Top 5 DVD players out now September 2005

[dorkiedork]

I have read through a lot of stickies and posts and did my homework so to speak and now I present to you my puzzling situation.

My dvd player is crapping out and I need to get a new one. I also just ordered a couple of DVD's from England and I'm in the US. I have a PC with the NEC ND-3500AG and I can change the region settings 4 more times. I never watch DVD's on my PC but watch a lot of anime and would like to watch it on my home tv. My home tv is crappy but eventually I'll upgrade to 30"+ HDTV Widescreen that may not have a HD decoder thingy onboard. I have DVD decrypter and Nero, AMD 2400 1GB RAM.

I'd like to spend under $200 for a new DVD player and I'd like it to have an easy region free option and easily play anime from my computer. What would you do (equals buy)? Maybe a better thread would be top 5 dvd players on the market right now ((that match my needs)).

Thanks

PS I'm tech savvy software engineer but I know little about the current dvd market.

[movax]

videohelp.com's DVD Player list is a good place to start. And I'm pretty sure virtual drives allow you to change their region infinite amounts of times, and most DVD players nowadays have a simple remote region hack.

[dorkiedork]

hi movax. thanks for the reply. what i'm looking for is recommended dvd players. a player that you would buy right now if you had to get a new one. the videohelp site is great. unfortunately it doesn't show if dvd players are region free or if not if a hack is available. it might but maybe i'm not seeing it.

[SeeMoreDigital]

I have no complaints with my Pioneer DV-575A player.... It's able to exploit every feature the MediaTek MT1389xx chip-set can offer, including DVD-Audio (DVD-A) and Super Audio CD (SACD)

MPEG-2 DVD playback is excellent. As is MPEG-4 with multiple B-VOP, Qpel and 1-warp-point GMC in the AVI and/or OGM containers. The player also supports Vorbis audio in OGG....

You can still buy one of these in the UK for around £100.00.... nice!

But quite honestly, if it's a standard-def player you are after I would only look for players fitted with an MediaTek MT1389xx chip-set.... or Zoran Vaddis 776 chip-set.... at a push!


Cheers

[feedback]

the videohelp site is great. unfortunately it doesn't show if dvd players are region free or if not if a hack is available. it might but maybe i'm not seeing it.
Take a look at this link Here. (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks) It may have what you are looking for.

Regards,:)
P.S. The hack for my old Apex is below...it is as easy as that!

1) Open the dvd tray.
2) Enter the numbers 8 4 2 1
3) This unlocks the Region and Macrovision setup screen.
4) Select region code with the enter key of the remote control (9 for all region codes).
5) Toggle the Macrovision setting to ON or OFF.
6) Close the tray to save the setting.
7) Done, works great!

[Y.T.]

For the US market specifically, I've heard only good things about the Oppo Digital:
http://www.oppodigital.com/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00078GLJY/

I could recommend some other players but I don't think they are available in the US.

The excellent Pioneer DV-575 is available from this online store for just $80.68 in the US, plus they ship it with the regionfree hack already applied so you can just plug it in and start playing your DVDs:
http://www.jvb.nl/jvb.asp?cur=2&level=modifications&page=title&title=718

Hope that helps,
Y.T.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Jeez... $88.68....

That would equate to around £53.00 in the UK... Almost a massive 50% less than we would have to pay!

Just goes to show there's no such thing as a "good deal" in the UK :devil:

[lordyu]

The excellent Pioneer DV-575 is available from this online store for just $80.68 in the US, plus they ship it with the regionfree hack already applied so you can just plug it in and start playing your DVDs:
http://www.jvb.nl/jvb.asp?cur=2&level=modifications&page=title&title=718Sorry but I don't think so.

1. DV-575A is only sold in Europe. I don't think it can be exported or shipped to any destination outside Europe. Unless you come here and buy it and bring it out yourself. The equivalent model sold in the US is DV-588A.

2. It's called Codefree Modifications. I don't think these are DVD players. Probably just some sort of hacking tool kit to be applied to an existing player. The price is $80.56 for DV-575A but only $34.00 for DV-588A. Edit: You have to ship your existing player to one of their offices for the modifications to be made. Look here (http://www.jvb.nl/jvb.asp?level=installed_by_us_info&cur=2).

3. DV-588A player itself is listed under the Codefree DVD players section of the website for $189.00.

Back to the original question, you haven't given enough details. I think the thread Standalone MPEG-4 Player Buyer Guide should give you the ideas of what you want and what player to look for. You mentioned anime. I am not an anime fan but is it Japanese anime you are talking about? Downloaded for the Internet? In container AVI, OGM? Multi-track audio? Subtitles is important? Then I would suggest the Pioneer DV-588A.

Don't forget to test everything first before you buy it.

[freelock7]

Look at this new release from Pioneer.... ;)
A very best!
(Thx for optical output)
http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/product_detail.jsp?product_id=11014&taxonomy_id=42-84

[SeeMoreDigital]

(Thx for optical output)Why.... was there a problem with it?

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/7664/pioneerdv585as6ag.jpg


Cheers

[dorkiedork]

Thanks everyone for your help. I tried the hack for the apex but to no avail. The firmware was too new. I then looked for the Pioneer DV-575 on amazon and found out that like lordyu said, it is only available to Europe. I then went to Walmart and took pictures of all the dvd players there. I went to the site recommended by movax, videohelp.com and read the reviews on each one. After seeing many positive reviews and good success hacking the region I bought the Philips 642/37 at Walmart for $58USD. Very good on price and the hack by Edmilson Barbosa (search the page) worked. :) I will post back on how well it plays dvds and especially region 2 dvds.

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?select=Philips+DVP+642

Thanks for all yall's help. :)

[dorkiedork]

PS. If there is any reason this is a *bad* player tell me now so I can return it within 30 days. Thanks :)

[setarip_old]

@dorkiedork

In my opinion (Yes, I do own one), it's an excellent value...

[SeeMoreDigital]

PS. If there is any reason this is a *bad* player tell me now so I can return it within 30 days. Thanks :)Well I guess it depends on what you want....

But in reality it is not the most flexible of players because it's ESS Vibratto II chip-set has fairly limited performance... and Philips don't exploit all it can offer :(

It would not be my choice....

[manono]

You couldn't pay me to own one. You said you're getting an HDTV one of these days, and that you like to watch a lot of anime DVDs. It positively sucks at deinterlacing, and since it's a pure flag reader, it handles hard telecine, as found in a lot of anime DVDs, TV series DVDs and many DVD Extras, very badly:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all#PhilipsDVP-642

[freelock7]

Why.... was there a problem with it?

No! It's great!
But it is an option that pioneer seemed to have given up.

[neo squidward]

So can you tell my what's the best player under 100 bucks in the us right now is? I was thinking about the dvp642, but it's outdated, and i heard that the 5500 was canceled too.
please help :D

[manono]

Hi-

You get what you pay for. Originally you said you'd be willing to go $200. In that case, I, as did Y.T. earlier in the thread, would recommend the Oppo:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all#Oppo
http://www.extremephono.com/Oppo_DV971.htm

Faroudja 3:2 Pulldown Detection, Cadence reading, the best deinterlacer in the business, AVI and PAL playback, DVI out, upconversion etc. However, buy it only if your soon-to-be-bought HDTV has either a DVI or HDMI port, as the Faroudja is only used over the digital connection, and the MediaTek chipset used otherwise leaves a bit to be desired.

For under $100, it gets sticky, especially for the requirements you specified. I guess you already filled in your requirements over at the videohelp.com DVD Player database. There are a ton of them available from Philips, Cyberhome, Apex, etc. None of them are worth a damn, in my opinion. You can also search the AVS Forums. Here's a pretty good list of region-free players:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/102-6428449-8782556?search-type=ss&tag=dvdbeaver-20&keyword=region%20free%20dvd&index=electronics

And here's a ton of info about region-free players over at my friend Gary Tooze's DVDBeaver website. He's partial to the Malata players:

[URL=http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/FAQ.htm ]http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/FAQ.htm

[Mtz]

I agree with manono for the Oppo player. MTK chipset players are the most flexible. For Pioneer 470/575 are great unofficial firmwares and also this firmares can be applied to american model 585.

enjoy,
Mtz

[battscrew]

I suggest the LG7832 (or its Zenith cousin) with the correct firmware it can upconvert to 1080i nicely (looks great) and can be made region free. If left at 480i/p it is an average player. We also have the Walmart Diamond cheap DVD player - region free out of the box and plays everything you through at it - wroks great for the smaller TVs in the house.

[plonk420]

sorry to necropost, but do ANY hardware players (or software for that matter) deinterlace (then scale) as well as MCBob or at least EEDI or NNEDI?

[SeeMoreDigital]

sorry to necropost, but do ANY hardware players (or software for that matter) deinterlace (then scale) as well as MCBob or at least EEDI or NNEDI?When fed with an interlaced source, all my hardware players send out an interlaced image via the component video output.

However, given most hardware players today offer up-scaling via HDMI. If you set them to any of their "p" (progressive) output options, they will "de-interlace" the "interlaced" image prior to up-scaling.

Obviously, some players perform this task "alot" better than others... You get what you pay for!