BD player recommendations

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#393865 20-Oct-2010 09:12

Oh. Another thing is worth knowing as @Wreck90 mentioned, the DLNA functionality on most players are limited and not well documented - DLNA specification is supported strangely by many manufacturers so they're not the same across the board - for a proper DLNA functionality, your best bet is a separate device like AppleTV v2 (I still suggest PS3 for most all round multimedia support).

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cyril7

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#393866 20-Oct-2010 09:12

TopGuns, you da top man, cheers, $50 is not to be sneezed at, there is a $5 courier charge.

wreck90 I agree, seems the age of a mainstream device to play movies from disc, net or storage still has not arrived (well at this price point), which to me is so odd, to make one that does as we here have discussed and expect is surely only a matter of organising software, cost, minimal!

Cyril

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#393871 20-Oct-2010 09:25

cyril7: TopGuns, you da top man, cheers, $50 is not to be sneezed at, there is a $5 courier charge.
Cyril

Your welcome, seemed like a good price to me.

grolschie

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#393882 20-Oct-2010 09:49

wreck90: Looked at the Sony 370 bluray, but, DLNA support is not well documented -the official specs seem to indicate significant limitations on streaming formats. Sony Movies/Music are intent on hobbling sony hardware. I thought Sony had moved past this problem but obviously not.

Not well documented?
http://certification.dlna.org/certs/REG46337567.pdf

Officially it supports LPCM, JPG and MPEG PS/TS via DLNA.

But it seems to support more than this. I can play most files on the BDP-S370 via a modfied (patched for this player) PS3 Media Server with a few specific config settings. I am also streaming internet radio, and a few (some don't work properly) internet tv streams also.

Other people have had some success with WMP11/12, Wild Media Server, Serviio, and Mezzmo.

wreck90

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#393920 20-Oct-2010 11:26

I'd still say not well documented. You say it supports more formats than in the specification. That is incomplete documentation.

I still cannot tell if this supports surround sound formats.

And, will it play m2ts from my HD camera (files include surround sound format).

Will it play files greater than 1gb (some devices will not ).

In the manual, it describes the formats, but, says that it will not play HD at all, yet m2ts is used for HD is it not? Very confusing. Also, seems like surround sound is out too.

And, just because a manual says that a format is supported, this does not mean that it is supported correctly.

Playable types of files
File format Extensions

MPEG-1 Video/PS*1*5
MPEG-2 Video/PS,
TS*1*6
?.mpg,? ?.mpeg,?
?.m2ts,? ?.mts?
DivX*2 ?.avi,? ?.divx?
MPEG-4 AVC*1*5 ?.mkv,? ?.mp4,?
?.m4v,? ?.m2ts,?
?.mts?
WMV9*1*5 ?.wmv,? ?.asf?
AVCHD*5 *3

File format Extensions
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio
Layer III)
?.mp3?
AAC*1*4*5 ?.m4a?
WMA9 Standard*1*4*5 ?.wma?
LPCM ?.wav?
File format Extensions
JPEG ?.jpg,? ?.jpeg?

*5 The player does not play this file format on a
DLNA server.
*6 The player can only play standard definition
video on a DLNA server.

grolschie

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#393975 20-Oct-2010 13:37

wreck90: I'd still say not well documented. You say it supports more formats than in the specification. That is incomplete documentation.

I still cannot tell if this supports surround sound formats.

And, will it play m2ts from my HD camera (files include surround sound format). ...

I think the key is to configure the server to send the files/streams in a format that the client can recognize. e.g. The player supports LPCM, so if the server can decode the audio file, it can then be streamed in LPCM. Streaming surround sound definitely does work via DLNA in my setup. Regarding your m2ts files, I am not sure. Do you have a file I could test for you?

ilovemusic

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#394019 20-Oct-2010 15:17

Can anyone confirm the Sony 370 is region locked for DVD as well as BD ?

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Deev8

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#394076 20-Oct-2010 17:43

alisam: I use a PlayonHD Mini (no internal hardisk, like the appleTV) with a 640gb 2.5" USB Drive ... NZ PC World gave the PlayonHD Mini a good write up and from what comments I have seen, some people prefer it to the WD Media Player.

robjg63: I have got a playon HD mini as well ... It seems to play anything I have chucked at it

From the specs it looks like the Playon!HD Mini would handle H.264 video and HE-AAC audio in TS files - in other words it would play material recorded by a HTPC from Freeview|HD. That makes it quite useful given a price of around $210.

old3eyes

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#394099 20-Oct-2010 18:56

Deev8:
alisam: I use a PlayonHD Mini (no internal hardisk, like the appleTV) with a 640gb 2.5" USB Drive ... NZ PC World gave the PlayonHD Mini a good write up and from what comments I have seen, some people prefer it to the WD Media Player.

robjg63: I have got a playon HD mini as well ... It seems to play anything I have chucked at it

From the specs it looks like the Playon!HD Mini would handle H.264 video and HE-AAC audio in TS files - in other words it would play material recorded by a HTPC from Freeview|HD. That makes it quite useful given a price of around $210.

How about this new beast from WD?? http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/16/wd-live-tv-hub-media-streamer-nas-leaks-out-of-best-buy-with-g/

Regards,

Old3eyes

grolschie

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#394109 20-Oct-2010 19:20

ilovemusic: Can anyone confirm the Sony 370 is region locked for DVD as well as BD ?

So far I have loaded up 2x region 2 DVDs, they start to play, so I presume it's unlocked for DVD but locked for Blu-Ray.

ilovemusic

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#394206 21-Oct-2010 01:27

Were they genuine R2 or dual R2/4 ?

grolschie

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#394238 21-Oct-2010 08:39

ilovemusic: Were they genuine R2 or dual R2/4 ?

Both bought overseas. They have just the Region 2 symbol on them.

cyril7

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#394794 22-Oct-2010 15:43

Well, my 370 arrived on the door step this morning ex DSE at $249 + $5shipping, all good. Well impressed, inside there are no chips to see, just a massive heatsink over whatever major chip/s are in there.

Setup the network side, it ran off and updated to the latest sites that Sony have arrangments with, there are about 10 providers like epicurian, FIFA, a couple of TV series sites and a couple of music ones, and naturally Youtube with the Xyoutube interface, all good.

Grabbed a handfull of discs from BB plus purchased PulpFiction that I had been meaning to put in my DVD collection for sometime.

So far it seems to me that the DD and DTS tracks are much cleaner than off DVD. I should note that I am only taking the core DD/DTS tracks as my old Yammy AVR does not do the new formats, but thats somthing I am happy with.

Maybe over the weekend I will play with the DLNA side, itunes wont support it, but will try Win Media player, if it will happly spool stuff off my NAS via WMP on one of my PCs I will be a happy chappy.

Cheers
Cyril

ilovemusic

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#394838 22-Oct-2010 18:14

cyril7:
So far it seems to me that the DD and DTS tracks are much cleaner than off DVD. I should note that I am only taking the core DD/DTS tracks as my old Yammy AVR does not do the new formats, but thats somthing I am happy with.

Cheers
Cyril

Yep; DD off BD is at 640kbps cf. 384/448 from DVD, similarly the DTS core is at a higher bitrate too.

Subtle but noticeable to anyone who isn't deaf.

What Yammy do you have ?
Is it so old it doesn't have an analogue 5.1 input ?

cyril7

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#394882 22-Oct-2010 21:05

Hi, its an RXV-596 it has analog inputs which my old Pioneer mulitiplayer with DVD.A and more importantly SACD decode is connected to., I have quite a collection of SACD.

Yes well aware that BD basic core is full speed DD and DTS hence the improvements I am hearing.

Cyril

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