which one to buy??? Blu-Ray or DVD Player ???

[manuvaidya]

i wanna know on which player i should make wise investment ??? i mean, whether blu-ray or dvd player & also which company makes the best build quality with most widely supported formats & performance should be good. feature wise it should be rich compared to other brands....

one more thing, availability also should be mentioned for members conevnience please....

hoping to get a quick input on this query.... keeping my fingers crossed....

 

[ashishkesarwani]

At this point of time it doesn't make sense to go in with a Standalone DVD player for the price of a blu ray player, over the past couple of months the prices of Blu ray player has come down, also there has been a huge penetration of the blu ray disks too since the diwali. A blu ray player also plays DVDs too so thats also adds to its favour.

Now comes the part where you ask about the best avaliable for the budget, then take a look at Oppo BDP 83 (Best for both blu ray as well as DVDs),
then comes Oppos new arrival BDP 80 (Best for blu ray and Good for DVDs),
then you have the option of choosing the player from the Panasonic lot i.e BD-60 or 80, (sourced from US either directly or through Shop in the US from India @ 20North - Millions of products, Thousands of brands).
All the above players are Hardware Modable to make them reagion free for both Blu rays as well as DVDs (not so sure about Oppos BDP 80 as its a new arrival).

Then comes Sony blu ray players which are very good if region coding doesn't bother you.

 

[StanleyB]

There are only 1500 Blu Ray films on the market.
I got a Sony, and it bothers me that it is regional.

 

[spirovious]

Well if your budget is low,then go for DVDp.
If you are looking for a good DVDp,it can cost abt 10k+(say CA99,Oppo)
In that case you shld look for a BDp with reg free DVD playback.

 

[manuvaidya]

thanks guys... thats was very useful... for how much u got that oppo BDP ??? i saw ur first hand review.... i have seen the mod also to make it region free.... waiting for the input on this player about the ease of use & quality of its output...

 

[ashishkesarwani]

thanks guys... thats was very useful... for how much u got that oppo BDP ??? i saw ur first hand review.... i have seen the mod also to make it region free.... waiting for the input on this player about the ease of use & quality of its output...

I bought the Oppo through the 20north route thats why it costed me way over 45K after including the cost of mod kit, and if you go through the thread of Oppo BDP83 review, there you will be able to find answers to all your questions.

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Hi,

A pana BD60 (from US) for about 9K + 5K for modding would give you a upscaling region-free DVDP and blu-ray combo.

Cheers!

 

[sound_advice]

i picked a samsung BDP 1600 in Singapore for around Rs,11,500 which included a HDMI cable and a gift voucher for 2 Blue Ray movies .This was in October now a friend tells me that it costs around 10,000/- for the same package deal.
The clarity of a normal DVD which is upscaled is awesome.
Have no Blue Ray discs as yet.Getting a few of Singapore in March.

 

[marsilians]

If you would have searched in the forum you would see PS3 or PS3 Slim as choices if budget is a concern and IF YOU INTEND ON BUYING BLU RAY otherwise a universal player such as Oppo (and Philips as following options).

 

[sun244]

If you would have searched in the forum you would see PS3 or PS3 Slim as choices if budget is a concern and IF YOU INTEND ON BUYING BLU RAY otherwise a universal player such as Oppo (and Philips as following options).

Few basic questions:

1. What exactly region locked means? Does it mean, the media needs to be from that country OR output device (example TV)?

2. When you say modified or made region free, Do we need open and change chips. Do I need to do this? OR the online store I buy from does it?

Thank You

Srini

 

[idlebrain]

Few basic questions:

1. What exactly region locked means? Does it mean, the media needs to be from that country OR output device (example TV)?

Media and player needs to be from the same region nothing to do with the TV.

2. When you say modified or made region free, Do we need open and change chips. Do I need to do this? OR the online store I buy from does it?

Yes to make the BD Player region free,need to open and insert the chip.This can be done from any TV repairing guy or you can buy the region modded one from online but this will turn quite expensive.

 

[svenkateshsmart]

Hi,

Also, DVD and Blu-ray have different parameters:

DVD Region 0-8
0 Informal term meaning "worldwide". Region 0 is not an official setting; discs that bear the region 0 symbol either have no flag set or have region 16 flags set.
1 Canada, United States; U.S. territories; Bermuda
2 Europe (except Russia, Ukraine and Belarus); Middle East; Egypt; Japan, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho; French overseas territories; Greenland
3 Southeast Asia; South Korea; Taiwan; Hong Kong; Macau
4 Mexico; Central and South America; Caribbean; Australia; New Zealand; Oceania
5 Ukraine; Belarus; Russia; Africa (except Egypt, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and French overseas territories); Central and South Asia; Mongolia; North Korea
6 People's Republic of China; Hong Kong
7 Reserved for future use (found in use on protected screener copies of MPAA-related DVDs and "media copies" of pre-releases in Asia)
8 International venues such as aircraft, cruise ships, etc.

Blu-Ray
'A', 'B' and 'C'.
Region A includes most North, Central and South American and Southeast Asian countries plus Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea.
Region B includes most European, African and southwest Asian countries plus Australia and New Zealand.
Region C contains the remaining central and south Asian countries, as well as China and Russia.

Cheers!

 

[psychotropic]

which model do you have stanley? many models have region-free mod kits available.

There are only 1500 Blu Ray films on the market.
I got a Sony, and it bothers me that it is regional.

 

[deba]

Not sure but heard that its difficult to modify Sony Blu Ray Players..Is it correct ?

 

[just4kix]

Sony players are not difficult to mod.

But currently the modding costs are very high. I will advice the following:

a) If you are sure that you will mostly buy BDs from a specific countries (like me for instance, USA in this case), you may save a lot of bucks by going in for a US made (Region A) player. It will be much cheaper than any player elsewhere.

b) Secondly, NOT ALL blu-ray titles are region encoded - even in USA. For example, Warner Bros. release region free blu-ray discs. I have confirmed this on The Dark Knight and HP and Half Blood Prince. Have a look here: Blu-Ray Studio Region Free/Locked Coding Statistics and Movies List
(p/s. hope to get some "Thanks" on this link )

c) All Indian titles are region free.

d) Finally, one can always buy a (second) Region B BD player, if the need arises. This will mean extra equipment. But players are now becoming very cheap. Most AV equipment have multiple HDMI inputs. So in my personal opinion it does not really matter.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

Yes Sony players are most difficult to mod as you have to mount the separate region chip for each of the other 2 regions and it also requires very skilled soldering to the main processor of the player, also buying separate region Chips makes it a very costly affair and it makes the player almost twice as expensive.