Opinions about Philips BDP8000/12 blu-ray player needed

[littlewolvie]

Hi,

Does somebody have experience with the Philips BDP8000/12 blu-ray player?

I've had good experiences with 2 previous Philips DVD players and would like to replace my current DVD player (Philips DVP3580) with a blu-ray player. As such, DVD playback is still quite important (including upscaling).

The most important factor why I would opt for this BDP8000 player, is the easy method to make the player region free for blu-ray (my wife is American, while I'm Belgian, and as such, this is quite important to us. I love my PS3, but this is the main drawback).

I'm also interested in the ability to play different media formats, especiall the popular mkv container. I'm tired of having to switch between different media players in order to watch my media files. Both my PS3 and DVP3580 don't support the mkv format (which is really a pity and puts the image of the PS3 as a serious media player in question). I then have to go back to my Western Digital media player, but considering it's an early model and WD doesn't offer support on these anymore (thank you very much WD. Great customer support!), half my mkv files won't play decently on that one either (synchronisation issues between image/sound/subtitles). Anyway, you get the picture.

So, to keep it short, important factors are:

- Region free blu-ray/DVD
- Blu-ray playback quality
- DVD playback quality and upscaling
- Support for different media formats and mkv in particular
- Wifi, which is present on this model, is a plus for me

Things I don't care about are streaming and 3D.

Now, I've read a couple of reviews about this player, but can't make much sense out of them. On one hand you have reviewers who say this is a great player. Excellent picture quality, good DVD playback, good media support, fast response and loading times... On the other hand you have reviewers who say this player is terrible, that state it's slow, offers bad image quality, does a horrible upscaling job and suffers from many bugs and technical problems. So, to be honest, I don't know who to believe anymore.

So, if there's somebody out there with personal experience with this player he or she would like to share, it would be much appreciated!

Take care,

Erwin

[fritzi93]

Region-free for Blu-ray? That's not gonna happen; only a select few hardware-modded BD players are region-free.

Nevertheless, many (most?) Blu-Ray *releases* are region-free. Look here:

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

For those that aren't, one could always do a region-free backup on one's computer.

DVD region-free is a different story, apparently the Philips BDP8000 *can* be hacked, as per these reports:

http://www.multi-region.net/philips

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks/philips-bdp8000/11211

Good luck.

[jman98]

Unless you can find a model that has been hardware modified by companies that specialize in it, the only BD models that sell as BD region free out of the box are Hitecker/Momitsu, Oppo and Insignia. I have not heard of any others. Those brands also require hardware modifications to be region free for BD playback but the seller should have already done the modification for you.

[Case]

Unless you can find a model that has been hardware modified by companies that specialize in it...

I got my BD player (and the DVD player before that) from such a company in western Europe. They don't seem to list Philips BD players at the moment, but they carry a selection of LG, Oppo, Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung and Sony modded all region BD players.

[littlewolvie]

@fritzi93: Thanks for your reply. I've to admit I kind' a misinterpreted that info. I remember looking at this a couple of months ago and coming to the same conclusion. Very frustrating to notice the situation is still the same.

Thanks for the overview of region free blu-rays. It's better than nothing, of course. But it's not something I'll carry with me all the time, especially when I'm on an overseas trip.

I guess a hardware modified model is the only option in that case.

Not to change the subject, but keeping the hardware modified option in mind, as well as my list of mentioned, important points, any good suggestions for a blu-ray player? Besides Philips, I've a preference for Panasonic, LG or Sony (NO Samsung!!!). My maximum budget would be somewhere between 200 and 300 euro.

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it!