Before I buy a BR Player

[mandru]

I would appreciate some assistance towards helping me make an informed choice on an upcoming purchase.

I have a good fairly recently released LG 3D LED TV with Smart features that can access online content via the ethernet cable (which has a faster transfer rate than wifi).  We are on the verge of buying a Blue Ray player to replace an aging DVD unit.  Part of the reason I've held off upgrading as long as I have is because the 3D from my LG TV is viewable with passive glasses and I'm not sure if I buy a different brand 3D BR player if there will be a conflict of compatibility.

I'd really like to get a Smart 3D BR player that has access to a wider content selection or at least a different mix of possible content but I need to know if I'm going to be sacrificing the 3D functionality of my TV set by selecting a unit from a non-matching manufacturer.  :-\\

We don't own any 3D content or really plan on going out of our way to get into 3D titles in the near future.  But then no one ever knows what movies may be coming (just over the horizon) that would make keeping a working 3D option worth while.

[Binnatics]

I have an Onkyo BR player, and I use it for both movies and music. I found a major downside to that setup that you have to wait very long for a disc to be able to put it in or get it out; people told me that all BR players have the issue of taking much time to reading and spitting out.

I have no experience with 3D, and I think it will never be a real replacement for normal 2D screen resolution, but I would indeed check double if the 3D support of the BR player matches the setup of your TV. I think there's only a few standards in 3D with all their specific names. So it would be easy to find a matching player.
The only advice I can give you is to take your time. Learn to know you TV and its possibilities well, especially the internet connectivity, image optimization and so on and everything you can get out of that. Also sound quality and setup. When you fully know what your TV can and will do, you can be more precise in finding a matching BD player. Most BR players have also internet connectivity and loads of other functions, which you might not need at all. And there's other stuff, like sound and image sync. For example, I had a Loewe TV, with loads of options and optimization functions, and when I bought my Onkyo setup I couldn't get the sound to run synchronised with the images. After quite some time (I ad given up already ever getting a perfect match of sound and visuals) some whizzkid told me there's an optimization setting in my TV that will re-calculate every image signal that comes in, to make sure it will be even more perfect than it already was. That setting is automatically put on. If you suffer from the delay in the image processing, there's a special workaround to turn the setting off, and that's called "game-modus". There's no need optimizing BR images, so it leads to nothing, and especially video games suffer from the delay when people play online games. So put on the game-modus and the over-the-top optimization setting will be turned off ::)
Incredible but true. Now everything works flawless together. Wish I knew that from the start.  :-D

Some people I know don't buy DVD's or BR's anymore because all the movies they want to watch are online available and easy to download / stream, given said transfer rate is high enough. I still enjoy the visual appearance of some nice titles in my cabinet, old-fashioned me, but others like their homes minimalised to the max with NO pre-digital content shown whatsoever.

Good luck on your purchase!  ;)

[PZ]

I've an el cheapo BD player made by Sony that I purchased at Costco for less than $100 - works great, but is not 3D

However, I understand that the Playstation does 3D Blue-ray 

[Art Blade]

I have a Panasonic 3D BR player that works fine using HDMI along with my Panasonic plasma TV (which isn't 3D, I don't want it) and the BR sound goes through a Yamaha 7.1 amplifier via HDMI.

[mandru]

Thanks for the feed back guys.  I knew it was a complicated issue but had no idea there were potential problems with things like "out of phase" audio syncing with the image as Binn described and I've seen lots of "el cheapo" blue ray players even with 3D playability for well under $100.  Some of them are even LG branded like my TV.

I can find LG branded units.  However there's one problem I've been running into over and over with matching up my TV to a LG BR.  There is a general consensus in almost every one of the reviews I've been able to find for the LG players.  They all tend to w@&k OK, send an excellent picture but as a rule the cases they are housed in are so cheaply tossed together that they also look and feel cheap.  ::)

Also none of the LG BRs have an antenna input/thru connector which completely cuts my VCR out of the "path of video" wiring chain as a potential signal source.  While I rarely use the VCR it's not something that I care to toss aside at this time as there is still content on tape that remains near and dear to Mrs. mandru and I feel that I need to set our entertainment center up in a way that she herself will be able to maintain in the future against the possibility that I may not be around to think through the problems that arise in this type of setup.

*As to that last bit: It's nothing immediate but I've determined to go on my feet.  I just wish I could find a comfortable damn pair of shoes to do it in.  *

The PS4 is an interesting thought.  I'm more of an XBox/Windows kinda guy (which I might consider if it wasn't for my first impression and the overwhelming reviews that many perceive all iterations of the XBox as utter crap  :-D ) though I'd probably never use it for gaming even though sitting 8 to 9 feet from my set and playing on a 47 inch screen with skinny near invisible edge borders does have it's allure.  I don't know if there's exercise or (though I can't imagine it) gaming content that might interest Mrs. mandru.

She's usually perfectly happy playing spider free cell solitaire on Pogo and it does seem to be an extravagant route towards adding a 3D BR to our setup.

[Art Blade]

I reckon you'd need something like an amplifier that receives all types of input devices such as a BR and a VCR and a record player and a tape deck and a media player.. like my Yamaha amplifier. From there the video signals are put through to the TV set. You could keep your VCR in the loop. As to which BR player.. I don't think that you can be terribly wrong when picking just any random player for what you think is worth paying for it. Knowing you, you're likely to plough through the internet first and try to find user reviews on end before you decide, so.. just get one and get it over with  :-D

[mandru]

Your probably right on my over doing it when shopping for electronic gear.  :-D

So I guess I'll focus on the best online channel selection for the Smart features and go with that.  :-X