Dvd Player Advice

[nikster]

I know, a DVD player is a rather mundane device. You'd think any will be good enough. But my current LG player is proof that this isn't so - it has problems with any DVD that's not perfectly balanced or has uneven print on top. Sometimes it just doesn't like DVDs that play fine in other players. It seems that the drive in the player is just not very good about keeping the DVD stable and centered, there's too much play.

Can anyone recommend a brand/make?

- Region free

- Reads anything - DVDs with bad print jobs on top, scratched DVDs, VCDs...

- Good picture quality

- Digital or component out for connection to a LCD TV

- Reasonable remote layout, remote can be operated in the dark. Just mentioning b/c I had a Family(?) player where play/pause were the exact same size and shape as the other 98 buttons so pushing pause one had to turn on the lights and search for the right button.

What's good out there?

[clubsiam]

Denon 3910 is an outstanding machine.

It can play music as well as DVD.

[Etrigan]

SOKEN - Current one has lasted for years.

[tigerbeer]

keep away from LG players. bloody strict on the kinds of dvd's u play. my recommendation is ELZE from any Big-C with DIVX/MPEG4 and USB input. about 1,500 Baht. Then use torrents to download your favorite programming and watch 5-6 divx movies in a single burn of DVD .

[ballbreaker]

I like my current Soken its been working for over a year.

[chevykanteve]

keep away from LG players. bloody strict on the kinds of dvd's u play. my recommendation is ELZE from any Big-C with DIVX/MPEG4 and USB input. about 1,500 Baht. Then use torrents to download your favorite programming and watch 5-6 divx movies in a single burn of DVD .

You mean I can download a divx movie into a handydrive, plug the handydrive into the USB input of he ELZE and watch a movie?? Possible?

[whatsupdoc]

From my experience Pioneer and Philips play just about everything. Better stay away from Sony DVD products (the ones I owned didn't last very long and were quite choosy in playing or not playing certain DVD's).

[dthomasss]

keep away from LG players. bloody strict on the kinds of dvd's u play. my recommendation is ELZE from any Big-C with DIVX/MPEG4 and USB input. about 1,500 Baht. Then use torrents to download your favorite programming and watch 5-6 divx movies in a single burn of DVD .

You mean I can download a divx movie into a handydrive, plug the handydrive into the USB input of he ELZE and watch a movie?? Possible?

or you can burn 5-6 movies as data files on a dvd... Downloaded movies (torrents) are avi files, which is divx.. No need to encode the videos if your dvd player handles divx...

[nikster]

keep away from LG players. bloody strict on the kinds of dvd's u play. my recommendation is ELZE from any Big-C with DIVX/MPEG4 and USB input. about 1,500 Baht. Then use torrents to download your favorite programming and watch 5-6 divx movies in a single burn of DVD .

You mean I can download a divx movie into a handydrive, plug the handydrive into the USB input of he ELZE and watch a movie?? Possible?

or you can burn 5-6 movies as data files on a dvd... Downloaded movies (torrents) are avi files, which is divx.. No need to encode the videos if your dvd player handles divx...

Yeah but using a USB stick would just be so much slicker. Not to mention you'd save all those DVDs and thereby save the planet. Is that possible with that ELZE? That would be awesome.

Thanks for the responses so far guys!

I don't really know why I would want to have an upscaling DVD player?! My Samsung LCD TV does an absolutely stunning job of upscaling DVDs already, I don't think a DVD player could do any better. Edit: Well maybe upscaling is the wrong word as it gets the 5-cable component analog input - but it does an amazing job of getting the most out of it in any case. DVDs have never looked this good.

It's a 32" 720p set... I also have it hooked up to UBC Satellite now for the first time and it's doing an amazing job of upscaling the TV as well - it looks exactly like a large analog TV, there are no artifacts whatsoever. The times when there was horrible pixelation when upscaling analog TV seems to be gone for good.

HD will be awesome if and when it it becomes affordable... looks so much better. But it's currently only an option for enthusiasts, I think.

Edited December 12, 2007 by nikster

[sniffdog]

For the last year I've used a LG DK142 with DIVX/XVID capability. Not a single problem ... have been using DVD-R, dvds from Pantip and original copies.

But since I bought a FOCUS player (China made, 850 baht) with USB, I stopped using it. I like the USB option so much ..... watch it and erase ..... I use a 4Gig

USB stick .... not always great (the sound is sometimes not synchronized with the visual, it lags a little but can be solved by buffering (pausing it for 3 seconds)).

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Is that possible with that ELZE? That would be awesome.

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As he said, the ELZE has also a USB option.

Edited December 12, 2007 by sniffdog

[nikster]

Guys, thanks so much for the advice. Especially that tidbit about the USB port!

I got a Pioneer for 4000 baht. Features:

- USB

- HDMI - on the off chance that I get some HD content over the USB

- DivX, Xvid, etc - plays "everything"

sniffdog, I agree, being able to play from USB is absolutely brilliant. Go from download straight to USB -> T. I have only tried it with the USB stick so far, but in theory this should work just as well with a hard disk.

[LivinLOS]

Guys, thanks so much for the advice. Especially that tidbit about the USB port!

I got a Pioneer for 4000 baht. Features:

- USB

- HDMI - on the off chance that I get some HD content over the USB

- DivX, Xvid, etc - plays "everything"

sniffdog, I agree, being able to play from USB is absolutely brilliant. Go from download straight to USB -> T. I have only tried it with the USB stick so far, but in theory this should work just as well with a hard disk.

Hmm.. 'Plays everything' ?!?!? Does it play h264 hidef encodes ??

I would spring for a player that played them nicely.. Especially a networked player but can work around that via USB / portable hard disk / Etc..

My xbox360 now plays divx etc but wont play the H264 hidef stuff of which there is now lots online..

[tigerbeer]

Guys, thanks so much for the advice. Especially that tidbit about the USB port!

I got a Pioneer for 4000 baht. Features:

- USB

- HDMI - on the off chance that I get some HD content over the USB

- DivX, Xvid, etc - plays "everything"

sniffdog, I agree, being able to play from USB is absolutely brilliant. Go from download straight to USB -> T. I have only tried it with the USB stick so far, but in theory this should work just as well with a hard disk.

Hmm.. 'Plays everything' ?!?!? Does it play h264 hidef encodes ??

I would spring for a player that played them nicely.. Especially a networked player but can work around that via USB / portable hard disk / Etc..

My xbox360 now plays divx etc but wont play the H264 hidef stuff of which there is now lots online..

Not sure about h264. h264 needs a fast processor to work. not sure if the chepo players can handle the codec. you might want to take a movie to the shop where you buy the player and test it. Some mp3 audios (with high bitrare) however that come with the movies do not play. but very rare. safest bet is ac3 audio which the player handles well. movie downloads from torrents etc are standard and tested to work on most divx/mpeg4 players. if a movie's audio does not work , you can simply use SUPER converter (freeware) to convert audio part from mp3 to ac3. leave the video as it is. then copy to your USB and there you are. 4gig flash drives can be bought below 1000 baht these days. i however archive my movies on dvd's. like someone mentioned about 5 to 6 movies on a disc . that too high quality!

Edited December 19, 2007 by tigerbeer

[LivinLOS]

Guys, thanks so much for the advice. Especially that tidbit about the USB port!

I got a Pioneer for 4000 baht. Features:

- USB

- HDMI - on the off chance that I get some HD content over the USB

- DivX, Xvid, etc - plays "everything"

sniffdog, I agree, being able to play from USB is absolutely brilliant. Go from download straight to USB -> T. I have only tried it with the USB stick so far, but in theory this should work just as well with a hard disk.

Hmm.. 'Plays everything' ?!?!? Does it play h264 hidef encodes ??

I would spring for a player that played them nicely.. Especially a networked player but can work around that via USB / portable hard disk / Etc..

My xbox360 now plays divx etc but wont play the H264 hidef stuff of which there is now lots online..

Not sure about h264. h264 needs a fast processor to work. not sure if the chepo players can handle the codec. you might want to take a movie to the shop where you buy the player and test it. Some mp3 audios (with high bitrare) however that come with the movies do not play. but very rare. safest bet is ac3 audio which the player handles well. movie downloads from torrents etc are standard and tested to work on most divx/mpeg4 players. if a movie's audio does not work , you can simply use SUPER converter (freeware) to convert audio part from mp3 to ac3. leave the video as it is. then copy to your USB and there you are. 4gig flash drives can be bought below 1000 baht these days. i however archive my movies on dvd's. like someone mentioned about 5 to 6 movies on a disc . that too high quality!

I will have a hunt.. h264 is very processor intensive but obviously you can do a lot more with dedicated silicon than you can with software emulation.. Sigma have hidef chips on the market. The xbox360 now plays some h264 but annoyingly not 5.1 (from my testing).. And re-encoding hidef takes days on my PC.

I have no interest in standard def stuff.. have hardware players, the HTPC, and the xbox all able to play and or stream the low def content around.. My only interest in another player would be to play all this hidef content thats now out there. I could just rebuild the HTPC to a faster processor but have just had a house move, this place is temporary, and as such I havent got my projector and stuff going here, feels a waste to go to all the HTPC work just for the hidef files.

I will keep playing..

[ricklev]

I'm very happy with the 990 baht Elze DVD player I bought at Big C for 990 Baht. Haven't met a file yet that couldn't be played and the USB port is great.

[LivinLOS]

I'm very happy with the 990 baht Elze DVD player I bought at Big C for 990 Baht. Haven't met a file yet that couldn't be played and the USB port is great.

And have you tried h264 files ??

I will lay dollars to doughnuts it wont. .

[ricklev]

I'm sure it doesn't and I don't have any idea what an h264 file is.

[LivinLOS]

Its a video standard..

Like xvid / Divx but better..

[britmaveric]

Coby is impressive - play practically everything. Arent temperamental like the well known brands.

[StrongView]

Asano DVD players with USB port (plays Xvid AVI's for sure...others I haven't tested) for sale @ Tesco (Chaengwattana branch...but most likely others) for 790 Baht. I bought one and was very happy with it...so I went back and bought three more.