Looking for Good Bluray player, sub $100

Diablo2K

Diablo2K

Supreme [H]ardness
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I am looking for a good sub $100 Bluray player so I no longer have to go thru my computer to watch movies on my HDTV. If I could get one with Netflix that would be great. Web enabled is a must.

I can go a little higher if I must, maybe $120 shipped but would like to stay under $100 if I can.

I found a Recertified Phillups unit but I have not had any luck with phillups recertified players in the past, I have had 2 upscalling DVD players and both had issues.
 
I'd research em really quick before pouncing, you have other decent inexpensive ones that offer Netflix + Vudu + Amazon downloads all in one package. The Vudu service is nice because they offer lots of 1080P streaming rentals for $1, not a flat rate like Netflix but the quality is supposedly much better.

I know the LG BD550 offers all of the above for around $120 new, you might be able to shave off another $20 by getting a refurb. BD550 Price check, looks like Overstock has the refurbs for $99 but here's an $8 coupon. BestBuy will put new ones on sale for $120 occasionally.

NOTE: I'm not sure how the LG BD550 ranks overall though, i know it's "decent" but i don't know if it has any annoying quirks. You can find more info on Blu-Ray players in this sub-forum.

And the only reason i have this info at my fingertips is because i was researching it recently ;)

- an LG BD550 review with list of features: http://bluray-players.net/lg/lg-bd-550-review/

- The BD550 has no Amazon downloads, but it has other services available, be sure to check that review i linked above.

- And here's a streaming video on demand comparison guide: http://www.video-on-demand-guide.com/
 
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Awsome Thanks!

Read the review, seems like exactly what I was looking for. the review mentioned that the USB port would hold a storage device for movie trailer downloads.
A USB 2.0 port on the front allows playback of media like music MP3s and digital photos directly. The USB is also needed if you want to download BD-Live bonus content like movie trailers. The USB storage must have at least 1GB free space.
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Will a simple thumb drive work for this? I have a 2gig and a 4gig I don't use for anything.
 
Diablo2K said:
USB port would hold a storage device for movie trailer downloads.


Will a simple thumb drive work for this? I have a 2gig and a 4gig I don't use for anything.
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I think so, pretty sure they had thumb drives in mind when they included that port. Sometimes they are picky about what thumb drives you use though.

I wonder what formats you can play through that USB port since i'm also thinking about getting one.

Good luck with it either way.
 
Might I suggest a used one? Where I am there are tons of players on craigslist because lots of people are getting ps3's instead. The most basic can be had for $50 and the more features the more it gets. Just a thought.
 
xrintrahx said:
Just curious, why did you decide to stop using your HTPC for Blu-rays?
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I may be wrong but with the OP it sounds like a convenience factor (?)

I would be doing it for similar reasons (wife) and that LG BD550 would mate perfectly with my LG plasma using the same remote and everything, plus my wife is a big movie buff so the easy access to NetFlix + Vudu + CinemaNow would be like a dream come true for her. YouTube would be bonus.

All for around $100? I've probably thrown stuff away worth more than that :)
 
xrintrahx said:
Just curious, why did you decide to stop using your HTPC for Blu-rays?
Click to expand...

I don't have an actual HTPC. I only have one PC but I been using it to play media on my HDTV and would like to take some of that off the computer and onto a BD player. I would like to get a PS3 sometime soon but I cant aford to get one at the moment, besides I dont think I would iuse it for anything other than to watch movies so theres really no need to go with the PS3. At the moment I don't even have a DVD player so in order to watch any kind of movie I have to use my computer.

I would love to one day build a dedicated HTPC but money is just to tight right now.
 
I am very pleased with my year old Sony N460. It has Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Slacker and Pandora. There are a bunch of other services as well. They also just added a placeholder for Hulu Plus that says it is coming in Fall 2010. Walmart has them listed online for $138, but I have seen them for less on sale. The only thing missing on the 2009 model is DLNA. If you want that, you'd have to pay a bit more and get one of this years model, either the 470 or 570.
 
Just placed my order for a NEW LG BD550 and got the free 2day shipping From Amazon for just $118, waas Out of stock on Overstock.com.
 
I Own a BD550... You wont be disappointed. I am extremely happy with mine. Definitely worth what you paid (though I got mine for 40 bucks new in box off of craigslist)
 
I was about to flip out. A while back I bought 4 HDMI cables from Monoprice and I been searching all over to find them and couldn't. I did alot of searching to see if the BD550 came with a HDMI cable or not so I was trying to find mine before the player came. Been searching for the last 2 days and was getting pissed, I know I had them somewhere in this apartment. But I finally found them in a stack of empty boxes. AARRGGHHH!!!!!!

Now that I got the BD550 coming in tomorrow I will start saving up for a Boxee Box :)
 
Diablo2K said:
Now that I got the BD550 coming in tomorrow I will start saving up for a Boxee Box :)
Click to expand...

Nice, try to give us a quick thought or two about it, even if it's just the simple stuff like "ease of use" etc etc.

I'm really tempted with Boxee Box also, probably going to end up waiting for some reviews, and to see what the competitors have to offer, Google TV, a Sony unit, etc etc. Gonna try to keep track of them of them all in AVS's media streamer forum.
 
My review of the LG BD550

Its a very nice looking unit, glossy black front and small enough to fit just about anywhere.
powered up the unit and first thing I did was update the software. this in all took about 1/2 an hour, download was slow and the actual update wasn't very quick either. But at least you wont have to do it very often.

Went through the setting and set everything up such as output resolution and a few other items. Tried to set up Netflix and the number shown in settings wasn't a valid number. Did a quick google search and found out that I have to go Through the Netcast menu to get the correct code, after that I finished watching The Godfather, thats right, I said finish, even though I started the movie on my computer I was able to pick up where I left off and watch it on the TV. quality was pretty good considering the age of the movie.

One thing I have really liked so far was the remote. it is comfortable despite its basic shape, theres a notch in the back for your finger that is in the right place to keep a secure hold on the remote. Another thing I found out is that I can control my TV with the remote. From what I read the commands go Through the HDMI cable, a feature I didn't know about but which is very handy. I didn't even have to set it up, the default profile worked on my Proscan TV even though its not listed in the brands. I can turn on the TV, change Inputs, and control the volume, everything you need to be able to watch a movie without having to use a separate remote!!

I don't have any BluRay movies yet, Waiting for Netflix to get one out to me, so I can't give any thoughts on BD playback. I did however put in a standard DVD and the upscaling was very good. (I will edit this when I get a bluray movie)

At the moment I am listening to the Pandora Radio app, something I had never used before but I checked it out because it was on the player and its free. Its quit nice, put in a list of your favorite artists and it plays what it thinks you might like, its been doing a pretty good job with its selections. Glad its there, just need to get some better speakers for the TV so it sounds better than the stock TV speakers.

I have a very simple Home theater setup, just a TV, Cable box, and now the LG BD550, with the ability to use my computer on the TV as well. Sense I don't have a dedicated HTPC the LG was a great addition as I can now do more without tying up my computer.

Another thing to point out in order to use the BD Live feature you need to add at least a 1gig thumb drive in the usb port. This usb port is behind a door on the front. I got the smallest drive I could find and I cant close the door with it installed. LaCie MosKeyto 130981 Flash Drive - 4 GB http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/LaCie-MosKeyto-130981-Flash-Drive-4-GB/5225905/product.html I don't think it would be possible to make a USB drive small enough to use it with the door closed, but the smaller drive is safer so you don't bump it and break something with a larger drive sticking out the front. Because of this I am considering opening up the player and removing the door so I don't have to leave it open and have it sticking out.

I will update this after I have used the BD550 little more!
 
Nice, thanks for the review and related info you added.

Interesting how the remote is interacting with a different brand TV.

With a good net connection it should pull in the higher quality Netflix stream, and it already sounds like it is. You have to try Vudu eventually !! Test it out with their $1 1080P rental specials.

Looking forward to your follow-up.
 
Update to my previous Review.

I finally got a BD movie in, Hellboy II. I started out w/ a memory drive plugged in and I was really dismayed as to how long it took to start up and get to the movie start screen.
This was due to the Memory drive plugged in as it was downloading information to the drive. I watched the movie then started playing around w/ the BD Live feature. This also was Rather slow as it had to download an update, which again took a while. I have a 10mbps roadrunner connection w/ turbo, the speeds showing on my router were peaking at 3mbps and it still took almost 5 minutes to update.
After the update the selections were still sluggish, I will be getting some faster memory drives soon maybe this will help, we will have to see. I am currently using a 4gb Sandisk Cruzer micro as well as a 512meg Sandisk MicroSD in a USB adapter.
The 512meg Card does have problems w/ buffering of videos, The specs do say you need a minimum of 1gig so that explains allot. I will be ordering a Class 6 4gb MicroSD card soon as well. The LaCie MosKeyto I ordered is on backorder so I can't try it out either.
After the memory drive is fully updated it takes about 90sec to reach the main menu from a cold power up.

Watching a movie w/o any memory drives plugged in was allot better with acceptable load times but its still about a minute before you get to the main menu from a cold power up.

If you don't want to use the BD live feature then don't use a Memory drive so you will get quicker load times.

Overall I am still pleased with this player, only issue I have is with the rather slow load times, other then that its really nice!
 
Thanks for the follow-up Diablo.

The good news? The slowness you're experiencing is normal, and most players are even slower as per online reviews ;)



Oh yea, if you get standard SD, as opposed to SDHC then you might be able to find a faster card than class 6. Standard SD speeds are labeled differently, you would want 133x or 150x, but the size limit on standard SD is only 2 or 4gb i think. They are so cheap it's almost worth purchasing just to experiment.

This chart should give you an idea on how fast old SD cards are compared to the new SDHC cards (scroll down to the middle to see the chart, class 6 is only 6mbs): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital

Here's one of the fast SD cards i was talking about, google the phrase "Topram SD 150x" then compare it to Class 6 speeds. Some players are picky with memory cards so it's not guaranteed this Topram card will be compatible with your player.
 
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I think I will look for something faster then the MosKeyto or class 6 MicroSD.
One thing I do not want is some huge USB stick sticking out from the front of the BD Player. I did some searching and found http://www.pacificcable.com/Picture_Page.asp?DataName=USBAMRAF-3IN I think I should be able to plug it in and then use some Velcro to attach the USB stick to the side of the player.
I do think however soon this will all be for nothing as I would like to get the Boxee Box, it will be far better than the BD player is in just about every way, all I will need the BD Player for is to watch movies, BD live won't be used and neither will the Netflix app.
 
Diablo2K said:
I do think however soon this will all be for nothing as I would like to get the Boxee Box, it will be far better than the BD player is in just about every way, all I will need the BD Player for is to watch movies, BD live won't be used and neither will the Netflix app.
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Keep your eyes and ears open because there's a few things in the pipeline, one of them is Google TV.

I'm thinking the same here, it's nice to have an inexpensive Blu-Ray player with so much capability but gadgets like the Boxee Box are just too damn tempting.
 
Quick update.
I signed up for Vudu, I got $5.99 for for doing so, so i selected the new Robin Hood in HDx which was $5.99. Started watching it and immediately started getting buffering screens, so I down selected to normal HD. it went fine for a while, but then about the 50 minute mark started to get the buffering screens again, finally down selected to SD and was able to finish the movie without any more interruptions.
Well HDx was $5.99 and unwatchable at all.
HD is $4.99 and was semi watchable to a point then suddenly went downhill.
SD is $3.99 and was watchable, I didn't have my glasses on so the quality was still really good.
( my vision isn't that bad really, its about 20-40 and thats at a distance, I was only 8 feet away from the screen)
I have a 10mb Turbo connection w/ roadrunner and I disconnected everything but the BD Player, I don't think I should have had such a bad experience, perhaps if the player had more memory for buffering it might have went better, but the Vudu AP has no option for allowing the Thumb Drive to hold any cache for the movie and wouldn't be fast enough even if it did.
I will not be using Vudu, I only used it this time as I had free deposit for signing up. I will stick to using BD Movies, Pandora, and Netflix at this time.
 
Diablo2K said:
Quick update.
I signed up for Vudu, I got $5.99 for for doing so, so i selected the new Robin Hood in HDx which was $5.99. Started watching it and immediately started getting buffering screens, so I down selected to normal HD. it went fine for a while, but then about the 50 minute mark started to get the buffering screens again, finally down selected to SD and was able to finish the movie without any more interruptions.
Well HDx was $5.99 and unwatchable at all.
HD is $4.99 and was semi watchable to a point then suddenly went downhill.
SD is $3.99 and was watchable, I didn't have my glasses on so the quality was still really good.
( my vision isn't that bad really, its about 20-40 and thats at a distance, I was only 8 feet away from the screen)
I have a 10mb Turbo connection w/ roadrunner and I disconnected everything but the BD Player, I don't think I should have had such a bad experience, perhaps if the player had more memory for buffering it might have went better, but the Vudu AP has no option for allowing the Thumb Drive to hold any cache for the movie and wouldn't be fast enough even if it did.
I will not be using Vudu, I only used it this time as I had free deposit for signing up. I will stick to using BD Movies, Pandora, and Netflix at this time.
Click to expand...
Interesting results with Vudu's service, hmm.

Keep in mind that they supposedly have tons of $1 HD specials, not sure where they are announced or advertised but it's mentioned a lot by users and review sites.
 
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