No, absolutely not. Just like in the bad old days of TV/VCR combos, a DVD or BD/TV combo means the same headache down the road: if one breaks, you have to lug both in for service. Can you imagine having to bring in a 50 or 60-inch screen just because the BD player failed? Or shelling out the cash for a service call which would inevitably require the screen to be taken down from the stand or wall-mount? No, thanks!

“Blu-ray player probably doesn’t make sense for a manufacturer on its TVs smaller than 37 inches.”

This is still misleading. It is true that the larger the display size, the larger the gap between DVD and BD. However, there is still a marked enhancement on smaller sets (especially with digitally animated titles by Pixar and Dreamworks). This would be a different story if we were comparing a 720p optical format to 1080p BD format.

Actually, I think integrated BR players make more sense, not less, for smaller screens.

As people put BR players in their living rooms, media rooms, and home theaters, they will start buying or renting movies on Blu-Ray. If the smaller TV in the kitchen/bedroom/office can only play DVDs, they’ve lost the ability to watch those movies in alternate places.

Many people object to having to buy the same content more than once. If they have to make a choice between buying a movie on DVD or Blu-Ray, they are more likely to choose Blu-Ray if they can watch it everywhere, especially for movies that don’t really benefit hugely from the increased resolution.

For larger TVs, on the other hand, I think people want components. After all, how many 50” or larger displays have built-in anything? And how many people really use the built-in speakers on that size TV? I submit that a large percentage opt for components, because they can upgrade pieces more easily, and because of the risk of the whole system being out of commission when one part breaks.

Rob Schultz
Inspired Electronics, Inc.
http://www.inspired-electronics.com

That does make quite a bit of sense Rob - good comment. I’m guessing that when general Blu-ray prices start falling more in line with what DVD players became we probably will see this on 20-32 inch TVs.

Plus, I know the B&O;is meant as a floor-standing TV, but who wants to reach up to a wall-mounted TV and try loading a disc?

I don’t think I care to have a combo unit. As MrSatyre said, If one goes bad you lose them both. In my experience most manufacturers put lesser quality pieces in a combo unit to keep the price down. I’ve seen people pay more to have a DVD repaired than they could have spent to buy a new one just because it was in a combo piece. No thank you, I’ll stick to separate pieces.

@MIKE:  Really???  You have seen a DVD player break?  Let me clarify:  you have seen one break due to a malfunction, and not someone doing something to the unit they shouldn’t, or having small children abuse the unit?

I think that the technology behind any of the disc formats is so standard now, that physical defects would be exceedingly rare.  I can personally say that I have never had a disc player of any sort break on me.  In the couple of years I worked in a retail electronics shop in university, I don’t think I ever saw a broken unit either, combo unit or otherwise.

I understand the premise that if part of a combo unit breaks, you loose both pieces, I just disagree that it’s common or likely.

Paul,
evidently you haven’t worked in a service center before. I’ve been in the service industry for 17 years. I have seen pickup assemblies go bad, spindle motors go bad cheap track that dried out and started cracking…ETC. As more and more units flood the market the manufacturer cuts his cost by dropping the quality of the parts in the unit. If you can save $2 a unit by going with the cheaper pickup or $.50 on the motor that helps the bottom line quite a bit when you look at millions of units. Trust me they do break. Anything man made breaks and no manufacturer I’ve seen yet is immune regardless of what they tell you.

100% agree with you Mike. I have owned, and seen numerous DVD players that trays will not open (at least not on their own), media will not load, or any number of problems that can occur when reading off of a disc. This is not something that bluray players are immune to and I for one would not like the hassle of having to send in my TV to get the disc player working. I like the concept, but in all practicality it really becomes more of a problem than a solution when something goes wrong.

You’re right I haven’t ever worked in a service center, but I have worked as a senior purchaser of electronic components for one of the largest consumer goods manufacturers in the world.

While I understand that the bottom line is the primary concern, there are also warrenties to consider.  No manufacturer can survive with high failure rates, as they get hammered on the warranty side of things.  If you supply parts to really big companies like the one I worked for, they are known for suing or charging suppliers if the parts provided are substandard.

I’m not arguing your assertion that these things fail, I’m disputing the volume of repairs as a percentage of the whole.

Paul,
Most of the sub standard part failures or poor quality design flaws we see happen 1 1/2 to 2 years after purchase. These fall outside of any warranty the manufacturer has on the product.

We had a VCR we sold one time from a very good manufacturer. I had 10 of the 15 units we sold come back with load mechanism problems. The plastic tracks were drying out and falling apart. All of these happened at about a 1 1/2 years. When I contacted our sales rep he said they hadn’t had any problems with this unit. I called Tech support and they said the same thing. We went to a service school for the manufacturer on a different product and techs from all over the south were talking about the problem with this VCR. Even then we were told by the factory rep that it must have been just isolated incidents because they had had no reports of a problem though all of us had called tech support about the same thing. This was a major issue with a well known manufacturer that they never admitted because if fell outside of the warranty period.

I know of a major TV manufacturer that has a problem with a chassis assembly that requires 120 capacitors be replaced on the boards after 3 to 4 years. These chassis must be sent back to the factory for rebuild. If the customer calls Customer service they are told that this is a rare incident but that the manufacturer will cover the cost of the part this time only. I have seen 20 of these so far and I was told at a training class by the instructor off to the side that they had to double there staff to take care of all the chassis coming back for rebuild.

Ok, now you are opening up a completely different can of worms.  If the unit is out of warranty, I say all bets are off.

Yes I find it repugnant that some products always seem to die right after the warranty expires.  If a manufacturer provides a 1 year warranty to a product, why do people assume the product will be problem free for much longer than that time?  I would assume that the manufacturer knows how long 95-99% of their products will last, and bases their warranty on this information.

If I don’t like how a certain manufacturer’s products ‘always’ die right after their warranty expires, I can choose to not buy that brand anymore.  I can also educate myself by talking to people like you that have inside information on this stuff.  Otherwise, as little as I like it, I got what I paid for.

I have a different take.  I have a need for a clean installation on a wall for a “small” (26”-32”) TV with a Blu-ray player and a QAM tuner.  One device plugged in to the wall—I am done.  I think that most TV that are 42” and larger are going to be connected to a good sound system and will have the place for a Cable/Satallite box with on demand and a good Blu-ray player.  V2.0 of course.
Smaller TVs will not have the HD resolution available from a Blu-ray, but they will allow me to use my ever increasing DVD/Blu-ray disk collection.
While outdoors on the patio without dragging “the big set with all the boxes.”
Maybe it sould be cheaper to build a Blu-ray reader with only 720p out rather than the full 1080p or more. 

I really do not understand why manufactors add an integrated player to the large class sets where they are more probably attached to a big home entertainment system and ignore the small size sets where they are more likely to be used.  Just ask a college student—Hell ask me!