Blu-ray BD Player Reviews

Here are some reviews about the players featured at the site. See what sort of things the player buyers have had to say about their wonderful blu-ray players.

Panasonic DMP BD30 - Reviews

This is my first Blu-ray player and will go alongside a Toshiba EP35 HD-DVD player on a Samsung LE46F86 telly and Onkyo 705 AV receiver. It is one of the first Profile 1.1 players to be available in the UK, which is why I waited for it. Profile 1.1 means that it will play the Picture-In-Picture commentary that some may be interested in. The HD picture is excellent, easily on-par with HD-DVD. Cars looked stunning. Spiderman 3 is very good indeed. SD DVDs up-scaled very well, I could not see any difference between an up-scaled DVD played on either the BD30 or the EP35, which is quite an achievement. TrueHD was available on the discs and sounded fantastic. Note that there is no on-board decoding of the newer codecs (TrueHD, DD+, DTS-HD) so you will need to bitstream to a suitable AV receiver that can decode them. The BD30 is fast to turn on and fast to load. Put your ear to it and you can hear the faint fan, but you have to have your head against it! There was no detectable noise from the disc mechanism either. If you are waiting for Profile 2.0 (to connect it to the Internet) or have an older AV receiver and need on-board decoding, then the Panasonic DMP-BD50 may be worth waiting for. But the BD30 is excellent and easily recommended.
E. Wood (Mar 2008)

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Panasonic DMP BD35 Reviews

It arrived today, although the HDMI lead ordered at the same time, is being sent from Jersey, strangely, and wont be here till thursday. So it's working throught the component outputs at the moment at 1080i and looks amazing on my samsung 32" TV. The HDMI lead will allow me to use one remote to control everything, i need an av amp now to get the most out of the truehd audio as im just using the speakers built into the tv at the moment, although they still sound pretty good. HIghly Recommended over the Sony version!
J K. (Oct 2008)

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Panasonic DMP BD55 Reviews

I feel this is currently the best stand-alone player (especially for the price) currently on the market and a legitimate and compelling alternative to the PS3; perfect for those who are simply interested in watching High Definition movies and want to enjoy the occasional internet-based extras Blu-Ray movies are starting to offer without worrying about a new "Profile". Technology always moves along but I think, with these new players, the manufactures have finally started releasing "finalized" Blu-Ray machines you won't have to worry about being viable for years to come.
FH. (Oct 2008)

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Samsung BD P1500 Reviews

I have Just purchased the Samsung BD-P1500 and i am over the moon!!
Its stylish looks are only equalled by it's superb performance. It's easy to setup, easy menus and has a great free disc offering to get you started with your Blu-Ray disc collection. As with my fantastic Samsung TV, I highly recommend this product, 5*!!!
S. Newman (Nov 2008)

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Samsung BD P2500 Reviews

I decided not to skimp and not buy one of the "cheapo" entry level bluray players after hearing how slow most were and also how most were stripped of inputs and other functions.After doing alot of research, talking with a friend who bought this bluray player, and after trying out several units in the stores themselves, i decided that the Samsung BD-P2500 was the best Bluray player features/quality vs. cost and i've been extremely happy with the player since the day i picked it up.Not only is the color,picture, dvd upscaling better than most other bluray players, it blows away the new Sony BD350 AND BD550.
T Seymour. Newman (Nov 2008)

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Sony BDP S350 Reviews

I purchased this machine after a through search and review on this model & the bd35 which is also the latest model from Panasonic, That is going head to head with the Sony bdps350. Both models are getting very good reviews in the press, But what won me over to the Sony was simply the value for money & the very neat styling of this machine. It has a solid build about it and it is about £100 cheaper than its rival with 2 free blurays that you get once you register the machine with Sony online. The picture quality is superb and once you setup the sound from the menu within the software that is in the player i.e. bitstream, dts or dolby digital you get great sound as well. It has hdmi 1.3a out so you can output your picture & sound through the hdmi port to a suitable amp and the windows will be shaking if you crank the dial up. Great Fun.
R. Brown (Oct 2008)

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Sony BDP S550 Reviews

This is my second Blu-Ray player, the first being a SONY-BDP-S300. This player far exceeds the S300 in many ways. Firstly speed, the S300 was very slow to start up and load discs. The S550 is as fast as a DVD player. Audio is much improved, the HD codecs can be bit-streamed via HDMI to an amp or sent to the amp through analogue cables with the S550 doing the decoding. The machine uses an ethernet connection to update its firmware and also for the BD-Live function that supplements disc features with online content. The system set up my network connection automatically and very quickly. No problems. A cheap 1Gb card is included for this feature. Build quality is good but the depth of the machine is possibly too slight. It looks like a set top box. The setup menus are excellent and intuitive. The 24p output is improved and seems smoother on my 1080p TV. This machine feels like a finished Blu-Ray player rather than a prototype like my S300. Recommended and great entertainment.
P. White (Oct 2008)

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