Best DVD player iwth USB

[moserw]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to this excellent thread and thanks to illusion, I have finalized on LG DV 388. Unfortunately, its not yet available in Goa and I have to wait for some more days. I want to use it with my 22" LG30R which has 1080p (on 1680x1080).

I had some basic questions regarding 1080 resolution that are not very clear to me even after going through a number of threads:

Is the HDMI resolution (1080p) available only through HDMI cable? If yes, then what max resolution will I get if I connect LG 388 to the TV using component cable?

I have connected very old DVD Player, Philips 625K and it gives me the PAL resoultion (576i) using component cable when I watch DVDs. I guess that is because the output of the 625K is PAL-DVD.

I want to know whether to go for HDMI cable if it is not bundled. Can anyone also tell me the average cost of HDMI cable?

Thanks in advance!

The LG will upscale to 1080p, but only with an HDMI cable. Decent cables start from Rs. 1500 or so, but not really sure about the Rs. 300 variety. There are contrasting views about the cables. Read somewhere that HDMI cables only carry data so even the cheapest will do, but then I ran into a post that says HDMI from ver. 1.3 onwards has doubled the amount of data that can be carried so you will need a cable that is ver. 1.3 compliant or else the cable will be obsolete with the newer generation of ver. 1.3 h/w.

Might be someone else can add to this...

 

[echo77]

I got LG HDMI cable bundled with LG 388 player. The showroom guy told that it costs around Rs.1000. but local brands are availble for Rs.300 it seems.
I am not sure, though, my opinion is you have to use HDMI cable to get the max resolution at 1080P. Waiting for some other's answer with more details.

Thanks for your response, Kaverao.
A couple of questions regarding price & quality of cable:
Could I know what was the cost of LG388 with HDMI cable bundled? I want to know what type of discount they can provide with and without the bundle. Also, what was the quality/make of the bundled HDMI cable?

Thanks!

 

[echo77]

The LG will upscale to 1080p, but only with an HDMI cable. Decent cables start from Rs. 1500 or so, but not really sure about the Rs. 300 variety. There are contrasting views about the cables. Read somewhere that HDMI cables only carry data so even the cheapest will do, but then I ran into a post that says HDMI from ver. 1.3 onwards has doubled the amount of data that can be carried so you will need a cable that is ver. 1.3 compliant or else the cable will be obsolete with the newer generation of ver. 1.3 h/w.

Might be someone else can add to this...

Thanks, moserw!
So it looks like I will need HDMI cable for 1080p. Lets wait for someone to respond on max resolution using component cable.

 

[moserw]

Thanks, moserw!
So it looks like I will need HDMI cable for 1080p. Lets wait for someone to respond on max resolution using component cable.

Echo,

Using component video cable it will upscale to a max of 480p for SD DVDs which will also apply to DivX content, and this is limited/dictated by Hollywood for copyright protection. Full upscaling to 1080p is possible only via HDMI cable.

 

[anooj30299301]

Hi,

Just wanted to update, especially Hyd guys. We've been hearing abt MX cables in this form and elsewhere too. i got two of them in Gujrathi Galli, Hyderbad, where their main distributor is located.

but sadly, he cn get you only canles that support upto 720p, 1080i. he is got a poster advertising MX 1080p cle made specialy for PS3 & HDTV. Been thrice and returned two I bought for Rs 500 each.

Well he is excited abt 1080p which in unablw to source and has asked me to check back in 2 weeks. will keep posted.
Anooj.

PS: Went to buy for my neighbour's PS3 and it is unable to push through 1080p content. other work beautifully. he bught a DAc for thrice the price. mx was gold plated too.
No to discuss in this thread but surprisingly his PS3 reads NTSc great but o PAL ones.

 

[kaverao]

Echo77, I bought the pack of LG388 from TOTAL mall- Bangalore. for Rs.3790. They had no idea if it includes HDMI cbl or not. but to my surprise, it was there.
But i inquired the price of same model in PAI INTL. They said that its w/o cable and prc is 3600. may be they were right, they were giving the cable+DVD player free on buying 32" LCD TV.
Once you buy the DVD player package, confirm if it has HDMI cable and then only buy that. I have 2 cables now. one came free with LCDTV and another with DVD. thanks to LG it has 2 HDMI ports so i can use the 2nd with another device.

 

[echo77]

Thanks for the info, Kaverao and Moserw!

 

[Dushie]

HI all

Latest update ...

Asked a friend who knows a LG dealer to check out the prices of the same back home in Delhi, was surprised when he offered to get it for me for Rs 2800, everywhere in bangalore i tried the best offer i got for the player was for rs 3600.

so i asked my friend to pick it up from Delhi and get it to Bangalore, as at this price i think its worth it,i feel this one is without a hdmi cable, i already have one that came with samsung so i can use it ...

Will be getting the player by this weekend, will update on the findings then -

The low cost made me drop my decision to buy 5996 , now keeping my fingers crossed.

Next step will be to partition my hdd into fat 32 and check out the compatability

 

[illusion]

HI all

Latest update ...

Asked a friend who knows a LG dealer to check out the prices of the same back home in Delhi, was surprised when he offered to get it for me for Rs 2800, everywhere in bangalore i tried the best offer i got for the player was for rs 3600.

so i asked my friend to pick it up from Delhi and get it to Bangalore, as at this price i think its worth it,i feel this one is without a hdmi cable, i already have one that came with samsung so i can use it ...

Will be getting the player by this weekend, will update on the findings then -

The low cost made me drop my decision to buy 5996 , now keeping my fingers crossed.

Next step will be to partition my hdd into fat 32 and check out the compatability

Cool! way to go ! I too picked up my lg dv 388 for Rs 3600 /- in KOL with HDMI cable . I am yet to use the cable as currently I am using Sony HDMI cable which came with my Sony DVD Player ( Paid Rs 6k for it around a year ago). No complaints yet.
However sometimes I do miss the equalizer option which was there in philips for audio

 

[kaverao]

wow! this is a gr8 news and gr8 price for LG. I love LG for the features they give which are value for money .

 

[dirtyBlueJeans]

Advice to members of this forum: DON'T BUY SAMSUNG 1080PK.

I've already made the mistake, and in the week that I've had the Samsung, I've been totally disgusted:

1) They took two days to find how to unlock it (a Samsung engineer had come to do it).
2) The USB works erratically. Then it stopped working.
3) Power off and power on are also erratic!!! Yes, you read that right, the unit 'hangs', and you can't switch it off. Then you have to pull the plug out to reset it.
4) It stopped recognizing discs. At this point, it was playing neither discs nor USB.
5) Now the unit doesn't even switch on. I've been waiting for 4 days for a Samsung engineer (they sent one yesterday, who said he's only there to demo the product to me - I told him to show me how to switch the damn thing on, and he couldn't do it because it's "dead").

Some days ago, a (newbie?) engineer visited me and tried to give me really crazy explanations to why things weren't working - basically, all the above were 'software problems at my end'. He couldn't explain any further.

I've NEVER, in my entire electronics-buying life, ever had to face such issues with anything. This is really crazy. I have other Samsung products which I was very happy with (ACs), but this has completely destroyed their rep in my view.

So, guys, narrow your choice down to either LG DV388 or Philips 5996. Also, will greatly appreciate it if someone can tell me where I can get it cheap in Delhi (preferably south delhi). I will need to buy one of these after I take care of the damned Samsung.

 

[phantom76]

So, guys, narrow your choice down to either LG DV388 or Philips 1080PK. Also, will greatly appreciate it if someone can tell me where I can get it cheap in Delhi (preferably south delhi). I will need to buy one of these after I take care of the damned Samsung.

I can make out that you are really sick of that Samsung now. You meant Philips 5996, isnt it?

 

[illusion]

Advice to members of this forum: DON'T BUY SAMSUNG 1080PK.

I've already made the mistake, and in the week that I've had the Samsung, I've been totally disgusted:

1) They took two days to find how to unlock it (a Samsung engineer had come to do it).
2) The USB works erratically. Then it stopped working.
3) Power off and power on are also erratic!!! Yes, you read that right, the unit 'hangs', and you can't switch it off. Then you have to pull the plug out to reset it.
4) It stopped recognizing discs. At this point, it was playing neither discs nor USB.
5) Now the unit doesn't even switch on. I've been waiting for 4 days for a Samsung engineer (they sent one yesterday, who said he's only there to demo the product to me - I told him to show me how to switch the damn thing on, and he couldn't do it because it's "dead").

Some days ago, a (newbie?) engineer visited me and tried to give me really crazy explanations to why things weren't working - basically, all the above were 'software problems at my end'. He couldn't explain any further.

I've NEVER, in my entire electronics-buying life, ever had to face such issues with anything. This is really crazy. I have other Samsung products which I was very happy with (ACs), but this has completely destroyed their rep in my view.

So, guys, narrow your choice down to either LG DV388 or Philips 1080PK. Also, will greatly appreciate it if someone can tell me where I can get it cheap in Delhi (preferably south delhi). I will need to buy one of these after I take care of the damned Samsung.

Whoa hold on there !!! It is really sad to hear about a brand new dvd player performing like that . I mean one is bound to feel bad because I believe that we belong to a group of budget buyers who want the best out of the market and thus do immense research for the same . For example if you see the number of hits and the replies posted in this thread you will know for yourself that our requirements/expectations is some of the most common requirements/expectations from a dvd player and hence any person who come across this thread does peek into this thread atleast once to peruse the discussion going on currently.

I think you were unlucky to be stuck with a lemon !! However please dont lose heart . I would suggest you to go to the shop and press for a replacement . I am 100% sure that your next Samsung 1080pk will serve you well . Please dont start looking for options just yet. If you have decided on Samsung 1080 pk then you should stick to it . Just my three cents.

 

[illusion]

wow! this is a gr8 news and gr8 price for LG. I love LG for the features they give which are value for money .

Lg is strongly trying to push into the DVD player segment and is very aggressive in its approach. The dealer told me that they are being offered pretty high commission as compared to the other dvd plyers per model. So i asked him that what if the people whome you sell are not satisfied with their product and demand for a replacement ? He said that he has sold many units and is yet to receive a complaint . But they all say that - as he himself said that he is getting higher commission but again that depends upon dealer to dealer. Anyways till now all is well. Lets see the life span of the player which is a big question mark now ! Only time will tell i guess !

 

[moserw]

Lg is strongly trying to push into the DVD player segment and is very aggressive in its approach. The dealer told me that they are being offered pretty high commission as compared to the other dvd plyers per model. So i asked him that what if the people whome you sell are not satisfied with their product and demand for a replacement ? He said that he has sold many units and is yet to receive a complaint . But they all say that - as he himself said that he is getting higher commission but again that depends upon dealer to dealer. Anyways till now all is well. Lets see the life span of the player which is a big question mark now ! Only time will tell i guess !

illusion,

I totally agree with you. Salesmen are really pushy i.e. trying to promote products they get more comission for and sadly most of them are even lacking in knowledge and give wrong information to prospective customers. I have always relied on online reviews and checking out the technical specs of the product via the internet and making up the decision at home itself and then end up going to have a physical demo of the product. This way I know what I am looking for and am aware of the pros and the cons of the prospective products and also its competitors. This makes sure I am not fed wrong information by the salesperson (even though they try).

Coming to electronic goods (and this is my personal experience so I hope I don't offend anyone), I have found Korean products from LG/Samsung never to be on par with the Japanese products from Sony/Panasonic/JVC/Hitachi and even a Dutch company like Philips makes better products IMHO. I am speaking this from personal experience having Korean electronic consumer products die on me just after a couple of years, but Japanese products lasting years and years on end.

I do agree Sony is pretty intrusive and paranoid about piracy and anti-hacking measures are incorporated into its products. Tell me about it since it took me so long (a couple of years after purchase) to make my Sony DVP NS50P DVD player region free, but yet the Sony is still running without even a single problem to date (heck even the batteries in the remote have lasted this long without any problems). With LG and Samsung I have had drive problems, disc reading problems (which turned out to be laser related) and many other minor problems. In fact most products just stopped working after the warranty period for me and for my friends too so this is not really an isolated incident. In fact me and my friends have sworn off Korean products because of this. Even recently when shopping for an LCD/Plasma TV, the LGs and Samsung's were no comparision for the Panasonic and Hitachi models we saw. Sony too was good, but way overpriced in its Bravia segment. Once again this is my personal opinion from my own personal experience so please do not get offended.

I believe we buy products more than anything for them to last and give us years of service. Agreed technology upgrades very quickly, but that does not mean we buy products expecting them to last only 1 year so we upgrade to the lastest product the very next year.

Just my 2 cents of thought...

 

[spirovious]

Can we talk abt Pioneer 610 in that case?
I have found many good players as oppo are very coastly.
But there specifications are very good.(DAC,upscalers)

So what abt Pio610?
DAC,Upscaler chip?
As Pioneer is reputed for music too ,what abt there details?

 

[spirovious]

Re: Best DVD player with USB

Pio 610 for Rs.6000 grey & 9000 actual.

 

[phantom76]

Can we talk abt Pioneer 610 in that case?
I have found many good players as oppo are very coastly.
But there specifications are very good.(DAC,upscalers)

So what abt Pio610?
DAC,Upscaler chip?
As Pioneer is reputed for music too ,what abt there details?

The Pioneer 610 is pretty good. I have never seen an Oppo, so can't comment on the comparison. The upscaled DVDs do look good with great color reproduction.

As far as audio is concerned, the sound makes a world of difference (I am using HDMI, no external audio system hooked up) from the 610 when compared to my previous player - the philips 3166. Virtual surround sounds beautifully even on my acoustically challenged Panny 32LX800

The upscaling chip on the Pio is the same as on Philips 5996 and other budget upscalers - the mediatek 1389. If possible, take a side by side comparison test with the Philips. They match features 1 to 1 except for the additional HDMI-CEC support on the Philips.

Note that it cannot play HD DIVX or WMV HD, though 576p version of both are supported. I havent yet hooked up an external hard drive yet, though it is known to work.

 

[dirtyBlueJeans]

I can make out that you are really sick of that Samsung now. You meant Philips 5996, isnt it?

Oops, yes, that's what I meant. Corrected in original post now.

 

[dirtyBlueJeans]

Whoa hold on there !!! It is really sad to hear about a brand new dvd player performing like that . I mean one is bound to feel bad because I believe that we belong to a group of budget buyers who want the best out of the market and thus do immense research for the same . For example if you see the number of hits and the replies posted in this thread you will know for yourself that our requirements/expectations is some of the most common requirements/expectations from a dvd player and hence any person who come across this thread does peek into this thread atleast once to peruse the discussion going on currently.

I think you were unlucky to be stuck with a lemon !! However please dont lose heart . I would suggest you to go to the shop and press for a replacement . I am 100% sure that your next Samsung 1080pk will serve you well . Please dont start looking for options just yet. If you have decided on Samsung 1080 pk then you should stick to it . Just my three cents.

Well, you are right about that... but I don't think we are unreasonable in our demands: just because we are budget buyers doesn't mean we will settle for poor build quality. I narrowed down on these three players because they give me the feature set I wanted for the price I could afford... but if any of these were known to have issues, they would not have been in my shortlist. Had I tried out the Samsung before purchase, I would never have bought it because of the poor reproduction and problems with aspect ratio. The other problems only became evident once I used it. And now, it just doesn't work. I guess it's just coming to bite me on my butt because I didn't like it

But here, I would like to again stress what you mentioned earlier: it's very important to actually see the player in action before you buy it. Mine was an impulse buy - just because I couldn't find an LG around and this caught my eye - and I'm paying the price for it.

What has me really pissed is Samsung's attitude... it's now been several days, and I've not heard from Samsung support about it (except promises over the phone). My player is completely dead, and doesn't even switch on. If this goes on, I'll take this up strongly with Samsung. Just because it's a cheap (sic) product doesn't mean that they can take me for a ride.

Hell hath no fury like a budget buyer spurned!