Philips Blu-Ray Disc Player

Product Website

It DOES support Netflix.

I’m looking for one with Netflix enabled…I don’t think this is it. Hopefully for Christmas.

lotta froogle

Do we have the region free codes for blu ray equipment yet?
This particular unit?
By the way, what about PAL discs?

Review at BluRAY Freak

retrevo

Buzzillions

So I have not made the move to Blu-Ray (albeit I was one of the first to go to DVD-RW on my computer, way back paying $500 for a Sony 1X DVD-RW drive and I got a test-marketed DVD player back in 1998).

Being a tech geek, I remain clueless about Blu-Ray, although I have four true 1080p HDTVs (presumably under-utilized without Blu-Ray?).

Two questions:

  1. Is Blu-Ray worth going to, not the player, but the discs?

  2. Is this player good (I am not asking if it misbehaves, aka is it “bad”)? In other words, its features, specs, and is it a good deal?

  3. Bonus Question (to which an answer is appreciated): My HDTV channels are fantastic. I get an especially sharp, clear and vibrant picture. So will Blu-Ray look dramatically better on a good-quality HDTV?

Bonus Comment: I like Philips products, so I am fine with this being a Philips player.

Here’s the manual

firmware upgrade

There’s no region hack on videohelp.com If there is one,it can usually be found there.

i bought this new from target for at least $45 more. I don’t need nor ever used blu ray, but our old dvd player wouldn’t work anymore and i needed a device for netflix. since our toddler scratches any dvd he gets his hands on, netflix is used at least 90% of the time. I would recommend this player. The exact model we have is BDP5110/F7 the one advertised by woot shows BDP5110/F7B

The fact that this is made by Philips, refurbished, and I can only find one review all worry me. I have a refurbished Philips TV that I haven’t been too happy with. But that’s a totally different animal.

I’ve got three netflix devices already…but I like that it incorporates this:

http://vtuner.com/setupapp/guide/asp/BrowseStations/startpage.asp

Previous Woot

The only other thing I would have liked to have seen on this is a USB port. One of my Philips DVD players has one and it rocks. No Need to burn your DivX onto a cd or DVD…Just plug it in and go.

#1: Only you can decide that. But in #3 you note that HDTV is “fantastic”. Blu-Ray is even higher resolution than broadcast HDTV, and higher quality than most downloaded “HD” movies.

#3: I’m not sure what you’re asking here. Will it look dramatically better compared to what? an old standard-def tube TV? Of course it will look dramatically better on an HDTV. The only reason you’d ever buy a blu-ray player for a standard-def TV is that you have a Blu-ray library built up you want to use on another TV.

I’ll do my best with your questions, with the caveat that I do not own a Blu-Ray player.

  1. I’m going to go wishy-washy and say: it depends on your needs. Some folks love disks, and they’re very convenient to move from room-to-room, and to lend out to friends. But then why don’t I own a player? The price of the discs is one reason, and…

A couple of years ago I loved disks. CDs, DVDs - have a ton. But I think discs are becoming a thing of the past, at least for a geek like me. I can watch 1080P flicks in a variety of ways, without the bother and expense of discs.

  1. Well, I don’t own one, but why not click those review links?

  2. Your HDTV channels are probably 1080i. They do look pretty nice. But it you have a 40"-or-larger 1080P TV, 1080p BDs (not 720p) wil indeed look better. The sharpness is just stunning. I was so impressed by the quality of the eye candy that I sat through 2012, which I would probably have abandoned otherwise.

Hope I’ve helped. Boo! (ghost!)

A search found this at Target. But interesting from that site is a review that said Philips had a firmware upgrade on the model.

Since this is a refurb maybe it has the latest firmware, but worth checking Philips site and your player if you get this.

The Target reviewer said it’s a BIN update method. What that means is you download the update from your computer, copy it to a disc, insert the disc into the player and the player updates the firmware.

I used this technique on a Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder I have. It’s quite a painless way to do a firmware upgrade.

http://www.target.com/Philips-High-Definition-Blu-Ray-Player/dp/B003AJ9L3A

Here is Philip’s Firmware Upgrade page for this player:

http://tinyurl.com/WootPhilipsBluRayFirmwareInst

Philips’ brochure makes this read like a decent player:

The features page from the owner’s manual has a nice summary of the player:

http://www.rantuniverse.com/WootBluRayFeaturesFromManual.jpg

I have a Netflix account so I guess I should get this simply for that feature alone. :slight_smile: