Should I get Blueray Player?

[Gio G]

Hi all,

Have been thinking about a Blueray player for some time... However my old Pioneer PDP434..., only goes up to 1080i and not 1080P, therefore is it worth investing in Blueray? Not looking to change the plasma for a good few years yet..

Also how much better is Blueray, in terms of picture and sound, compared to the Sky HD movies? which I find quite good..

Thanks..

[JustinP1]

On decent kit, blu-ray is better. Video, but mainly sound. On Sky HD the data rate is so compressed that my receiver can't even decode it properly.

On a big TV, you'll notice the difference over DVD - even upscaled - straight away.

[mp3manager]

Gio G said:

Hi all,

Have been thinking about a Blueray player for some time... However my old Pioneer PDP434..., only goes up to 1080i and not 1080P, therefore is it worth investing in Blueray?

Without a doubt yes!

After 5 years service, I recently retired my 434 and replaced it with a Kuro 500A. I was using my HTPC with a Pioneer 202 drive and the 434 handled Blu-ray perfectly. Of course it down-scaled to 1080i or 720p but that's not really a problem.
I'd definitely recommend Blu-ray with your panel.

[allgonepetetong]

mp3manager said:

Gio G said:

Hi all,

Have been thinking about a Blueray player for some time... However my old Pioneer PDP434..., only goes up to 1080i and not 1080P, therefore is it worth investing in Blueray?

Without a doubt yes!

After 5 years service, I recently retired my 434 and replaced it with a Kuro 500A. I was using my HTPC with a Pioneer 202 drive and the 434 handled Blu-ray perfectly. Of course it down-scaled to 1080i or 720p but that's not really a problem.
I'd definitely recommend Blu-ray with your panel.

How did the 434 compare to the 500A in your opinion?

I have a 435 and may trade up if I can find a Kuro available and the improvement is worth the outlay.

[alock]

JustinP1 said:

On decent kit, blu-ray is better. Video, but mainly sound. On Sky HD the data rate is so compressed that my receiver can't even decode it properly.

On a big TV, you'll notice the difference over DVD - even upscaled - straight away.

If you have an old analogue TV that can cope with higher than 480 then I agree. However if you have a HD LCD/Plasma TV then it already up-scales all incoming signals that don't perfectly match its native resolution. A blue ray player can in theory do all of this in the digital domain and hence improved picture quality. A new device might also have a better algorithm and more CPU power than a several year old device.

Personally I'm sceptical about the digital end-to-end benefits. I spend all day staring at dual 24" 1920x1200 PC monitors, one driven from the digital output and the other from the analogue output of my graphics card. I cannot perceive any difference between the two and I state at these for 9 hours per day from 2 feet away.