Suggest a Blu-Ray Player

[jain1980]

I am in need of a Blu-Ray Player which loads Blu-Rays reasonably fast with less lag and has superb video and sound quality.

My budget is 9-10K. Which one should I go for? If it can be made region free, that would be icing on the cake although not an important feature.

 

[gurujee]

go for pioneer bdp 160 in 9k for without warranty and 12k for manufacture warranty.

I am still searching for the region-free mod/firmware but no luck yet. Hope is still there.

Currently at @ Ebay
Brand NEW Pioneer BDP 160 BLU RAY Player | eBay

 

[sunilkm]

+1 to the above suggestion.
Pioneer bdp160 is a good player and region A model is available in ebay.in
It is worth for 9k than a region C player for 12k.
I have ordered from the same seller as given in the link and will get it this week.

 

[jain1980]

Will it be a problem if any of these units are NTSC? Or they support both pal/NTSC? I am a newbie to these things.

Also what is the region code of all the blu rays disks sold in India like amazon.in and snapdeal? Is it region C or no region at all?

 

[sunilkm]

I don't think NTSC/PAL will create a problem. Many of the FMs are using region A players.

If you browse through the amazon.in bluray listing, you can see most of the discs are "all region". Few are region locked to C. What I see is that most of the new releases are coming in "all regions". These can be played in any region players.

Yesterday I have checked the Life of Pi(3D) purchased earlier. It is region locked to B and C.

 

[manzb]

They are mostly imported from South east Asian countries like Thailand, where the system is PAL with 220V, but they are clubbed as Region A for Blu ray. In such case it will run perfectly fine with Indian System. In any case, almost all Indian TVs can take both NTSC and PAL. Please get it verified regarding the country of origin.

Blu ray discs does not have any PAL/ NTSC issue.

 

[jain1980]

I don't think NTSC/PAL will create a problem. Many of the FMs are using region A players.

If you browse through the amazon.in bluray listing, you can see most of the discs are "all region". Few are region locked to C. What I see is that most of the new releases are coming in "all regions". These can be played in any region players.

Yesterday I have checked the Life of Pi(3D) purchased earlier. It is region locked to B and C.

Then I think it makes sense to go for the locally available region C player as I won't be buying any disks from the USA which is region A. Is this player worth 12k?

 

[Raghav_K]

Sony bdp 5100 comes to around 7k shipped from amazon.com, last time i checked... Thats a pretty good option

 

[vkirti]

Then I think it makes sense to go for the locally available region C player as I won't be buying any disks from the USA which is region A. Is this player worth 12k?

I would suggest, if possible, buy all your blu rays from the US. Which means requesting anybody who is coming over to bring a few. Not only are they cheaper there but also the quality of blu rays seems to be better. I try to get as many as possible from the US.

 

[jain1980]

I would suggest, if possible, buy all your blu rays from the US. Which means requesting anybody who is coming over to bring a few. Not only are they cheaper there but also the quality of blu rays seems to be better. I try to get as many as possible from the US.

Unfortunately I have nobody who can get it from US. I think I would rather buy something with local warranty and region C. How are Samsung BD players? They are available for good price here in India.

 

[sunilkm]

Samsung F5500 is a 3D model and I think around 7K. I am using the entry level F5100 2D model. The build quality is not so good. The CD loading is not so smooth. My 5 yr old Pioneer DVD player CD loading is much smoother.
Otherwise the playback is ok.

 

[jain1980]

I am getting a region A Pioneer BDP-160 for 7K from the grey market but its Region A. Damnn.

Also I have read that all of these players have CINAVIA protection built into them which will prevent any Blu Ray rips, mkvs etc from playing. Is it so? Is there any custom firmware (not hardware mod chips) which can make any of these players region firmware?

 

[manzb]

A region A player is as good as a region free. There is hardly any title which are not available in Region A. In any case almost 80% of the BD titles are region free. All Indian releases are region free.

Regarding CINAVIA, it has been there for quite sometime now, but so far no one has faced any issue with regard to playback of Ripped content, including MKV. In any case, even if later they tries to do that, that will not succeed as almost all TVs nowadays can play this content directly and you don't need a BDP.

 

[venkatcr]

Then I think it makes sense to go for the locally available region C player as I won't be buying any disks from the USA which is region A. Is this player worth 12k?

If you want to watch any English movies, you have to have region A. All English movies are region A. Many of the Indian movies are also in Region A, as they needs to movies to be seen outside India.

Cheers

 

[zervinb]

Some rare titles are there, which will not play in a Region A player. IIRC, Avatar Extended Edition blu-ray purchased from Flipkart a couple years back, was locked to Region B+C.

 

[sunilkm]

Last week I have purchased Avatar(3D) Bluray from Amazon.in
It is region all and playing in region A BDP-160.
I do not see many region locked blurays online except few.
Most of the new releases english/hindi all are region all.

 

[jain1980]

Region codes apart, how is the performance of the Pioneer BDP-160 compared to the Sony 5100? Does the pioneer support all subtitles files? How is the file and format support for video and audio?

 

[sunilkm]

Hi,

I am not sure how it compare with S5100. BDP-160 supports most of the regular audio and video formats. You can check the specification for detailed file support.
BDP-160-K Pioneer - - Computer

My primary requirement was below and BDP-160 does well.
- Build quality
- BD playback and 3D
- Good DVD upscaling
- AVCHD Disc playback as I make AVCHD discs of the camcorder video recording.
- Wished to have analog outs so that I can connect to Norge amp if needed.
BDP-160 has analog outs as a bonus. I see nowadays many new BDPs do not have analog audio outs.

 

[jain1980]

Hi,

I am not sure how it compare with S5100. BDP-160 supports most of the regular audio and video formats. You can check the specification for detailed file support.
BDP-160-K Pioneer - - Computer

My primary requirement was below and BDP-160 does well.
- Build quality
- BD playback and 3D
- Good DVD upscaling
- AVCHD Disc playback as I make AVCHD discs of the camcorder video recording.
- Wished to have analog outs so that I can connect to Norge amp if needed.
BDP-160 has analog outs as a bonus. I see nowadays many new BDPs do not have analog audio outs.

Can you let me know your feedback on the following functionality of the BDP-160?

1) How is the Youtube Functionality
2) The Disc loading times from tray load to the menu? I heard it takes almost 50 secs for the BDP-160 to load blu-rays?
3) The quality of DVD upscaling? Is it like 1080P?
4) DLNA functionality (if you have used it).

I am swinging between the BDP-160 and the Panasonic BDT-230. Hopefully the above feedback will let me decide between the two.

 

[sunilkm]

Yesterday night I have setup wifi and updated the latest firmware V1.06 ( it was V1.05).

1) How is the Youtube Functionality
Youtube access was easy. It is a one touch access from remote.
I am not a heavy youtube user. Watched few videos and it was smooth.

2) The Disc loading times from tray load to the menu? I heard it takes almost 50 secs for the BDP-160 to load blu-rays?

I did not check the exact time. But there wasn't much lag in loading the discs.

3) The quality of DVD upscaling? Is it like 1080P?

I have checked few DVDs only. The upscaling was good. But it is not like 1080p.

4) DLNA functionality (if you have used it).
Not yet used this feature


Hope this helps

Can you let me know your feedback on the following functionality of the BDP-160?

1) How is the Youtube Functionality
2) The Disc loading times from tray load to the menu? I heard it takes almost 50 secs for the BDP-160 to load blu-rays?
3) The quality of DVD upscaling? Is it like 1080P?
4) DLNA functionality (if you have used it).

I am swinging between the BDP-160 and the Panasonic BDT-230. Hopefully the above feedback will let me decide between the two.