DVD Players
So my aging DVD player finally called it quits last night; it was probably about 5 years old, and had played a lot of disks over the course of its life.
Though it would have been nice to bury it intact in a solemn ceremony, I had to perform a brutal autopsy on it, taking it completely apart to get out the DVD that was trapped inside. It took about an hour and the removal of about two dozen screws, and even then I had to squeeze the DVD out, and I hopefully didn't scratch it.
Anyhow, today I'm going to pop out and look for a new DVD player. I'm not really a techno-geek, and have no real interest in spending a lot of money on a DVD player with a lot of bells and whistles. At the same time, I don't want to buy some bargain-basement brand that isn't going to stand up to a lot of use. I also have no real interest in Blu-Ray or any new technology.
Anyone have any recommendations? Brands you like, brands you don't, good buys for the price? Best Buy, Target, Fry's or Circuit City?
posted by Scott the Reader @ 8:30 AM
14 Comments:
Techno-geek or not I'd definitely recommend getting something with Divx. Personally I like to check out a lot of overseas Television so it's nice to grab half a dozen episodes of whatever slap them on a DVDRW and pop it into the player instead of having to watch on my computer. The Phillips DVP5960 hasn't done me wrong yet. (http://www.amazon.com/Philips-DVP5960-Player-Upscaling-direct/dp/B000G18DR0/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/104-7521130-3448735?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1184947938&sr=8-3)
And if I ever get a decent television I've got the HDMI and upscaling already.
Anything that doesn't explode gets my vote.
A lot of upscaling DVD players are fairly cheap now (around $100). If you plan to have an HDTV in the near future or have one with an HDMI input, then you definitely want on of those.
I don't know anything about DVD players. All I know is that I bought an expensive player which broke very soon after. I bought a super cheap one to replace it and it has lasted twice as long. The luck of the draw, I guess.
Sorry, can't really help pick out your next DVD player. Something like that is something you don't think about till you need a new one. I watch some DVD's on my computer, got one on the TV too, but it cuts in and out because of the three cable connection from it to the TV.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Second the notion about upscaling to HD. We received a vertical DVD slotloader player from Best Buy's store brand Insignia and at first glance I thought it was a joke. Turns out the sucker is built for the future with HDMI output, upscaling and digital audio out. I was geeking out. Hooked it right into the HD set and then discovered it plays so many formats I'm sure I can play a coffee can lid in there. Considering my first player with hardly any features was $300 on sale with a hookup from a store employee friend, I'd say it's a good time to have to buy a new player.
Walmart has $29.99 Magnavox DVD players that have held up better than my high dollar ones and play ALL the DVD's I stick in there.
This might be partially off-topic but before I bought my last dvd player I made sure that I could remove the region specific code and turn it into a multiregion player so I could play dvds from Asia and Europe. It's a pretty simple process (press some keys, open the tray, etc.). A list of players and associated hacks can be found at http://www.videohelp.com ---> see DVD Hacks. If you like foreign dvds (readily available with no hassle from sister amazon sites .de, .fr, .co.uk, .jp and ebay) then make sure the dvd player you're looking at has a readily available dvd hack.
I'd go with Sony. They have a great pause feature that let's you hit stop and come back to the same place. Haven't seen it in others, but I bought mine 6 months ago.
I wound up going to Target, and buying a Memorex for $34 on sale.
I know, I know. But I figure it'll keep me able to watch movies while I figure out what I really want.
I've had so-so luck at Target with electronics, but I'd say they're reasonable anyways so you made a smart choice. Actually, it's mostly the phones I've bought there - usually they take a crap after a few weeks.
So... since no one else mentioned it, I'll be the dick to point out that on your DVD player that died, there's an easier way to retrieve your disc. There should be a small hole near the disc tray (or slot, or whatever). Unbend a paper clip, stick it in that hole, and push. Voila.
Obviously, I haven't actually checked every DVD player ever made, but the emergency eject button/hole is standard on CD players and game machines; and I've seen it on the couple of DVD players I've bothered to look for it on, so I'm assuming it's standard there too.
look for one with SACD technology so you can play music cds encoded with SACD, they sound ten times better... we got a Sony and The Stones never sounded better
why not just google a good dvdplayer? tons of reviews are out there.
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