Comments

craftech wrote on 3/10/2007, 4:43 AM
For upconverting players that work well take a look at:

Oppo DV-970HD Not an HD DVD player, but a very good upconverting dvd player especially if you have an HDTV. Performs as well as units that cost 2-3 times as much. Plays DVDs from US, Europe, and Asia. Has a USB port that will connect to a flash drive, etc along with a 4-in-1 card reader. Comes with an HDMI cable.

Sony DVP-NS75H Second best upconverting DVD player next to the Oppo and cheaper. Very good image quality especially upconverted. Plays region 1 DVDs and does not come with an HDMI cable. No USB. Look around though because I believe that unit is now discontinued.


For standard DVD players take a look at:

Sony DVPNS55P/B A standard DVD player with excellent picture quality and good menu implementation. Has support for 5 channel surround as well as DD.

Panasonic DVD-F87 If you need a 5-disc changer the Panasonic is a good one. It will allow you to change discs without interrupting the one that is playing and has a very smooth FF and RW scanning feature.

All of the above have good reviews.

John
mr.beebo wrote on 3/10/2007, 4:46 AM
I'll second the Sony DVP-NS75H. Think we paid $130 several months ago and set it up for our office. Plays everything we throw in it and the pic quality is A1.
Laurence wrote on 3/10/2007, 5:14 AM
I'd get one of the following DivX compatible Phillips DVD players.

DVP5992/37

DVP5960/37

DVP3960/37

That way you can burn DivX files to disc and play them in your living room. Several of us in this forum are posting our stuff at DVD quality on Stage6.com You can download these videos, easily burn them to a data DVD-+R, and watch them at DVD quality in your living room. Pretty cool stuff. I have found that the older DivX compatible players don't produce anywhere near as good a picture as the newest ones. As a general rule, all of them are dirt cheap. I bought my DVP3960/37 at Walmart for $50. It was the cheapest of the ones I linked to above and it plays back all manner of DivX and Mp3 and Mp4 media files just beautifully. It also plays back DivX menus done with the latest authoring tools. I noticed aftewards though that the more expensive model with USB and uprezzing over HDMI was only $60 at my local Best Buy!

For anyone with an older DivX compatible DVD player, you really should get one of the newer ones. The picture on the newer ones is way better. On the older DivX compatible DVD players, the picture with DivX files looks kind of like low res flash. On the new ones it looks like a regular DVD.

Anyway, being able to post and download each others DVD quality videos at Stage6.com is pretty darned cool and the price of admission is pretty cheap.
busterkeaton wrote on 3/10/2007, 3:48 PM
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. My old player was a Phillips Divx player and it's dying on me at less than a year of use.
craftech wrote on 3/11/2007, 8:42 AM
Buster,

The current sale at Circuit City has the Sony DVP-NS75H at $95 and the Sony DVPNS55P at $65.

Here is a 66 page thread on the Sony DVP-NS75H over at the AV Science Forum

John
donp wrote on 3/12/2007, 7:46 AM
OPPO 970 just got it and it's great. Big thread on it too on the AVS Forum.
FuTz wrote on 3/12/2007, 9:18 AM
Just to add my 2 cents as an "option" about this topic:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?dvdplayer=&hits=50&listall=List+all+by+Name

... that is, if you'd eventually like to unlock the region codes on your units so you can buy a rare DVD edition in London and play it at home in Springfield or Copacabana...