Sony BDP-S350 and Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray 2.0 Enabled/Ready Players Reviewed Head-to-Head

Benny Goldman — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:40:00 EDT

Our good friend Gary Merson the HD Guru reviewed Sony's BDP-S350 and Panasonic's DMP-BD50, the latest Blu-ray players from each company, Battlemodo style. Both BD players scored high marks on video performance, with a slight edge to Panasonic, but Panasonic's $600 BD50 smoked Sony's S350 on pretty much everything else.

Panny's player can decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD 5.1-channel audio on any 5.1 surround system without a hitch, while the $400 S350 will only do this with HDMI-based receivers (it downconverts the audio otherwise). In addition, the Sony player isn't equipped with BD Live features out of the box—it'll take a software update, not out yet, to bring it up to profile 2.0.

If you're looking for a Blu-ray player in the near future, the HD Guru suggests you should spend the extra Benjamins on the BD50. (Or you know, get a PS3.) Hit the link to read the nitty gritty. [HD Guru]

1080p TVs Never Deliver 1080p Motion, But Some Do Better Than Others

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:42:51 EST

It's a fact of life: when you buy a 1080p set, you never see true 1080p resolution when things are in motion. Gary Merson (of Home Theater Mag and HDGuru.com) looked at 19 TVs listed as 1080p, and found that while their "static" resolution ranged from true 1080 down to a miserable 400, the "motion" resolution of the best sets was 880, while the worst only delivered 360 lines. "You're never going to have full resolution with moving pictures," Merson told us. But the differences in performance were startling:

Vizio was the steaming turd of the study, with its GV47FHDTV scoring both the 400-line static res and the shabby-as-hell 360-line motion res.

The plasmas did the best on the test. The two Panasonics tested (50PZ700 and 50PZ750) scored full 1080 when still, and 880 when moving. A Samsung plasma (FPT5084) got high marks with 1080 static and 830 motion res. (Note: the test Merson used originated with a consortium of plasma makers—Advanced PDP Development Center—so plasma scoring higher is no big surprise.)

The LCDs that fared best on this resolution test were from Sharp, with 1080p static and 600 lines in motion, almost across the board. An LG model also scored 600 in motion, while Sony and Samsung LCDs scored in the high 500s.

For more detailed analysis and a look at Merson's chart, hit the Home Theater Magazine article. [Home Theater]

Gizmodo: gary merson

Sony BDP-S350 and Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray 2.0 Enabled/Ready Players Reviewed Head-to-Head

1080p TVs Never Deliver 1080p Motion, But Some Do Better Than Others