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Best blu ray player around 500?


Heritage_Head

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To me, it all boils down to the law of diminishing return....but that's just my opinion.

I agree $500+ for a blu ray is probably not a great value.

However I use my player every day so whatever I buy its going to get used a

ton. I dont want a player that works

great for a year or two then starts not playing some blu rays or other issues (like

what I have). But paying $500 doesnt guarantee anything either so Im still

not sure.

I guess what Im trying to say is if paying extra gives me a

great product that lasts as long as I ever want or need a blu ray player. Then wouldnt

it be worth it vs buying 2 or even 3 cheaper models that never run as good +

the hassle of buying new ones? My gut tells me get it right with higher quality.

In a sense, isn't this why we are all here? Anyone of us could have went with some cheap floorstanders with cones made out of manilla folders, but we chose lasting quality instead. I'd rather take the hit now, spend the money on a quality product instead of buying something cheap I am just going to have to buy again in a few years. Blu-ray players are a little different sure, because the differences in sound and picture quality are usually minimal at best, but as far as Oppos go, you are also buying world-class customer service as well as the top-notch quality.
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keep in mind with the newer Oppo's that Cinavia copy protection support is mandatory, whereas it is not required to be implemented in in the 93/95 series because they were developed prior to Cinavia. It's not an issue for what the industry considers to be "honest" people, but plenty of "honest" people have raised concerns and had technical issues with yet another layer of crapware being implemented on the media signal. being anti-DRM doesn't make you a thief, nor has there been a DRM solution to actually beat the thieves. Just something to keep in mind.

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For me the best has been my home built HTPC, it has the best picture and sound quality, far more control ability and it's very very fast. Also easier to upgrade and easier to repair should problems arise.

While I have a lot more than $500 into my HTPC it also depends on what you may already have to work with, when I built my HTPC it started out as primarily a music server but now it also has replaced my Blu-ray player and my Tivo DVR and it does a much better job at both.

While my HTPC did cost well over $500, the cost of making it a great Blu-ray player adding the Blu-ray drive and needed software was less than $150. I use a Lite-On Blu-ray drive model IHOS104 and ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 Blu-ray software.

The final results will vary depending on the other hardware in the system you have, but my finished results are an outstanding music server, DVR and also Blu-ray player.

Below are the full specs for my HTPC ( I am extremely happy with the finished results)

Case - Origen AE H7

Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Motherboard - intel H55TC (Micro ATX)

* 2.93GHz processor speed
* Expandable up to 16GB DDR3 memory
* 4MB L3 cache
* 8-channel HD audio
* Gigabit Ethernet
* 12 USB ports
* HDMI, VGA and DVI

CPU - intel core i3 530 processor

* 2.93GHz processor speed

Power Supply - Ultra X3 ULT40073
* 600-Watt, ATX
* Modular wiring

Hard Drives - System drive - SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

2 - Western Digital WD5001AALS Caviar Black Hard Drives (1000GB total)

Memory - Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2GB x 4) Model BL2KIT25664BN1337

Sound Card - ASUS Xonar Essence ST 24-bit 192KHz

TV Tuner Boards - Two Hauppauge 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 cards (four digital tuners)

Blu-ray Drive - Lite-On Blu-ray drive model IHOS104

* TotalMedia Theatre 5 Blu-ray software

DVD Drive - Sony AD-7240S-0B Optiarc

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How do those TV Tuner boards work with your cable? I've been considering getting one, but I believe Charter forces me to also rent/buy one of their cable cards and not sure if the two can work together.

I got rid of cable and I am using an over the air antenna connection. The Hauppauge 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 which I use has 6 tuners total, 2 digital OTA, 2 analog OTA and 2 cable QAM tuners, I don't think it can work with cable card, I believe you still need to use a cable box.

I use 2 of the Hauppauge 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 tuner boards so I have 4 digital OTA tuners so I can record up to 4 channels at once or record up to 3 while watching 1. It works extremely well for over the air but probably would have a few limitations with cable.

I got rid of cable a couple years ago to save money and have been glad I did. I haven't much experience with it yet but I am looking at Hulu to pick up some of the cable shows I can't get over the air. Hulu looks pretty good from what little I have seen so far.

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