Philips Blu-Ray Disc Player

i value the woot communities’ opinion… what bluray player should my wife get my for my birthday?

It has ethernet, why can’t it just update itself, like my Roku box and Wii do? That would be painless…

Anyway, Roku’s Netflix player can’t be had for less than this, even used, so its resale value should hold as Netflix continues to dominate streaming rentals…in for one.

Ha! Does she even have a choice? :wink:

Anyway, here’s a list of the top players, from cnet: [ Best Blu-Ray Player for 2022 - CNET ]

Personally, i recommend the samsung bd c6500 or the sony bdp s570.

However, if you want the very best, i’d go for the oppo bdp 83 or the samsung bdc6900.

It has a DIVX compatability, and will play AVCHD, music and picture files off the SD card…anyone know if it will play divx or other mp4 video from the sd card?

Generally, region free codes (applied through a remote) work only for dvd players.

Due to “improvements” in the drm, you can generally get a region-free blu ray player only by having its hardware modified by third-parties (reputable ppl can be found selling the modified players on amazon and ebay). No big company officially sells region-free players.

Also, i generally do not recommend bd players where only the software has been modified, since that means that a future update can take away the ‘region-free’ capability at any time.

Also, if u want to play PAL discs in the US or Japan (where the TVs are NTSC), i think you need an hd converter. Anywhere else in the world (where the TVs are PAL), you can play anything.

Enjoy!

The review at blu-ray freaks says, “An SD card slot can be used for the aforementioned DivX files along with music, pictures and AVCHD video,” it also has .mkv support, and I’m guessing those will play off the SD card as well.

The product description, and the product website, don’t mention such usage of the SD card – in fact, they seem to imply that only AVCHD will play. But I can understand why they may not want to flaunt this as a bootlegger’s tool. It makes no sense for this machine to be divx-enabled but unable to play them from the SD.

It’s the first thing I’ll test when mine arrives.

I have a Philips DVD Player that plays DIvX files - so I can put a bunch of .avi files on a disc and save space as well as have many options to play all on one disc. I bought it because it was the only reasonably priced DivX-compatible DVD player on the market at the time.

It does indeed play nearly all .avi files very well, and DVDs and CDs just fine too, BUT - it is the most annoying electronic device I have ever owned because it does every so slowly. It’s like it’s in slow motion - the machine’s operations, not the actual playback; the disc tray takes forever to open & forever to close, the lag time between hitting play and the disc actually playing is over a minute (!!), and the rewind and forward drive me nuts. Going to the menu also takes ages. Basically, it’s like using dial-up internet when you’ve been used to FiOS for years - excruciating and oh so frustrating. And I know for a fact that it’s the model, not a problem with my particular player.

Due to the unbearable slowness of that Philips DVD player, I will never buy another Philips disc player of any type. I know that my model may be a one-off, but it’s such a crippling flaw that I’m not willing to ever risk it again. BEWARE!

Some devices update via a network cable, I suspect this does it with a disc simply because that presents less technical issues for some.

In any event, some update with a network cable, some with a disc, it’s just two ways to do it, neither being advantageous over the other.

Either way, it’s good to see that Philips is providing updates. Many companies don’t update at all.

Ghost makes a good point that I never thought of, streaming is the way of the future. I watch Netflix off my Wii and desktop all the time, on a 32" 1080p HD monitor.

However, I also own about 300 DVD titles (yes, they are insured). I have to say I like just flipping through my library and picking a movie to watch.

Moreover, sets are cool to own, IMHO. (Like Band of Brothers).

Lastly, I like not being at the mercy of a Net connection or to never own a title (yes, a DVD is technically a license, but I own the disc at least). I prefer owning a disc even if websites give me a permanent license to download. Virtual “ownership,” no thanks.

Yep, my BDP-83 is fantastic. It’s also out of production, though some dealers still have a few (buy quick). In fact, right now Oppo has no disk player for sale (waiting for BDP-93 production to start).

The Big Question, though, is whether or not to go to Blu-Ray. You’ve already got a DVD player for the discs you own.

Insurance is fine up to a point, but I had a hundred or so DVDs stolen, and some of them couldn’t be replaced (especially the Criterion versions of Silence of the Lambs and Robocop, which were out of print). The company that was replacing them for the insurance company contacted me and allowed me to pick other movies as substitutes, but it’s not the same.

Make sure your inventory is up to date! It will be much easier if you can just provide a list of what DVDs you have. There were some not on my list that I didn’t remember until too late.

  1. DVDs are fine, until you watch Blu-ray and then DVDs will seem muddled and blurry. This is especially true if you’re watching on a 1080P set that can show off Blu-ray in all of its glory.

  2. HDTV is broadcast in a variety of resolutions. The top quality signal is 1920x1080, the same as Blu-ray. I don’t watch a bunch of TV, but I’ve only seen news programs broadcast in 1080. The dramas and sitcoms I watch are all broadcast in 720. So, Blu-ray may look either the same or slightly better than the HDTV channels you’re watching now.

This does NOT have analog multi-channel out, as the description says. Why you gots ta lie, Woot?It has digital coaxial and RCA left and right. Analog multi-channel out is individual analog connections for each individual channel that connects to AV receivers that have analog multi-channel input. This Oppo BD player has Analog multi-channel output. The connections are on the left side of the back of the player.

Good catch. The item page is clearly wrong here.

They have it for 59.99 on Best Buy website with free shipping.

  1. I have a 1080p projector on a 103" screen. That sad, I don’t find discs worth owning, unless they are on sales (less than $10) or if they’re my absolute favorite. Many new releases are about $25 at your BestBuys, but more affordable online. However, renting through Netflix, and now Redbox, is the way to go. Redbox does $1.50 a night rentals for blu-rays which is a hell of a deal. Netflix is more expensive ($4 extra added to any of there normal plans to get blu-rays) but their selection is far above anything but online retailers (Amazons etc.)and a much better value than them.

  2. as far as a deal, it looks decent enough, especially if you’d use Netflix streaming, but I’ll let the price hunters advise you on that.

3.Your Blu-rays will almost certainly look better. Broadcast HDTV is always very compressed. Fast movement on the screen will get pixely, and the picture lacks the sharpness of non-compressed disc. As a previous poster said, you’ll best notice the difference of 720 sources. Most TV series are released to Blu-ray in 1080, and if you watch it broadcast live, in 720 (On stations like ABC & Fox), you’ll notice more detail in the picture. Of course, all this stuff all depends on your viewing distances, and your eyesight!

Everyone should refer to the chart below, because if you sit too far away you’ll be very disappointed.

90%x90%

http://myhdtvchoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/hdtv-viewing-distance.png[/img]

Different model. Woot is selling the Philips BDP5110. BestBuy has the BDP5010 for $59.99.

While I expect to play the occasional BRD, I mostly expect to use Netflix, and the SD card slot for mkv’s & avi’s…not 100% sure movie files will play from SD [the product website implies that only AVCHD plays from the SD], but I’m taking a chance on that one…with any luck, I’m not going to be dependent on the player’s mechanics for my use of it.

I’m just hoping that the formats that play on disk will play on SD…converting video to AVCHD is no picnic, as can be seen here: convert to AVCHD | AVS Forum

I bought one of these last week at target. Here are my thoughts:
Load times are not fast, but not unacceptable at this price point.
Netflix is basic, plays your instant queue only.
Internet radio is nice, has lots of choices but I don’t think you can add your own.
Yes, you can update over the network. You could download and burn a CD but you can also just plug in and update from the settings menu.
All in all, a nice blu-ray player, especially for this price.

Nice news about the update.

While you can’t directly add a station, you can request that vtuner add it, through this form:

http://vtuner.com/setupapp/guide/asp/help/suggeststation.asp

With 500 slots in the instant queue, I can live with “basic” Netflix. As Netflix recently expanded the interface on the Wii to include browse and search, this may get better with updates.

Have you tried playing any avi or mkv files from SD?