Sony Blu-Ray player question

[blackraven]

Today I just bought a Sony 52" XBR4 LCD TV for $2900 and it came with a free Sony BDP-300 Blu-Ray player. It was a great deal at Ultimate Electronics with 3yr no interest financing.

My question is, how good of an upconverting DVD player is it? I know that the BR movies will be great but it also upconverts stand DVD's to 1080p. I was thinking about getting the oppo 980DH for upconverting and for SACD play. But if the BR player does a good job with STD DVD, them maybe I will just buy a dedicated SACDP.

Also, are there big differences between the 300 series BRP vs the more expensive models?

Thaks,
Larry

[musicman1999]

I have the same player and i found that the Bluray PQ is very good, i did try upscaling with it and my HD-DVD player and when compared i found the Toshiba to have a better picture than the Sony but neither was as good as my SD player.On the audio side the S-300 plays uncompressed PCM but does not currently decode TrueHD or DTS-MA however a firmware upgrade is rumored.
Bluray is worth the price of admission over the Oppo in my opinion because i find the benefits of upscaling somewhat hazy.

bill

[diggity]

g'day, i may be able to help you for a change . in just comparing the bdp-s300 and the more expensive bdps1 sony, besides the obvious hd sound fields there is build quality. th"S1" has an aluminium chassis body and heavier laser mount. these help with reducing disc vibration. it also has a 5.1 channel output as opposed to just optical and coaxial. i found that the dearer unit did a better job upscaling sd than s300 but both good.

well thats my two cents worth, i am sure that other people will have a more technical opinion than me, but i hope i helped you a little.
you got a good deal though,. sony were offering the PS3 as a bonus here in Oz

cheers: dazza

[blackraven]

Thanks guys. I guess I cant complain because the BDP-300 is free. It will do for now. As long as I get a good BR picture and good STD dvd picture I'm ok. As far as the audio side, all I care aabout is that the sound is good, it doesnt have to bee great as all I really care about is 2ch stereo.