hanshotfirst1138

Mysteriously, my DVD player now makes an ever-so-encouraging rattling noise and spins discs for a while before telling me there isn't one when there is. I've been dragging my feet on getting a Blu-Ray player because I want a region-free on and the combination a daunting price, having to buy something Pre-modded, and not having full information about the subject despite having had years to read about it. Maybe this is God's way of telling me something. Just worked seven days straight, just wanted to sit down and relax...

EDIT: It's a Phillips DVP-5982 that I bypassed region lock on. Haven't had trouble for years.

X

Great player. I have the 5992.

You must have just worked it to death. You could try cleaning the lens.

hanshotfirst1138

It WAS. I bought it because I wanted a region-free player and it was moderately inexpensive and easy to unlock. How do I clean it?

kefrank

Do you want the Blu-ray player to be region-free for both DVD and Blu-ray or just DVD?

hanshotfirst1138

Preferably both, but like I said, there isn't any inexpensive option. I'm so dinosaur old my CRT TV still uses coax, so I was holding off on BR because it seemed pointless, but God seems intent on forcing my hand. This started when I rented Battleship, and maybe this is my retribution for wasting two hours of my life on that horrid film .

dleedlee

Is it possible that the rental disc was so damaged that it caused the player head to misalign? Maybe try playing a good disc and see if you can realign? I suggest this because I noticed this on my PC's drive attempting to play strange/problematic discs.

kefrank

What do you consider "inexpensive"?

Spottedfeather

You could try this. I haven't bought anything from them, but I don't think I've ever heard bad things...
http://www.220-electronics.com/dvd/L...dvd_player.htm

hanshotfirst1138

Tried that.

I don't know, it depends. This is unbelivably long-winded, if anyone gets to the end of this post, they deserve a medal . I mean, my initial thought was to buy a mid-range player, but I then discovered that unlike DVD, BR can't simply be hacked with the remote. Like I said, I have a CRT TV with a coax connector, so it seems a bit like turbocharging a Focus, but but every special feature worth a damn seems to have moved to BR. I've thought about buying something pretty good to prepare for the future, but apparently region-free BR is price. Then there's the world now. I'd like to be able to do stuff like stream YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc. but that's not essential, plus I have my computer for it, or if need be, I can buy a Roku box or something. The thing is, whereas if oils do it to a DVD player myself, it's apparently significantly more complicated on BR, requiring me to buy something Pre-modded, probably off of eBay or something.

I'd have to imagine that all BR players come with HDMI hookups and will upscale DVDs and have 1080p at this point. I have no interest in 3-D (though I have a sinking feel the industry will attempt to force my hand on that count), but I would like to be able to connect wireless for what are apparently nifty features. I have a few VCDs and a number of multi-region DVDs I'd like to play, and I'd like to be ready for multi-region Blu as well.

I live with my parents, I've always thought of bulding some some small home theater, the problem is location. I tend to watch my DVDs in bed in my room, where there's no room for surround sound and such. I could always set up a proper HT in the basement and just get a nice LCD TV and stereo for my room, but any level of HT is expensive, and I'm notoriously frugal even with a significant amount of money saved up...I also have an irritating Aspergers-inflected tendency to research the living hell out things before I buy them in an attempt to balance money and quality. Anyway...

So in answer, I'd consider anything over the $200 mark a bit pricey. The problem is that now DVD players are cheap and Blu-Ray players are getting cheaper (I work at a Meier where we have DVD players at ridiculously low prices, but if you're looking for something region-free, then you can't just grab whatever.). I WAS going to buy a BR player and put my old one down in the basement when I never had one, but so much for THAT plan....

Spiky

If your future is 2 players, maybe just getting another DVDp would work for now. Save BD for a future where you have an HDTV. Something like this seems fitting considering your history. If nothing else, it's inexpensive enough to be a temporary fix.

hanshotfirst1138

I've considered that, but I'm thinking with all of the special features I love to watch moving over to BR, I might as well get one in preparation for the future, rather than vice-versa.

mythmaker18

If you're still using a CRT, have you considered just picking up another Philips at a pawn shop or other second-hand store? I've seen them there usually in the $15-20 price range (sometimes as cheap as $10). I've fixed up many a family member with a cheap region-free player that way.

This way, you can continue as you are until you decide to take the plunge on an HDTV. I used a Philips the whole time I had my CRT. When I finally took the plunge into HDTV, I decided to make sure I had the most ideal setup for region-free, by purchasing a PAL compatible HDTV (all Sharps are so far) and the blu-ray player with both PAL compatibility and the best DVD upconverter (Oppo).

As for the player that SpottedFeather pointed out, my boss purchased one of those last Christmas to go with the Region B Harry Potter set he'd just purchased. He said it works great.

hanshotfirst1138

I could do that for another room, but since almost all special features have moved over to BR, I might as well take the plunge. And if I do that, I can consider HDTV anyway. Of course, there's still a question of a bigger one and surround sound for the basement, but one thing at a time.
I'm thinking about just killing the proverbial two birds with one stone type of thing. Either way, I'm thinking this a sign from the AV gods to get off of my ass and get some BR :P.

Ah, I thought I might run into that obstacle should I want a TV. Ironic that it's a bigger problem for HD than CRT. More bloody research to do.

I have of course heard of the famed Oppo, and I am told it is the Ferarri of BR, but the player itself is about $500 and the mod kit is $120 plus. That's a lot of money, though of course you do get what you pay for...

Hmm. So basically you can get player that you can hack by hand, but if you do, you forfeit the ability to have the updates, etc.? My friend's first-gen PS3 plays regular DVDs and it upscales them for his HDTV, and I won't deny, they look gorgeous (or they did until the damn thing broke, anyway.). This whole issue is so full of info, it appears much Google is still necessary to get more info.

Spiky

Mod kit for me was $40. And bought a refurb model 93 for $420. Worth it to me because I wanted the dual region free, plus SACD, plus DVD-Audio, plus better scaling than my projector.

Those are gone, however. The new 103 is still $500, not yet shipping. Used 93s are selling for outrageous sums atm.

So...point is....hmm, I guess that even purchasing an Oppo would require research right now. 21st century problems.

hanshotfirst1138

I'm under the assumption that with an HDMI hookup, and BR player worth a damn will upscale DVD to and HDTV, is this a misguided belief? I've found that there's so much research to do, I seldom know where to start. I've been browsing eBay and checking various modded players against their (generally rather unfavorable) Amazon reviews. There're various site which sell numerable modded BR players, for various prices, presumable with numerous features (There are apparently way more features to Blu-Ray than I could've guessed...). It seems way more complicated that I'd have thought possible.

The Oppo BDP-93 is apparently out of print now and its successor is psychotically expensive.

Mr. Salty

They will, but some players do a lot better job than others.

Still $500, just like the BDP-93.

hanshotfirst1138

Great, more research .

The BDP-93 is still $500 (although Amazon has stopped stocking it), and it's apparently one of those things that never exactly goes one sale, but the BDP-95 is a solid grand.

mythmaker18

As someone else said, mod kits are cheaper on eBay than buying them "pre-modded". Also, if you don't have to have the absolute "latest" player, you might take a look at used Oppos on eBay. I have three Oppos (all of them BDP-83s). The first one cost me about $500 (it was new and pre-modded). The second two I picked up used, one on eBay for about $250 or so (then I bought a cheap mod kit and installed it myself, which was easy). My third one I got at an area pawn shop (after seeing an ad on Craigslist) and it cost me about $250 once you add on taxes. It didn't have a mod, but as it was for a "spare room" TV, I just downloaded the free SuperDisk program to make it region-free for DVDs (as I probably wouldn't have a great need for multi-region BRs in that room).

So, you can get an Oppo for under $500 if you don't have to have the latest model and do a bit of shopping around.

If you're taking about that LG player on the "220 volt/World Import" websites, those are usually hardware-modded by the resellers themselves, so you don't lose the ability to update firmware with those. I think there are very few players that you can modify with a software/remote hack (for Blu-Rays), and most, if not all, of those are off-brand players.

Like someone else said, all players upscale DVDs, but that some are better than others. Has to do with what sort of graphics chipset the player is equipped with. Part of what makes the Oppos so expensive is they use expensive/top shelf graphics cards. At the time, the BDP-83's graphic card was the best DVD upscaler out there and was the exact same chipset being used in external, stand-alone video processors that sold for as much (or more) than the Oppo player did!

I no longer need to convert my PAL DVDs to NTSC (thanks to a PAL-compatible TV), but I've turned on the Oppo's converter to see how it does, and it's conversion is light-years better than the one in the Philips players!

If you ever decide that PAL compatibility is something you want in an HDTV, as of right now, Sharp is the most compatible (handles PAL on all inputs, even the RCA-in, so PAL VHS is okay). The Sony and LG models I tried were compatible if you use HDMI or Component (just not compatible with composite). Vizio and Philips TVs are supposed to be compatible, too, but I've seen a lot of bad reviews as to their reliability.

Panasonic and Samsung, on the other hand, are 100% incompatible with PAL (if we're talking consumer TVs with a tuner, rather than pro-line tuner-less 'monitors').

Mr. Salty

The successor to the 83 is the BDP-103, which is $500.

Spiky

The BDP-95 is a different level of player, that is why it is $1000. It will also be replaced fairly soon, by the 105. These models include exotic audio hardware, hence the higher price. Audiophile-level electronics go up in price very fast.

hanshotfirst1138

Granting that's so, would I be able to mod it myself or would that vary from player to player? For that matter, wouldn't the quality of various mod kits themselves vary? It would be nice if I could just buy a player I wanted, buy a mod kit, and put them together, but then I'd run the risk of the kit not working and having it out of the box, etc. I fear incompetence may impair me .

How is it I'm an individual with access to the Internet and know absolutely nothing about Craigslist? I must join the 21st century one day.... I've largely browsed eBay, checking players against their reviews on Amazon and the sellers' ratings so far.

I should look.

I tend to see a lot of modded LG players. I don't know if that's because they're easier to mod, that's just what I happen to come across, or what.


Yeah, my understanding is that if there are, they're probably pretty shady.

That explains why the PS3 does it so well then.

Is there any way to check the stats on which player (ie, a particular type of listed chip), or should I just Google around hope for the best?

Like I said, I was using CRT, so I was just happy nothing had trouble playing. Presumably the player itself did the conversion. I'm conjecturing that some players have built-in convertors and they just don't add the necessary equipment to play the discs because that has to be aftermarket?

Again, this is obviously something that will require me to do my reading before I pick one. The thing about this kind of stuff is that normally, I could just walk into the store and buy stuff, but because I want specific things, I obviously have to be more judicious in my choices. How did we survive before the Internet ?

So it depends more on the company and the model than the price?

What new stuff is it offering?

What kind of stuff, SACDs, DVD-Audio, that kind of thing?

Spiky

Yes, for dual PAL/NTSC compatibility this is true. There are $20 DVD players with this capability and $2000 players without.

103 improvements over the 93:
4K upscaling and the latest version of the scaler, I'm sure slightly better overall
2D to 3D conversion
Netflix in both 1080 video and 5.1 audio (if available)
Built in wireless network
HDMI inputs to use the scaler in the Oppo for anything**
Extra USB inputs

103 loses vs the 93:
Gains Cinavia copy protection (which is a loss IMO)
Analog video output

I may have missed some things.
No, all Oppo models offer that, vs other brands. The 95/105 offers stuff most people don't care about, but a certain passionate group does:
XLR analog audio output (true differential balanced, if anyone cares)
Higher end ESS Sabre audio DACs
Higher end power supply (basically, what you would see in a power amp)
A separate path for stereo, basically a 2nd set of audio circuits/components inside


** This is huge, and astounding, really. The 103/105 are basically now standalone video scalers, in addition to being the best disc players on the market. The cheapest scaler to have decent quality is $500 by itself. (DVDO Edge) I might have tolerated the new issues and bought this instead for this feature had I realized it when I bought recently. Maybe I should sell my 93 while people still want it.

hanshotfirst1138

Hmm. Must make sure I read about it before I buy then.

What exactly is the measuring stick for upscaling? Is there are a way to know if a particular player will be better at it than another, ie checking the box to see which graphics chip is listed, some sort of online resource, etc.? My home computer does seem to upsacle certain DVDs, at least to some extent.

What do you mean? Obviously, many players offer the ability to piggyback off of wifi.


I don't know what much of that means, so perhaps I am not the target market .

Meaning what, it'll upscale VCD or whatever you put through it? Video games, etc?