Cheap Blu-Ray Players

EDV

EDV

Well-known member
Just wondering what the major differences between a brand Blu-Ray player and a dirt cheap one are. When DVD players first came out, multi-region was a big feature.
 
The dirt cheap players may have compatibility issues and a limited range of CODEC support.

My favorite brand of blu-ray player has always been LG for two main reasons: They have very good hardware support for their CODECs, so playback is smooth, crisp and artifact free. They also support a wide range of CODECs, so just about anything from the web will play on their hardware. ( i.e. DivX, Xvid, MPEG-1/2/4, MKV, FLV, etc... ) They are also pretty cheap too, in Canada the basic LG blu-ray player costs about $70.
 
TheDingo said:
The dirt cheap players may have compatibility issues and a limited range of CODEC support.
Click to expand...

Actually the opposite is true. The cheap players are generally more compatible or easily hacked because they are made all in one run for all region use and then programmed to a region via the IR remote just before being packaged and sent to that region. The more expensive branded players are made specifically for each market so the region coding is more often unchangeable by the end user. The codec support is less of an issue since BD and DVD players have mandated support for the officially supported codecs. If you're talking about playing back some HD content burned on DVD, then yeah...it's a complete crapshoot and has nothing to do with the cost of the player.
Where the price difference does show up is in things like the quality of the chipset or the scaler for DVD content played back over HDMI. Cheap players might also skimp a little on some of the mechanical parts like eject motors or use components with a lower MTBF rating. If you're going to use it a lot, get a decent one. If you hardly ever use it, then...
 
Andrius Simutis said:
Actually the opposite is true. The cheap players are generally more compatible or easily hacked because they are made all in one run for all region use and then programmed to a region via the IR remote just before being packaged and sent to that region.
Click to expand...

Maybe for region codes, but my experience with cheap players is that often they will not play anything other than standard blu-ray encoded discs, so if you try and play non blu-ray formats you get squat.

The newer LG players will play almost anything, so you can throw a bunch of downloaded Flash FLV video files along with a half dozen other formats and the LG player will happily play all of these files. All you need to do is throw your videos files on a BD-ROM ( or CD-ROM or DVD-ROM ) disc and away you go. No blu-ray authoring or formats required.
 
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TheDingo said:
Maybe for region codes, but my experience with cheap players is that often they will not play anything other than standard blu-ray encoded discs, so if you try and play non blu-ray formats you get squat.

The newer LG players will play almost anything, so you can throw a bunch of downloaded Flash FLV video files along with a half dozen other formats and the LG player will happily play all of these files. All you need to do is throw your videos files on a BD-ROM ( or CD-ROM or DVD-ROM ) disc and away you go. No blu-ray authoring or formats required.
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Allow myself to quote, er, myself: "If you're talking about playing back some HD content burned on DVD, then yeah...it's a complete crapshoot and has nothing to do with the cost of the player."
Once you get outside of BluRay and DVD playback, there is no guaranty as there is no longer any real standard agreed upon by the player manufacturers. I'm happy to hear that you're getting good results with that from your LG. I have one somewhere in the test stack that I could try, but honestly I've never had to run anything other than BD or DVD through any of my players since no paying clients would ever want the other non standard disc formats.
 
Andrius Simutis said:
but honestly I've never had to run anything other than BD or DVD through any of my players since no paying clients would ever want the other non standard disc formats.
Click to expand...

I have a couple of corporate clients that have asked for solutions on playing some of their web content where the original video source was lost. ( not my footage )

While multi-CODEC compatibility may not be required, there is no down side to having it. With these new LG blu-ray players you also get wi-fi and smart-phone features, which pretty much turn any regular TV into a smart-phone capable TV.

i.e. play content from a smart-phone or tablet using wi-fi, control the blu-ray player playback and settings via a smart-phone or tablet, etc...
 
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