Best Blueray player around £200
Discussion
For serious quality sound and picture but without all the extra's put into many players these days, the Pioneer BDP320 is a very good choise.
Sony do a BDPS range of players, with the 370 being a good one, with all the USB/Networking extra's.
For solid quality blu ray playing, the Pioneer is the one to go for, I replaced my PS3 with one and it's a very high quality player, I didnt need everything the PS3 provided, plus the PS3 is noisy, so the Pioneer is a lot better for my needs.
Sony do a BDPS range of players, with the 370 being a good one, with all the USB/Networking extra's.
For solid quality blu ray playing, the Pioneer is the one to go for, I replaced my PS3 with one and it's a very high quality player, I didnt need everything the PS3 provided, plus the PS3 is noisy, so the Pioneer is a lot better for my needs.
Tokoloshe said:
For serious quality sound and picture but without all the extra's put into many players these days, the Pioneer BDP320 is a very good choise.
Sony do a BDPS range of players, with the 370 being a good one, with all the USB/Networking extra's.
For solid quality blu ray playing, the Pioneer is the one to go for, I replaced my PS3 with one and it's a very high quality player, I didnt need everything the PS3 provided, plus the PS3 is noisy, so the Pioneer is a lot better for my needs.
How do you find the startup speed and disc compatability?Sony do a BDPS range of players, with the 370 being a good one, with all the USB/Networking extra's.
For solid quality blu ray playing, the Pioneer is the one to go for, I replaced my PS3 with one and it's a very high quality player, I didnt need everything the PS3 provided, plus the PS3 is noisy, so the Pioneer is a lot better for my needs.
I've had both a PS3 in the past which was fine, then replaced by a Sharp player (as a gift) which was rather clunky and somewhat fussy over what disc it played, even with a firmware update.
I had re-considered another PS3 but TBH I'd never use it for gaming and would much prefer the simplicity of a dedicated player.
Startup speed is very slow compared to the Sony and Panasonic players, I tend to let it do it's thing while I go and get a drink or something, it's not 5 minutes or anything but takes some time to get going.
The only time it's a noticeable pain is when you want to eject a disk already in the player, for some reason when you turn it on it insists on loading the current disk, so you have to wait for it to load, then eject it, then put the new one in. Not sure if most players do that, but would be nice if when you pressed eject it simply ejected it as opposed to trying to play it automatically (might even be a setting on the player to be fair, will have to check).
The upshot of all that? Well, load times arent massive despite some reports, under a couiple mins, and when it does load, the sound and picture quality are incredible. Upscaling quality is excellent, and I also use the stereo outs into an amp for CD playback, Pioneer built in what can be used as a good quality CD deck, so nice to have that feature.
As far as disk compatibility, it seems to cover most of the popular ones, I only use it for DVD/CD/Blu Ray playback on rented or bought disks, so havent needed to try any different formats or copied disks, but from my research it copes with them without too much trouble.
The only time it's a noticeable pain is when you want to eject a disk already in the player, for some reason when you turn it on it insists on loading the current disk, so you have to wait for it to load, then eject it, then put the new one in. Not sure if most players do that, but would be nice if when you pressed eject it simply ejected it as opposed to trying to play it automatically (might even be a setting on the player to be fair, will have to check).
The upshot of all that? Well, load times arent massive despite some reports, under a couiple mins, and when it does load, the sound and picture quality are incredible. Upscaling quality is excellent, and I also use the stereo outs into an amp for CD playback, Pioneer built in what can be used as a good quality CD deck, so nice to have that feature.
As far as disk compatibility, it seems to cover most of the popular ones, I only use it for DVD/CD/Blu Ray playback on rented or bought disks, so havent needed to try any different formats or copied disks, but from my research it copes with them without too much trouble.
Edited by Tokoloshe on Tuesday 12th October 16:44
Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff