Charles Morris from Wadley has sent in review of Sharp Aquos BDHP20U Blu-ray player.
October 31, 2008
The look of this player is a refreshing break from what we see on other Blu-ray players. The dark gray plastic casing has rounded corners rather than the traditional boxy edges. The left side consists of the disc tray and the right side has a nicely sized LED display next to the playback controls. These include handy chapter forward/backward buttons and a resolution toggle which are nice for when the remote goes missing.
The included remote is pretty good. The center is dominated by a directional pad which is surrounded by important buttons. Toward the bottom are separate rockers for volume and channel changing for those who want to use the remote to control their TV as well.
While all Blu-ray players released in 2008 have to conform to the new Blu-ray Profile 1.1 this player was released before the deadline and it only conforms to the older Profile 1.0. What this means is this player won't be able to play some picture-in-picture commentary tracks on newer discs. it's annoying to buy a Blu-ray player that doesn't give you access to all of the next-generation features.
i wanted to write a review because the main thing i love... is actually DVD playback. all the blu ray i've tried has been amazing... but where i love this thing is in regular dvd playback. i don't know all the technical terms of how it converts upwards to HD.
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Review was sent in by Charles Morris. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
LG BH200 reviewed by Ted Aquino
October 31, 2008
I obtained my LG BH200 from Circuit City. This is my first BD player. I was waiting for the format war to end once it did I read a review bestbuy.com on the internet that said you might consider waiting to making the jump to BD until the next generation of players to come out on the market.
This one loads pretty fast. From what I gather it is much faster then first generation models. I was upgrading coming from a Denon 5 disc up converting DVD player and that thing was slow so I'm very satisfied. The video isvery good and the audio is great too. I don't even have it connected to a amp that does Dolby Tru-HD or DTS-MA. That will be my next purchase.
There is only one thing that I'm not satisfied with the player has the Samsung Theater Sync feature. Which works great with my Panasonic amp. But for some reason the DVD remote will only control the volume for the TV not the amp. So I still have to use a second remote for volume on my Sony amp. This makes no sense to me.
We watched The Hunt for Red October, Terminator, Dark City, and Batman Begins on BD so far. Batman Begins wasgreat from an audio and picture quality issue. My wife said she had no clue that a DVD could look that good.
I also watched Troy on a SD DVD and that look pretty good too.
With this player this has all changed for the better. Load time have vastly improved and it is a Profile 2.0 player. Picture quality is stunning.
The next generation model due out in the fall it will cost more but it decodes all the audio inside the player.
Overall a week in I'm very happy with the purchase and I'm happy I waited for this model.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by Ted Aquino. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
New Blu-ray player Panasonic DMP-BD50PP-K reviewed by Lisa Lautenberg
October 31, 2008
I aquired a Panasonic DMP-BD50PP-K, and PS3. In the 2 week that I've had this player, it's done a good job on video and audio quality. I'm playing it on a 50" Sharp connected through HDMI. I've never had any of the stutters or other audio/video glitches that others have mentioned. This player takes by far the longest of my three players to load movies and simply responding to an eject/open request takes 30 seconds for some reason. The BR players are all updatable so it's possible to play the latest movies. However, this player has a VERY weak failure mode and upgrade procedure. But once you get that 1080p flat screen there's just no other way to watch video. Even with the problem it is worth getting this player for 1080p picures.
I HAVE NEVER HAD ANY DISC PLAY OR CONNECTION ISSUES AS HAVE BEEN REPORTED BY OTHER USERS. MY ONLY ADVICE ON THIS IS TO KEEP THE FIRMWARE UPDATED EITHER BY LAN OR BY CALLING SAMSUNG AND REQUESTING A FIRMWARE DISC. For those who wonder if it will play homemade Blu-Ray DVDs I can report that I have sucessfully created a Blu-Ray DVD with menus on a 25G Single Layer BD-RE (Rewritable) disk using the LG GGW-H20L burner. Other firmware updatres are available but I haven't needed them yet. This player is good as far as disks that work on it but it does not support 48kHz/24-bit HD true sound that few blu-ray disks come with. The sound will pop out of sync with the visual. Before you buy call the manufacturer and ask if they have solved this problem by issuing a firmware (disk to put in the machine to update the harddrive) or not.
Upconversion on this player is excellent, which is very important if you have vast library of DVDs. I figured instead of spending $100 or so on upconvert DVD player to work with my new TV, I decided to go directly to Blu-Ray, since the Blu-Ray is now standard of HD DVDs. The upconversion is wonderful! Best part is I can use optical and take advantage of the new audio codecs. Overall, I found this player to be competent Blu-ray player and a great upconverting DVD player.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by Lisa Lautenberg. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
Newly released Blu-ray player Panasonic DMP-BD10 review sent in by Jonathan Szilangui from Plainsboro.
October 31, 2008
I obtained this player with the2.0 firmware and it was great. Yes, it did take a very long time to load I Robot - almost 3 full minutes. That is due to the disc mostly using Java (BD-J) for interactivity. Few days ago I flash updated the firmware to 2.60 in about 13 minutes. See manufacturer's web site for the firmware and carefully follow the instructions. They will even provide you with the disc.
I purchased a 46" HDTV and a Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD Player player along with this Blu-ray Disc Player. I wanted to see the results of both Blu-Ray and HD DVD before investing in more expensive units. I must say that the image and sound quality of the Blu-Ray player is quite impressive There needs to be a ethernet port or some other way to access updates online direct to this player, a wireless method possibly? My Toshiba HD DVD player has the CAT-5 ethernet port and it makes updating (not exactly simple) more flexible. Manufacture's website offers the image (ISO) burn to DVDR method for updating, but this seems not convenient at best. One other thing I immediately noticed is how whisper quiet this player is. There is no noticeable fan noise whatsoever. Compare this to the Toshiba HD-XA2 fan, which has a sound resembling the whine of a tiny fighter jet.
The remote control seems to be totally out of sync with the unit - making the entire thing very sluggish. Mine failed to work after 5 months of ownership. I had it replaced under warranty with a refurbished one and that one does not work either. It takes about 30 seconds or so once a disc is inserted for the movie to begin its menuing/playing sequences. The unit loads the movie info into memory during that time I believe. Some movie discs aren't produced to support the Resume functionality where you can watch a movie. There is low fan noise during dvd playback, which was only detectable with the tv turned off. While the movie is playing, I couldn't hear the fan at all. The display on the front is a gray-blue. There are 4 brightness settings (High-Med-Low-Off), which can be accessed with one button on the top right of the remote. Very convenient. With the display turned off, this is a very nice viewing experience. There is also an additional display button on the remote, which tells you the TRT of the disc, which chapter you are watching, time remaining in the chapter, and bit rate.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by Jonathan Szilangui. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
Tim Queen from Dunlap has sent in review of Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray player.
October 30, 2008
Blu-ray players generally aren't the hottest looking product in your home theater system. And this player is no exception. This player has boxy appearance. A small strip of gray runs along the perimeter and the rest of the face plate is black with a blue "Blu-ray" logo on the far left. Farther to the right is the disc tray and just right of center is the LCD screen which is large enough to read comfortably from a seating distance of about 5 feet. The right side contains the standard playback controls.
The included remote is average for a Blu-ray player. There is a flip-down panel on the bottom of the remote but it's not a nuisance since it only hides some nonessential buttons like a number pad.
This player is the first standalone Blu-ray player that is compatible with Blu-ray Profile 2.0 also known as BD-Live. This means it's capable of accessing Internet-enabled features available on some movies. Soundtrack support is outstanding on the DMP-BD50. It has onboard decoding for all high-resolution soundtrack formats including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio so you don't need a new receiver to take advantage of the improved audio quality.
Picture quality is top-notch on Blu-Ray movies AND does a great job on upconverting DVD titles. Audio bitstreamed to the Onkyo 606 sounds excellent in my setup. I have no complaints about this unit whatsoever. Well worth the price I paid.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by Tim Queen. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
New Blu-ray player Sylvania NB-501SL9 reviewed by Steve Dochtermann
October 30, 2008
I purchased a Sylvania NB-501SL9, and PS3. In the 3 weeks that I've had this player, it's done a marvelous job on video and audio quality. I'm playing it on a 49" Sony connected through HDMI. I've never had any of the stutters or other audio/video glitches that others have mentioned. This player takes by far the longest of my three players to load movies and simply responding to an eject/open request takes 30 seconds for some reason. The BR players are all updatable so it's possible to play the latest movies. However, this player has a VERY hard to understand failure mode and upgrade procedure. But once you get that 1080p flat screen there's just no other way to watch video. Even with the problem it is worth getting this player for 1080p picures.
I have only had significant problems with one disk that I own and that was "Lord of War". It played the first 3/4 of the movie just fine and then started freezing up every 1-2 minutes making the movie unwatchable. For those who wonder if it will play homemade Blu-Ray DVDs I can report that I have sucessfully created a Blu-Ray DVD with menus on a 25G Single Layer BD-RE (Rewritable) disk using the LG GGW-H20L burner. One drawback that keeps this unit from being perfect is no ethernet connectability for firmware upgrading. It is my opinion that this player was released prematurely based on its feature set. This player did a great job on the Bluray compatibility & picture quality and the DVD upconversion quality. This player is good as far as disks that work on it but it does not support 48kHz/24-bit HD true sound that some blu-ray disks come with. The sound will pop out of sync with the visual. Before you buy call the manufacturer and ask if they have solved this problem by issuing a firmware (disk to put in the machine to update the harddrive) or not.
Upconversion on this player is pretty good, which is very important if you have big library of DVDs. I figured instead of spending $100 or so on upconvert DVD player to work with my new TV, I decided to go directly to Blu-Ray, since the Blu-Ray is now standard of HD DVDs. This player has great Standard disc Upconversion. Overall, I found this player to be competent Blu-ray player and a great upconverting DVD player.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by Steve Dochtermann. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
Samsung BD-P2550 reviewed by John Luben
October 30, 2008
I bought my Samsung BD-P2550 from manufacturer's website. This is my second BD player. I was waiting for the format war to end once it did I read a review www.buyblurayplayers.com on the internet that said you might consider waiting to making the jump to BD until the next generation of players to come out on the market.
This one loads pretty fast. From what I heard it is much faster then older previous models. I was upgrading coming from a Samsung 5 disc up converting DVD player and that thing was slow so I'm very satisfied. The video isfine and the audio is great too. I don't even have it connected to a amp that does Dolby Tru-HD or DTS-MA. That will be my next purchase.
There is only one thing that I'm not pleased with the player has the Sony Theater Sync feature. Which works great with my Pionner amp. But for some reason the DVD remote will only control the volume for the TV not the amp. So I still have to use a second remote for volume on my Sony amp. This makes no sense to me.
We watched I Am Legend, Band of Brothers, Eraser, and Batman Begins on BD so far. Batman Begins wasbeautiful from an audio and picture quality issue. My wife said she had no clue that a DVD could look that good.
I also watched Troy on a SD DVD and that look pretty good too.
One of the best features of this player is its size. They were able to reduce the size of the player to just over a 2" height and only 8-3/4" deep.
The next generation model due out in the fall it will cost more but it decodes all the audio inside the player.
Overall four day in I'm very happy with the purchase and I'm happy I waited for this model.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by John Luben. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
Newly released Blu-ray player Sony BDP-S350 review sent in by Perry Poisson from Phoenix.
October 30, 2008
I bought this player with the1.0 firmware and it was great. Yes, it did take a very long time to load Rambo - almost 3 full minutes. That is due to the disc predominantly using Java (BD-J) for interactivity. Few days ago I flash updated the firmware to 2.60 in about 16 minutes. See manufacturer's web site for the firmware and carefully follow the instructions. They will even provide you with the disc.
I purchased a 46" HDTV and a Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD Player player along with this Blu-ray Disc Player. I wanted to see the results of both Blu-Ray and HD DVD before investing in more expensive units. Blue Ray load time isn't long at all. I bought "I am Legend" with Will Smith in Blue Ray format and was blown away by the clarity Blue Ray offers. There needs to be a ethernet port or some other way to access updates online direct to this player, a wireless method possibly? My Toshiba HD DVD player has the CAT-5 ethernet port and it makes updating (not exactly simple) more flexible. Manufacture's website offers the image (ISO) burn to DVDR method for updating, but this seems counter productive at best. One other thing I immediately noticed is how whisper quiet this player is. There is no noticeable fan noise whatsoever. Compare this to the Toshiba HD-XA2 fan, which has a sound resembling the whine of a tiny fighter jet.
The remote is as usual with other electronic devices. It is extremely clutered. The problem with this player is that it does not output Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD MA in any way shape or form. There is low fan noise during dvd playback, which was only detectable with the tv turned off. While the movie is playing, I couldn't hear the fan at all. The display on the front is a gray-blue. There are 4 brightness settings (High-Med-Low-Off), which can be accessed with one button on the top bottom of the remote. Very nice. With the display turned off, this is a very nice viewing experience. There is also an additional display button on the remote, which tells you the TRT of the disc, which chapter you are watching, time remaining in the chapter, and bit rate.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by Perry Poisson. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
New Blu-ray player Sony BDP-S500 reviewed by George Jones
October 29, 2008
I have a Sony BDP-S500, and PS3. In the 2 week that I've had this player, it's done a marvelous job on video and audio quality. I'm watching it on a 46" Pioneer connected through HDMI. I've never had any of the stutters or other audio/video glitches that others have mentioned. This player started having hardware/software problems. It would simply quit playing during the middle of the movie The BR players are all updatable so it's possible to play the latest movies. However, this player has a VERY out of place failure mode and upgrade procedure. Since Bluray is still in its infancy (so-to-speak) there aren't many options for players.
I was able to play many DVD that I had already and it does project it very nicely on my new flat screen tv. Very clear picture and very nice sound. Blu-Ray movie displays crystal clear. For those who wonder if it will play homemade Blu-Ray DVDs I can report that I have sucessfully created a Blu-Ray DVD with menus on a 25G Single Layer BD-RE (Rewritable) disk using the LG GGW-H20L burner. One drawback that keeps this unit from being perfect is no ethernet connectability for firmware upgrading. It is my opinion that this player was released prematurely based on its feature set. This player did a great job on the Bluray compatibility & picture quality and the DVD upconversion quality. This player is good as far as disks that work on it but it does not support 48kHz/24-bit HD true sound that some blu-ray disks come with. The sound will pop out of sync with the visual. Before you buy call the manufacturer and ask if they have solved this problem by issuing a firmware (disk to put in the machine to update the harddrive) or not.
Upconversion on this player is mediocre, which is very important if you have vast library of DVDs. I figured instead of spending $100 or so on upconvert DVD player to work with my new TV, I decided to go directly to Blu-Ray, since the Blu-Ray is now standard of HD DVDs. I found that the picture quality is great and the upconversion quality is superb for this player. Overall, I found this player to be competent Blu-ray player and a great upconverting DVD player.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by George Jones. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
Mathew Cohen from Blue Ridge has sent in review of Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player.
October 29, 2008
The trend for high-definition disc players is glossy black and this player is no exception. The front faceplate is mirror-reflective and black with a rather small LED display in the center of the unit and a blue LED-lit circle just to the right. The disc tray is positioned in the far upper right of the player. There are only two front panel controls--a power button on the left and a disc open/close button on the right--so you're out of luck if the remote goes missing. Pressing the "Setup" button on the remote brings up a bunch of awkward icons . But despite lacking some visual pizazz there weren't any issues navigating the options.
The included remote is pretty good. Most of the standard playback controls glow in dark. There's a directional pad toward the bottom of the remote and handy buttons located around the perimeter. A little more button differentiation would have been nice.
This player is currently a Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player which means it can access picture-in-picture commentary tracks available on some Blu-ray Discs. It is not a Profile 2.0 player so it cannot access the BD-Live features on certain new Blu-ray Discs. This player can be upgraded in future to be compatible with profile 2.0. This player can output both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio in bit stream format which means that people with newer receivers with onboard decoding can still take advantage of DTS-HD Master Audio. The similarly priced Sony PlayStation 3 can decode both formats which means you only need a receiver with HDMI support to take advantage of both formats.
The set up was easy as well. I just plugged it in and attached a hi-speed HDMI cable to my 1080p lcd televsion and after a fast set up menu it was ready to go. I don't have separate speakers so I did not have to set up other audio wires. Another great feature is you can set this up directly to your computer for upgrades. They could not have made this any better compared to what has been available on the market to this date.
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Rating:
Review was sent in by Mathew Cohen. Send in your reviews to Admin@buyblurayplayers.com
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