Best Blu Ray video and for 2 channel transport?

I would recommend the Sony BDP-S350, it is cheap (I've seen it for ~$200) loads and responds like a standard DVD, is a Profile 2.0 compatible player (you'll need to update firmware and add a memory stick, but they are <$8 nowadays) and has coaxial digital outputs.

I have been a super early adopter of both HD DVD and Blu-ray, and am on my seventh Blu-ray player now and the BDP-S350 is the most usable fastest player I have ever seen or heard of, and the image quality is very good and it will output bitstream for all the new codecs.

I have the Denon DVD-2500BTCI which an awesome unit, but way slower....

Okay got the panasonic home... One place on earth had them stocked! They are so popular besides online at a few sources they are backordered virtually everywhere..

Its a breeze, Its SUPER fast loading so I can't ask for better, as a matter of fact its faster than Standard DVDS on the new OPPO I have!

Blu ray quality is perfect.... Interface is excellent, this one does it all....

Thanks Jax2... Definitely so far for the money this is the player to have, with good reason everybody seems to be after one... It is reasonable priced for how simple and high quality of build it is..

The Sonys and pioneers seemed way over convoluted and too big honestly, and did not seem as solid as a transport, not for the money anyway.. I am sure some of the upper costly models will have a bit better, but for blu ray picture and transport quality the panasonic so far wins especially due to its pricing.

2 negatives against it, but not a big deal, wish it cost about 100 less as all I paid for over the 35 was the coax!

Second negative, it does not have a standard IEC connection for the power, however at least it has a detachable, so I ordered the IEC/ Polarized DVD adapter from VHAUDIO...Now we can get a high end cord on it, as I have them laying around anyway.

Beyond that I seem to be 100% satisfied with the panasonic purchase, could not get it at best buy as they are backordered online and in store, but thats okay the credit I have there will go for new discs!

Cool beans, Undertow. Glad it worked out. I'd got mine from Amazon before the prices went up. Amazon's prices seem to be all over the place, and they are out too (right now they're outsourcing to Crutchfield). Which Oppo do you have and how does the upsampling compare (the Panny did an excellent job at upsampling DVD's)?

Jax2
I did get to try out pretty extensively the SDVD now on the unit...

Its a plus in that column, for the most part any film source is EXCELLENT compared to both the 983 and 980h oppo's... As a matter of fact maybe even a little sharper, no real errors or color issues that I see.... Maybe not perfect, but nothing noteable.. One thing that the panasonic and the 983 do better over the 980's video processing is they don't Ghost, when you see somebodys face etc... or like really black smearing on the screen get that double ghosting for a second with too much movement... The panasonic for the most part I can't get it to do it at all!

In the end I did return the 983 after a couple days, a bit overpriced although it is the best machine that oppo makes, but due to the influx, and timing of the blu ray war ending to bad for oppo, and reality is now they got competition.

For a little story the first unit which I totally forgot secrets benchmark tested and kinged the budget giant killer was in fact panasonics X series players as they handled all the chroma errors etc .... perfectly like 7-8 years ago and all of a sudden were getting the ratings of the 5000 dollar denons in video! Then only shortly after Oppo came along and de-throned the panasonics as the budget killers, so its no surprise panasonic came with a good Blu ray machine doing well with standard DVD's as well...

Hey it will probably not test perfect if secrets ever finally gets the new benchmarks posted online (what has it been like 2 years?), but I doubt anybody will see much issue with the picture these days with so many advancements in the panel displays and chips anyway.. So I don't care, should be a great little machine.

Bottom line its more than good enough, Only 2 negatives of a blu ray player.... But nothing that seems to effect any performance...

They have fans, you can hear it putting your ear up to the unit, but nothing major. I noted that all the blu ray machines I came across had some sort of fan, and luckily it seemd this one has the smallest compared to the sonys etc...

Second this unit specifically so far the bd55k that is does not save the spots on a disc... So if you don't watch a movie all the way thru it just starts over after removing the disc.

I have only tested this portion on SDVD so far, maybe for blu ray it will memorize something, but not sure.

And honestly I have not dug to far into the issue yet, as there might be a way to make it save.

I think so far as long as you don't open the disc drawer that it Does save even if you shut the unit down, just can't remove that specific disc. Again I have not put much into it yet. This will be an annoying issue that oppo had the same problem with on the last generation of machines which they fixed... Hopefully there is some sorta onboard memory or putting in one of these little SDcards or whatever into it can solve that with a firmware update or something in the future.

Oh and one final surprise, this new Panny does sound EXCELLENT... Hate to say it but it easily is a bit more of a clean and natural reference sound over the oppo. Now this is not in transport terms, I have not gotten that far, but just as running HDMI audio with its onboard processing. And interestingly the panasonic has a pretty cool feature, Remaster 1-2&3, this is effective for old concert discs and makes them really sound good! Now of course its virtually the same as the oppo's Equalizer with the Rock, hall etc... settings, but the oppos equalizer really sucks, and is compressed as hell.. So another leg up in this regard. Obviously none of this is necessary for a transport anyway but worth noting.

Thanks for the input, Undertow. Yes, I'd concur and give the Panny very high marks for picture in both blu-ray and SD. I only ran sound via the digital output so good to hear it does well via analog too. I believe all the Oppo's, including the 983, downsample the analog output to PCM, even via the HDMI. Correct me if I'm wrong. Not sure how the Panny works re audio outs and HDMI as I was only interested in the digital, but it doesn't play high rez audio anyway (SACD and DVD-a). The memory issue was a big bugaboo for me. I'm spoiled by that in a DVD player - I frequently don't watch films all the way through and go back later to finish them so I value that memory feature. I also hate it when you get a Netflix or rental that skips so you have to pull it out and wash it (I don't know about you, but this is about 1/8 discs for me I'd guess) and then have the player make you find the spot you left off at rather than go right back to it. I don't think Panny has it on either DVD or BD playback. Does the Oppo? Maybe it will be a firmware update for the Pannasonic someday! I also was bothered by how slow it was to do virtually anything with a BD disc (and not so much so with an SD), but to be fair it was my first BD experience and I understand it is relatively fast for a BD player. Compared to any DVD player I've owned it is slow as molasses (so I was surprised at your comment that you found it otherwise). Glad it worked out for you and that you like it - I think it's a great bargain and seems to be one of the first BD machines to do so many things so well at a very affordable price. If you go back and read real-world comments on even the high priced machines, some mentioned in this thread (Sony ES, Pioneer, Denon 3800), you find quite a few critical remarks around their performance in one way shape or form. These are machines that are all substantially more expensive. I found that real-world comments on almost all the BD machines in the Pansonic price range to be spotty at best. I frankly could not imagine improving on the picture I saw in BD from the Panny....personally I could not ask for more. The upsampled DVD picture was not that far behind. Now it's just a matter of wait and see if BD really takes over. Again, for me, right now, virtually none of the titles available in Blu-Ray are anything I'd want to own, and most I wouldn't even bother renting. All my favorite movies, and the few I actually own, are on DVD. I ended up ordering a 983H which Oppo has now discontinued entirely (probably in anticipation that their BD player will do everything the 983H does along with BD). I'll let you know my own impressions when it arrives.