Poor selection of Blu Ray players in NZ?

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casewindow

310 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#31538 21-Mar-2009 12:54

I am interested in either the Sony S550 or the Panasonic BD55 (prefer the Panasonic). I have an AVR that has analog inputs for 5.1 so figure either of these would be the best for getting HD sound.

But it seems that they're hard to get in NZ - particularly the panasonic does not seem to be around.

Has anyone had any luck? I have not checked out JB HI FI or Harvey Norman yet - just done a general web search and checked DSE and NL websites.

Rhygar

86 posts

Master Geek
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#202511 21-Mar-2009 16:36

ThePanasonic BD 55 will not be released in NZ so that is why you can't find one.

Wills1

710 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#202514 21-Mar-2009 16:52

I would go with a PS3 as it has far more processing power than a stand alone blu ray player. The menu's on the stand alone players are quite slow. Plus there's stacks of features you can use with the PS3! We stream media every day with ours

Jaxson

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#202519 21-Mar-2009 17:25

Yeah I looked quite seriously at this initially but you pay a HUGE amount for the bluray players with onboard audio decoding. Also when you use the 5.1 in on your receiver, very often you lose the auto setup setting on your receiver so this all has to be done manually from within the bluray player. ie speaker distance, settings etc.

Get a PS3 and a new receiver.

davidcole

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#202526 21-Mar-2009 18:20

Hmm, be careful with the audio decoding on the AMP. I just a 6.1 Yamaha amp, and if I try giving it Dolby DTS TrueHD it goes "WTH is this?" So make sure either your AMP can deal with these new formats, or the BluRay player will downmix them to DTS/AC3.

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casewindow

310 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#202531 21-Mar-2009 18:48

That sucks about the Panasonic.

I guess I'll have to consider the Sony s550 which seems inferior but has the analog outputs

The problem with the PS3 is that it does not contain the analog outputs.

Looking at the setup I should just have to plug in the analog outputs from the BD player into the inputs on my receiver and choose EXT IN.

I already have an upscaling DVD player (Sony RDR-HX950) which does a great job - but it is REALLY picky about DVDs and won't play have the discs we get from fatso.

Luckily we have a backup (a sony portable that we have plugged into the setup) which does but it doesn't upscale the dvds and the difference is quite noticable.

old3eyes

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#202568 22-Mar-2009 08:59

You could wait for the new Oppo BDP-83 to be released here thought with the NZ Peso v US$ it will not be cheap..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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turb

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#203876 28-Mar-2009 15:12

I don't want to get into the whole "buy a PS3" thing again. But I just looked at the Dixons site in the UK. They are selling a Samsung BD-P1500 (no idea if it's any good but that's not the point) for GBP 150. The same player is in DSE for $699.

The online currency converter I just used converted GBP 150 to NZ$ 377.

That sucks.

On the other hand a PS3 + 1 game bundle costs them GBP 399 which would be NZ$ 1000!

Who's being ripped off? Is it them for paying too much for a PS3 or us for paying too much for a Blu Ray player.

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hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#204772 1-Apr-2009 19:23

I've been looking for a long time, for a good Blu-Ray player, but its the same old story, every time you find one that looks/sounds ok, another model is announced, so its an endless wait. I was going to purchase the Panasonic BD35, but now I hear that a 60 and 80 model is coming out in the States...

I currently have a Samsung BD-P1400, which I purchased on Ebay from USA for about $NZ350(back when the currency was so good, blu-rays cost half the price they did here). It still works reasonably ok, some special features on Blu-Ray starts and stops, but the movie plays fine and it works well with my Onkyo 605.

Because it was Region A locked, most of my titles are Region A. Now the currency is bad, im getting more Region B titles (I use my DV5-1009tx notebook for them). Id like to get a standalone Region B blu-ray player, just to have Bitstreaming to my amp (BDP-1400 does bitstream, not the notebook).

I have heard a Blu-Ray player in Aussie is Region A/B, Kogan I think its called, who knows how good it is though.

My Blu-Ray Collection

old3eyes

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#204792 1-Apr-2009 21:07

hamisht:

I have heard a Blu-Ray player in Aussie is Region A/B, Kogan I think its called, who knows how good it is though.

Also Soniq has a region free set in Ozz. thread on it.

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=77037&hl=soniq

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=74889&hl=soniq

Ozz region free mods for real players.. Wonder if anyone in NZ does this..

http://www.gattiweb.com/bluraymod.html

Regards,

Old3eyes

hamisht

389 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#204803 1-Apr-2009 21:40

Prices for modding in NZ could be pretty pricey i think, considering the shipping cost of the chip from the UK/US.

My Blu-Ray Collection

geekIT

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#205360 5-Apr-2009 08:19

But aren't these chips programmable? Like a BIOS chip on a computer motherboard? Seems to me that all that's needed is to remove the original chip, dump its contents with a chip reader, modify its program, then burn it to a new chip.

At least that's what a guy in OZ did for my trusty old Hiteker DVD player, back about 6-7 years. And it didn't cost AU180, like that Gatti burglar is charging. This guy actually did the job for free, plus the chip cost and freight. All up, it was about NZ20.

Makes the Hiteker a very useful part of my system, as it'll play any region DVDs, and I can feed the clean signal (no macro-scramble either) into my Sony RDR-HX950 and I don't need to spell out what that can lead to :-)

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motown

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#205639 6-Apr-2009 20:35

Best place for blu-ray players is Ebay Australia. Often see Panasonic BD55s, region-free Panny BD35s and Sony S550s, amongst others at good prices.