Premium Blu-ray with the best streaming features
Hi - I'm contemplating an upgrade to my Sony BDP-570 Blu-ray player. I want to go for a premium model to achieve better DVD upscaling, and (most importantly) decent media streaming capabilities. If I get better picture and sound quality as well then so much the better!
Budget is £800 (I'm certainly don't want to spend all of that if I don't have to).
Whilst on paper the Sony has some pretty decent media streaming features, in practice it has made an enemy of me through being infuriatingly unreliable. For instance if I want to stream photos to display on the TV it will work fine for a few and then randomly start diaplaying a distorted picture which is partially/mostly obscured by multi-coloured jagged diagonal lines and i have to toggle back and forth between images to get it displaying the correctly again (they're just jpegs for crying out loud!). Also whilst it will play back MKV video files (great!) it refuses to play them if they have a DTS soundtrack, which most of mine do.
I can plug my Mac-book in and use Plex media player, but that's a faff and I'd rather not have to do that, and the fact that it involves plugging and unplugging things means that the Mrs isn't likely to try streaming a media file without me around.
So what i'm after is something reliable, well engineered, with a great interface, wide format compatibility and of course great picture and sound quality. Does such a machine exist or am I a couple of years too early and with unrealistic expectations having gotton used to using Plex? 
I should also mention that it needs to be able to decode the HD audio codecs as my AV amp, whilst HDMI equipped, can only handle hi-res audio in LPCM format (I'm sure it goes without saying that players in this class would do this, but better to be safe than sorry).
Cheers!
Dan
Which TV have you got?
JD - yes a decent interface if possible, but i'd settle for an adequate interface as long as it was reliable and had wide format-compatibility
Big Boss - My TV is a Panasonic 50G10
Thanks guys
Which formats? My Cambridge 751BD does the following:
MPEG2, MPEG2 HD, MPEG4, MPEG4 AVC, VC-1, XviD, VCD, AVCHD, MPEG ISO, AVI, VOB, MKV (4.1), JPEG, JPEG HD
(I have no idea what this means). The UI for UPnP/network client is prosaic at best though - the Sony was much better in this regard...
I've tried streaming via my Cambridge Audio BD751 blu-ray player. It took 8 minutes to scroll down to the album I wanted to play (Paul Simon amongst approx 11,500 songs - but that's not a lot these days?).
Therefore, if going this route, try out any player with your own hard drive attached and see how user-friendly it actually is to find and play your own music, not just the dealer's thirty song playlist.
Oh, and then the player played some types of files, but not others, so if you've been building up a collection on computer over the years, then this could also be an issue.
Which formats? My Cambridge 751BD does the following:
MPEG2, MPEG2 HD, MPEG4, MPEG4 AVC, VC-1, XviD, VCD, AVCHD, MPEG ISO, AVI, VOB, MKV (4.1), JPEG, JPEG HD
(I have no idea what this means). The UI for UPnP/network client is prosaic at best though - the Sony was much better in this regard...
Thanks, your Cambridge does seem to be wiely compatible. I can live with prosaic, as long as the UI is logical and it works reliably (i.e. playing back the files is says it will and not producing any random wierd behaviour). The Sony's interface isn't bad, if only it worked properly!
So when you say 'prosaic' is that euphamism for clunky, or do you just been basic/no-frills? The former would probably do my head in; the latter I could live with.
I've tried streaming via my Cambridge Audio BD751 blu-ray player. It took 8 minutes to scroll down to the album I wanted to play (Paul Simon amongst approx 11,500 songs - but that's not a lot these days?).
Therefore, if going this route, try out any player with your own hard drive attached and see how user-friendly it actually is to find and play your own music, not just the dealer's thirty song playlist.
Oh, and then the player played some types of files, but not others, so if you've been building up a collection on computer over the years, then this could also be an issue.
Oh dear - that sounds like exactly what I want to avoid! Although I'm going to be using it to display photos and play back video files - but I guess the same issues would apply, albeit i'm not likely to have the same quantity of films or photo albums as music albums
I have no idea about the streaming features of the Oppo, but it is one of the best DVD upscalers out there. PS3 is a brilliant media streamer, but doesn't support all formats.
Why don't you invest in a separate media streamer?
These may be something to watch out for:
http://www.whathifi.com/news/ces-2012-sony-launches-google-tv-powered-bl...
http://www.whathifi.com/news/western-digital-adds-bbc-iplayer-and-netfli...
So when you say 'prosaic' is that euphamism for clunky, or do you just been basic/no-frills? The former would probably do my head in; the latter I could live with.
A bit of both to be honest. The menus aren't as nice as the Sony's, certainly, but I think they have their UI particularly well sorted.
Note that this was using it as a UPnP client, I didn't really try 'network' (ie navigating to folders on a network or HDD and playing files there, both of which it will do). It would sometimes freeze a bit and then perform the action I'd pressed the button three times for, well, three times, and this was just for music. When it comes to films I tend to think that's what the disc tray in the front is for 
I'm personally of the view that, whilst audio streaming is easy, video streaming has a long way to come...
I have no idea about the streaming features of the Oppo, but it is one of the best DVD upscalers out there. PS3 is a brilliant media streamer, but doesn't support all formats.
Why don't you invest in a separate media streamer?
These may be something to watch out for:
http://www.whathifi.com/news/ces-2012-sony-launches-google-tv-powered-bl...
http://www.whathifi.com/news/western-digital-adds-bbc-iplayer-and-netfli...
Thanks bigboss. you might be right but I'm loathe to get another box....nevertheless I will keep my eyes peeled for separate media streamers such as those
So when you say 'prosaic' is that euphamism for clunky, or do you just been basic/no-frills? The former would probably do my head in; the latter I could live with.
A bit of both to be honest. The menus aren't as nice as the Sony's, certainly, but I think they have their UI particularly well sorted.
Note that this was using it as a UPnP client, I didn't really try 'network' (ie navigating to folders on a network or HDD and playing files there, both of which it will do). It would sometimes freeze a bit and then perform the action I'd pressed the button three times for, well, three times, and this was just for music. When it comes to films I tend to think that's what the disc tray in the front is for
I'm personally of the view that, whilst audio streaming is easy, video streaming has a long way to come...
Doesn't sound like the Cambridge is going to be much of an advance on the Sony really! I think you're right. Maybe I should bide my time and see what else emerges.
cheers
What you really need is a jailbroken Apple TV v1 with a few terabytes of storage hanging off the back 
What you really need is a jailbroken Apple TV v1 with a few terabytes of storage hanging off the back
I'll investigate! Or a mac mini maybe...i was toying with the idea of getting one for video files since i know Plex is a great interface (and if i've got it permanently plumbed in then it won't be a faff), plus high-res music.....seems a bit extravagant though for the amount i watch video files (once or twice a week) and for the number of high-res albums I've got (1!), hence i was hoping to be able to combine the video piece with my Blu-ray player......
This one seems to be a good contender, but no news on UK launch yet:
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/blu-ray-players/new-kid-on-the-block-unive...
This one seems to be a good contender, but no news on UK launch yet:
http://www.whathifi.com/forum/blu-ray-players/new-kid-on-the-block-unive...
Thanks bigboss - think i need to bide my time and wait until the right player comes out. I'll check the Asus out when it's launched
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Define 'decent media streaming capabilities'? Are you expecting a nice UI as well?
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