Cheap Blu Ray Players

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bbunnys

306 posts

Ultimate Geek
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Topic # 57952 2-Mar-2010 10:06

Im looking for some advise. I was going to get a DVD player that upscaled with HDMI as im on a budget but see you can get Bly-Ray players quite cheap now.

I see you can get the Philips BDP 3000 for about $280. Is that a good buy. I know it doesnt have all the sound features of other players but im only going to be listening through headphones so dont need 7.1 etc.

Basically can I get a cheap one like that and still have a good picture compared to a much dearer one for both Blu-Ray and DVD. Seeing alot of what im watching is on DVD will it scale picture better than a stand alone DVD player.

I dont want to spend over $300.

If it helps the TV its going on is a 3 month old Series 6 32" LCD Samsung.

Nety

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Reply # 303599 2-Mar-2010 11:17

First off any bluray player will play DVD's. Blurays will look better then DVD regardless of the quality of the bluray player however a high quality upscaling DVD player may well do better job of upscaling DVD's then a cheap bluray player. I would say that the benefits of having a bluray player even a cheap one far outweigh any loss of upscaling you might have.

The Warehouse currently have bluray players for $200 but as yet I have not heard of anyone getting one so there is no way of knowing if it is any good.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

bbunnys

306 posts

Ultimate Geek
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Reply # 303600 2-Mar-2010 11:18

yea i saw that warehouse one but not sure if I trust transonic over philips

NZCoderGuy

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Kiwi Dev Studios

Reply # 303607 2-Mar-2010 11:35

The funny thing is, alot of the cheaper players (Transonic etc) sometimes actually contain the better manufacturer components.. I remember picking up a DVD player from Aussie, some wierd chinese brand - but it actually had phillips components inside! .. the same thing happens with LCD/Plasma tv's..

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Zippity

650 posts

Ultimate Geek
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Reply # 303611 2-Mar-2010 11:42

Remember - you get what you pay for.

Cheaper is not always better.

Save your pennies or get a PS3

Kiwipixter

246 posts

Master Geek
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Reply # 303613 2-Mar-2010 12:08

For $343 you can get a Panasonic at JBhifi, http://www.jbhifi.co.nz/home-theatre/blu-ray-players/

can't beat that.

Nety

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Reply # 303643 2-Mar-2010 13:03

Zippity: Remember - you get what you pay for.

Cheaper is not always better.

Save your pennies or get a PS3

Sometimes and just sometimes that rule does not apply..

http://www.audioenz.co.nz/2003/mizuda_331k.shtml

I was one of the lucky people that brought one of the above DVD players. It failed within a week and was sent away for repairs. Arrived back a couple of days after that and never missed a beat from that day on. Eventually many years later I sold it on trademe. It was still going strong but I had moved to a PVR.

70mm

80 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 303685 2-Mar-2010 14:53

bbunnys: Im looking for some advise. I was going to get a DVD player that upscaled with HDMI as im on a budget but see you can get Bly-Ray players quite cheap now.

I see you can get the Philips BDP 3000 for about $280. Is that a good buy. I know it doesnt have all the sound features of other players but im only going to be listening through headphones so dont need 7.1 etc.

Basically can I get a cheap one like that and still have a good picture compared to a much dearer one for both Blu-Ray and DVD. Seeing alot of what im watching is on DVD will it scale picture better than a stand alone DVD player.

I dont want to spend over $300.

If it helps the TV its going on is a 3 month old Series 6 32" LCD Samsung.

Most Blu-ray players reproduce a similar image, but what they dont do is reproduce standard DVD so well. The ones that produces a great image on DVD and BD are few and far between but they do exisit!

Your screen size is small at 32" so really a cheaper player will work well for you anyway. When you have a large display of say 50" or more, or a projector a Blu-ray player with good upscaling for DVD's is really required unless you dont care about DVD's anymore. Then in this case a cheap BD player will probably sufice.

ilovemusic

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Reply # 303737 2-Mar-2010 17:20

Kiwipixter: For $343 you can get a Panasonic at JBhifi, http://www.jbhifi.co.nz/home-theatre/blu-ray-players/

can't beat that.

For just over $100 more Harvey Norman will sell you the better performing BD80 for $449.

ageorge

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Reply # 566216 8-Jan-2012 19:40

Blu-ray Toshiba low end is sub $100 now and other models are around $125.
Prices dropping like a stone!
Al.