New Blu Ray Player. Buy Now Or Wait A Bit Longer?

[rockyysdt]

Last December I became the proud owner of a Panasonic Viera Full HD 42 inch TH-42PZ800A Plasma.

At the time I felt Blu Ray players were a little expensive and it was worth waiting awhile before taking the plunge.

I personally thought Blu Ray Players aren't that much more complicated to build compared to DVD Players & makers always charge a premium early in a products life cycle.

Six months have now passed.

Is it now a good time to buy?

Or should I wait a little longer?

Which models would you recommend & why?

[Tywais]

Moved to the Computer Forum.

[kamalabob2]

Blue Ray players from the Japanese and Korean makers seem a tad expensive compared to the exact same model in the USA.

http://www.piyanas.com/product.php?cat=124...4e20d38c21515e1

Even low rated (by www.consumerreports.org) LG and Samsung players are way overpriced in Thailand. Sony and Panasonic sell some highly rated blue ray players in Thailand for inflated prices at present.

The price for GENUINE blue ray discs are high, the Pantip or Fortune IT "blue ray" perhaps are not actually blue ray discs.

Have you considered a highly reviewed "upscaling" DVD player such as the OPPO products? The Oppo DV-981HD is a great player. I paid 8000 baht two years ago for this player and now it is priced much lower in Thailand.

http://www.piyanas.com/productdetail.php?c...=en〈=en

I hope that similar to how LCD and Plasma sets from many Japanese and Korean firms came down to affordable prices in Thailand in the past year, this will happen for Blue Ray in the next two years.

[garyh]

A playstation 3 will also play blue ray dvd, better value if a games consol is of interest.

[Oberkommando]

What's the point of having an HDTV if you are not watching anything in HD? Defeats the purpose!

I have a large collection on blu-rays I have purchased relatively cheaply from eBay and I download HD content from torrents.

Forget about upscaling DVD players, they rarely make your DVDs look better and they are nowhere near the quality of proper HD. Your TV will upscale automatically anyway so it's just a gimmick.

Get a media tank or build a Home Theatre PC with a big hard drive and HDMi if you want to download or get a standalone blu-ray player. It will upscale DVDs as well. The PS3 is ugly and a new slimmer one is due out soon so you might want to hang on for that. A Home Theatre PC will do both jobs if you get a blu-ray drive. That's what I use.

[adammike]

The PS3 is black shiny and uber cool looking and is an ace blueray player.

[delta7]

Hi,

On a related topic. Does anyone know if multi-region Blu-ray players are available in Thailand?

I know I can easily get them in the UK from companies such as Multi Region Magic

I know I the PS3 can be made to play all regions but I'd prefer a stand-alone player from Pioneer, Sony etc.

Thanks