Which BD player with 7.1 analogue outs sub £350 ?

Vogon · 14-02-2009, 7:28 PM

I need to have the 5/7.1 analogue outs to get HD audio through my existing amp, so with a budget of £350 max, what player should I be looking to get ?
Currently on my consideration list are the:
Pioneer BDP51FD, Panny 50 (though now discontinued so may be hard to find I believe) Sony 550 ... any others worthy of consideration and what apart from BD live (which doesn't bother me) is the difference between profile 1.1 and 2.0 ?
DTS HD through the analogue would be a nice plus point too

ARNOLD AKIEN · 14-02-2009, 8:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vogon

I need to have the 5/7.1 analogue outs to get HD audio through my existing amp, so with a budget of £350 max, what player should I be looking to get ?
Currently on my consideration list are the:
Pioneer BDP51FD, Panny 50 (though now discontinued so may be hard to find I believe) Sony 550 ... any others worthy of consideration and what apart from BD live (which doesn't bother me) is the difference between profile 1.1 and 2.0 ?
DTS HD through the analogue would be a nice plus point too

Samsung BD-P1400. I have one and it has been pretty good if you discount the need to download the latest firmware updates from time to time ... thread on the 1400 here ...

Samsung BD-P1400 Region B UK

It's discontinued of course but it's still possible to buy them .. buy it now for a touch under £120 plus £10 postage on e bay .. can't post the link of course but it should be easy enough to find.

Or a little under £150 in the Clearance Bargains of Richer Sounds ...

Richer Sounds - The UK's Hi-Fi, Home Cinema & Flat Panel Tv Specialists!

As far as I know Richer still do their low cost 5 year warrenty on the 1400.

User manual ...

download center SAMSUNG

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/co...AA_BM_1005.pdf

" CONNECTING TO AN AUDIO SYSTEM (5.1 CHANNEL AMPLIFIER)
Using the audio cables, connect the 5.1 ANALOG AUDIO OUT (Front R, Front L, CENTER, SUBWOOFER,
Surround L, Surround R) terminals on the rear of the Blu-ray Disc Player to the 5.1 Channel ANALOG AUDIO
IN (Front R, Front L, CENTER, SUBWOOFER, Surround L, Surround R) terminals of your Amplifi er.
Using the video signal cable(s), connect the HDMI, COMPONENT, S-VIDEO, or VIDEO OUT terminals on the
rear of the Blu-ray Disc Player to the HDMI, COMPONENT, S-VIDEO, or VIDEO IN terminal of your TV as
described on pages 20 to 25.
Turn on the Blu-ray Disc Player, TV and Amplifi er.
Press the input select button of the Amplifi er to select external input in order to hear sound from the Blu-ray
Disc Player. Refer to your Amplifi er's user manual to set the Amplifi er's audio input."

There are going to be fewer of these 5.1 ANALOG AUDIO OUT as an option players in future as most new buyers will go for HDMI only equipped Players that feed the newish HDMI equipped Receivers.

Hope this is of use to you.

Arnold.

kingfats · 14-02-2009, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vogon

I need to have the 5/7.1 analogue outs to get HD audio through my existing amp, so with a budget of £350 max, what player should I be looking to get ?
Currently on my consideration list are the:
Pioneer BDP51FD, Panny 50 (though now discontinued so may be hard to find I believe) Sony 550 ... any others worthy of consideration and what apart from BD live (which doesn't bother me) is the difference between profile 1.1 and 2.0 ?
DTS HD through the analogue would be a nice plus point too

51 or the 550

the Sony has full onboard decoding Pioneer it's TrueHD only but DTS-MA should be on it's way via firmware update.
Cheers.

Vogon · 15-02-2009, 9:16 AM

I must admit those are my 2 frontrunners kingfats, and the edge going too the Sony for the out of the box DTS HD MA on board decoding and price ....
They do seem to be out of stock at many places right now (especially the lower priced ones), I hope that improves soon

The Samsung is a great price, but for some reason I am steered towards the Sony or Pio ... and its not often I consider Sony in anything optical drive related due to past experiences ... but it seems I haven't seen too many complaints from Sony 550 users on here.

It seems downloadable content is the only difference in profile 1.1 and 2.0 ... so thats no issue as mine is nowere near my router and I am not worried about DL features.

kingfats · 15-02-2009, 9:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vogon

I must admit those are my 2 frontrunners kingfats, and the edge going too the Sony for the out of the box DTS HD MA on board decoding and price ....
They do seem to be out of stock at many places right now (especially the lower priced ones), I hope that improves soon

It seems downloadable content is the only difference in profile 1.1 and 2.0 ... so thats no issue as mine is nowere near my router and I am not worried about DL features.

That does seem the "only" issue with the 550 out of stock.

diamondmask · 15-02-2009, 6:47 PM

I have a slight niggle with my 550. Lack of bass from the analogue outputs into my old yamaha 795rds reciever. I know about the 10db cut on LFE channel, but even with the 550 set to cut all channels by 12db, except the LFE, I still dont have any real bass. So until I can afford to pension off the Yamaha, I have gone back to the optical connection. Plenty of bass there but no HD audio

kingfats · 15-02-2009, 6:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamondmask

I have a slight niggle with my 550. Lack of bass from the analogue outputs into my old yamaha 795rds reciever. I know about the 10db cut on LFE channel, but even with the 550 set to cut all channels by 12db, except the LFE, I still dont have any real bass. So until I can afford to pension off the Yamaha, I have gone back to the optical connection. Plenty of bass there but no HD audio

You can't boost the LFE channel on your sub then?

diamondmask · 15-02-2009, 7:02 PM

Unfortunately not. Its about 10 years old and can only cut the channels. With my wedding coming up in June

, i'll have to put up with it for now

.

Vogon · 15-02-2009, 7:17 PM

I just checked the multi region (dvd) hacks for the Pio and Sony ... both look very long winded. (not tooo mention buying a remote of some description).
So if I bought one region free enabled, would updating the firmware undo that ?
(On the basis the Pio will have new firmware soon with DTS MA on board decoding)

diamondmask · 15-02-2009, 7:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vogon

I just checked the multi region (dvd) hacks for the Pio and Sony ... both look very long winded. (not tooo mention buying a remote of some description).
So if I bought one region free enabled, would updating the firmware undo that ?
(On the basis the Pio will have new firmware soon with DTS MA on board decoding)

I can't verify that firmware upgrade will undo region free hacks as I haven't upgraded the firmware in my Sony550, but the thread where i got the region free hack says that it doesn't change the region status when upgrading firmware. Hope this helps, also the hack was very simple using the Harmony One remote. Very useful bit of kit, especially for my girlfriend

kingfats · 15-02-2009, 7:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vogon

So if I bought one region free enabled, would updating the firmware undo that ?
)

No.

Vogon · 15-02-2009, 8:35 PM

Excellent, thanks guys ... just seen the price of the harmony's

Right now the bias is going to the Pio ... mainly because the only places showing stock of the Sony right now are not that much cheaper (If only my local Richer had one, they are advertising clearance of the last stocks they have for £220 !)

Cheapest I have seen the Pio is £324, but not region free .....