bluray and dvd players

[beast5680]

anybody got any recomendations for a combined bluray and dvd player? i,m looking to get a bluray player but swmbo wont have yet another box in or around the tv so a combined one seems to be the way to go
anybody got one they like or think is junk?

[Range Rover Blues]

Any BluRay will play DVD.

Avoid panasonic   I had a lot of trouble with theirs.

My advice, buy a second hand PS3 and let it upgrade via the internet (ethernet or wirelss).  The new PS3 are having problems I understand.

[discowoman]

yup agree with the PS3 - and the upscaler for DVD is 2nd to none - if used via a HDMI lead..
(some of the games aint bad either - lol)
plus if you connect to the net you get BBC iplayer for free - as well as Vidzone (sort of cutprice MTV) its also a great media player, and can play just about any 'downloaded' movie... and is able to store them on the harddrive too

[Range Rover Blues]

I hear that you can also buy a tuner for the PS3 and then use it as a hard drive recorder on freeview, but I already have one of those.

[dxmedia]

Play TV - it's very very good.

[Saffy]

ok... I going to get lynched.  I do not *get* blue ray or any of that.
My situation is that I used to collect VHS movies back in the day and then DVD came out so I started collection DVD of movies when they came out and then with broadband started hunting for movies I could burn to dvd and make the covers for and put in collections. I realised that I NEVER watched the things. So I dumped all the pirate rubbish and now have a shelf in corner of room looking at me with DVD titles and box sets THAT I STILL NEVER WATCH. I ditched the DVD player it self about 2 years ago knowing that if I really needed I could use the PC to watch them or now recently use the XB0X360 - BUT I NEVER DO.   What I do watch is pay per view movies on virgin or more often just download the lastest pirate movies free from p2p (or streaming) and watch them across the network on the main TV via xbox360. I do not seem to care about supreme visual quality or care about keeping the movie in a 'collection' as I delete them shortly after watching rather then attempt to burn them or waste harddisk space on something I will likely never watch again. But my *fix* to be entertained by a movie is fully satisfied.

So please what am I missing - are people moving to bluray for purely the quality, do they like building 'collections'  or what? (genuine question as explained abbove it is clear I have become out of touch of the reason why).

[discowoman]

well for the the quality is mindblowing - especialy the latest CGi loaded films, but get a copy of The Italian Job on blu ray - classic film that has been reinvented on Blu-ray, I own it on VHS DVD and BLU-RAY and believe me theres things I had never noticed before that jump out at you on the blu-ray..
Currently waiting for the Alien saga and Star wars to be released on Blu-ray :(:(

[dxmedia]

with a 1080p screen blu ray is outstanding.

It's easily compairble to vhs v dvd.

1080i is just over the resolution of a 100hz decent crt tv, you need to go 1080p to get the full effect.

[Range Rover Blues]

Got to honest here, the series that caused all the problems with the panasonic I bought was Band of Brothers, it's excellent.

I taped it from the BBC so I had a good copy on VHS which I lent to a mate and nevwer saw again.

I got it on DVD as a pressie and TBH some of the scenes were lower quality than the taped copy.

Now I have it on Blu-Ray.  The panasonic is junk at playing some of the episodes so I watch it on the PS3, well crikey it's amazing.

Lots of scenes are set at night in low light and the DVD copy didn't have enough detail or variety of dark greys to cope but in blu-ray it's brilliant.

What elese is amazing is the detail, you can see every blade of grass around the foxholes, even as they get blown up.  You can see every brick inn the bombed out buildings (unless you buy the panasonic), you can see expressions on faces in the background.

Chuck in a harry potter and you see faces in the crowd during quidich games, you see detail in the CGI that just isn't there on DVD.

Now don't get me wrong, DVD is good and if you play it through component cables into a decent TV then you will get a good picture but for me Blue-Ray has sorted out all the tiny niggles for me as well as delivering the best picture and sound available.  Prices are coming down on titles too, the latest HP, £14.95 delivered :D

Just make sure you keep watching the films and not the player, if you know what I mean.

[craigio fantastico]

my ps3 dosent play dvd's, only blue ray.  If i put a dvd in it dosent load it????

[Range Rover Blues]

Something wrong there then, it should play DVDs and upscale them to 1080i.  It's the main reaosn I bought the PS3, the upscaling and the blu-ray.

Have you updated it?

[bigfatsi]

Richer Sounds are doing a Sony jobby for around £80 in there Xmas offers: See here

Says its £129 but it's on special for £79.99. I can forward on the email offer if you'd like?

Simon

[craigio fantastico]

what do you mean "updated it" ? it is connected to the interweb and gets the automatic stuff when ever it comes up. before reading this thread i just thought that ps3 didn't play DVD's.

[Range Rover Blues]

Then it's updated.  Mine is the original 60gig model and it plays DVD, CD I think and Blue-ray plus it can read the Blu-Ray recordable and DVD-R/DVD+R.

Can't remember if I've tried anything else in it but I use it to check that my DVD burner has finalised properly and it plays them fine.