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Rec for decent Blu-Ray player?

JTC

JTC

PFM Villager...
Samsung DVD player in front room is starting to make ticking noises on many discs. This is excuse enough for me to force through the purchase of a replacement player of the Blu-Ray persuasion.

My budget is perhaps £150, although what I've found is that as the prices of DVD players and so forth dropped, so did the transport quality/longevity and so I am also happy to buy a cheaper player with a view to replacing it in a couple of years with something better.

Also, is it worth considering a PS3 for BD playback? We don't have a console, and I quite like the idea although I have very little time for games (though the F1 racing game looks amazing). Like the fact that it also can store media locally on its hard disc and I'm wondering how they stack up as BD playback devices (with the games being a bonus)?
 
The major benefit to PS3 is that as long as it's the current generation of Sony console, they seem to make an effort to keep BD playback up to date regarding new standards (Profile 3.0 for example and recently 3D) and I understand they have improved image processing over time through firmware updates as well - but I'd expect that to have peaked by now, it's been out for so many years. On the other hand, so has BD so most players out now should be fine for many years to come as changes to standards are less likely at this stage.

The downside is that there seems to be a lot of variation in how much fan noise it makes. I had a rather quiet one at least the fans weren't always on, but I've heard others making far more noise.
 
I recently got the Sony BDP-S370, really impressed with it, quick to play discs, great online/network features, seems very good at up-scaling my DVDs and can be found for under £100 online.
 
I got the Sony BDP S760 about 6 weeks ago after ideas from here.

It was £99 from play.com and is a great little player having good navigation, quick load and great picure.

Sony seems the brand to go for.
 
Buy the Sony BDP-S760 for the living room and then buy the wife/girlfriend a new tv for Christmas (to go in the bedroom) and ask her to get you a ps3. You can then hook up the ps3 to the bedroom tv and have it as a games room for you and your mates.
 
fatmarley said:
Wasn't it the older ps3 that was noisy? My ps3 slim is silent.
Click to expand...

Hard to tell. Certainly there is variation between units, so perhaps a quieter than average fat might be quieter than a noisier than average slim and that's why some people say their new slim one is noisier than their old fat.

What Sony does is take advantage of process improvements in chip fabrication (called die shrink). The main benefit with this is the reduction in power consumption (which is also true for computers) and as there is less power consumed, less heat will need to be removed from the case. So following the die shrinks, each new generation (even within the same body shape, fat or slim) should be able to run its fan less frequently and at lower rotational speeds.

When they released the Slim, Sony had another die shrink, reducing heat but the smaller case made it more difficult to dissipate it so the question of which one is noisier could go either way.

I had one of the fat ones and so did my brother. His was much noisier than mine. When I decided it was no good as a media server, I gave it to him and he sold on his.

(Wow, that's a long post)

I guess the point is that if you're looking for a very capable device that is also rather future proof, the PS3 might be a good choice provided you are comfortable with how much noise it makes. At this stage the case for a standalone BD player is rather strong however, with the prices falling much below a new PS3 and the technology getting more stable.
 
JTC said:
Samsung DVD player in front room is starting to make ticking noises on many discs. This is excuse enough for me to force through the purchase of a replacement player of the Blu-Ray persuasion.

My budget is perhaps £150, although what I've found is that as the prices of DVD players and so forth dropped, so did the transport quality/longevity and so I am also happy to buy a cheaper player with a view to replacing it in a couple of years with something better.

Also, is it worth considering a PS3 for BD playback? We don't have a console, and I quite like the idea although I have very little time for games (though the F1 racing game looks amazing). Like the fact that it also can store media locally on its hard disc and I'm wondering how they stack up as BD playback devices (with the games being a bonus)?
Click to expand...

http://isohunt.com/torrents/bluray :)
 
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