Blu-eay player instead of HTPC?

Hey all,

I recently bought a new entertainment center and my old 5-disc CD/DVD changer is too deep for it, which prompted me to make a decision.

A) Build another HTPC (prev. built one using the Acer Revo box which resides upstairs in my "man cave") to access all my movies, TV shows etc. and stream to big screen.
B) Buy one of these newer Blu-Ray consoles that come with built in Wi-Fi, apps for Pandora, Netflix, Blockbuster etc. and now supposedly with DNLA compatible devices (like my PC according to their marketing) you can share media which would allow me to do the same streaming plus allow for Blu-Ray as an option all in one clean easy to use box that the fiance could use.

Opinions?

Anyone have any experience with these newer Blu-Ray units? I'm specifically looking at the Samsung BD-C6500 to go with my Samsung 50" plasma.

The price of the player is around $200-250 depending on where you get it.

Looking forward to any feedback.

I'd recommend going with another HTPC. Just because the BR player is DLNA compatible doesn't mean it can play your videos. You'd still likely need other software running on another system to transcode it on the fly to something that the machine can play (something such as PS3 Media Server or TVersity). I've found though, after using several pieces of software to do such a thing before I got my HTPC, that it's a large hassle.

Make a htpc with a bluray drive.

It's like you're posting in a Honda enthusiast forum asking whether you should get a new Mustang...

NotShorty Wrote:It's like you're posting in a Honda enthusiast forum asking whether you should get a new Mustang...

:-)

An HTPC with XBMC will be a much nicer way to play your films. Even my sister in law now admits that XBMC is nice and that's saying something! I'm not sure about getting an HTPC with a Bluray drive. I'd probably get the HTPC first and add a low end Bluray player later.

JR

Alright, thanks for the comments.

I too agree another HTPC would be better (and more versatile) and I LOVE XBMC (and so does my fiance) with all its rich features. I'm just new to the new Blu-Ray market and thought with the direction these factory machines are going it *might* be worth checking out.

Thanks!

HTPC WITH BLU-Ray drive = FTW

-=Jason=-

I agree with Flomaster- the answer is both.

The two devices you are asking about have NO overlap. A Blu Ray player won't playback your divx and mkv library, but a XBMC Box (especially XBMC Live) is going to have troubles playing Netflix.

I have the model that is one below the Blu Ray player you are looking at (the C5500- same without built in wireless) and it and my XBMC box live in perfect harmony together.

In fact, I love my Blu Ray player because now I am not trying to kill myself to setup my XBMC box to play streaming media like Netflix. The XBMC box plays locally stored content, and the Blu Ray player plays the streaming content (along with Blu Rays the very few times I don't rip them soon as I get them).

You can forget about the Blu Ray player playing anything off the network- that doesn't work very well at all. All your are going to be playing on the Blu Ray player is Netflix and Blu Rays. You want more? You need more device, like a PS3.

So honestly, I think this is a false dichotomy.

The real question is: if I only got $300 to spend, do I get an XBMC box or a Blu Ray player?

In that case the answer is the Blu Ray player. You can get an ION XBMC box for as much as a Blu Ray player, but without the $1000 mediaserver hooked up on the network filled with files a XBMC box is kinda useless. At least with a Blu Ray player you can pay monthly for Netflix and have a stream of media sent (digitally and by mail) to your house.

Now, is that setup as nice as my XBMC setup with 1000 HD movies streamed at a moments notice? No way. But its the best that "normal" people can do, and it certainly is cheaper...

For some stupid reason I feel that if I pay for a BR disk I should be able to watch the movie when I want to without being forced to watch trailers, FBI warnings, and all the other forced content. That, with the time it took my BR player to boot, convinced me that ripping my DVD/BR and playing them from XBMC was the way to go.

Now it's select the movie you want, hit play, and it's playing.

My BR player hasn't been powered up in months. Hmm, I guess I should get off dead center and put it up on ebay.

TugboatBill Wrote:For some stupid reason I feel that if I pay for a BR disk I should be able to watch the movie when I want to without being forced to watch trailers, FBI warnings, and all the other forced content. That, with the time it took my BR player to boot, convinced me that ripping my DVD/BR and playing them from XBMC was the way to go.

Now it's select the movie you want, hit play, and it's playing.

I 100% agree with that. I almost never use my Blu Ray player to watch Blu Rays- the only exception is when new DRM comes out (like when the Avatar disk hit the shelves) and you can't rip the disks (but the wife really wants to watch the movie).

My Blu Ray player gets MUCH more work as an almost dedicated Netflix box, seeing as how it plays back Netflix with a better quality than either my Wii or PS3 can, and XBMC Live can't work with Netflix. Honestly is a great synergy.