[Jungle Jack]

Hello,
The widespread adoption of 3D Blu Ray's and compliant displays (HDMI 1.4) still seems to be a ways away. Sony this week did announce that they were going to make a substantial investment in 3D compatible displays.

If it was me, I would check out Best Buy and see if they have any remaining stock of the BDP-51FD.
This was a 600 Dollar player upon release and boasts Wolfson 8740 DAC's, which are excellent. Truly an awesome CD player and offers stunning images. The best part is BB has been selling Open Box units for as low as 60 Dollars! Even at around 100 Dollars, it is an awesome value. Insane. The only downsides are slowish loading times and it lacks the inclusion of BD Live.

Compared to the current entry level players, the BDP-51 offers much better build quality and parts selection. I paid 600 Dollars for mine and still do not regret it. It really is a beautiful player.
Cheers,
JJ

 

[Jungle Jack]

Hello,
I absolutely love my BDP-51 and love that it was manufactured in Japan. The build quality is excellent and it truly looks like a high end component. In comparison, most entry level BDP's now have been miniaturized and look like 59.99 Wal Mart DVD players.

Load times do not bother me at all and the picture quality, parts quality and sound quality are excellent. The BDP-51 features Wolfson 8740 DAC's which are excellent and are in many high end digital products costing multiples of the 51. CD quality is excellent as well.
Cheers,
JJ