Hey all,

Made the plunge and went with Bluray. Got a Samsung BDP-1400. Dedided not to wait for the Panasonic, because I have an Onkyo 797, and it cant do any decoding, while the Samsung can.

I connected it with analog outs, and it works great.Uncompressed PCM (native on disk), and DTS-HD work awesome (sent as PCM over analog outs).

The biggest thing I noticed is that bass information and output is MUCH, MUCH better. soundstage and image is more coherent, pushed back, and more transparent in the front.

Picture is very, very good. Picture was connected with HDMI. Like watching something on HD cable, but without compression artifacts with motion or fine details. Picture improvement was more subtle than the audio. SD upconversion was what I expected, basically a softer picture.

This player supports bitsteam output, DTS-MA is supported outboard with a FW update. DTS-HD,TRUHD,DD+ are decoded internally. I've had no issues at all, although there are updates for it.

Now all I need to do is wait for the 999! FWIW, I hear the Dave Matthews Bluray disk is a must buy for audiophiles. Im not the biggest fan, but I cant wait to see how it sounds.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/964/davematthews_liveatradiocity.html