Panasonic SC-HTB500 2.1-Channel SoundBar Speaker System with Wireless Kelton Subwoofer (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently took advantage of the Amazon Gold Box Deal and bought the Panasonic TCP42G25 and got this sound bar for free. This was exactly what I needed to replace a poor quality Olevia LCD TV in my bedroom. I have a fully decked out audio/video room already so all I wanted was something decent for the bedroom. After some tweaking and rewiring, I was able to integrate this with the new Panasonic Plasma, an old Panasonic Blu-Ray DMP-BD35, and a low end Dish Network VIP211. The big puzzle was a bug in the Dish receiver that caused it to fail to deliver Dolby 5.1 over the HDMI cable. I took advantage of the second HDMI input on the soundbar with an optical input to solve this problem. Bottom line, no new wires, no new A/V receiver and fantastic sound from a very simple setup. It is very easy to do a "side-by-side" comparison because Panasonic's VieraLink will return the sound back to the TV if you turn the soundbar off. What a difference! I am only giving the unit 4 stars because of the lack of some, in my opinion, basic functions being absent. Why would Panasonic not put simple bass and treble controls on a unit that retails for $349? Other than that, I am really enjoying the new setup.

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Wireless Kelton Subwoofer. The included Wireless Kelton Subwoofer provides flexible and easy installation with no wires to connect. Clear-mode DialogClear TV Sound Reproduction With clear-mode dialog, the voice will sound more from the center of the TV display. With more precise linking between the picture and the sound, the dialog voices and vocals in movies and music can be enjoyed with clearer sound. Advanced Bamboo Cone SpeakerClear, Beautiful Vocals. With the new bamboo cone speakers the sound becomes more responsive. Vocals are purer and clearer, and the dialog is crisper and easier to understand than ever before.

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Samsung BDC5500 Blu-ray Player Review

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(More customer reviews)I own two and they seem to work reasonably well. I have only experienced one glitch during operation that required stopping and restarting a movie. I have been using a PS3 and I never experienced a glitch like that.
I was a bit disappointed with the networking capability. It does not work with my TVersity server. It sees the files (both audio and video) but can't play any of them them. I hope that firmware updates allow for a wider range of file types. Still all in all I like the styling, small size, low power and is very quiet.

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Philips Blu-ray Disc Player, BDP7200/37 Review

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(More customer reviews)Have owned/installed dozens of DVD players.
Comparing this one with Sony 301, BX1, Toshiba A2, E500, Philips 5992 and Oppo 970HD.
Blu-Ray - ok. If you must have a BD player, this may be a nice choice. Especially if you need Divx compatiblity. No Ethernet tho.
SD DVD - Upconversion is typically poor, as is most BD players. Not as good as HD DVD, E500, or Oppo. Even $39 5992 is superior.
Divx - poor resolution, compared to 5992. Subtitles are not well formatted, compared to LG/Zenith Divx compatible players.
Pros:
Cheaper than sony BD players up til now.
Cons:
No ethernet, poor divx quality/compatibility. typical BD sluggish remote command response. Remote is long, heavy, button layout is horrible.
5992 has much better remote.
Summary:
I returned this unit. Too many drawbacks. Especially at this price. Will wait for a player that make me happy in all respects. If I had to buy something now for a HDTV HDMI setup, it would probably be the $39 Philips 5992. Great value and performance.
Reviewed using a 50" PDP 1080i using HDMI connection.

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Samsung BD-P1400 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player Review

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(More customer reviews)I have a BD-P1400, a PS3, and an Xbox 360 + HD-DVD drive. In the month that I've had the Samsung it's done a terrific job on video and audio quality. I'm playing it on a 46" Samsung LN-T4665F connected through HDMI. That's the good news, and it's certainly good. I've never had any of the stutters or other audio/video glitches that others have mentioned. On the other hand, here are the quirks that I've run into: (1) The Samsung takes by far the longest of my three players to load movies, and simply responding to an eject/open request takes 30 seconds for some reason (even when there's no disc inside). There's no feedback to tell you what's happening during eject, so you wonder if it's hung or actively thinking about it. (2) The Blu-ray movie producers in their infinite wisdom keep changing their DRM formats as their latest ones get hacked, which is an unbelievably customer unfriendly decision. The BR players are all updatable so it's conceptually possible to play the latest movies. Unfortunantely, the Samsung has a VERY unintuitive failure mode and upgrade procedure, which likely makes this required operation out of reach for most people on this device. Here's my (very long) step by step experience, which I hope will help give you a tangible understanding of what it's like, as well as potentially out anyone else similarly stuck. I ran into this with the new Live Free or Die Hard DVD, which after the usual 45 second or so load process simply hung the player. It wouldn't respond to any input (play, stop, menu, etc), the counter read "0000", and the screen remained black. I had heard about the DRM format issue, so suspected that this could be the potential problem - unfortunately I had bought that DVD on its first day of release and tried to play it that night so no one else had posted about their problems with that config yet. Following the manual's instructions, I plugged in a enet cable and tried to pick up the latest update. For some reason it didn't successfully get a DHCP address on my network, so I manually entered the network info. It told me that there was a new update available, so I selected download. When the download process strated, again these was no way to tell whether it was hung or actively working, and no way to tell how much progress it had made and how much more it still needed. As a result, after about 30 or 45 minutes I cancelled and tried again. (BTW, I'm connected through a Verizon FiOS fiber-optic connection that's as fast as any consumer internet in the US). After 20 minutes I gave up and went to bed, leaving it to (maybe) download overnight. In the morning, the machine was off but it when I powered it up I learned that it had not completed the upgrade. In retrospect I believe this is what happened: the download eventually completed, it put up a "do you want to upgrade your firmware" dialog box, and after a couple minutes of inactivity it timed out and eventually turned off. Nice design, their engineers clearly did not try this in their homes. I gave it one more try in the morning, leaving it running while I ate breakfast and did email. After an hour or so the download completed, the "do you want to upgrade" dialog came up, and I said "yes" before it timed out. The upgrade completed successfully, but unfortunatley the Live Free or Die Hard movie still hung the player. At this point I suspected a faulty disc, so I got a replacement from the retailer. The new disc had the same problem, though, which told me that this was a player bug. Since the movie had been out for a day, I found a couple posts of other people having problems including one that got a confirmation from Samsung support. I called support, who eventually told me that the version 1.2 firmware on the website would fix the issue (hint, you need to know exactly what to ask and be persistent since this person would have sent me away with false information if I hadn't kept clarifying her responses). Going to the website, I found the alternate method of upgrading the firmware that the support person desribed, downloading a zip file to a PC, loading the .iso to a CD-R or CD-RW, and playing that on the player. I hadn't found this in the user's manual, but it certainly couldn't be any worse than the online method I had gone through in the previous 24 hours. Interestingly, there was no obvious way to relate the "version 1.2" available on the website with the version I had upgraded to online that morning (the online version uses a long date code instead of a version number). With nothing to lose, I went ahead and tried using a CD-RW using the instructions posted on the web. No luck, the player didn't recognize it as a firmware update. I tried again with a CD-R. Still no luck. Still clinging to a tiny shred of hope that (a) the "version 1.2" might actually fix the problem, and (b) the version 1.2 might have been posted to the web that day after I did my upgrade in the morning - a day after a major blockbuster movie that required it was released nationwide, but who's counting - I tried the painful online update process again. Lo and behold, a new update was available that might be version 1.2 (?) I went through the update, and the movie worked! Wow. This is a lot more detail than you likely need to make a buying decision, unless you read this and say "wow, reading those details tells me that this machine requires a lot more technical messing around than I'm comfortable with just to watch a movie". Potentially this might help someone else who has already bought the player figure out why a new movie hangs the box mysteriously - I would have LOVED to find this two days ago. Maybe Samsung will even read it and start to understand how painful their current usability is, even for a moderately technical user.

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For a truly cinematic home theater viewing experience, Samsung's new third-generation Blu-ray Disc player offers full compatibility with 24 movie frames per second playback. Since most movies are filmed at 24 frames per second, these new Samsung Blu-ray players will be able to playback movies in their native format, significantly reducing unwanted artifacts. Setting the player's Movie Frame (24Fs) feature to ON allows the consumer to adjust the HDMI 1.3 output to 24 frames per second for a crisp, theater-like experience. Each of these players will also support 60Fs for enhanced compatibility with many of today's HDTVs. For those with extensive DVD collections, the BD-P1400 model includes backward compatibility with standard DVD and CD formats (including DVD-ROM, DVD-+/R, DVD-+/RW, CD, CD-R and CD-RW). Playback of multimedia content in a variety of different formats is quick and easy at 720p, 1080i and 1080p resolutions. The Easy Top Menu allows consumers to change font and color of subtitles and menu titles according to their tastes, as well as the background color and menu graphics.

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Samsung BD-C5500 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player Review

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(More customer reviews)I have had the Samsung BD-C5500 Blu-ray player for about a week now and I absolutely love it. It was very easy to setup and worked perfectly right out of the box. It's smaller in size than the DVD player it is replacing but noticeably heavier. It starts up quickly and loads Blu-ray discs quickly too. The buttons on the front of the player are touch sensitive and don't give the user any tactile feedback so sometimes it's hard to tell if you have pushed them or not but at the same time they are cool and have a cutting-edge appeal. Some people have mentioned that they don't care for the remote but I find it to be very adequate and easy to use. I like the larger size of the buttons since I have big hands. The remote seems to work well at different angles and distances as well. When I first hooked up the player it did a firmware update and about a week later it notified me that there was a newer firmware and again did an update. It's comforting to see that Samsung is actively working to improve the device's firmware by releasing updates frequently if needed. I didn't know what issues/features the firmware updates were addressing because the UI on the player doesn't really tell you but Samsung does list what the firmware updates change/fix on their website. The device didn't have any problems connecting to my home network using a CAT-5 cable. It doesn't bother me a bit that this player doesn't support wi-fi out of the box. In my experience wi-fi is very susceptible to interference from other devices such as microwaves, cordless phones, and other wi-fi routers so using it to stream a high-definition movie could be problematic when you decide to pop some popcorn during the show or if someone calls you on your cordless phone. You'll always get better streaming performance from CAT-5. Plus, it's a lot cheaper than the players that do have wi-fi built in.
I have used this player to stream Netflix content from my Netflix instant queue. Before having this player we watched a lot of Netflix streaming content on our computer but watching it on the HDTV using this player has been a lot more convenient and sounds better on the home audio system than on the computer speakers. Streaming works very well and I haven't seen it skip frames or stop to re-buffer the stream. It takes a little longer to buffer the stream at the beginning of playback than my computer does but after a 15-20 second wait it's good to go so it's not a big deal. I have spoken with people who stream Netflix through the PS3 or XBOX and they have told me it takes about the same amount of time to buffer on those systems and I would imagine other Blu-ray players that stream Netflix would have similar performance. Some of the Netflix streaming content will stream in 720p resolution which looks and sounds great. One thing to note is that this player will only see titles you have added to your Instant Queue on the Netflix website. You cannot use the player to browse for different content and add it to your queue. This has not been very bothersome to me but it might bother some people. I actually like the fact that I can put titles in the Instant Queue for my children to watch and they can't browse around Netflix on the player and find adult content accidentally in the process.
Streaming music through Pandora has been great too. The Pandora app works well and has a good interface. You can give songs a thumbs up or thumbs down but only while the song is playing. It would be great if you could go back through the list of songs that have recently played and give them the thumbs up or thumbs down after they have played like you can on the Pandora website but that's not the way it works sadly. The quality of the audio seems very good and the time it takes to buffer the music is not even noticeable. We have really enjoyed having a device capable of using Pandora connected to the home audio/theater system.
I used the Blockbuster service to rent a movie for my kids. The video/audio quality was excellent and I had no streaming problems but the price was a little absurd. The movies cost about $4 to rent and you only have access to watch the movie for 24 hours from the time you first start playing it. At that price I would expect that you would get to watch the title as much as you want for 5 days just like you would do if you physically rented a movie from a Blockbuster location. I don't think I will be using the Blockbuster service very much unless there is a movie I really want to watch and I'm too tired/lazy to physically go to a Blockbuster and rent it.
Overall I feel like the device does a lot for how much I paid for it and is definitely worth the money. I have already recommended it to numerous friends and co-workers who have been looking to get a Blu-ray player. This is the first Blu-ray player I have owned and might possibly be the last since it's so feature-rich and works so well.
Update 4/14/2010:
I have had this player for over a month now and I have received 4 firmware updates I think. With the firmware updates the device has only gotten better. The updates didn't appear to add any new features but they have made the player more stable so it is less likely to freeze-up or stop working in other ways. Everything has been working flawlessly for me.
There is a new service called Vudu now that this player supports. I have not tried to use it yet but it appears to give you one free HD rental so that you can try the service. It looks similar to the Blockbuster streaming app. Most movies appear to have options to rent/buy the title in 3 different formats. HDX (1080p 5.1 Surround), HD (720p 5.1 Surround?), and SD (Standard Definition 480p and I'm not sure on the audio). I have watched a few trailers on Vudu and they stream fine but I haven't tried actually streaming a movie from Vudu yet.

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The BDC5500 can also wireless LAN ready (wireless LAN adaptor not included). Add to that AllShare™, which enables content to be seamlessly streamed between DLNA® devices, allowing you to play files stored on your PC through your Blu-ray player.

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Microsoft Xbox 360 HD-DVD Drive Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought an Xbox 360 after Thanksgiving of 2006 and I was immediately impressed with the system. It was so good, in fact, that I went out after New Year's and upgraded my entire entertainment center with a new Samsung LN-S4051D, Samsung DVD-HD860, and Yamaha YSP-800. If you're going to do it, do it right. First off, the Samsung DVD-HD860 was a dismal player. The thing kept freezing up during playback and the image wasn't anything to write home about. I mean, my LCD is only 720p and I was seeing a lot of artifacts.
I returned the Samsung DVD player and decided to take a chance on the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox. The way I looked at it was it was only $100 more than what I already paid and then I could watch some movies in true High Definition. That was one of the best moves I made because not only do the HD movies look fantastic but it absolutely DESTROYS the Samsung in upconverting my standard-def DVDs. Regular DVDs look excellent.
One very big drawback is the amount of noise the Xbox makes while watching a movie. It's absurd. Not a big deal if you're watching The Matrix and you've got the volume cranked with Dolby TrueHD sound. But it's a constant nuisance when you're trying to get into a more dramatic and quiet movie like Unforgiven (which looks absolutely stunning on HD DVD).
Another concern I'm having is that my Xbox is on almost all of the time now. I'm either playing a game, watching a DVD or HD DVD, or I'm watching a movie from my iTunes library on my computer. The Xbox has truly become the center of attention in my living room. I just don't know if it can handle that kind of workload for long.
Seriously though, for $199 it's not that bad of a gamble. You can rent HD DVD movies from Netflix or Blockbuster so you don't even need to invest in the movies. I bought 4 and I now own the Matrix trilogy but I'm probably not buying more until I see what happens with HD DVD and Blu-ray. I have picked a side but if HD DVD loses I'm really not out that much. And I get to enjoy some great HD content while I'm waiting.

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Samsung BD-P1500 1080p Blu-Ray Player With A 1-Year Extended Warranty Service Plan & High Speed HDMI Cable (2 meters) Review

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(More customer reviews)The bad:
First:
NO AUDIO WITH HDMI. The whole point of the HDMI cable is to have 1 (one) cable to run from one machine to another, right? But with this player, in order to get audio while using HDMI, you need to either plug in the analog RCA (red and white) cables, or a digital audio cable. Unfortunately for me, I am already using the audio-in on my HDMI for a PC (DVI to HDMI, and separate audio out.) I have seen many other people contact Samsung for support, and all got this response.
Second:
The player never remembers where I left off with a movie. With my previous Sony 5 disc DVD player, wherever a disc left off when either pressing "stop" or powering down, is picked up in the same spot when playing again. But for some reason this is intermittent on this player and incredibly frustrating.
Third:
A little complicated, but hear me out: After pressing "play" after rewinding, it takes 3 seconds to get back up to speed and play. But instead of picking up on the timecode where you press play, it uses those few seconds and continues to step forward through the timecode without sending any kind of a signal to watch, making you have to rewind again. This happens often.
Other minor annoyances:
The device is loud;
very slow to load DVD's or Blu-Ray discs;
the fast forward and rewind are very, very slow;
the timecode disappears from the screen while fast forwarding or rewinding, so if you need to FF to a certain time, you are left guessing;
there is no way to navigate any menus without the remote (common on many players, but still frustrating);
pressing the "play" button doesn't close the tray and play a disc, you have to press close first;
pressing the power button while the disc tray is open is tough unless you have the fingers of a 5 year old;
the button response is terrible on the remote (though I have found this to be on ALL Samsung remotes I have used.)
Yes, these can seem pretty nit-picky. But these are the things you run across each and every day with this model, and I have never had this experience with previous DVD players. And all of these issues are problems I have had with both DVD and Blu-Ray discs on this machine.
Sure, Blu-Ray movies look amazing, but I don't think that warrants getting a great review because it did the 1 thing right it was supposed to. Whereas a great, or even nice player, will have all the extra things which make interacting and using the device comfortable and not aggravating.

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Panasonic VIERA TC-P50S30 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV Review

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(More customer reviews)The picture quality of this TV is simply excellent. Compared it with more expensive Panasonic "Infinite Black" G model and it's impossible to see the difference in real video content. You need to be in total darkness and have very high quality, low noise signal with large swatches of black and put them side to side to notice a slightly darker black in G models. Of course, just watching TV you will never think I wish blacks were deeper.
I've watched HD programs over the air, from blu-ray, Netflix from Roku, and from PC over HDMI. All modes 480/720/1080 progressive and interlaced displayed perfectly, and TV did a good job upscaling lower resolution to native 1080. No problems with motion, no blurring, no color fading or runoffs. TV does have a slightly lower moving picture resolution 900 lines (vs 1080 lines in top models), but it's quite impossible to notice that without measurements. So sports viewers will be satisfied. Also, on a positive side, the screen is not as glossy as the majority of other plasmas, so reflections are subdued.
I've been using this set for a few days now, so I can't comment on "image retention" problems that previous generations had. Supposedly the phosphors used in this set are improved from previous year, and reportedly they last longer. Just be sure you turn on the "pixel orbiter" to avoid burning in the logos and avoid prolonged display of static images. You can also run "scrolling bar" once a day for 15 minutes for the first week to age the phosphors evenly. Not all plasma owners believe a break-in period is necessary for the later generations of plasma TVs, and no plasma manufacturers now suggest their sets require break-in.
The description Amazon (and it looks now they removed it) seemed to suggest that TV had a built-in Wi-Fi. It doesn't, you need to buy a separate Wi-Fi USB adapter for that. Due to lack of adapter I cannot tell if IPTV and DLNA are working as expected. The other negative is common to all plasmas, which is high power consumption. You don't find this information advertised anywhere, because this set is rated at a whopping 339W. The built-in audio is weak, it has two tiny 10W speakers. It's fine for casual watching TV programs, but if you want to watch movies you probably want to invest in a separate audio system.
This TV may lack all the bells and features you can find in more advanced models, but it does deliver an excellent picture at a very reasonable price and that what matters most.
Edit 5-8-2011. I installed USB Wi-Fi adapter (Netgear N600) to test the Viera Tools. I didn't find them very useful though. It has Netflix client, but picture quality is poor (compared to Roku on the same network). Then there is CinemaNow, which I never used. Amazon Video on demand looks OK. I don't have any use for Pandora, Napster, or Facebook, so I can't comment. There is also Media Player for SD and USB cards, works pretty well. I popped in an SD card from Panasonic camcorder and picture was pretty good, no conversion was necessary. And finally, there is DLNA client, which I couldn't make to work. I does find the DLNA server, but connection always fails.

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Samsung HW-C700 AV Receiver Review

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(More customer reviews)The HW-C700 sounds nice, however it has faults. My setup is all new 2010 Samsung 3D components (TV = UN55C7000, Blue-ray = BD-C6900). The setup has all new HDMI 1.4 cable connections as recommended (and new optical cable from TV to AVR as recommended for Anynet in the receiver manual).
- Sometimes, there are repeated drop outs when streaming audio/music using Allshare and the proper Samsung server software on the PC (PC is fine). Sometimes, the audio streams fine. Netflix does stream well, even in HD so that rules out the network.
- Had to disable Anynet+, even though configured precisely as stated in the manuals/enabled on all devices. The receiver would keep forcing me to use the Audio Assign button on the remote to set the TV to HDMI vs. Optical (every time I powered on devices using BD-C6900 remote). I did make sure TV and BR Player had latest firmware updates.
- There were no firmware updates available on the Samsung website for the HW-C700.
- My inquiry email via the Samsung support web page from 5 days ago was never responded to where I reported these problems and asked if there was a firmware update/fix. They did respond to my second inquiry (sent them this review), but they only suggested I reset the receiver. That was not acceptable as I don't want a receiver I need to "reset" when it flakes out.
- In the middle of viewing a show/movie, you get a black screen with a message "Disconnecting Anynet Device". The new Logitech Harmony One remote I purchased would not work properly/consistently unless you train the remote (yuck)! Not sure who has the weakness here (Logitech or Samsung). That was my backup plan as Anynet+ is pretty bad.
- I hate to return it, but I thimk it's better to wait until the other companies release their 3D receivers later this month and over the next two months. I think this type of product is new for Samsung. The HW-C700 going back.
I don't see the point in having all Samsung components to use Anynet if casues more problems than is solves. Anynet aside, dropouts are not acceptable, nor is unresponsive support from Samsung, hence only a two star rating.

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7.1 Channel,(120Watt x 7),3D Surround,True HD Decoder,Active Subwoofer

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Toshiba BDX2000 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the first blu ray player I have owned. Blu-rays are known to be slower than their DVD counterparts, and this player sticks to that fashion. It seems as it depends more on the blu ray itself though rather than the player. Some discs load extremely quick and some are slower.
Overall the player has a nice sleek design. It's easy to use, easy to navigate. It doesn't have some extras that other blu ray players have such as pandora or netflix, but honestly, how many devices do you need in your living room that have those capabilities?
I would give it five stars except I was hoping that this player wouldn't inherit the inability to remember where you left off in a movie. With a dvd you can hit stop once, if you hit play again it will pick up in the same spot and if you hit stop twice it will restart the DVD. To my knowledge no blu ray player does this.

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Blu Ray Disc Player

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Sharp AQUOS BD-HP22U 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player Review

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(More customer reviews)Great picture, easy setup, but I agree with D. L..M about the AQUOS LINK. In fact, after reading that review I called Sharp to make sure my TV (1 month old) supports AQUOS LINK before ordering this player. They said it supported this feature so I ordered the player.
After getting the player, I couldn't get the AQUOS LINK function to work. I called back tech support, asked the same question - does this TV support AQUOS LINK? Yes they said. OK, tell me how to make it work. I'm put on hold, they come back after 10 minutes and tell me it is not supported.
So, heads up, these items might indicate your Sharp TV doesn't support AQUOS LINK: The remote doesn't have DVD function buttons, the little feature sticker on the side of your tv didn't say AQUOS LINK or your manual doesn't mention it. I guess that seems obvious, but since tech support said it would work, I just figured this was just a sharp feature that was inherent with the TV's and wasn't anything special.

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Now you can enjoy the best of 1080p video on your AQUOS LCD TV. Especially designed to work with AQUOS LCD TVs, the BD-HP22U AQUOS Blu-ray Disc Player provides seamless operability via the AQUOS LINK function through the HDMI connection. Performing as if it were all one system, the BD-HP22U's Quick Start feature lets you enjoy gorgeous Blu-ray Disc video with the touch of a button in as little as 10 seconds. With HDMI outputs and 1080p as well as DVD up-conversion, you'll enjoy full digital high-definition video and high-fidelity audio. JPEG Digital images can be viewed as a slide show from recorded CD-RW/R with digital images.

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Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player Review

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(More customer reviews)I didn't buy this from Amazon, but since reviews of the player are scarce, I thought I'd share some thoughts.
A few short months ago I bought the Xbox add-on to try the HD-DVD waters, and have been nothing but impressed, so when my standard DVD player died (my 7th one in 8 years, I'm a very heavy DVD watcher), I decided to invest in a player that will (hopefully) last (I also purchased a 4 year warranty this time).
The player itself is beautiful, both in appearance and on screen (watching on 1080p Samsung LCD). Picture quality of HD-DVD is, as expected, superb, and DVD upscaling is the best I have ever seen (easily destroying my 1 year old Sony).
A very few negatives. Boot times are still a bit slow, it takes about 40 seconds before the HD-DVD logo appears on screen, with another 20 seconds to load the disc, it's around 60 seconds total from power on to actually start watching the disc. Discs also don't resume play, which is odd as it seems to be a feature. If you don't power off the unit and stop a disc, it will resume where you left off, but if you power off the player, it restarts from the beginning, very odd, but Toshiba could easily fix in a firmware update.
All in all I am very, very pleased, the unit feels sold, looks amazing on your shelf and features some of the best video quality I have ever seen. The few, "problems" don't really bother me, but I wanted to mention them as it could turn off some people. Thanks for reading!

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The Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD Player stands less than two-and-a-half inches tall but packs a long list of cutting edge features. The HD-A30 sells at a very reasonable price but has top-end features such as support for 1080p/24-frame video and HDMI-CEC compatibility.
A Refined, Slimmer Look The HD-A30's refined design--with rounded edges, a slim chassis, and a high-gloss black face plate--looks sleek and elegant in your home theater system without taking up too much real estate.
Outstanding Performance All of Toshiba's HD DVD players support the enhanced features of the HD DVD format, including picture-in-picture video, audio commentary, and Web-enabled network capabilities. With an Ethernet port, the A30 can connect to the Internet for firmware updates to keep the player up to date on new features, and to support the growing number of HD DVD titles with interactive online features and bonus content.
The HD-A30 uses the latest HDMI 1.3 interface to connect to your HD television, providing large bandwidth to eliminate any data bottlenecks and to support new technologies for the utmost in viewing experience. The HD-A30 can output video at 1080p, the highest resolution available, and includes support for 24-frame video, which maintains the native 24-frames-per-second rate of films, thereby delivering an experience more similar to one in theaters.
If you have a large collection of standard definition DVDs, the HD-A30 will upconvert them to near-HD quality for display on your HD television. Progressive scan output means the scan-lines of interlaced video are eliminated and the result is a clean image that has no motion distortion or artifacts. In addition to 1080p, the HD-A30 also outputs at 720p and 1080i if desired.
Sparkling Surround Sound The HD-A30 supports most surround sound audio standards, with built-in decoding for Dolby TrueHD 5.1ch, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1ch, DTS 5.1, and DTS HD (core only).
One-Touch Convenience You can use the CE-Link (HDMI-CEC) to connect the HD-A30 with other CEC-capable devices for unsurpassed simplicity and convenience. For example, if the HD-A35 is connected to a compatible HDTV, you can turn on both the HD DVD player and the TV and start playing a movie with a single touch of a button on the remote.
The HD-A30 is backed by a limited 1-year warranty.
What's in the Box HD-A30 HD DVD player, remote control, and power cable.

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Panasonic DMP-BD605K Blu-Ray Disc Player, Black (Factory Refurbished) Review

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(More customer reviews)Panasonic has always been known to build solid machines-broadcast vcrs (back in the day) that never stopped, cordless phones that survived being dropped, and every sort of electronic device in between. I've always been a fan of how well-built Panasonic stuff is. They are, after all, the makers of the only shock-proof laptop (the Toughbook).
For image quality, I always preferred Sony, and for sound I always preferred Yamaha or Denon. But similar Panasonic stuff always looked and sounded "pretty good". Especially since you could drop it.
That's all changed. Now Panasonic continues to make well-built stuff, and they have the best new Plasmas on the market. After having 3 Sony DVD players die in 7 years, I decided to go with the Panasonic Blu-Ray player, mostly so I could use my TV remote with no hassle.
I have not been disappointed. This player starts up fast, the image quality is simply stunning. I had no problem download firmware. DVD up-conversion looks good too. This player had no problem with moderately scratched DVD's. I haven't seen a scratched BD yet, but I can only image BDs will not work as well scratched, but time will tell.
Honestly, BD Live doesn't interest me, if I want an interactive experience, there are website and youtube. I mean flipping through content with a remote control just isn't the same as using a mouse.
I had no problem getting my player to work with my network. Since the cable modem is hooked up to, well cable, it only made sense to place it near the cable box, so therefore my router was already near the TV. I had no problem receiving a DHCP address from my Airport router.
For the limited content you get from Viera cast, it does work well. I haven't tried watching amazon.com unbox yet, but when I do I will edit this review. There are numerous reviews on VieraCast, this review is about a piece of hardware.
For most people the decision is going to be between Panasonic, Samsung and LG. Panasonic has always skimped features for rugged quality, and this is no exception. VieraCast does not do NetFlix streaming yet, but my 5 year old pc hooked up to my Plasma has no problem.
If you really want some of the advanced streaming features of the LG or Samsung, you probably can't go wrong. But if you have kids or careless adults banging on the disc tray all day, get the Panasonic. It feels very well built.
I highly recommend this player, as it performs its advertised functions faithfully.

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Canon HG10 AVCHD High Definition Camcorder with Optical Image Stabilizer Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been using camcorders since 1985 and I've used almost every possible format available to consumers. As of Oct. 2007, I can firmly say that this is by far the best camcorder ever, in terms of the picture quality, convenience, and the price. Although there are some limitations in the AVCHD format (I don't want to repeat here again), the convenience of the hard drive made me choose the HG10 and I have absolutely no regret at all.
First of all, I would like to clarify other reviewer's information that might misguide some folks. The HG10 does include the software to transfer and to edit the video footage for a PC. It comes with Ulead DVD MovieFactory SE for editing and burning DVDs and AVCHD-DVDs (can be playable on some blu-ray players and Playstation 3. It's a dvd that has HD pictures). If other reviewers have only a Mac, their complaints are valid, since the HG10 only includes a picture browser to handle the still pictures, not video for a Mac.
For the most consumers like me, the DVD MovieFactory works pretty well. I just burned a standard DVD (yes, an MPEG2 DVD that you watch everyday) with the DVD MovieFactory and am very satisfied with the result. Converting HD pictures to the SD format does not degrade the original HD quality much and I was impressed by that. I added chapter marks, made menus, and did little editing. Editing the AVCHD format needs a ton of processing power. If you don't have a fast computer (dual core, 2 ghz or faster), it will be extremely slow. I was using a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz, 2 gigs RAM, Windows Vista Business PC to make a DVD and it worked OK. Making an AVCHD-DVD is faster since it does not need to re-encode the video files. If you don't do a complicate editing job and want to merge video clips from the HG10 and burn a DVD, you could use a slower computer for that purpose. I have experience using Adobe Premiere, Ulead VideoStudio, and iMovie (for Mac). Although DVD MovieFactory might not be the right tool for the professional work, it is quite good for a home use. I surprised my friends with the DVDs created from it. My only gripe is a complicated software activation process. You should read the software instructions carefully to avoid the hassle (specially the web link in the last page). I wasted 2 hours just to activate the software.
Yes, the HG10 does not have an IEEE1394 (or firewire, or iLink whatever you call it) port. However, it does not need one. All the footages are already stored in AVCHD format and you only need to transfer those files to your computer. If you have to capture the video and encode it to a file from the magnetic tape (MiniDV), you might need an IEEE1394 port. However, for the HG10, you don't need to do that. If you look at other hard drive based camcorders, they don't have it either (they mostly have a USB port). Right before the HG10, I used a Sony DCR-SR100 and it does not have a firewire port, either.
The HG10 has a mini HDMI (type C) port, so if you want to connect the HG10 via HDMI, you'll need to order a mini-HDMI to HDMI (type C to type A) cable. The HG10 only includes a composite A/V cable and a component video cable. My minor complaint is that it does not come with a shoulder strap. This toy costs $1,000, so a nice looking shoulder strap should be given (I am using one from an old Canon ZR camcorder).
I was told that the HG10 uses the same optical mechanism as Canon HV20, which is known to be the best consumer HD camcorder on the market (it records in HDV format on tapes, not AVCHD on the hard drive). So I expected that the picture quality would be pretty good and I was right. If you have a full 1080p HD display, you will be amazed. Personally, I use a 720p projector at home and am quite impressed by the quality of the picture. Unlike Sony AVCHD camcorders, the sound is recorded in 2 channel Dolby Digital format (Sony records in 5.1 channel Dolby Digital). The good thing about 2 channel recording is that it does not record my breath. With 5.1 channel recording, you can easily hear your breathing sound, since two of the mics are catching rear sound.
For the low light performance (like indoor shot), the HG10 is comparatively better than any other consumer level camcorder on the market that I have seen. However, don't expect too much. It cannot be compared to the low light quality of a $3,000 camcorder. My impression is that its low light picture quality is closest to a decent 3CCD high-priced consumer level camcorder.
I have been waiting for long to have an excellant hard drive based AVCHD camcorder. There are many hard drive based camcorders on the market now and none of these have caught my attention for some minor reasons, such as no external mic jack, no usb port on the camcorder, or the poor low light performance. Finally I found the right one and am so happy that I waited.
Thanks to Canon for introducing good equipment at the right price (under a grand). I hope this review helps some people who have waited like me.
== Update, as of Feb. 12, 2008
As of today, I have been using the HG10 for more than 4 months. I have taken so many precious moments and this camcorder never disappoints me. The best moment I had was the day I brought this camcorder to my friend's home for a party. I connected it to Samsung LNT4065F 40" 1080p LCD HDTV and showed a junior high soccer tournament game. Everyone, I mean everyone, in that house said "Wow." The picture quality coming out of this combination was AMAZING !! I felt like I was watching an HD documentary from BBC or National Geographic. As I said in the review, I use an HG10 with a 1080i/720p projector (Epson Cinema 400, 3 LCD projector), but the HG10 picture coming out from the Samsung LCD TV was truly exceptional and far superior (very bright and way more crisp). I have never seen such a good picture coming from any other consumer level camcorder. Although the indoor shots have some grainy pictures (I tested some indoor video shots, too), the outdoor shots are flawless. Most of my friends who saw it wanted to buy the HG10 and I started to dream about having the Samsung LNT4065F LCD TV ever since. :)
The only drawback that I have found new from the HG10 is that if you want to transfer video files from the HG10 to a computer, you must have an AC adapter (correct me, if I am wrong). Sometimes, I want to transfer video to a friend's computer right after I take it. However, if I don't have the AC adapter for the HG10, it simply refuses to do it (it asks me to hook it up). This is very cumbersome to me.
I just heard that the new Sony hard drive camcorder has a 120GB hard drive. However, the 5 hr 30 mins of video in highest quality that I can take from the HG10 is still pretty good.
If I had to choose a camcorder today, I would choose the HG10 again. I can't wait to see what the next version of the HG10 can do.
== Update, for the Mac users, as of Mar. 29, 2008
I recently bought a MacBook and found out one thing that I want to share with other Mac users. First of all, the HG10 does work with iMovie '08 and Leopard OS (10.5) on intel Macs. If you connect the HG10 to the Mac, all the importing process will go very smoothly. You should be patient, since the Mac converts AVCHD files from the HG10 to their propriety format (it increase the size of the original files to 7-10 times). However, iMovie '08 does not import .mts or .m2ts files directly. iMovie can only import AVCHD files from the HG10 or the storage space (external hard drive) that exactly has the same directory structure like the HG10. I mean, it does not import individual .mts (.m2ts) files. I have searched through many apple discussion forums and have not found solutions for it.
If someone only saves .mts or .m2ts files without having the original directory structure (it means, no meta data, video files only) like me, he/she has to use the conversion utility like Voltaic to convert .mts or .m2ts files. If you have a non-Intel Mac, you can import AVCHD files this way (converting through the utility like Voltaic) only, though. This conversion process takes significant amount of time and the storage space.
I wish iMovie can directly handle .mts (.m2ts) files soon. Until then, I should stick with the bundled Ulead software on PC for my old video backups. Disappointed...
== Update, for the YouTube lovers, as of May. 22, 2009
I still love the HG10. It is the best. Probably you already know about this. YouTube allows to upload the .mts or .m2ts files created by AVCHD camcorders. So, you can upload the file directly without any conversion process on YouTube and it is HD. I cannot thank YouTube enough about it.

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The Canon HG10 AVCHD Format Hard Disk Drive Camcorder delivers high definition technology with the effortless ease of recording video directly onto a hard disk. Incorporating the latest AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) format, it puts superb image reproduction and advanced features at your fingertips in a compact AVCHD Format HDD camcorder, which means you'll carry it everywhere you want to capture the special moments in your life in true HD. Among the Canon Exclusive features on the HG10 are Canon's own Full HD CMOS sensor and advanced DIGIC DV II image processor. More exclusives are SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization, Instant Auto Focus and our new 2.7" Widescreen Multi-Angle Vivid LCD. With the Genuine Canon 10x HD video zoom lens and a host of other advanced features the HG10 is the right choice in HDD camcorders.Zoom Ratio 10x Optical/200x Digital - Focal Length 6.1-61mm Canon Exclusive -DIGIC DV IICanon SuperRange Optical Image StabilizationCanon Exclusive -Instant AF24 fps Cinema ModeHDD Photo Grab from Video2.7 Multi-Angle Vivid Widescreen LCDSuperb Shooting ControlAdvanced Photo Features to 3 MegapixelProgrammed AutoExposure modes Minimum Focusing Distance 10 mm (wide)/ 1m (tele) White Balance - Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H Image Stabilization - SuperRange Optical (lens shift) Viewfinder - Widescreen 0.27 Color Viewfinder/ (Approx. 123,000 pixels)Recording Media - Hard Disk Drive 40 GB (Internal) Audio - HD -Dolby Digital 2ch (AC-3 2ch) Effective Pixels - Movies (HDD) -Approx 2.07 Megapixels (1920 x 1080); Still Images (Card) -4 - 3 mode -Approx 2.76 Megapixels (1920 x 1440); 16 - 9 mode -2.07 Megapixels (1920 x 1080) Lens accepts optional 43mm filtersDimensions - (WxHxD) 3.2 x 3.0 x 5.1 inch; Weight (not including lens and battery pack) 1.1 lbs.

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Panasonic VIERA TC-P55VT30 55-inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV, Black Review

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(More customer reviews)I just bought this so I only have a few hours on it. The good. Exceptional piture. Dark blacks of course. But I really bought this for the 3D. I had narrowed my choices down to the samsung pn59D8000 and the Panasonic p55VT30. The 3D on the samsung looked a little artificial to me, that is like the cardboard cut out books that you open and they have one flat image after another. The Panasonic however has a real nice graduation of 3D from front to back. I really liked the new Samsung glasses, the bluetooth connection, light weight, large lenses, and even balance. I still don't like the feel of the Panasonic glasses but they say they are comming out with better ones mid summer. I don't like that Panasonic is still using infared since anything in the path of the beam cuts the 3D. The feature that really wow's me is the 2D to 3D conversion. Oh My God! the Panasonic is soooo much better than the Samsung in this respect. I'd swear the 2D movies I've been watching with this feature are 3D. It has minimum, medium, and maximum settings for this. I like the medium setting which gives a lot of 3D without distorting the 3D effect like the maximum setting does. My local dealer did a good job of matching internet prices and free delivery and set up. The spider stand on the D8000 was really flimsy in real life. So I like the Panasonics heavier but more solid pedestal better. I wanted to buy the VT25 from last year but was still disappointed in the amount of light loss when putting on the 3D glasses. This year the amount of light loss is much much less than last year, even tolerable. Sound is actually pretty good but I still run it through my Denon 7.1 surround system. Another thing that steered me away from the Samsung were all the reports of poor customer service on displays that went out. I wish Panasonic would slim the bezel down more, and go to a wireless glasses recharger.
I have both the Samsung BD-C6900 Blue-ray player and the Panasonic BDT350. Love the Samsung, hate the Panasonic. The Panasonic is not as user friendly, not as pretty, takes forever to load, and makes alot of clicking/humming/buzzing noises when playing a disk. It didn't start out that way but it's been less than a year and already it sounds like a five year old player. The quality of picture produced by each player is basically a wash for me. I really can't tell any difference. I'll try to update this as I get more experience with the TV. Oh by the way - I'm not a football fan but watching it in 3D is like being on the field, incredible. And I was just told buy my sales person that there has been a price drop on the current set of 3d glasses. They are now available for $49.99
UPDATE: Well first day and already its gone bad. I got the vertical black bar that covers about an eighth of the screen about 3/4 of the way on the right side. In researching similar problems it might indicate the Plasma Display Panel (PDP) was defective. It appears I have a vertical block that is bad. Retailer is getting me another one tomorrow.
UPDATE: Ok new TV working well. On the standard picture setting its really too dark. So I increased the brightness by changing to game or cinema. I've been watching 2d movies with the 2d to 3d conversion with good results. I just watched my first real 3D movie "Tangled". I have seen the 2D version of this movie about 5 times but watching it in 3D is like seeing it for the first time. WOW! I'll never be able to watch it in 2D again. The details are amazing. You notice every blade of grass, every leaf on the trees, every strand of hair on people, all sorts of things I've never noticed before like birds flying in the fore and background, butterfies and pollen, textures on just about everything! The only negative I see in 3D is when somthing moves fast like a swinging arm. I don't know if its motion blur or just me not being able to focus fast enough. The picture is brighter and clearer with better 3D than I've seen in the theaters. I have a 2009 Samsung 63" plasma which I still like the 2D bright, clear, sharp picture of over this Panasonic. But for 3D I'm quite satisfied. I also use this set as my main computer monitor. It's fun to watch online movie content with the 2D to 3D conversion active.

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3D Technology Checklist
This product is 3D-related. To help you get a great 3D experience, use the checklist below to ensure you have everything you need. 3D viewing requires:

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Samsung BD-P1590 Blu-ray Player Review

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(More customer reviews)Sleek, sexy, easy to use and highly affordable; the Samsung BD-P1590 is the perfect player for that newcomer to the Blu-Ray world, or even as a second player for a seasoned Blu-Ray vet. With just one caveat, this player is ideal for that film lover on a budget.
Let's start with what it can do. First of all it can output Blu-Ray discs in glorious 1080p HD (provided you have an HDMI cable and an HDTV); as far as BD output this player performs admirably. I found nary an issue with disc playback, and the picture is astounding. The player is able to handle nearly ever disc I tried to play, save for Watchmen, which comes with brand new features that the BD-P1590 was not equipped to handle; a simple firmware update should fix that. With the LAN connection you can receive firmware updates and access BD-Live (a sort of Xbox Live for Blu-Ray players that has all sorts of neat stuff).
The BD-P1590 is also setup for the Netflix 'Watch it now' queue, and provided you have a Netflix subscription you can stream any flick from their 'Instant Q' to your television. If you have a great internet connection the quality is superb at best, and wonky at worst, with the usual annoying pixelation and audio sync issues that plague streaming. One amazing feature of the Netflix streaming is the new HD streaming; being able to watch a good chunk of content in HD is always a plus. In addition to being Netflix-ready, the BD-P1590 is also Pandora ready. For those of you who do not know, Pandora is a free internet radio service. Just type in an artist and Pandora will find music exactly like that artist and other artists just like it. Its not going to sway most people, but its icing on the cake. You can also play music and photos through the player, which is nice but not necessary.
The Samsung outputs audio via DTS Master Audio HD, which is good enough for me, and provided you have a surround setup it will sound truly spectacular. However here is where the only caveat comes in; there is an audio sync issue with Blu-Ray disc playback, especially noticeable if you hook up a surround sound system directly to the player, resulting in a nasty echo effect between your player and your television. The latest firmware update did nothing to solve this problem; hopefully Samsung will figure out how to fix this annoying issue.
Another annoying thing is that the BD-P1590 has no hard drive, so if you want to do anything on BD-Live, or listen to music or view photos you need to have everything stored on a flash drive, which isn't really a big deal but in this day and age a built-in hard drive should be standard fare.
I am very pleased with this Blu-Ray player and I highly recommend it.

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Panasonic VIERA TC-P65ST30 65-Inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV Review

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(More customer reviews)Wow! My first review... OK, the set arrived Friday, 5/27/2011, delivered from Best Buy, obviously in a huge box... Its 65 inches after all... And after the Spanish speaking delivery guys mounted it on the stand, plugged it in and left me to hook it up myself at my request, I began setting up the TV.
This set comes with every possible connection that you will need to view and listen to anything that you want, it includes a WiFi adapter for your Internet applications which plugs into one of the two USB ports available and obviously, an SD card slot for viewing pictures, listening to mp3's,3D movies etc.There is also a pc connection if you decide to go that route,but i use one of the HDMI connections for my laptop which does an exceptional job.
There are four HDMI input jacks, an optical digital audio output jack, and all the other standard inputs that you would need including a PC and a wired LAN connection.
Setting up this beast took approximately 15 minutes, after which I began looking at the digital as well as analog channels that came in on my cable system.
After setting the picture function to vivid, and backing off some of the adjustments, the thing looked superb... I also own a Panasonic vierra 50in plasma set that works like a champ, which is the reason that I went for this one, and the picture here exceeds the images I would see with the 50 inch.
I fooled around a little bit with the Internet applications, it has all the usual ones, netflix - twitter -face book etc.
It also has some games that you can play and if you want to,and you can download more apps... Some are free and some cost around 3 to 4 dollars to install in the TV. Looks nice and works as well as you might expect... My DSL connection is only 700 mbit so the quality isn't as topnotch as it would be on a faster connection... Say FIOS or something.
I then throw in the avatar 2D bluray DVD, and that's where this thing really shines! The set has a function in it that allows you to smooth the image. This is very useful for removing the jerkyness that you see on most televisions when things move from side to side or up and down and it gives the appearance of a very smooth and flowing image... I love this and you have the option of turning this on and off. You can see this effect on some sharp and Samsung LCD TVs... Now it's available on plasma.. Very nice. The thing is maybe about an inch thick front to back so when you view it from the side you can barely even see it... And then as you step outwards from the side of it, you start to see all of the picture with no color degradation or reduction in brightness that you get with LCD TVs, so viewing angles aren't a problem.
This is one of the clear reasons for me buying a plasma TV. And the black levels, as promised, are infinitely black! I viewed it in a completely darkened room and contrast levels are amazing... when the screen goes black, you couldn't see anything in the room except for the red light on the television.
The set is 3D ready but you'll need to buy 3D bluray player and the special Panasonic active shutter 3D glasses that you have to purchase separately... Another $400 or so for those additions... So for now I can't comment on the 3D functionality of this set.. But I am sure that it is beautiful because everything else looks great on this titanic screen.
My son has seen it and is bugging me about getting the 3D glasses so that he can see how avatar looks in 3D so maybe there will be an addition to this long review coming soon. Kudos to Panasonic.. I love it!
5/29/11-I forgot to mention the one BIG negative that i have with this set,that is the speaker system within the tv,they SUCK!They sound like something you would find in say a 19"television,thin and tiny...its kinda weird that my 50"speakers seem to sound better than these but i guess that the thinking is with a screen this big,you will be using an external surround system anyway, as i do,so there's that.It also comes with a very well-lit,when the light button is pressed,remote control.There are many more things this set can do,you'll have to get one and play with it to check them out,
LB

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3D Technology Checklist
This product is 3D-related. To help you get a great 3D experience, use the checklist below to ensure you have everything you need. 3D viewing requires:

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