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Topic: Blu-ray for $100

Joe Tommassello
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 547
From: Coatesville, PA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 11-11-2008 02:25 PM

Amazon has a great deal. $100 off selected Blu-ray players (including a $199 Sylvania) when you buy four WB titles (most titles $19.95 or less - and some good ones too)!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&ref_=amb_link_7767122_2&docId=1000279241&tag=bluraynews-20

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-11-2008 02:48 PM

I wrote about Amazon offering this deal back on Page 3 of the "DVD vs BR-DVD -- live together 4 how long?" thread.

The Sylvania NB500SL9 is reportedly a Bonus View profile 1.1 player, but its HDMI output support audio only to 5.1 channels, not 7.1. Still, it's not too bad with the discounted price dropping to $99 after rebate. The Samsung BD-P1500 can be made BD Live 2.0 capable with a firmware update and does support 7.1 audio via HDMI. That player costs something like $30 more.

Amazon added a few other BD players to the deal. For those wanting a higher end player, the Panasonic DMP-BD55K is $299.95 after the $100 discount. That player has internal decoding for the next-gen audio formats and has a 7.1 channel analog output along with the usual optical and HDMI outputs.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 11-11-2008 03:05 PM

Nobody who buys a $100 Blu-ray player will care about 7.1 channels... or even know what that is.

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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.

Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004

posted 11-11-2008 10:15 PM

I have to say...Blu-ray has really come along.

My local Costco has FOUR standalone Blu-ray players in stock starting at $199 (Philips).

It looks like everybody's really ramping up to promote it this holiday season.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-12-2008 11:29 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
the Panasonic DMP-BD55K is $299.95 after the $100 discount.

We installed one of the Panasonic's (supplied by our customer) today feeding a Christie Cine IPM. This player is more or less like my Sony BDP-S300 player in that it has the load thingy that goes round and round and you wait and wait... A pathetically slow machine it is... Picture and sound are decent though.

Mark

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-13-2008 12:01 AM

Is the Panasonic BD player one of the newest models (DMP-BD35K, DMP-BD50K)? Reviews I've seen on the newest ones say they're a good bit faster on load times than the previous DMP-BD30 and DMP-BD50 models.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 11-13-2008 07:09 AM

Unfortunately this deal has expired. But I've heard that Blu-Ray prices are supposed to drastically drop after the first of the year.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-13-2008 09:25 AM

A few months ago the BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association) gave about a dozen Chinese manufacturers approval to make and market Blu-ray players for the Chinese market and for export to other countries (like the United States). I'm not expecting those players to become available in the beginning of 2009, but some of these players may be available by Summer of next year.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-14-2008 01:17 PM

The Blu-Ray we use here at the Giant Screen Theater is the PAnasonic DMP-BD30... just an ok player. The picture on some Blu-Ray disks is actually better then 35mm is at the same 70 foot wide image size!

Mark

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-14-2008 10:20 PM

Apparently some of Wal-Mart's "Black Friday" specials have leaked out to the press (I wonder if on purpose).Linky Linky

CNN and Money magazine are reporting that Wal-Mart will be selling the Magnavox Blu-ray player they've been stocking lately for only $129. Even more impressive is a 50" Samsung Plasma TV for $798.

Of course, the old saying goes, "you get what you pay for." People buying Blu-ray players (or HDTV sets or anything else) at very discounted prices may be stuck with a product that doesn't work quite as well as they would expect.

For the time being, I'm still recommending the Playstation 3 as the best overall Blu-ray player. If you're willing to deal with some slower load times (and even slower BD Live downloading times) the Panasonic BMP-BD35K is a good choice. The DMP-BD55K is an even better choice if you want both digital and analog 7.1 channel output.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-14-2008 11:38 PM

The sound off the internal Blu-Ray decoder is to my ears VERY lacking. The Pany I installed sounded very smooth and easy to take but lacked a large amount of detail. I ended up running out of the Coax Digital Out jack to the input of the USL ECI-60 digital cinema D to A converter and heard a huge, no actually enormous... improvement in the presented detail... however B-R sound quality is very definately trailing far behind digital cinema sound quality on the disks we ran.

Mark

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 11-15-2008 12:04 AM

The only movie I have seen in Digital Cinema was The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Blu-ray version of the same movie sounds light years better. Light years. Yes, I know that is a distance and not a measure of time and thus not a valid comparison (or is it?). It sounds so awesome it makes you stupid.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 11-15-2008 01:03 AM

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
I ended up running out of the Coax Digital Out jack to the input of the USL ECI-60 digital cinema D to A converter and heard a huge, no actually enormous... improvement in the presented detail... however B-R sound quality is very definately trailing far behind digital cinema sound quality on the disks we ran.

Do any of the digital cinema systems support HDMI inputs for video and/or audio? To me it would seem like a no-brainer since just about any D-cinema system has a major "phone home" to the distributor element to it.

quote: Joe Redifer
The only movie I have seen in Digital Cinema was The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Blu-ray version of the same movie sounds light years better.

Are you sure you're not being influenced by the new Dolby logo scheme? Woo-hoo.

Honestly, from what I understand, the 7.1 channel Dolby TrueHD mix on the Blu-ray of The Nightmare Before Christmas is a brand new thing. Whereas the 5.1 mix used on the 3D D-cinema shows is derived from the old print masters.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 11-15-2008 02:31 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Are you sure you're not being influenced by the new Dolby logo scheme?

You mean this piece of shit?

Ug. It's like they're trying to look worse and worse. As a friend recently opined to me; Dolby is all corporation now, long gone is "Good ol' Dolby".

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-15-2008 08:36 AM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Do any of the digital cinema systems support HDMI inputs for video and/or audio? To me it would seem like a no-brainer since just about any D-cinema system has a major "phone home" to the distributor element to it.

No, not yet but an HDMI input module is supposedly under development for the Cine IPM. The IPM supports just about every other type of signal though including DVID. The Blu-Ray sound was far from horrible but no where near as good as the audio comming out of the Doremi which keep in mind is uncompressed.

Mark

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