What is the current best dvd/blue ray player people are using?

[Bowdon]

At the moment I have the LG 250, which is region free.

But to be honest I mostly use it to play video files via a USB external hard drive. Generally it works well. But it does have an annoying issue that it sometimes freezes the machine when trying to play certain files. It doesn't seem to be by file type or size. I suspect it some codec or strange resolution issue that is causing problems. The only way to fix the issue is to unplug the player,wait a few seconds then plug it back in to continue using the machine.

So is there a new player that is better at handling this type of issue on the market at the moment?

Any help appreciated.

[usually_quiet]

At the moment I have the LG 250, which is region free.

But to be honest I mostly use it to play video files via a USB external hard drive. Generally it works well. But it does have an annoying issue that it sometimes freezes the machine when trying to play certain files. It doesn't seem to be by file type or size. I suspect it some codec or strange resolution issue that is causing problems. The only way to fix the issue is to unplug the player,wait a few seconds then plug it back in to continue using the machine.

So is there a new player that is better at handling this type of issue on the market at the moment?

Any help appreciated.

Blu-ray players are primarily designed to play Blu-ray discs and DVDs and mostly support the types of audio and video they use. Their ability to play media files from USB is limited due to a lack of support for video codecs that did not yet exist when Blu-ray was released, as well as some encoding options that can be used for AVC/H.264. Blu-ray players also don't support playing video resolutions above 1920x1080.

Depending on what you want to play, you might be better off getting a dedicated media player to play video files from USB drives. With the right player software installed, some Android-based media players can play almost as many types of video as a new PC, but the most versatile models cost as much as a PC.

[syberdude]

If you are interested in using digital files if I'm understanding this correctly, you could try out a media player like the Dune Media Players. There are other types of media players as well out there. BluRay players seem best at playing the disc based media or rather they choose to make them best at doing that. I think newer media players such as Dune players update their codecs to support many more types of files. I mainly say this since many manufacturers are leaving the BluRay media player business.

[usually_quiet]

Dune players get high marks from forum members that have them.

The 2019 version of the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro is also well-regarded by most who own one. Some people get good results using a Chromecast With Google TV 4K device, along with a compatible USB dock and a higher-wattage power brick for media playback from a USB drive. (Both accessories must be purchased separately.) The Android versions of Kodi and VLC can be installed on the NVidia Shield TV Pro and Chromecast With Google TV 4K for media file playback.

However, the cheap Android TV boxes sold online should be avoided. They often use a version of Android intended for phones. In addition, they may not have as much installed memory as they claim and can contain malware or spyware.