On My 5th Dvd Player! Rahh! 3rd Camera! Grhh!

[CLASBYCLAN]

Sorry to rant, but, I am sick of buying, changing new cameras and DVD players! I just got my 5th DVD player today from Carrefour and halfway through a movie paused, then it wouldn't play again, now it won't play anything! So frustrating!! Why is all the electrical equipment I buy here so sxxt and where have you purchased a good DVD player from?!

[Donnyboy]

Sorry to rant, but, I am sick of buying, changing new cameras and DVD players! I just got my 5th DVD player today from Carrefour and halfway through a movie paused, then it wouldn't play again, now it won't play anything! So frustrating!! Why is all the electrical equipment I buy here so sxxt and where have you purchased a good DVD player from?!

we have owned our sony dvd player for about 3 years which we use occassionally, and still working, was expensive compared to the other brands , names that im not familiar with but most likely made in china ( sonica? missle? ) but probably wouldnt be as durable. You also may have difficulties playing fake dvds in some players.

I have also wondered about the quality of supply of electricity that we get here in Thailand, ie voltage spikes that may affect electronic equipment

[basjke]

No offence meant but may I ask if you buy brandnames like samsung,lg or sony or do you buy chinese products.If the latter it's not without reason that most of those products have a warranty of 7 days.

[CLASBYCLAN]

Yes, I have to admit that I have been drawn towards the "promo" items, cheaper brands! It's a catch 22, I have little people who are in the habbit of destroying things in my home, so I try to buy the cheaper products, but a DVD player not working after one movie is pretty lame! Also, after the frustrastion of my camera's not working I got a sony cybershot from tesco's, now also not working!!

At least they exchange things here, but I'd still rather just have equipment that works!

[mcgriffith]

Not sure if this would help...but do you power your electronics, i.e. computers, sound systems, televisions, etc. with a power cord that is "surge-protected"?

Lots of voltage spikes all the time here on the electrical grid. Maybe you saw as I did the huge lightning strikes in the last few days around KSK/Central, as well.

Go to IT City, or Panthip, or Tops, or Tesco....where ever.

Attach all your electronics that are delicate, and can be fried, with a surge-protected power strip. They usually come with a 3 prong plug designed to connect with properly grounded wiring. If not grounded, you can remove the ground connector on the plug, and still have a measure of protection re: voltage spikes/surges, etc.

Hope this helps.

[Dustoff]

Another very common problem here is that when someone returns defective merchandise, the shops very carefully box it back up and put it right back on the shelf for the next unsuspecting customer. This happened to me several times untill I finally learned to take a very close look at the packaging for any sign whatsoever that it has been opened previously. Most stores like Tesco (I would never buy electronics there) will open the product 'to show you that it works' but that only shows you that it will work for one minute and it also prevents you from seeing if the box has been previously opened.

There are a multitude of other possibilities like having 'little people' around who scratch and grunge your dvd's. If you put a really dirty dvd into your player and any of that grunge gets on the player's lens, you have shut yourself down. Cheap copied dvd's are also not always a bargain and you have already indicated that you go for cheap.

Training the gremlins may also be worth considering.

I purchase most of my electronics at Siam TV and have never had a problem with them.

[cmjantje]

I agree with you Dustoff. Happened to me several times also. From now, when I buy equipment, I only want the one I can open Myself.. About guarantee here in Thailand? Many times it ends as soon as you leave the shop.

Edited June 17, 2009 by cmjantje

[lioness]

Whenever I buy anything new, my first question is where is it made? if it's made in China I don't buy. I have found from past experience that quite often the goods are inferior and don't last.

[jackr]

Cheap crap coupled high humidity, knock-off DVDs, naff two-pin plugs 'n sockets, and severe spikes and troughs in the supply does not a good combination make. When buying a surge protector, don't waste money on a cheapie; buy branded and make sure it has a high joule rating and fast response time.

[jackr]

Whenever I buy anything new, my first question is where is it made? if it's made in China I don't buy. I have found from past experience that quite often the goods are inferior and don't last.

Yep, same here. Eventually the world will wake up to this and the Chinese will all of sudden be back in the doldrums.

[NancyL]

The problem of lightening strikes frying electrical equipment isn't unique to Thailand. We had lightening strike our little retail store in the States one afternoon. It was the loudest noise I'd ever heard and we soon smelled melting electrical wire. Anything plugged into the electrical system in the store was fried. We were just lucky we didn't have a fire. Amazingly, it was one of the smallest, lowest buildings on the property.

Since then, we always unplug anything valuable at night or when we aren't home and the first thing we do when we are home and see lightening is to unplug everything we don't care to lose. Yes, we have some good surge protectors, but some of the stuff we lost in our store was plugged into a surge protector, too.

Oh, and like other posters, I've found the cheap electrical items to be worthless here. Better to go for brands you recognize. We buy most items at Central Dept Store, mainly because they have a good selection, are very close to home and we've become "regulars", so it seems that the staff recognizes us. It's not the cheapest place, but they've stood behind their stuff and made special efforts in ordering, delivery and set-up.

[lukeskywalker]

I bought a DVD player for 550 baht and it's been working fine for well over a year. But, I don't really use the DVD tray very much. What I use in the USB plug. I download movies (torrents), put them on my USB stick, plug it into my DVD player, and then watch the movie as if it's playing off a DVD (but it's playing directly of my USB stick.) It's fantastic!!!

Unless there is some crazy specific feature you need, you should buy the cheapest DVD player you can find.

[Donnyboy]

Whenever I buy anything new, my first question is where is it made? if it's made in China I don't buy. I have found from past experience that quite often the goods are inferior and don't last.

not all things made in china re bad, ipods are assembled in china

[Donnyboy]

Whenever I buy anything new, my first question is where is it made? if it's made in China I don't buy. I have found from past experience that quite often the goods are inferior and don't last.

Yep, same here. Eventually the world will wake up to this and the Chinese will all of sudden be back in the doldrums.

i wouldnt think that would happen anytime soon esp when the likes of walmart are still open, and an ever increasing urban class, i think theres over 400 million mobile phones in china!!. my guess is that china will be again growing faster than most once the world comes out of recession, even their car industry is in growth mode when the likes of GM et al are are about to die~ not that i would buy a chinese made car yet!!

thailand needs to continue to tap into the china market.....now, if only the chinese eat somtum

[Ulysses G.]

I hate to say this, but when I was a youngster, we used to laugh at anything made in Japan - we thought that it was all junk. Look what happened with them!

Edited June 18, 2009 by Ulysses G.

[meadish_sweetball]

Agree with UG.

Most major electronics manufacturers produce in China. For a reason.

Buying no-name brands from China is still taking a risk though, but the more quality control permeates, the more people will break with their overseas partners and found their own companies doing the same thing, taking with them the know-how they got from working for Sony, Apple, Pioneer, Samsung or whatever... and they will probably be able to do it at a more reduced cost, too.

[Beacher]

I bought a DVD player for 550 baht and it's been working fine for well over a year. But, I don't really use the DVD tray very much. What I use in the USB plug. I download movies (torrents), put them on my USB stick, plug it into my DVD player, and then watch the movie as if it's playing off a DVD (but it's playing directly of my USB stick.) It's fantastic!!!

Unless there is some crazy specific feature you need, you should buy the cheapest DVD player you can find.

That's interesting and exactly the type of thing I'm looking for. Most of the movies and TV shows I DL are AVI or MPG4 format. Will your cheapo DVD player handle those formats?

Edited June 18, 2009 by Beacher

[ASHTONITE]

I bought a SONY DVD player from POWER BUY... 3 years now and still works great... never a problem.

Also bought an LG from the Mall...

Now... with the cheaper models... you have to be careful about the laser etc... when you play a lot of PIRATE DVD's it create's problems with the laser and it will stop working from time to time.

if you buy a GOOD quality brand... they will upgrade the laser for free :-) sometimes you get what you pay for :-P

[CLASBYCLAN]

Thank you for your very interesting responses. I took the Cybershot back to Tesco and they told me to go to the Sony Repair Centre in Hang Dong, I did and a very handsome (well, you guys are allways commenting on the attractivness of the ladies!) man told me that the camera was fine but my memory stick had a virus, he was right. Took my cheap DVD player back to Carrefour who kindly exchanged it, for another cheap DVD player!!

I nearly have enough points on my Rimping card for a sony handycam! Whoop! Whoop!

[Jungian]

You get what you pay for. Those cheap DVD players are hit and miss, I buy them for my children as they tend to trash them. If you take it back to Carrefour they will replace it for you. I had one I sent out on warranty and it did not work after they sent it back so I sent it back again oddly enough that piece of crap has been working great for the past 2 years now.

[jackr]

What I use in the USB plug. I download movies (torrents), put them on my USB stick, plug it into my DVD player, and then watch the movie as if it's playing off a DVD (but it's playing directly of my USB stick.) It's fantastic!!!

Mine plugs right into the TV

[AbelMagwitch]

I have an 'ELZE' from Tesco. We have used it for about 3 years and that includes taking it with us on holiday, not to enjoy the beach of course, and it it still works fine.

In the bedroom we have one of those Samsung tv/dvd packages from Tesco, which also works very well.

I used to work for a company that dealt with electronics and I saw trucks loaded with Hitachi and Philips tvs all of which were faulty. The guys used to tell me that they saw far less Sony or Toshiba stuff.

[Ulysses G.]

What I use in the USB plug. I download movies (torrents), put them on my USB stick, plug it into my DVD player, and then watch the movie as if it's playing off a DVD (but it's playing directly of my USB stick.) It's fantastic!!!

Mine plugs right into the TV

Does it have to be a very advanced TV with a special plug or will the average TV work. Any idea approx how many movies will fit on a USB stick?

[Greenside]

I bought a DVD player for 550 baht and it's been working fine for well over a year. But, I don't really use the DVD tray very much. What I use in the USB plug. I download movies (torrents), put them on my USB stick, plug it into my DVD player, and then watch the movie as if it's playing off a DVD (but it's playing directly of my USB stick.) It's fantastic!!!

Unless there is some crazy specific feature you need, you should buy the cheapest DVD player you can find.

That's interesting and exactly the type of thing I'm looking for. Most of the movies and TV shows I DL are AVI or MPG4 format. Will your cheapo DVD player handle those formats?

They all say what formats are supported on the box or on the front panel stickers. The important formats are DivX and MP4 and they're not hard to find. By the way, avoid models with a USB port on the side or in some other awkward location and use a decent quality USB Drive - I have a cheaper no-name one that doesn't seem to work as well as my Acer.

[Bill97]

Any idea approx how many movies will fit on a USB stick?

How long is a rope? USB sticks have many different capacities. Like from 1 to 128 GB. UBS

[lukeskywalker]

FYI and a little off topic...

Yesterday I bought a 42 inch Samsung Plasma LCD TV...i'm very excited to say the least!

Cost was 24,990..I compared shopped quite a bit and this was a good price. Also, free delivery and set-up.

Everytime I walk into my living room now I'm filled with glee!! It's a beautiful pic.

Does anyone know if UBC ever intends on trasmitting in HD?

[lukeskywalker]

Any idea approx how many movies will fit on a USB stick?

How long is a rope? USB sticks have many different capacities. Like from 1 to 128 GB. UBS

They have 16GB USB drives now for only 1200 baht. A typical movie (.avi file) is from 700-1.3 MB. So you can get quite a few...I have only a 4 GB drive and I can put at least 4 movies on it.

I'll never rent or buy a video again.

[bojo]

One might argue that this is a paranoid response to the OP's post. However it is one that most likely cannot be proven. However.....

I have bought expensive brand name electrical equipment as have friends and it amazes me how many times they are faulty/sub standard either just after purchase or within an unreasonable time fame that one just doesn't experience in the west or maybe other more sophisticated countries in the east. UPS surge protectors aside as I use them, it has occured to me in the past that when electrical products are graded at the factory for defects, that it could possibly be manufacturers policy to send low grade products to Thailand.

Since most Thai's live by the 'mai pen rai' attitude and really don't like confrontation especially when it comes to the return of products,(and I'm sure manufacturers are aware of this- know your market theory and so on) it wouldn't surprise me that quite often, more than the average shoddy goods end up on the shelves here in the Kingdom.

Food for thought

Regards Bojo

[Donnyboy]

FYI and a little off topic...

Yesterday I bought a 42 inch Samsung Plasma LCD TV...i'm very excited to say the least!

Cost was 24,990..I compared shopped quite a bit and this was a good price. Also, free delivery and set-up.

Everytime I walk into my living room now I'm filled with glee!! It's a beautiful pic.

Does anyone know if UBC ever intends on trasmitting in HD?

wow~ great price, they have certainly come down in price over the last couple of years. Saw our model in Carrefour recently for 1/3 of the price we paid 2.5 years ago

im sure ubc will have HD one day, will be just a matter of time and cost.

A few friends back home have HD pay tv and definately looks good when they have the live sports on

[lukeskywalker]

FYI and a little off topic...

Yesterday I bought a 42 inch Samsung Plasma LCD TV...i'm very excited to say the least!

Cost was 24,990..I compared shopped quite a bit and this was a good price. Also, free delivery and set-up.

Everytime I walk into my living room now I'm filled with glee!! It's a beautiful pic.

Does anyone know if UBC ever intends on trasmitting in HD?

wow~ great price, they have certainly come down in price over the last couple of years. Saw our model in Carrefour recently for 1/3 of the price we paid 2.5 years ago

im sure ubc will have HD one day, will be just a matter of time and cost.

A few friends back home have HD pay tv and definately looks good when they have the live sports on

I forgot to mention that I bought the TV at Siam TV. A Thai person drove me there so I can't tell anyone where it is. I know it inside the moat however. They had a lot of good prices. I looked over Carrefour many times and Siam TV beat them hands down. Same day delivery and professional installation.