Question on what term to use and how to verify a BluRay Player supports Streaming?

[BlueCollarCritic]

I've re-typed this several times in an attempt to be as brief as possible so apolagies if this is a bit of a rant but I've spent nuemrous hours the past 2 months trying to get a BluRay player with no luck.

I have a PS3; the Sony Playstation 3; whcih supports BluRay playback. In addition to BluRay Discs, the PS3 can also stream or playback video files (like the digital copy of movies that come with many BluRay discs these days) located on my networked home PC and even has the ability to do the same for any video file on a USB drive that I have attached directly to the PS3.

Of the BluRay PLayers out there (aside from the PS3) it seems that there is only 1 that has the ability to do this and that is the LG B390 which is as of current, more expensive then a PS3. I would have thought by now that many BluRay Players would support streaming as a way of being competative and versatile since computer based media is so common now and because BluRay media hasn't taken off like SOny had hoped.


Part of the problem is there does not appear to be any singe term or phrase or logo used to identify Video playback or video streaming capability. And whats worse is these words, playback and streaming are not always used the same way between the various manufacturers.

Does anyone know if there is any commonly used term or phrase that wen presented to a knowledgable emplooyee at an electronics store will let them know I am looking for a player that stream video content like my PS3?


Thanks

[MrBoylan]

I've re-typed this several times in an attempt to be as brief as possible so apolagies if this is a bit of a rant but I've spent nuemrous hours the past 2 months trying to get a BluRay player with no luck.

I have a PS3; the Sony Playstation 3; whcih supports BluRay playback. In addition to BluRay Discs, the PS3 can also stream or playback video files (like the digital copy of movies that come with many BluRay discs these days) located on my networked home PC and even has the ability to do the same for any video file on a USB drive that I have attached directly to the PS3.

Of the BluRay PLayers out there (aside from the PS3) it seems that there is only 1 that has the ability to do this and that is the LG B390 which is as of current, more expensive then a PS3. I would have thought by now that many BluRay Players would support streaming as a way of being competative and versatile since computer based media is so common now and because BluRay media hasn't taken off like SOny had hoped.


Part of the problem is there does not appear to be any singe term or phrase or logo used to identify Video playback or video streaming capability. And whats worse is these words, playback and streaming are not always used the same way between the various manufacturers.

Does anyone know if there is any commonly used term or phrase that wen presented to a knowledgable emplooyee at an electronics store will let them know I am looking for a player that stream video content like my PS3?


Thanks

There is no real standard name for the feature. Samsung calls it "PC streaming" and it is available in their 2009 players (BD-P3600 and BD-P4600). It's also not always implemented the same way in all players. On 2009 Samsung players, it's done via Windows sharing. But Samsung told us at CES that their 2010 Blu-ray players will use DLNA, which is a standard in file sharing/networking but it does require software on a PC to share/stream the files.

LG is releasing a BD590 soon which is like the BD390 but with an on-board 250 GB hard drive. Also, 2010 will see the introduction of the new 3D-enabled players, so if that's something you find intriguing then you might want to to hold off until April/May time frame to get one of those.

Sony has said that the PS3 will be firmware-upgradeable to support Blu-ray 3D Disc. It will most likely be doing the 3D processing in the cell processor as opposed ot using updated video processing chips and HDMI 1.4 outputs, which will be present on the true Blu-ray 3D Disc players.

The PS3 is still a good choice for Blu-ray playback but it's trickier to integrate into a home theater system due to its lack of IR control. Logitech does make an IR to Bluetooth converter so you can control the PS3 from a Harmony Universal remote, but that adapter alone is about $60 which is a bit steep.

Anyway... just when we thought Blu-ray technology was getting simpler, 3D, networking and internet streaming show us that we were wrong. I guess there will always be something for us to write about at Big Picture Big Sound!

-CB

[BlueCollarCritic]

Thanks for the info. One follow-up question, well actually a few.

1) Based on what you'vce said would it be safe to say that if I want a BluRay player that I can hook a USB drive to and watch video files thru the BluRay player that are on the USB and of various types (i.e. not just avi or mov or any 1 file type) and I don;t want to wait till later on thsi year for the new 2010 players then I need to either get the LG BD390 or another Playstation 3 box?

2) Do you know approximately when in the year the 2010 systems will be coming out? You did say APril May but I assumed that was just for the LG 590.

3) When a product is listed with or as supporting AVCHD, what exactly does that mean?

BTW- For the remote controling of the PS3 I use a SP3 specific remote you can pickup at Walmart for $20 (not the Harmony Remote) and it works great. I bet your saying (indirectly though) that the only remote control that will work the PS3 along with other devioces is the Harmony, yes?

[MrBoylan]

Thanks for the info. One follow-up question, well actually a few.

1) Based on what you'vce said would it be safe to say that if I want a BluRay player that I can hook a USB drive to and watch video files thru the BluRay player that are on the USB and of various types (i.e. not just avi or mov or any 1 file type) and I don;t want to wait till later on thsi year for the new 2010 players then I need to either get the LG BD390 or another Playstation 3 box?

The Samsung BD-P3600 and OPPO BDP-83 also work with Divx and Xvid via USB ports. Not sure if they support MKV containers with AVCHD or H.263 contents, but I do seem to recall that there were some posts here on the forum of users running MKV files on the BD-P3600. Most manufacturers list the supported filetypes on their web sites, but sometimes you do have to ask the owners on a forum like this or AVS to get the real skinny.

2) Do you know approximately when in the year the 2010 systems will be coming out? You did say APril May but I assumed that was just for the LG 590.

Actually the BD590 might be available sooner. April/May was the time frame that Panasonic quoted for their 3D-enabled players, and the Samsung 3D players will be probably be out around the same time. The LG BD590 is not a 3D-enabled model so it could very well be available sooner.

3) When a product is listed with or as supporting AVCHD, what exactly does that mean?

Could mean a number of things. Might mean that it supports MKV files with AVCHD-encoded videos, or it might just mean that the player can play camcorder-recorded AVCHD files from an SD card or on a DVD. BTW, all Blu-rays support AVCHD in some flavor as the AVCHD codec is part of the Blu-ray spec.

BTW- For the remote controling of the PS3 I use a SP3 specific remote you can pickup at Walmart for $20 (not the Harmony Remote) and it works great. I bet your saying (indirectly though) that the only remote control that will work the PS3 along with other devioces is the Harmony, yes?

Sort of. I'm saying that if you want *ONE* remote to control multiple components, including the PS3, that can be tricky and expensive. Sony's Blu-ray remote for the PS3 is Bluetooth, not IR, so you can't program that remote into a universal remote which requires IR. Nyko makes an IR remote for the PS3 (with a USB dongle) for around $15 I think, but that does not control all functions (specifically it does not control power on/off, and some other stuff). I have both the Nyko and the Sony Blu-ray remote. The one that works well is the Logitech IR/Bluetooth adapter, but that is only for the Logitech Harmony remotes, so you have to buy the remote and the adapter and that can get pricey.

If you're happy enough using a separate remote for the PS3 then you don't need to worry about that.

Good luck!

-Chris

[trot34]

look for blu-ray players with the xvid logo, a samsung is around 150 bucks, with pc sharing so you can watch movie files located on your PC. They also have a 5.1 home theater in a box, with blu-ray, pc sharing, xvid, netflix, pandora, is ht-bd3252

[MrBoylan]

look for blu-ray players with the xvid logo, a samsung is around 150 bucks, with pc sharing so you can watch movie files located on your PC. They also have a 5.1 home theater in a box, with blu-ray, pc sharing, xvid, netflix, pandora, is ht-bd3252

It's not that simple. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen an Xvid logo though the Divx logo does appear on several players and Xvid works on most players that support Divx. The Panasonic BD80 supports Divx but has problems with aspect ratio on some files and doesn't do any kind of network sharing. It does not support MKV files at all.

The Samsung players do PC streaming but have some reliability issues and their support of MKV is a bit limited (only certain codecs). Take a look at the thread on getting PC streaming to work to get some idea of the issues people are having getting this working.

The next generation (2010) Samsung Blu-ray players are switching from PC sharing to DLNA so it's possible this will work better. They'll probably be available in the Spring.

-CB

[trot34]

Thanks CB for the clarification on DLNA, but I'm wondering what DLNA can do that PC Sharing can't?? Maybe an easier setup and friendly menu, but DLNA may need more control over the type of files allowed to be played. Plus, DLNA needs a software to be installed on the PC. PC sharing simply links to whatever folders are shared. Am I wrong?

[MrBoylan]

Thanks CB for the clarification on DLNA, but I'm wondering what DLNA can do that PC Sharing can't?? Maybe an easier setup and friendly menu, but DLNA may need more control over the type of files allowed to be played. Plus, DLNA needs a software to be installed on the PC. PC sharing simply links to whatever folders are shared. Am I wrong?

Right on all counts. I guess after the support nightmare that came with PC Sharing, Samsung is thinking it might be time to adopt a standard for file-sharing which is more platform agnostic.

We shall see whether it's better or worse than what they have now.

-CB