CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Spanky Ham]

I know there is the decision most people have about whether to go with dedicated separates or a HTPC. This can turn into or used to a good debate. I was all set to go HTPC, but I was in Sam's Club last week and they had two players under $100 and another for $129. I believe one was a Samsung. I have seen others, but this is the first time I have seen more than one at a regular price under $100.

On the flip side, you can get Blu-ray burners over at Newegg for under $200. For those that don't care about burning, you can get a drive for $70. I have seen Frys have them for $50. While the internal drives are nice, the one that I like is the Asus external for $90. It would be nice to have one drive that I could plug into my desktop or take with me and use with my laptop.

While stand alones have ease of use, you still may want or need add ons. Of course, the great thing about a HTPC is you can rip the blu-ray to a HD, but you pay for it with the unease of use.


Has the pricing effected the which way you might go?

[emdawgz1]

I voted Stand alone. I am a big fan of htpc and streaming media thru them. But if you are not going to rip and store... i vote stand alone.

[Spanky Ham]

I see some blu ray players have the ability to play MKV. I am starting to think it might be easier to leave the computer in the computer room.

[Zebu Fellenz]

I vote both. I only have a HTPC right now, and having my HD-DVD and Blu-ray library accessible through media browser in Media Center is very nice, on the flipside I will also be picking up a standalone Blu-ray player when I find a cheap one for the simple (put disc in, press play) peace of mind.

[greg_mitch]

I have the Samsung 3600 and it does indeed play MKV files with AC3 audio...haven't figured out the flac yet but probably won't play it.

It also needs to be connected the USB as far as I can tell and doesn't allow streaming. Not a big deal as once I get about 4 movies ripped I drag the drive upstairs...connect and update the MKV's and take it back downstairs to the theater.

[HaydnG90]

Tried HTPC once upon a time. Loved the image quality, hated the sound quality and the hassles anytime a component was upgraded. In the end i gave up and went with the slightly lower image quality through a SDI-modded DVD player. When I caught the BR bug I went with the PS3. Like the HTPC, flexibility, upgradeable firmware and video were great. Sound quality sucked. I'm now using the OPPO and think I have everything I need....until 72Hz becomes easily attainable. The OPPO has a 'remote', better UI, sharper pic and far superior audio compared to the PS3. Only after I switched did I realize how compromised that part of my HT was.

[drice1234]

[Mr. Green]

I too went PS3. Just use the optical out, sounds great to me.

[ecrabb]

I'd like to hear about the PS3/audio issue, too. I was running optical to my old AVR (which sounded excellent), and I'm running HDMI to my Integra prepro now. The PS3 decodes the DTS-HD and TrueHD to LPCM to the Integra, and it also sounds really excellent. I admit I'd like to try another player with bitstreaming to the Integra, but so far, no players have interested me enough to get whip out the checkbook. Every damn one has some downside along with the upsides.

The new BDP-S770 player Sony just announced looks pretty interesting to me, so they'll probably want way more money for it than I'll be willing to spend...
New Sony Blu-ray players do 3D, WiFi, iPhone remote, more

[betel]

[HaydnG90]

To be honest it was like night and day when I switched to the OPPO. I was seriously thinking my audio system was at fault and I'd never considered it a slouch. Integra Research sound processor, Tag Mclaren 5x100 amp and Klipsch Ultra 2 horn speakers. I was using the optical out on the PS3 and HDMI to feed video directly into the Moome as the IR doesn't have HDMI digital inputs.

Most noticeable was the lack of dynamic range. As Betel says it was really hard to follow the nuances in voices. The bass response was also very poor. I know it was the PS3 because I only swapped over the optical cable from one unit to the other. No other adjustments. It was a revelation watching some of my favorite movies. I think we get so caught up in the constant quest for a better picture that we (I) forgot how important audio fidelity was to the movie experience.

[greg_mitch]

[ecrabb]

I don't know, Greg... These things stick out to me as pretty obvious differences:
A) BD 3D
B) DLNA client
C) SACD

I'm also intrigued with this:

[ecrabb]

[HaydnG90]

Don't think it was PCM. I'll check when i get home this evening. The reason I think the PS3 was outputting the correct digital signal is that the front panel on the sound processor registers either DTS or Dolby Digital. If it was receiving a 2 channel PCM signal it would default to one of its internal processing outputs, which would not be DD or DTS. Maybe Betel can chime in as he seems to have the same experience.

[greg_mitch]

[Sparky015]

good thread. I'm disappointed to hear HTPCs still have issues. I thought as time went on, the bugs would work out and a solid solution as good as a stand-alone player would emerge. I have an extensive collection I would love to rip and store digitally so I don't have to have bookshelves on bookshelves of DVDs and BRs in my family room. I'm not liking having to screw with windows to get it to go through. Kills the mood. I want to watch, not fiddle!

[Sparky015]

did a little digging, OPPO now has DNLA capability via Ethernet from a firmware update just released. Now it looks like you can have both, a stand alone player, and a digital archive of movies that the stand along player can choose from. SWEET!

[Nashou66]

[emdawgz1]