Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruined
Is the BT2500 really worth double the price of the BD30 for looks and better build? Aside from power circuitry which has no impact on the digital output quality, the BT2500 and BD30 are virtually identical. The Denon even uses the BD30's upscaling chip. Plus even if the BD30 breaks out of warranty, you could buy another (which will probably be a newer, better model) and be at the same price you paid for the Denon... I just don't get how its worth the money. Plus even if you don't use online features, the BT2500 is incapable of lossless audio on some titles due to its lack of internal decoders when a subaudio stream is present (such as PiP or other BD1.1 features that require internal mixing). While you might not need lossless while watching PiP, enabling/disabling subaudio requires stopping the movie and going into the Panasonic setup menu, then restarting the movie - a big pain.
Not trying to crap on your purchases, but the BD50 is a MUCH smarter buy as it will be fully compatible with all BD disc features, and even the BD30 is a smarter buy since its the same thing for half the price. While I would recommend the $1999 Denon 3800 BD player for its Realta upscaling, there is no way to justify recommending the BT2500 as it just appears to be a brand-status price gouging clone of the BD30 to me IMO.
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Hey I guess the whole thing boils down to, do I like it? And am I happy with it? And if after I have it in my setup for a while and the answer is yes, then that is the most important thing for me. Are looks and build quality important enough to me to warrant spending more? Most definitely. Excellent video and audio performance is of course top priority, but fit and finish is also very important to me.
So you ask why don't I just go for the 3800 instead? For me the answer is a simple one, I have no need for analog outs, on board decoding, or on board Realta video processing. The BT2500 was intended to be used with pre/pro's that have all the necessary processing and decoding like the AVP-A1HDCI. The AVP-A1HDCI has Realta, so there's no need for the transport to have it, high grade DAC's and AL 24 is also not needed as the AVP-A1HDCI has all that. MY "only" requirements I needed in a top end player/transport is the ability to bitstream all the new audio codecs and deliver a killer picture. The BT2500 does this and as a bonus it matches my AVP.
I don't need and will not use PiP, so the ability to listen to lossless audio while watching PiP is moot for me. I don't even listen to audio commentary on the discs I own (and never have since I first started collecting standard DVD's back in '97). So for me 2.0 is not at all important. I'm sure that the Panasonic BD50 will be an excellent machine, that will do everything. But let's say I did wait to get the Panasonic, basically I would never be using the benefits of 2.0. I don't need BD Live.
So I say again, the only thing I need is a rock solid transport to send TrueHD, DTS-HD High Res, DTS-HD MA, and deliver top PQ with Blu-ray movies and have excellent build quality. I will only be using the BT2500 to view Blu-ray movies. For standard DVD's I will continue to use the XA2.
And like I said, if the BT2500 does have enough of a drop in LFE with uncompressed PCM tracks, I will use my Sony S300 to view Blu-ray movies with uncompressed PCM. So if you think about it all three of the high def players that I have will be used solely as transports, with the Denon BT2500 being the upscale one. The AVP-A1HDCI is going to be the whole heart of the system that processes and decodes from all three high def players. So why the need to have built in this and built in that on the players?
I'm going to put the BT2500 through its paces over the weekend, and "if" it doesn't live up to my expectations, I do have the option to return it and get the 3800. So I will still have options available if I need them.
Seth