Episode 2 - $98 Blu-ray Player, HD Bargains, YCbCr vs. RGB HTPC, This Week's Blu-ray Releases! [Discussion]

[eminemdrdre00]

Walmart's $98 Blu-ray Player vs. Sony's BDP-S360 and LG's BD390, Netflix + Sony, Home Theater Help: Component vs. RGB and Our Very First Recession Selection!

Watch or download this episode now! (http://revision3.com/hdnation/recession)

[xfuuey]

another great episode! i was not expecting that type of review on the cheap 99$ player. i assumed it'd be a "stay away from this pos" rant. oh, & i like the new segments too. :)

[insertuser]

Good Episode, but did anyone else find the music REALLY distracting at times? None of it seemed in the background in any way!

[peter-gandalf]

good episode. Lighting was much better overall.

I didn't find the music distracting.

That $98 blu-ray seems like a great fit for a bedroom setup.

[zecane]

Good show. I liked the review part of the cheap blu-ray player, it covered all the essential things. Not a huge fan of the bit where you go through the new blu-ray releases (maybe because I don't own a player? :P), but I think a lot of people like it and it's not too long.

[eminemdrdre00]

Good Episode, but did anyone else find the music REALLY distracting at times? None of it seemed in the background in any way!

Agreed

[cyborger]

As far as the music go I did not find any of it distracting. However during Recession Selection it was more dominate than Patrick's voice. The $98 Blu-Ray player is tempting and I would normal jump on that deal but I've promised myself that I will be less frugal plus I want more features that other players have so that's a no go for me. I really hope that they can get to the subject of Home Theater in a Box (HTiB) because I really need one of those soon.

[nextgenxbox]

Surprised by the positive review of the $98. I'm guessing the "real" companies will release $100 players for the Holidays. -- This will be THE Holiday that Blu-ray really takes off. $100 player and knock down disc prices and you've got yourself millions of new users.

[winsucker]

Tnx for the episode-loved it :D - again!

[masherscf]

The "Watchman" Director's cut Blue-Ray is pretty snazzy. Not only doesn't come with a DVD-disc "digital copy" for media players. It comes with a iTunes download code.

[suurge]

Really diggin' the show, great episode. I use my PS3 for playing blu-rays, anyone know how it stacks up with the standalone players mentioned in this episode?

[peter-gandalf]

Really diggin' the show, great episode. I use my PS3 for playing blu-rays, anyone know how it stacks up with the standalone players mentioned in this episode?

The ps3 is one of the best blu-ray players out there. While it may not do as good DVD up-conversion as some of the top of the line players it is still very good. Since the ps3 can be connected to the internet it can always be updated to play the latest bluray formats and features. And is one of the fastest players out there.

blu-ray picture quality is excellent. It's what criterion uses in there set up to test their blu-ray releases. Plus it plays games and can be used to stream movies and music to your home theater from your computer.

While it can't bitstream HD audio it can decode them internally. It' the exact same quality as if you receiver were to decode it but the HD logos wont light up in your Receiver.

For the money its really an incredible deal for everything you can do with it.

[hectos]

a show completely devoted to HD?...thanks guys...my geek stock just went up....

[sukotsu]

People have said it before and I'll say it again good to see these two
back hosting together. Ive bin waiting for Robert to come to revision3,
a very good host. I grew really tired of dl.tv just not the same anymore
so glad to see a fresh new show for Robert on a topic he clearly knows
a serious amount about

[rharvier]

Great show! I'm looking forward to next week.

[shuriken48]

I'm very surprised that in your Blu-Ray players recommendations you did not mention the Oppo BDP-83, it has hands down the best picture of all the blu-ray players.

I know someone who bought the Sony player you recommend and it's nowhere as good as the Oppo for picture quality.

Sure it doesn't do Netflix streaming, but isn't the primary function of a blu-ray player to play blu-ray discs with the best possible quality, the rest to me is just fluff. Sure for equivalent quality extras are nice, but I would take superb picture over gadgets any day.

Also the Oppo is the only player that I tested that is just as fast as my PS3 for loading discs and menu navigation.

And lastly Oppo's customer support is light years ahead of the Japanese manufacturer with extremely fast updates of firmware to correct problems and add functionality requested by the users.

It's pricier then Sony or LG but gets a better picture then reference players costing at least 5 times its price.

HomeTheaterHifi.com gave Oppo BDP-83 a 98% and Sony BDP-S350 a 68%.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/images/stories/2009/june-2009/oppo-bdp-83/oppo-bdp-83-blu-ray-player-benchmark-spreadsheet-chart-large.gif

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/images/stories/2009/february-2009/Sony-S350-spreadsheet.jpg

[shuriken48]

The ps3 is one of the best blu-ray players out there. While it may not do as good DVD up-conversion as some of the top of the line players it is still very good. Since the ps3 can be connected to the internet it can always be updated to play the latest bluray formats and features. And is one of the fastest players out there.

blu-ray picture quality is excellent. It's what criterion uses in there set up to test their blu-ray releases. Plus it plays games and can be used to stream movies and music to your home theater from your computer.

While it can't bitstream HD audio it can decode them internally. It' the exact same quality as if you receiver were to decode it but the HD logos wont light up in your Receiver.

For the money its really an incredible deal for everything you can do with it.

The PS3 used to be the best blu-ray player around but it is not anymore and I'm speaking from experience, I own one and used it as my main blu-ray player, but not anymore and here's why :

- PS3 cannot stream "Dolby TrueHD" or "DTSHD Master Audio" signals over an HDMI cable
- Bluetooth remote is crap as you cannot control the PS3 from universal remote unless you buy a $50-100 accessories to convert bluetooth signal to infrared

For the price of PS3 you're much better off buying a good quality standalone blu-ray player and a XBOX360(lots more games plus XBOX live plus Netflix, etc.)

If gaming not that important then I would go for Oppo BDP-83 blu-ray player for same price as PS3 is a better player and has none of the limitation of the PS3 as a player.

[peter-gandalf]

The PS3 used to be the best blu-ray player around but it is not anymore and I'm speaking from experience, I own one and used it as my main blu-ray player, but not anymore and here's why :

- PS3 cannot stream "Dolby TrueHD" or "DTSHD Master Audio" signals over an HDMI cable
- Bluetooth remote is crap as you cannot control the PS3 from universal remote unless you buy a $50-100 accessories to convert bluetooth signal to infrared

For the price of PS3 you're much better off buying a good quality standalone blu-ray player and a XBOX360(lots more games plus XBOX live plus Netflix, etc.)

If gaming not that important then I would go for Oppo BDP-83 blu-ray player for same price as PS3 is a better player and has none of the limitation of the PS3 as a player.

Well in my defense I dint say it was THE best but "one of the best."

True, the ps3 cant stream TrueHD or DTS-HD but it can decode them internally. There is absolutely no difference in sound quality.

Having a real remote would be nice but I've never had problems with the bluetooth controller.

I'm not a huge gamer but I do like the game sony has out. Though gears of war would be nice.

You can stream netflix to your ps3 with PlayOn media server. It costs 40bucks though. Hopefully they will add netflix to the ps3 soon a the yadded it to sony bravia TV's.

[boldfire]

Just a quick note, this doesn't seem to have album art images on iTunes

[abizzle]

For a long time TRS has been my fav rev3 show, but this show is just about perfect. Goodonya to whoever came up with the idea for this show. I love the "new releases" section, I love the.........well I love everything about this show. Great job, and keep it up. Now this is my first go-to show when I have a pile of rev3 content to catch up on from the last week.

Also, fyi, I use an htpc, with no blu-ray player.

[awesomedude]

I enjoyed the episode, but I found it annoying that at the end of each segment I constantly needed to be reminded what was coming next. The episodes aren't that long, and there's a description in my rss viewer on the website and at the beginning of the show. I am watching the show because I want to see the show, I am not tuning out after the first segment, going this sucks but oh wait this next segment might be interesting. Its super annoying to hear coming up next our review of the the under $100 blu-ray player, still to come our review of the $100 blu-ray player, next up we discuss the $100 blu-ray player. I personally feel like the whats in this episode at the beginning of the episode is kind of pointless when its all over the webpage and all over the rss feed, there is no way to get to the video without seeing what the episode is about, telling me in the video what its about seems like a waste of time/bandwidth. I am willing to let the initial one slide some, but constant reminding throughout the episode was super annoying. The show is barely 20 minutes long, I didn't forget halfway through the episode what was coming up.

This isn't so much to do about HDnation, but all of revision3 shows, but can we not have all the videos autoplay when we go to the show page? I download the video straight via RSS and only go to the show page to see the show notes, and its annoying to be forced to see the same late night pc ad 100 times everytime I click something else. If it was just the video on the page that would be great, but there's the show notes, there's the download options there's subscription options, and tons more, but its a pain to get through as I am forced to sit through the same 15 second AD then I have to wait for the revision3 logo and then I can finally pause the video. If your going to force auto start at least let me pause it immediately.

[bobv13]

Great show and good episode. HD Nation's frist episode viewed just 2weeks after I got my first HD TV. (50in plasma) I know Ill be a regular viewer.

Thanks

[serafina]

can we not have all the videos autoplay when we go to the show page?

Just go to your account settings (http://revision3.com/account), click the "change preferences" tab, and set autoplay to "disabled".

[clunder]

And odd enough I saw a stack of those Blu-ray players at my local WalMart today

[shmoo]

Just go to your account settings (http://revision3.com/account), click the "change preferences" tab, and set autoplay to "disabled".

Thanks, I needed that.

[wetnap]

the cheap player is nice, but since the jump in usability from dvd to bluray is basically nonexistant and actually somewhat more inconvenient ways the whole price premium bit they pull on the film discs is hard to swallow.

[tactix]

for any uk peeps after a sub £100 bluray player take a look at

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0235018552.124869653 6@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccddadehleifihkcflgceggdhhmdfhk.0&page=Product&fm=12&sm=2&tm=5&sku=836068&category_oid=-33944

its another rebadged player and its bdlive upgradeable i havent used one as i just spotted it yesteerday when out buying a new microwave so do your homework first.

im tempted to get one to put in the bedroom but for the living room i use my htpc for all content.

[zecane]

I'm very surprised that in your Blu-Ray players recommendations you did not mention the Oppo BDP-83, it has hands down the best picture of all the blu-ray players.

I know someone who bought the Sony player you recommend and it's nowhere as good as the Oppo for picture quality.

Sure it doesn't do Netflix streaming, but isn't the primary function of a blu-ray player to play blu-ray discs with the best possible quality, the rest to me is just fluff. Sure for equivalent quality extras are nice, but I would take superb picture over gadgets any day.

Also the Oppo is the only player that I tested that is just as fast as my PS3 for loading discs and menu navigation.

And lastly Oppo's customer support is light years ahead of the Japanese manufacturer with extremely fast updates of firmware to correct problems and add functionality requested by the users.

It's pricier then Sony or LG but gets a better picture then reference players costing at least 5 times its price.

HomeTheaterHifi.com gave Oppo BDP-83 a 98% and Sony BDP-S350 a 68%.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/images/stories/2009/june-2009/oppo-bdp-83/oppo-bdp-83-blu-ray-player-benchmark-spreadsheet-chart-large.gif

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/images/stories/2009/february-2009/Sony-S350-spreadsheet.jpg

I'm quite sure Heron has recommended Oppo products earlier, both their dvd-players and hdmi-switch (not on this show though). Maybe he just hasn't had a hands-on experience with the BDP-83 and therefore he can't recommend it?

[cyborger]

And odd enough I saw a stack of those Blu-ray players at my local WalMart today

My local Walmart didn't have any but the one in Chesapeake did. They had quite a few of them too.

[shanmac]

Love the show guys. Robert and Patrick are a natural fit for this type of show and they seem to genuinely enjoy shooting it. Thanks for pointing out the Matrix Trilogy on Blu-ray. It think I might pick it up. I'm on Robert's side and loved Reloaded and Revolutions. Keep up the great work guys!!

[suurge]

The ps3 is one of the best blu-ray players out there. While it may not do as good DVD up-conversion as some of the top of the line players it is still very good. Since the ps3 can be connected to the internet it can always be updated to play the latest bluray formats and features. And is one of the fastest players out there.

blu-ray picture quality is excellent. It's what criterion uses in there set up to test their blu-ray releases. Plus it plays games and can be used to stream movies and music to your home theater from your computer.

While it can't bitstream HD audio it can decode them internally. It' the exact same quality as if you receiver were to decode it but the HD logos wont light up in your Receiver.

For the money its really an incredible deal for everything you can do with it.

Sorry for the late-ass reply, but thanks! I do loves my PS3. I'm still rockin' lossy audio so all I need now is a new receiver that does HD audio and some new speakers!