Need your opinion: Best DVD Player

[Gregbert]

Hello,

My Philips DVD 726 has kust unexpectently died. I thought that was a fantastic machine. I am looking for a new player that:

-Region Free
-Obviously can play burned discs but DL discs
-Not overly expensive. Between $40-$70 range.
-Reliable

Anybody have any ideas?

Take care,
Greg

[lordsmurf]

Toshiba

[Gregbert]

Thanks! What Toshiba model would you recommend?

Take care,
Greg

[Marvingj]

LG is very good also & can play anything CD DVD +/-, RW, Divx..417, 418, 419

[ntscuser]

Thanks! What Toshiba model would you recommend?

Take care,
Greg

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=6415&Search=Search&#comments

is within your price range and also has acertain amount of future-proofing built-in.

[ADigitalMan]

I'm in the same boat as the original poster, and this was naturally my first site to visit (I've frequented the site for going on six years now). Since the rated players now exceeds 6000 different models, and since the oldest players tend to hog the top spots simply due to time on the market, it's tough to figure out what to get.

My standalone Apex is starting to skip a LOT, and my 11-year old VHS deck (top of the line for its day) is starting to eat tapes and make crappy recordings in spite of cleaning.

I have a combo unit on our spare TV made by GoVideo that I simply moved up to the main unit. However, there is an obvious A/V sync issue with that Unit so it'll be returned back downstairs where it will continue to just play animated stuff for the kids. The sync issue isn't as noticible on animated stuff.

This means it's time for me to go shopping for players. I'd like to get a combo unit for simplicity's sake, but given that I now have DVR from my cable company, and that my VHS collection has been upgraded 99% to DVD, my need for VHS is dwindling.

1) Should I get a combo unit, or are they all garbage? I've seen mixed reviews on just about everything I've seen ... including the ones that are locally available.

2) What units are recommended for longevity and media compatibility for burned DL formats? JPEG and MP3 are nice-to-haves as well.

3) Conversational question: Why do these units seem to wear out so fast? I mean, once upon a time, you bought electronics and they lasted 15 years before showing wear. Now it seems you're lucky to get three years out of anything.

[mats.hogberg]

There's a whole section of VideoHelp dedicated to DVD players where you can find what features they support and what the owners think about them. What's best for me is unlikely whats best for you. This kind of "What's the best" questions are utterly pointless.

/Mats

[ADigitalMan]

I'm aware of the DVD Players section, as I said. Unfortunately, with over 6000 models reviewed, and most of them out-of-date models, it becomes quite difficult to sift through the data and find a top-rated model that is still in production. The highest-ranked models are all obsolete. Believe me, my question doesn't come from a lack of reading the DVD Players section.

It's all subjective. That's why opinions are requested.

Rather than start a whole new thread, it made more sense to keep the most recent "What's the best" thread going to solicit further feedback. Given that today's thinking is considerably different from that of the year 2001, distilling the information so it is germane to today's units can only come from subjective discussion and not raw data.

So, given the aforementioned parameters of longevity (something that isn't ranked in the DVD Players compatibility chart) and compatibility with burned DL media (something that is), if anybody has recommendation on units that are known to be currently on the shelves (also something that isn't tracked), it's a good discussion to have, and I for one would appreciate hearing what you have to say on recommended units. I'm sure I'm not alone.

[robrosen]

Philips DVP 642. Plays everything. Plus, it's a brand name.

[FulciLives]

The new Philips DVP-5140/37 is in your price range ... it is selling for about $56 or so at WAL MART ... I also saw SEARS advertise it for $60 in the past Sunday paper.

This DVD player has a simple hack (found in the DVD Hacks section of this website) that makes it region free. It does PAL to NTSC conversion. It does DivX and XviD playback. In fact it is DivX Ultra certified.

The only "strange" thing about it ... there is a composite video output and a component video output but no S-Video output. Also it has digital audio out but only a coaxial type output ... there is no optical type output.

Philips also just released the DVP-5960/37 which is being sold at BEST BUY and CIRCUIT CITY for about $80 or so ... the DVP-5960/37 is also DivX Ultra certified and has all the same features of the DVP-5140 but the DVP-5960 adds a HDMI output and has the ability to "up convert" DVD to HDTV resolutions (720p or 1080i) over the HDMI output. This makes it a nice choice for those with a HDTV or those thinking to buy one in the very near future.

BTW ... since these are DivX Ultra certified ... both work with most of the DivX 6.x features ... including the menu options that codec makes possible. They also work with XviD as well as long as you don't use any advanced features of the codec.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
The DVP-5960/37 also includes a few other features I didn't metion such as a USB connector for thumbdrives etc. and enhanced JPEG picture viewing options.

[ADigitalMan]

Thanks so far. By the way, I'm not the 40-70 price range. I'd like to keep it under $100 if possible, but even still, I'm more interested in longevity and media compatibility than anything. Cheap stuff doesn't seem to last (but neither does the pricey stuff these days).

The Philips above sounds interesting, though one user noted it doesn't have scan forward and reverse. Odd omission indeed. Can you confirm?

[ntngod]

The Philips above sounds interesting, though one user noted it doesn't have scan forward and reverse.

That's what the right and left arrow keys adjacent to the OK button are for...

[FulciLives]

Pioneer just released the DV-393-S with a MSRP of $80 and the DV-490V-S with a MSRP of $100

Both are DivX Home Theatre certified and past Pioneer models have been very good at both DivX and XviD but please note that these are not DivX Ultra certified like the Philips models.

The DV-490V-S has all the same features pretty much as the DV-393-S but includes an HDMI output with the ability to do HDTV up-conversion to 720p/1080i ... that feature is not on the DV-393-S.

So you can think of the Philips DVP-5140/37 being about the same as the Pioneer DV-393-S and the Philips DVP-5960/37 being about the same as the Pioneer DV-490V-S

The main difference is that the Pioneer models cannot be easily hacked to be region free ... you have to pretty much buy them pre-modified to be region free.

220-Electronics has a region free DV-393-S for $130 plus shipping and a DV-490V-S for $180 plus shipping.

The Pioneer players do excellent PAL to NTSC but remember a normal USA model will be restricted to REGION 1 although if you have a REGIOIN FREE PAL DVD it will play it and convert it to NTSC.

One could easily argue that the Pioneer models are superior to the Philips models but again the Philips models are DivX Ultra certified whereas the Pioneer models are not. Also you have to pay a premium to get a code free Pioneer whereas a hack exists for the Philips models that can easily make them code free.

As far as the DivX Ultra Certified thing goes ... to the best of my knowledge this gives the Philips an edge only if you intend to use DivX 6.x and some of it's advanced features such as menu designs.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[thedog]

cut and paste on the 5960:

While the HDMI upscaling does look nice, what they don't tell you is that if you use the HDMI output, you ar elimited to PCM audio only!!! What the hell is that? I can't get DD5.1 with HDMI on this piece of crap? I even called Philips and they confirmed it. That is absolutely ludicrous.

[crackur]

apex plays anything

even windows media or avi

word............crazyness