Recommended Blu Ray Players

[Guest]

Having somewhat cooled on the idea of getting an ipad, I've turned my attention to Blu Ray Players.


First question I should ask is: are they worth it? I'm fine with my panasonic DVD player, all things considered, but I've heard that blu-ray players offer improved sound as well as vision. Is this genuninely the case, or is all so much marketing moonshine?

Secondly, what are the best players availabe, if you don't want to spend thousands of wads?

Finally - and a bit cheekily - has anyone acquired the latest Solti Ring issue, which includes the entire work on a blu-ray disc (apparently)? It's horribly expensive and I've already got Culshaw's book and Deryck Cooke's Introduction, but am (sort of) tempted by the prospect of a sonic wet-dream (if you'll pardon the expression).....

[gurnemanz]

I did go into all this a few months ago. I was also not sure if I really needed one, already having a TV set and HD/DVD recorder which are perfectly decent even if a couple of years old. Since both of these are Panasonic, I decided to go for one again, so that they linked together. This narrowed down the field. What made up my mind to get one was that as well as being able to play blu-ray discs, I was getting a machine that logs into my wifi, feeding music and photos from my laptop to the telly. It also gets iplayer and other network services wirelessly direct through my broadband hub. So I went along to John Lewis and bought this one, even tightfistedly getting a few quid off when I quoted a lower price I had found somewhere else.

I am very happy with it but have no means of comparing it with others. So far I have only one blu-ray recording - the opus arte Parsifal (with Matti Salminen playing my namesake). The picture is very good and the sound brilliant when fed through my amplifier and room speakers.
I cannot say that I have noticed any marked upgrading of quality if you play an ordinary DVD on it.

My clicking finger also hovered over the de luxe Solti Ring bonanza set. I resisted but may yet succumb.

[Mandryka]

Thanks for that, gurnemanz. I shall be in a town with a John Lewis tomorrow, so will investigate....:)

[Cheapskater]

Having somewhat cooled on the idea of getting an ipad, I've turned my attention to Blu Ray Players.


First question I should ask is: are they worth it? I'm fine with my panasonic DVD player, all things considered, but I've heard that blu-ray players offer improved sound as well as vision. Is this genuninely the case, or is all so much marketing moonshine?

Secondly, what are the best players availabe, if you don't want to spend thousands of wads?

.....

I have two methods of playing my music, from PC FLAC files or now sourced from a Sony Blu Ray player. I have a Sony model BDP-S383 which I bought (last years model!) for only sixty quid. It will play SACD/CD/Blu Ray and DVD (including DVD HiRes which I author for the purpose). To the best of my knowledge, all the Sony Blu Ray players (except the entry-level model) now offer these facilities.The Sony sounds, to my ears, very fine indeed and I now tend to use it for preference. However, the downside may be very limited (on unit) display information - I only get track number!

Further info - I just looked at the Onkyo BluRay players, they don't seem to offer SACD playback - so this seems to be limited to Sony and some Pioneer models.

Not top HiFi perhaps? but very cost-effective and sounds sweet to me, fits my needs and I won't be changing it.

[amateur51]

I have two methods of playing my music, from PC FLAC files or now sourced from a Sony Blu Ray player. I have a Sony model BDP-S383 which I bought (last years model!) for only sixty quid. It will play SACD/CD/Blu Ray and DVD (including DVD HiRes which I author for the purpose). To the best of my knowledge, all the Sony Blu Ray players now offer these facilities.The Sony sounds, to my ears, very fine indeed and I now tend to use it for preference. However, the downside may be very limited (on unit) display information - I only get track number!
Not top HiFi perhaps? but very cost-effective and sounds sweet to me, fits my needs and I won't be changing it.

Nice post cheaps - someone at peace with his/her hifi solution - good to hear

[Treek]

I've recently acquired a Panasonic BDT-120 (Blu Ray), and have compared this to my Pioneer DVD-565A (DVD player). I can't say that I've noticed any appreciable improvement in sound quality when playing DVDs on both. There's only a marginal improvement in picture quality, in my view. I wouldn't expect a DVD, when played on a Blu-Ray player, to show appreciable improvement in picture quality, as I expect the Blu-Ray improvement to come as a result of the whole system, the combination of Blu-Ray disc AND player. But even then, I don't see any radical difference in playback quality between the DVDs and Blu-Rays - not a 'night and day' difference, by any means. This may, of course, vary depending on what you use as a display device.

I'm viewing both machines on a Panasonic HD Plasma, the TX42 model. The Blu-Ray is connected via HDMI, the Pioneer via SCART (which in itself should give the Blu-Ray an advantage, but.....)

Audio via Audiolab amplification and Quad 22L speakers.

[amateur51]

Thanks for that, gurnemanz. I shall be in a town with a John Lewis tomorrow, so will investigate....:)

Did you get anything in the end, Mandy?

[Cheapskater]

I've recently acquired a Panasonic BDT-120 (Blu Ray), and have compared this to my Pioneer DVD-565A (DVD player). I can't say that I've noticed any appreciable improvement in sound quality when playing DVDs on both. There's only a marginal improvement in picture quality, in my view. I wouldn't expect a DVD, when played on a Blu-Ray player, to show appreciable improvement in picture quality, as I expect the Blu-Ray improvement to come as a result of the whole system, the combination of Blu-Ray disc AND player. But even then, I don't see any radical difference in playback quality between the DVDs and Blu-Rays - not a 'night and day' difference, by any means. This may, of course, vary depending on what you use as a display device.

I'm viewing both machines on a Panasonic HD Plasma, the TX42 model. The Blu-Ray is connected via HDMI, the Pioneer via SCART (which in itself should give the Blu-Ray an advantage, but.....)

Audio via Audiolab amplification and Quad 22L speakers.

I see that your DVD player has an excellent spec. for its time and plays SACD also?

I believe that Panasonics currently do not play SACDs (Not their Party! It's Sony/Philips)

I would be interested to know if there's any audio difference between the Blu Ray/ DVD players when playing CDs?

[Treek]

I see that your DVD player has an excellent spec. for its time and plays SACD also?

I would be interested to know if there's any audio difference between the Blu Ray/ DVD players when playing CDs?

Yes, it plays SACDs and DVD-As, and over the Xmas break I surprised myself with the number of Hi-Res DVD-As that I'd accumulated, almost without realising it.

I haven't done a CD comparison between the two at any stage, I'll try and give that a go over the next day or so and report back. My instinct tells me that the Pioneer, with the capability for Hi-Res playback, will have the output audio to compete with most middle-market CD players of the time, but we'll see.....

[Cheapskater]

That's a very nice package of capability with the Pioneer. I think that you're spot-on with your estimation of its capability with playing CD's and I suspect that you'll have to listen attentively to hear any difference with the Panasonic Blu ray. I'm sure that many will be interested to hear the results in due course.

Also, what do you think of the SACD/DVD-A sound as compared with (Red Book) CDs?

[Treek]

Tried a few tracks from 'Steely Dan - Two Against Nature' last night, and whilst the two machines are certainly different, I couldn't say that there's anything more than tonal or character differences between them. Couldn't really say one was better than the other, and no 'Wow' moment to mark one out against the other.

Both have a smoother character, and more bass extension than my standard CD player, a Technics from their 'MASH' era (let's see who knows their HiFi history with that one....)

Will try a variety of jazz, rock and classical and report back on those.

[Cheapskater]

Tried a few tracks from 'Steely Dan - Two Against Nature' last night, and whilst the two machines are certainly different, I couldn't say that there's anything more than tonal or character differences between them. Couldn't really say one was better than the other, and no 'Wow' moment to mark one out against the other.

Both have a smoother character, and more bass extension than my standard CD player, a Technics from their 'MASH' era (let's see who knows their HiFi history with that one....)

Will try a variety of jazz, rock and classical and report back on those.

Thanks for that, most interesting. That's what I find when I compare playout from my Sony Blu Ray to that from my PC, no WoW moments except from the music. The PC has a higher background noise however, from its cooling fan, although I've slowed it down to sensible levels.

[Treek]

Listened to Elgar: Enigma Variations by Bernstein on DG on the DVD and BD today. Again, whilst there may be tonal difference and difference in audio 'character' between them, there's little or no appreciable difference in the soundstage, detail etc.

Nothing that would make me pick on over the other if I had to choose.

[Stunsworth]

I would have expected any sound differences to be present when comparing the compressed, lossy, DVD soundtrack to the equivalent lossless high resolution Blu-Ray one. I'd expect the sound differences between the two machines to be minimal or non-existent when playing back a DVD.

[johnb]

I would have expected any sound differences to be present when comparing the compressed, lossy, DVD soundtrack to the equivalent lossless high resolution Blu-Ray one. I'd expect the sound differences between the two machines to be minimal or non-existent when playing back a DVD.

That depends whether he is listening to the stereo or the surround sound. Most, though not all, classical DVDs have the stereo in LPCM 48/16. (The only Blu-Ray I have, Abbado's Mahler 2, used 48/24 LPCM for the stereo.)