Help Picking a BD Player Please...

[4evrplan]

I'm looking for the least expensive BD player that isn't total garbage and meets my technical requirements:

1) Plays DivX (and XviD)
2) Up-converts DVDs
3) Outputs a true 1080p signal but also has composite output for my current (SD) TV

I do NOT care about:

1) streaming/WiFi capability. I'll get a separate streaming device.
2) audio format. I'm not an audiophile. Virtual surround (emulating surround sound with two speakers) would be nice but not a requirement.

So, if you were working with a shoestring budget and these were your requirements, which one would you choose?

[aedipuss]

i think you are pretty much out of luck. or too late anyway. blu-ray players aren't allowed to have any analog outputs like composite anymore.

[4evrplan]

Ouch. No BD playback for me then. Not for now anyway. Thanks aedipuss. Perhaps it's overrated anyway, with net delivered content quickly becoming the norm.

[aedipuss]

you might be able to find an old model somewhere in stock. or a refurb unit.

[jman98]

There are a variety of HDMI to composite converter cables and boxes in prices from $6.20 (lowest I saw for a cable) and up.

I think LG makes some players that can still handle Divx and Xvid. Not sure about Sony's support for the format, but you should probably avoid Sony any way (fairly consumer hostile company).

Worrying about upscaling seems pointless to me if you're going to play this on an SD TV. What exactly is the point? The SD TV will just downscale it back. But I don't know of any BD player on the market that can't upscale DVD to 1080p. Being able to output 1080p is a requirement for BD players and I don't know any that don't upscale DVD to that.

[4evrplan]

Worrying about upscaling seems pointless to me if you're going to play this on an SD TV. What exactly is the point? The SD TV will just downscale it back. But I don't know of any BD player on the market that can't upscale DVD to 1080p. Being able to output 1080p is a requirement for BD players and I don't know any that don't upscale DVD to that.

It's future proofing for when I replace my TV. I want to buy a player once, not twice.

[usually_quiet]

In case you change your mind, an LG BP220 is close to meeting your requirements. It is recently discontinued but factory refurbs are still available at a reasonable price. It has wired Ethernet but not WiFi, plus composite video and stereo audio out in addition to HDMI. DivX support requires paying DivX for a license and like a number of other players on the market, this one will play DivX (with some restrictions) only if the fourcc code is changed to XVID. I bought one for my parents last year and it works fine for .mpg files, DVDs and Blu-Ray.

[jagabo]

You can still get a lot of older Blu-ray players at Amazon.com. But the prices are high. For example, we have this player which meets most of your requirements:

http://www.amazon.com/LG-BD670-Wireless-Network-Blu-ray/dp/B004OF9XGO/

But we got it for less than US$100. It supports Divx and Xvid fourcc codes in AVI an DIVX containers. It plays h.264 video in MKV, MP4, TS, etc. It plays MPEG2 video in MPG and VOB containers. It's a lot more picky about what videos it plays than our standalone media player, a Western Digital WDTV Live. For example, it plays MPEG 2 video in a MPG file but not an M2V elemantary stream. Some files just don't play for some reason. It outputs 1080p up to 60 Hz. It has component and composite out (I don't know if the component out is down-scaled as per HDCP license, never used it). It upscales DVDs (I don't think you'll find any Blu-ray player that doesn't do that). It has Wifi built in and can stream videos from network shares via Wifi or wire ethernet.

But I'd suggest you get a cheap Blu-ray player and a standalone media player instead. You'll get much broader file support. Playback of anything other than Blu-ray or DVD discs is just an add-on for Blu-ray players and Smart TVs. Playback of all those other things is the primary purpose standalone media players. So they tend to have much better support of codecs and containers.

Or put together an HTPC.

[wulf109]

Sony BDP-S370 and S380 have composite and component outputs. They play XVID but not DIVX. The LG BD630 also has composite and component outputs and plays only XVID.

[yoda313]

They have hdmi to analog converters.

I have one I just bought recently to hook up stuff to an analog projector I have.

I was able to use it on my ps3. I hooked up the hdmi out to the unit and it has composite and svideo out. The composite went to the projector and worked without a hitch. And I was playing blurays too. And yes the ps3 is always connected so its got the latest firmware.

I have a standalone sony bluray player that isn't a ps3 but I haven't tried it with that yet.

If you are interested I can post the link that I bought the adapter from (amazon) and the model of the sony bluray player if you want me to test it on that instead of the ps3.

Fyi its a 40gb ps3. The first model they introduced after the 60gb and 80gb models that played ps2 games, my 40gb does not play ps2 games at all (never had that ability).


Edit - sorry saw that jman98 did mention it but I went into practical experience here. And I do remember seeing hdmi to component converters as well.

[4evrplan]

@jagabo. Read my requirements again. I listed connectivity/streaming under "I do NOT care about:".

I was unaware of the situation with DivX licensing. The only reason I listed DivX as a requirement was I'd read official XviD support was rare, but if it supported DivX, it would most likely play XviD. All of my encodes are XviD, so the fact that support for it is more common is really good news.

I have to say though, these things are a lot more expensive than I'd anticipated. I was thinking maybe $40 or less for a new inexpensive model, given my minimum requirements, but I see I'd have to get an older model used for that, and then from a no-name seller and take a chance on being ripped off. The last time I shopped for a DVD player was over five years ago, and even then, they had models for around $30. Blu-ray is old enough now that I'm surprised there's still such a premium.

Perhaps I'll keep my eyes open at garage sales. For the time being, I've got a Roku.

[jagabo]

@jagabo. Read my requirements again. I listed connectivity/streaming under "I do NOT care about:".

So I'm not allowed to say anything about features you don't care about?

[4evrplan]

@jagabo. Read my requirements again. I listed connectivity/streaming under "I do NOT care about:".

So I'm not allowed to say anything about features you don't care about?

Perhaps I misunderstood. When you said:

But I'd suggest you get a cheap Blu-ray player and a standalone media player instead. You'll get much broader file support.

I thought you must have missed the "not" in my original post, as what you suggested was exactly what I planned. I should not have made that assumption.

[usually_quiet]

I have to say though, these things are a lot more expensive than I'd anticipated. I was thinking maybe $40 or less for a new inexpensive model, given my minimum requirements, but I see I'd have to get an older model used for that, and then from a no-name seller and take a chance on being ripped off. The last time I shopped for a DVD player was over five years ago, and even then, they had models for around $30. Blu-ray is old enough now that I'm surprised there's still such a premium.

Perhaps I'll keep my eyes open at garage sales. For the time being, I've got a Roku.

A price under $70 is considered inexpensive for a new or refurbished Blu-Ray player. The cheapest one I saw in the past year had a special Black Friday price of $40, but its only connection was HDMI.

You are unlikely to find a newish Blu ray player with no ability to connect to a home network or the Internet. Blu-Ray players are designed to at least connect to the Internet because that is how firmware updates and BD Live or Ultraviolet are delivered.

[jagabo]

I thought you must have missed the "not" in my original post, as what you suggested was exactly what I planned. I should not have made that assumption.

Well, the truth is, after looking at Amazon to see what old players with composite out might still be available, I had forgotten that you already planned on a separate media player. I wrote about the LG BD-550 because I have personal experience with it.

By AACS license (the encryption used on Blu-ray discs) no player manufactured after Dec. 2013 is allow to have any analog outputs at all. So many have already dropped it. No player manufactured after Dec. 2010 was allowed to output HD analog.

If you want Divx AVI support you'll probably have to get a player with all the other media support, including networking. I'm guessing you have a bunch of Divx/Xvid AVI files on CD/DVD. If want to go cheap on the Blu-ray player you'll probably end up having to copy them to your file server or USB hard drive and play them with your standalone media player.

I see $50 players advertized all the time at Frys.

[4evrplan]

Yes, I'm leaning that way. I'm going to fore-go the blu-ray player for now, maybe for good. And, I'll start moving all my media from disc to my PC hard drive. That way I can use Plex to stream it to my Roku.