Is BluRay Player a good media player replacement?

[kaushik]

This question is for video-expert guys , BD player owners

so what you people say is a bluray player purchase is better decision?

Seen somewhere that players like BDP-S370 can do all things as sony mediaplayer can do .

So USB playback with 1TB HDD , HD net streaming etc + BD playback all in one package .
can it work well as good as HD mediaplayer
(If the smaller size /potability is not required)

 

[prankey]

Sony do not support NTFS and that a big downer for me. I owned (and returned) Samsung C6900 which was EXCELLENT in media playback functionality but had some minor bugs which Samsung could not commit to resolve. The issues I faced were:

1. Unable to read the UDF file system portion of a DVD resulting in incorrect size detection of a 4GB+ mkv file
2. Could not play music across folders without manually switching between them (no continuous playback from one folder to another, even playlists vanish once you switch folders). I believe this issue is there in Sony as well as informed by Samsung "Even Sony has this limitation".

I hope they have resolved these issues in D series players to be launched by tomorrow.

 

[kaushik]

ok so it sums up that BDP seems to have less flexible playback as HDD player

 

[vprasad84]

Hi,

Yesterday i bought LG Blu-ray Player, Model: BD550. It was pretty good. I got it for Rs. 5990 from eZone along with a hdmi cable which was in box itself. Considering the price & my usage, below were the useful features which makes value for money.

Supports external USB HDD with FAT & NTS partition. Can support max 4 partitions.
I connected a portable Seage USB HDD 500GB which was well detected
Supports .m2ts, .mkv, .avi, .mp4, .mp3, .jpg, wma etc. ( i played all the extensions)
multiple subtitles & audio
supports primary pass through via hdmi out & digital coaxial out (no optical port)
DolbyTruHD & DTS HD support
1080p output resolution with 24/50Hz.
1080p upscaling
audio cd recording
HDMI 1.3 support (no 3D)
Ethernet Port for LAN for BD Live.

i played a mkv file (avatar 10.5GB file) from the usb hdd & it loaded in a sec & the video quality was awesome. The rewind/fast forward was very good even in such large size movie file.

Below features are not available however which i do not seem to use.

you tube
provision for wireless connection
3D Support
Digital optical port (spdif). Only coaxial is there.

Hope this helps someone to opt for this bluray player considering the price & features matching.

 

[deba]

Sony BDP S370 doesnt work for NTFS drives and aspect ratio of some files are not displayed properly even after much menu adjustments........so dedicated media player is a better way to go.........

I played a 1:2.40 movie and it was diplayed as 16:9 and the black borders were removed so the left and right side of the screen was trimmed by the 370.

 

[mathan]

Hi,

Yesterday i bought LG Blu-ray Player, Model: BD550. It was pretty good. I got it for Rs. 5990 from eZone along with a hdmi cable which was in box itself. Considering the price & my usage, below were the useful features which makes value for money.

Supports external USB HDD with FAT & NTS partition. Can support max 4 partitions.
I connected a portable Seage USB HDD 500GB which was well detected
Supports .m2ts, .mkv, .avi, .mp4, .mp3, .jpg, wma etc. ( i played all the extensions)
multiple subtitles & audio
supports primary pass through via hdmi out & digital coaxial out (no optical port)
DolbyTruHD & DTS HD support
1080p output resolution with 24/50Hz.
1080p upscaling
audio cd recording
HDMI 1.3 support (no 3D)
Ethernet Port for LAN for BD Live.

i played a mkv file (avatar 10.5GB file) from the usb hdd & it loaded in a sec & the video quality was awesome. The rewind/fast forward was very good even in such large size movie file.

Below features are not available however which i do not seem to use.

you tube
provision for wireless connection
3D Support
Digital optical port (spdif). Only coaxial is there.

Hope this helps someone to opt for this bluray player considering the price & features matching.

Yes. it palys almost everything through USB. Not sure why LG is not marketing this properly and it is a steal for this price.

 

[terence_fdes]

Yes. it palys almost everything through USB. Not sure why LG is not marketing this properly and it is a steal for this price.

@ vprasad84 & @mathan

I am surprised at your feedback about LG BDP-550. About 5 months back when I tested this player, it refused to play a large no of DVD's [indian & branded - region code error]; secondly, US based blu-ray discs also refused to play [I could not test it then for usb-playback of 1TB drives with .mkv content]. Has LG done some firmware upgrade !!!!

Anyways it's good news for us here as LG does try to bundle this BDP with a variety of their large screen set's >42"

So enjoy.

 

[spirovious]

If BDs/DVDs are copied with reg code removed,LG can read via USB.
Reset Blu ray movie region code to make Blu ray dics(BD) region free ...
Blu ray Ripper - 6 ways to rip Bluray, free Blu-ray ripper

 

[max123_ind]

Not being able to read NTFS is an issue with my Oppo BD-83 as well. I had to install Tversity on my laptop, share the folder via WiFi, connect the BD player thru LAN, and then use media browser to look for files and play. But still, most formats like RealMedia and few MKVs don't play.

@op, you are better off buying that LG if indeed it plays all or go for a media player to which developers release firmware updates so that issues with newer files and formats get resolved. Do not buy an old product for which the upgrades may have stopped.

 

[jatinmalhotra]

Sony BDP-S380 Supports NTFS now, I can confirm it plays M2ts( Converted from MKV , Just a format change, no re-encoding ) with DTS - HD MA. Also it plays MKV with DTS from NTFS with no issues. The only problem is no DLNA. You will have to get 480 for that that has 3d too. The cost was 8 K, 7.5 for player and 570 for 50W transformer.

Sourced from Amazon via SYW.

 

[mathan]

@ vprasad84 & @mathan

I am surprised at your feedback about LG BDP-550. About 5 months back when I tested this player, it refused to play a large no of DVD's [indian & branded - region code error]; secondly, US based blu-ray discs also refused to play [I could not test it then for usb-playback of 1TB drives with .mkv content]. Has LG done some firmware upgrade !!!!

Anyways it's good news for us here as LG does try to bundle this BDP with a variety of their large screen set's >42"

So enjoy.

Yes. LG does a regular firmware update. It would not play US based blu-ray discs as it is a Region C player bought in India. However it played all DVD's (even those bought from US). After the firmware update it also supported the .m2ts. I was surprised to note this and it also reads the NTFS. I probably think it cannot be modded to make it a region free player for blu-ray otherwise it is a decent player at this price.

 

[Paul Bradley Roberts]

I have come across such a situation, finally by reading some of the detailed tutorial to solve the problem, so I think you also need to try blu-ray ripper.
why not?

 

[just4kix]

Coming to the original question ...

It is my strict personal opinion that BD players are not a good replacement for media players. While BD players can play back media from the HDD, some may place restrictions. The menu will be very rudimentary and little cumbersome. BD player is best suited for regular BD/DVD watchers with occassional downloads while media player is best suited for downloaders. But one thing where BD player scores over media player is that while a BD player can play discs, a media player can't (except Dune).

 

[kamalnv]

Sony BDP-S380 Supports NTFS now, I can confirm it plays M2ts( Converted from MKV , Just a format change, no re-encoding ) with DTS - HD MA. Also it plays MKV with DTS from NTFS with no issues. The only problem is no DLNA. You will have to get 480 for that that has 3d too. The cost was 8 K, 7.5 for player and 570 for 50W transformer.
Sourced from Amazon via SYW.

I have tried to do a detailed review of my Sony BDP....on the Link below.

http://www.hifivision.com/blu-ray-dvd-players-dvd-hard-disk-recorders/48046-sony-bdp-s5100.html

 

[madbullram]

Coming to the original question ...

It is my strict personal opinion that BD players are not a good replacement for media players. While BD players can play back media from the HDD, some may place restrictions. The menu will be very rudimentary and little cumbersome. BD player is best suited for regular BD/DVD watchers with occassional downloads while media player is best suited for downloaders. But one thing where BD player scores over media player is that while a BD player can play discs, a media player can't (except Dune).

I agree, even my Sony S5100 though has all features, has issue playing few mkv, avi, and DVDs unlike my WDTV which plays anything I throw at it

 

[Dushie]

How does netflix work on the Sony BDP S5100. Anyone tried the same, i am about to get mine and waiting to test out the same.

 

[kamalnv]

How does netflix work on the Sony BDP S5100. Anyone tried the same, i am about to get mine and waiting to test out the same.

afaik Netflix is not yet started in india.. so i would assume they would be streaming from outside india datacentres... with that we could suspect performance issues ?

 

[Dushie]

afaik Netflix is not yet started in india.. so i would assume they would be streaming from outside india datacentres... with that we could suspect performance issues ?

It's working great, i have it set up on my BDP S5100. Best part that you even get an option to play 3D movies from netflix. Watched Chennai Express on netflix on 720P. I am on a 10 Mbps connection, probably a better DNS would do wonders. But as of now i am happy with the same.

 

[kamalnv]

It's working great, i have it set up on my BDP S5100. Best part that you even get an option to play 3D movies from netflix. Watched Chennai Express on netflix on 720P. I am on a 10 Mbps connection, probably a better DNS would do wonders. But as of now i am happy with the same.

Great to hear that.. possibly 10mbps link will do the trick !!

Are you getting indian contents on the BD net menu ?

 

[Dushie]

Great to hear that.. possibly 10mbps link will do the trick !!

Are you getting indian contents on the BD net menu ?

I was getting earlier, when i was on local DNS, it was showing Sony Live and Big flix and lot of other local stuff. Post switching to US DNS and updating the Video list, got Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video , Vudu and plenty of other options.