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  1. I have an old Lite-On LVD-2002 DVD player that still works but I want to upgrade it to Blu-Ray. Thing are so different these days and manufacturers no longer bother to provide all specs that I am now completely lost in the sea of choices. Requirements:

    1. Blu-R and DVD
    2. Must be able to play NTSC and PAL. I live in the USA but have a large collection of DVDs from Europe. LVD-2002 always did it without a problem even when connected to an analog NTSC TV set.
    3. Build-in wireless.
    4. 1080/FullHD support
    5. Capable of playing off ISO disks.
    6. Has USB input and capable of playing directly from it.
    7. Support for most common formats: DivX/Xvid, MP4, MKV
    8. Long file names.

    9. < $150 if possible.

    Does such a thing exist? Many thanks for any comments and suggestions!
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  2. Member
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    Originally Posted by npollock View Post
    I have an old Lite-On LVD-2002 DVD player that still works but I want to upgrade it to Blu-Ray. Thing are so different these days and manufacturers no longer bother to provide all specs that I am now completely lost in the sea of choices. Requirements:

    1. Blu-R and DVD
    2. Must be able to play NTSC and PAL. I live in the USA but have a large collection of DVDs from Europe. LVD-2002 always did it without a problem even when connected to an analog NTSC TV set.
    3. Build-in wireless.
    4. 1080/FullHD support
    5. Capable of playing off ISO disks.
    6. Has USB input and capable of playing directly from it.
    7. Support for most common formats: DivX/Xvid, MP4, MKV
    8. Long file names.

    9. < $150 if possible.

    Does such a thing exist? Many thanks for any comments and suggestions!
    1. Every recent Blu-Ray player can probably do that.

    2. It is rarely possible for consumers to unlock Blu-Ray players. You need to buy from an online store specializing in multi-region players. www.220-electronics.com and www.world-import.com are well-known stores in this business. These specialty retailers modify the hardware to add multi-region capability. Most of these players will also convert from PAL to NTSC, which is a necessary feature to have for watching out-of-region discs on N. American TVs.

    3. Common.

    4. Easy to find.

    5. ISO copies of movies burned to disc won't play on any players licensed after 2011, if the movie includes Cinavia copy protection. However Cinavia is not used on every commercial disc, and most ripped copies burned to disc will play. Don't expect to find any Blu-Ray player that plays ISOs stored on a media server or USB drive.

    6. Almost every player has this feature, but USB hard drives should have their own power supply and not draw power their from the USB port.

    7. Yes, but Blu-Ray players have more encoding restrictions than dedicated media players.

    8. Common. NTFS formatting is needed for this feature.

    9. You will have to pay around $150 or more to get a good player that has been modified for multi-region Blu-Ray and DVD playback. Less expensive models will likely be modified only for multi-region DVD playback.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 27th Jul 2014 at 08:42.
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  3. Thanks for replying! It's true, each of these requirements is not difficult to meet. The lack of region-free model is also not a deal-breaker because I can always rip those PAL DVDs to strip the region. What I am having trouble with is this:

    What particular player model(s) meet ALL of the requirements?
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  4. Member
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    If you want to be certain your Blu-Ray player will convert from PAL to NTSC so you can watch PAL video on your N. American TV, you still need to buy from a place like 220-electronics.com or world-import.com. That feature is often not listed in the specs for unmodified players, although the unmodified versions of these player may have it. The players that are modified to be region-free only for DVD cost $50 less than those that are modified to be region free for both DVD and Blu-Ray. There are not that many players to look at at any region-free specialty website. Your budget will further limit your choices. The listings have a comprehensive features list and specs. You should be able to find a wireless Blu-Ray player that you like there by yourself without much trouble.

    Any current wireless Blu-Ray player from LG, Sony, or Samsung will play media files from USB and will be capable of playing full HD/1080p video.

    All current model Blu-Ray player will have the exact same issues with Cinavia when playing ISOs. Cinavia compliance is part of the AACS license required for decryption of commercial Blu-Ray discs.

    No current model Blu-Ray players will have analog video connections, only HDMI. Analog connections were eliminated on Blu-Ray players starting with 2013 models, although a few 2012 models were also digital only.

    If you want an old model to avoid Cinnavia and to have analog video connections available, they are getting hard to find new and what is available is likely to lack other features that you want. I'm not going to waste my time looking at them for you.

    [Edit]Regarding media file playback. XVid AVI support is universal. DivX support is uncommon now, even if the player happily plays XVid files. Also, even if Blu-Ray players typically can play mkv, avi, mp4, SRT or SSA subtitles, h.264, XVid, etc, you are better off getting a dedicated media player If you are mainly downloading files encoded by somebody else. All Blu-Ray players have far more restrictions on what they will or won't play. Media file playbackis a bonus feature, not their main function.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 27th Jul 2014 at 19:59.
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