eldad9

Now that I have a new TV (well, a Westinghouse LVM-37w3 37" LCD HDTV Monitor) I'm looking for a nice DVD player to go with it.

But it seems like there's always something wrong with DVD players, and you never know until you actually take it home and start using it. So I thought I'd ask here.

I want a player that will:

* give me good picture quality with my new TV
* have a sensible and convenient remote layout (not like some players which are pretty much a rectangle of randomly placed buttons)
* not have ridiculous limits on the remote distance / angle
* let me play my R2 discs too
* display the time left / etc information nicely, on the corner of the screen, not near the middle
* not do anything unless I expect it (like decide to auto-shut-off after 30 minutes of pause time)
* let me determine if it's on, off, or on standby just by looking at it
* display closed captions (why did my old DVD player not show captions? I thought some discs didn't have them until I tried to use my PS2. Will those work anyway with a TV which is actually an LCD?)
* not make me hate the engineers that created it
* remembering my place and returning to it when switching on again is a plus - even more so if it can handle multiple discs
* ignoring prohibited user operations would be nice (why shouldn't I be able to change audio channels in the middle of the movie?)

You get the picture. Suggestions would be nice, and by all means, if I missed any incredibly annoying "features", let me know.

jonw9

1) The Oppo (upconverting) does this.
2) I think the remote layout is the major complaint for the Oppo.
3) I believe my Oppo handles this nicely, but never really got "extreme" with it.
4) Oppo
5) Do you mean on the player screen or television? Never tried this. I never pay attention to the time remaining.
6) I think Oppo has setting for auto off. Again, never run into this problem.
7) Oppo. Red light (stand-by) when off. Back-lit display when on (color depending on model)
8) Not sure on this, never tried.
9) Oppo. If you hate the engineers, send them an email and they will respond. Usually within the same day, most of the time within an hour or two.
10) You have to hit the memory button to store the place on the disk before powering down. I think it goes for only a single disk.
11) I think the prohibited functions are inherent to most players. Switching decoding and other stuff on the fly usually isn't possible.

Spiky

Just a couple thoughts:
2) Get a real remote. Screw the bundled stuff.
8) The TV does captions, not the player. Check your TV.
11) Prohibited functions are the disc's fault. It is very difficult to find a player that will ignore the disc's instructions.

Basically, most of the stuff you want is hit and miss on players. These are detail features that no one agrees on, and mfgrs make some models that do one thing and others do other things.

The Oppo is very popular. I have liked the Pioneers (start around $80) recently for many of the issues you mentioned above. But I worship the perfect picture, so my player of choice is a Denon that is missing many of the "comfort" features you ask for. The pic is worth it.

Alan Smithee

Some DVD players do not send out the closed-caption signal to the TV- my parents had a Sharp one that did that. I've seen a menu option on some of the cheap Chinese-made players that let you enable or disable it. (My PS2 does send the CC signal, BTW).

I have a Pioneer DV-588A, which you can download firmware for to make it ignore all the prohibited-function crap. It even has a setting to go directly to the main movie, and ignores region coding too (and does PAL), but still has analog Macrovision. It does turn itself off automatically if nothing plays for 30 minutes, which is annoying because if I leave the TV on, it will display "S-VIDEO" in bright letters that could cause far worse burn-in than anything from the DVD player's display!

Rypro 525

my oppo, after about 5 minutes of no play, goes into a standby mode and leaves me right where i was when i return.

eldad9

So... no suggestions except the Oppo?

I guess I just think there should be something out there that doesn't cost six times the price of my current player, and frankly I don't want to invest too much since my friends tell me of the wonders of HD-DVD (or was it blu-ray?)

Brian Shannon

Well I have an Oppo as well as several other players.

Guess I am just easy to please since I don't have any of the problems you are trying to avoid. I just put in a disc and hit play.

Best of luck in your search.

SoSpacey

I have the Sony N75s. It has never turned off on me, it just goes into screen saver mode.

It also keeps your place in a disk for the last 5 disks you played.

Picture is great.

Remote is OK in layout but very good in distance, but I use a Harmony.


My old Pioneer did almost everything you want, with a firmware update or 2.

Mr. Salty

The most expensive player Oppo makes is $230, so by your math your player cost $38. You can get a damned nice Oppo for $150, six times the cost of a $25 player.

Maybe you're expecting too much out of cheap DVD players. You get what you pay for.

eldad9

I don't expect much - I expect better picture quality out of more expensive players, but actually taking the time to add a feature that decreases usability - that's something no company should ever do.

Fine; I went ahead and got the Oppo... now, of course, I'll be sorry I didn't spend a few hundred dollars on a bigger TV... oh well.