the 20's Murnau film... are you?

Edited to add: Looked around and I think you probably mean "Sunshine".

I also have a 40G PS3; very quiet....but my XA2 sounds like a tea kettle

Yeah, sorry, it was after 2 a.m. when I wrote that. I was a little tired!

Panny BD30. Or you could wait a month or so for the BD50 to come out.

Been doing a bit of research. It looks like the BD30 has or had a possible issue with audio dropouts on Dolby TrueHD soundtracks. Was this widespread, or was it something that a firmware update took care of?

I've also been reading about Samsung's new 1500 player. I've heard that up until now that Samsung has had a poor reputation with BD players, but this new one is getting good user reviews at AVS. It goes for about $350 at Walmart and is apparently upgradable to 2.0 (you would have to add the 1 GB required memory yourself via the USB port). The interesting thing is that this player doesn't even have a fan. Don't know if this could cause a possible problem with heat down the road. Anyone buy this player?

I've been thinking about something else to try. Does anyone know how quiet those USB powered computer fans are? If they are quiet, I could try using one to suck some of the hot air out of the PS3. This may keep the internal temperature low enough where the internal fan doesn't kick into high gear like it normally does. I might give that a try.

I listen to Dolby TrueHD audio tracks all the time on mine and have never experienced a dropout. If there was a problem, it must have been fixed with a firmware update a long time ago.

My ps3 is a pain in the ass too.

I've never had an audio drop out with my BD30. I've had one issue with a disc (Sunshine) but that was an issue nearly everyone had, regardless of the player.

There have been some sporadic TrueHD issues with the BD30.

I experienced them with Enchanted and Walk Hard.

It is a wily bug, as you can go back and it might not happen the second time. This was as of 1.6 firmware. 1.8 has since been released but was done apparently done to fix an optical issue. That's not to say they might not have done something else, as Panasonic is unfortunately fairly tight-lipped about what's in these patches.

There is a large thread on this at AVS - I encourage everyone with a BD30 to check it out.