Blu Ray Players

[andy b]

Hi all

As I got great advice on a multi region player thought I'd ask some advice here.

What would be a really good Blu Ray player to up grade to?

At present I have a Panasonic DMP BD60. Not a bad unit & no real complaints.

But I was wondering if there is better out there & it has to be available in Canada, which may be a catch!

Ladies & Gentleman your thoughts would be greatly apprecaited.

I have a reletivley healthy budget as well.

Thank you

regards
Andy B

[Eric W.]

I have to mention the Oppo brand right off the bat.

http://www.solutionsav.ca/oppo.html

Their new unit is the 93 which is loaded with goodies.

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-93/


This is/was their current unit that I have: http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/

You might still be able to fetch that if you want to save a few bucks.


Multi region?

You'll find modded 83s all over the place including up there in Canada.



The 93 will also be modded by outside sources shortly after it streets. People will be cracking away at it very quickly.

You'll have to check HT and AV forums that know the Canadian scene to see who is modding what and who does good work and who can be trusted. I only know some of the American scene so that's not going to do you any good.

It's up to you and your budget but I'd have to say this brand really packs about the best bang for the buck I've seen. I'd give the forthcoming 93 a long look if I were you.

It won't be region free out of the box. Barely anything is.




Otherwise you have a nice player. I'm pretty sure you could get it modded to be region free as well but again, I don't know what that scene looks like up in Canada and can't give you any recommendations.

[AndyDursin]

Andy there are a lot of good players out there. I do love the Oppo and in fact I think the 83 is superior for DVD upscaling to the 93, but a lot of people don't want to plunk down $500 for a BD player and when it comes to BD playback (not DVD, just Blu), there's nothing to distinguish between a $100 and $500 player on that end.

It all depends on what you need it to do.

If you need multi-region Oppo is the only way to go really.

If you want wireless streaming, you need a wifi unit.

If you want Netflix, you need a Netflix certified player.

The latter two can be had easily under $140 these days.

Otherwise that Panasonic -- does it have BD Live? You may be just satisfied with what you have.

[John Johnson]

I have to mention the Oppo brand right off the bat.

http://www.solutionsav.ca/oppo.html

Their new unit is the 93 which is loaded with goodies.

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-93/


This is/was their current unit that I have: http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/

You might still be able to fetch that if you want to save a few bucks.


Multi region?

You'll find modded 83s all over the place including up there in Canada.



The 93 will also be modded by outside sources shortly after it streets. People will be cracking away at it very quickly.

You'll have to check HT and AV forums that know the Canadian scene to see who is modding what and who does good work and who can be trusted. I only know some of the American scene so that's not going to do you any good.

It's up to you and your budget but I'd have to say this brand really packs about the best bang for the buck I've seen. I'd give the forthcoming 93 a long look if I were you.

It won't be region free out of the box. Barely anything is.




Otherwise you have a nice player. I'm pretty sure you could get it modded to be region free as well but again, I don't know what that scene looks like up in Canada and can't give you any recommendations.

When I was living in the UK, magazines such as DVD Review(now known as DVD and Blu-Ray review) would often advertise companies selling players which have been chipped and play straight out of the box. Now it all BD, these companies are offering this service for the BD players. I would like to find a player in this country that plays all regions for DVDs and BDs.

[AndyDursin]

I would like to find a player in this country that plays all regions for DVDs and BDs.

The Oppo is basically all there is on that end -- that and the Sherwood player (a clone of the Momitsu and the Curtis Mathes I have), provided you use its older firmware. Newer firmwares cripple its ability to play out of region discs.

The Sherwood is available here:


The Curtis Mathes I have (basically the exact same player) is actually pretty good too -- I picked up two of them a year ago when they were $99 at Target, but once they sold through their stock, they vanished, never to return.

The Oppo 83 is a better player (but it's also several hundred more) and can be made hackable with a do-it-yourself mod that now costs about $30 on Ebay and takes all of 90 seconds to install (I can tell you from my own experience it is a piece of cake and requires nothing more than opening up the casing and installing a cable). The 93 will likely have a modification to do the same eventually, but as of now it doesn't exist.

There really are few options because the Blu-Ray Disc Association cracks down on companies that enable region-free capability. DVD region-coding is easily defeated on all kinds of players, but BD region coding -- very few players out there have that capability.

[andy b]

thank you for your help & advice

andy b