Blu-ray Players

[dmiller68]

Ok, convincing my wife to let me get another game console is not going to happen at least for the PS3. So I have been looking at Blu-ray players so I haven't been following too closely but it looks like a lot of the first generation players are down to $300-$500 on eBay in fact I saw the Sony player for $600. Are any of these players any good?

[alter_ego_trip]

Just buy a PS3 and tell her it's a blu ray player. Of all the current sub 1k Blu Ray players out there the PS3 was rated as one of the best. And seeing as you're already looking at 500 dollar used ones why not get one.

[Jon Liu]

The samsung, not so much. The Sony BD player is actually good. If you can find it for $600 that's a pretty good price! Although, one thing to note, all the BD players are still a bit sluggish and the PS 3 is still the faster HD player out there, for either format.

The load times for each of them still is a lot more than what you would have with the PS3.

But, since you say that the PS3 is not an option, the best player for you probably would be the Sony.

[dmiller68]

Does the PS3 upconvert DVD's? I didn't think it did any scaling either like the HD-DVD add-on.

[Jon Liu]

It doesn't currently. Speculations say that it might later down the line with a firmware upgrade (possibly even with this big "March Upgrade").

But, I think it was proven that there is an internal scaler inside the PS3, so it would make it possible.

Someone correct me if I am wrong!

[CamDawg]

DMiller,
The other big consideration with the PS3 is that it's the only BluRay player that has network connectivity (meaning it's the only one that can support all of the interactive features for BD). From all I read, it's far and away the best BD player of all of the 1st gen ones. The Panasonic has also been rated pretty highly (but it's $1000) and the Sony ins OK. I'd stay away from the Samsung.

[Jon Liu]

Correction: the Panny is $1200!!! Seriously, that's just too much... It's a pretty good player but, man!!!!!!!

[GoatMother]

Really the best choice is the PS3. I know some people are totally against having a "gaming console" be their movie playing device but it really is a great choice.

Plus it has games like Sudoki that she might like and Flow might be something relaxing as well

[alter_ego_trip]

I still find it funny that 1 year ago I wouldn't have hesitated to spend 1200+ on a dvd player and nowadays I'm whining about paying 600 for an HD version. Gotta love market conditioning.