No Complete Blu-Ray Player?

I've been scouring this forum to try and find the right BD player to get for my home theater, and my conclusion is apparently there isn't one... yet.

I have a 52" Sharp Aquos LCD TV and Yamaha RX-V1800 AV receiver with 6.1 speakers. Lucky for me the Yamaha decodes TrueHD and DTS-MA HD, so I figured I did not need a player with internal decoding but one that could bitstream the undecoded signals.

I though the Panny BD30 would fit the bill nicely, but then I read about the LFE issues and, considering so many BDs use uncompressed PCM by default I'd end up missing out on the full experience. Besides I refuse to pay over $400 for a defective machine.

Does that leave me with any players I am missing (don't say the PS3, that ugly plastic thing is getting no where near my HT)? Am I looking at waiting for the next batch of players?

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The upcoming Panasonic DMP-BD50 is your likely choice based on everything I have seen. That means you will have to wait a few months. You can read about the Samsung BD-P1400 which will bitstream the advanced audio codecs but it is a Profile 1.0 player. It might hold you over a year or two if it doesn't have the LFE bug, and I didn't think any of the bitstream options have that, only the decoded PCM output does. I haven't read about that issue thoroughly though.

Chris

I have the Panasonic DMP-BD30 and it's been great so far. I read about the LFE issue, but I wasn't concerned about it since it only affects PCM tracks over HDMI. I have my player connected to my older receiver via 5.1 analog outputs, so the LFE issue doesn't affect me. The uncompressed PCM tracks I've heard so far (Ratatouille, Cars, and Spider-man 3) were amazing. It's definitely a step above regular Dolby Digital 5.1.

From what I have read, the only standalone player worth getting now is the DMP-BD30. Hopefully they fix the LFE issue on the DMP-BD50. I chose not to wait for that one because Profile 2.0 features are not that important to me. However, it would have been nice to have the Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS MA decoders built into the player (like the BD50 has).

The only other issue I read about was flickering issues (over HDMI) when connecting the BD30 to a Samsung LCD TV. I read in other forums that some people got rid of the flickering issues by connecting it to HDMI1 and using an HDMI 1.3 certified cable.

I actually own the Samsung LN-T5271F and have not had any issues with flickering while the movie (or other special feature content) was playing. It does lose signal while waiting for content to load, but that doesn't bother me. I have it connected to HDMI1 and I bought an HDMI 1.3 certified cable from mycablemart(DOT)com for $20.

Thanks for the input. I've read a lot about the LFE issue, and from what I understand it affects only PCM through HDMI, not bitsteamed audio like TrueHD or DTS-MA HD. This would not be a problem except that not that many disks have TrueHD or DTS-MA HD, but many have uncompressed PCM. Many of the movies I want, therefore, will be PCM and subject to the bug. I've read that Panasonic is claiming this to be a hardware issue and not solvable with a firmware upgrade. That sucks.

I guess I will wait until the BD50 comes out and see if that has the LFE fixed. If I could find a good deal on a BD30 right now I might get one and move it to the bedroom when the right player comes along for the HT.

Thanks again.

The upcoming Panasonic DMP-BD50 is your likely choice based on everything I have seen. That means you will have to wait a few months. You can read about the Samsung BD-P1400 which will bitstream the advanced audio codecs but it is a Profile 1.0 player. It might hold you over a year or two if it doesn't have the LFE bug, and I didn't think any of the bitstream options have that, only the decoded PCM output does. I haven't read about that issue thoroughly though.

Chris

The LFE output via multichannel analogs has been corrected with firmware update 1.5. All is well with the P1400.

What about the Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD? I have read that bitstreams all HD sound formats and I can't find any reference to the LFE bug with it? What's the cons to this player (besides the ginormous price tag)?

Panasonic schedules to release firmware version 1.5, 25-FEB-08. 1.5 address the LFE bug, Samsung LCD flicker issue, and issues with profile 1.1 titles.

That is seriously good news. My BD-30 is now on the way!! :yippee:

That is seriously good news. My BD-30 is now on the way!! :yippee:

It's actually 1.6 upgrade they skipped the 1.5 since they did several fixes. The LFE issue is gone, I confirmed this myself after I upgraded this afternoon. The Samsung LCD hdmi handshake is resolved with this unit. This is a super player guys if you don't own one.