DVD Players

[Reidy]

Any1 got one. What sort and is it any good? I'm on about the sort that you plug into your TV rather than computer. Thanks guys

[Blastoderm]

Definitely worth having one. I've got one. The viewing of a DVD on a 28" widescreen TV is a lot better than viewing it on TFT 15" monitor.

[Obliterate]

I've got a PS2.

Amazon sell DVD players for about £30. Dunno if they're any good or not though.

[Reidy]

yeah, i've been looking on amazon, theres loads to choose from tho, so i tend to think personal experience is the best guide to picking one. thanks guys

[Kumnaa]

The £30 ones are pretty decent in general I know a few people that have them and they have made no complaints. I have a PS2 for my DVDs

[Androme]

It doesn't matter - what actually seperates the ok one's from the top-end one's (excluding extra special deals and other parts) is the no. of features and/or DivX support etc.? Also some include DVD recording support - I don't know - I have a £40 one in my room and plays DVD's just the same as the top-end Sony Home Cinema kit we have down stairs.

[wu_trax]

what do you need it for? if you want to play dvds only a cheap one will be fine.
then there are others that also play VCD and SVCD, some that play even DivX.

Im pretty happy with mine ('cyberhome'), plays all DVDs (includning burned ones), VCD, SVCD and mpgs. I paid a 100€ 2-3 years ago, but they should be a lot cheaper today.

right now i thinking about getting one of these:
http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=182278
which apparently play anything (including divx, xvid, etc.), have LAN-support, auto-update firmware to match the latest codec, have a harddisk, and so on, but they cost 450 €

[Embroglio]

i just got one in asda for 30 quid, not being used till the 25th though etc. blah

[Reidy]

taking it on holiday tmrw afternoon, buying it tmrw morning, so i only need it for a week (hence wanting a cheap one) but it would be nice if it lasted a bit longer Its just the basic dvd play back function i want, not bothered about the support of different formats. think i'll just buy a cheap one, asda seems a decent enough plan as its just down the street thanks again guys

[wakey]

The real question you should be asking yourself is what tv will they be played on.

If its a small 14" 4:3 tv or even a 21" 4:3 then a cheap one is fine but as you start getting to the bigger and better widescreen tv's you want to be looking for paying more because you will notice the lower quality decoders of the cheap dvd player on a large widescreen tv.

[Inferno]

Make sure its Sony. Superior sound and video quality guaranteed!

[wakey]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Make sure its Sony. Superior sound and video quality guaranteed!

Not really, Sony do make good machines BUT you pay a premium for the Sony name which often sees it more expensive than a compartive machine from someone else. Not to mention Sony are one of the most paranoid companies around which means they are rarely made region free without having it chipped or installing hacked firmware and they often lack features of others (for example many wont play vcd and svcd and those that do lock out the upper bit rate of svcd at 3000 meaning you can watch any high quality none standard SVCD's (XSVCD) )

[Kumnaa]

Originally Posted by wu_trax

what do you need it for? if you want to play dvds only a cheap one will be fine.
then there are others that also play VCD and SVCD, some that play even DivX.

They all play VCDs and SVCDs these days. I'd like one that plays DivX but when I have a pc and two standalone DVD players the extra money dosen't seem worth it

[wu_trax]

Originally Posted by Kumnaa

They all play VCDs and SVCDs these days. I'd like one that plays DivX but when I have a pc and two standalone DVD players the extra money dosen't seem worth it

same with me so far, but now i got finally got a BIG tv and i really want to watch all the stuff i download on it.
I tried with my notebook, but it sucks and for some strange reason shows the picture only in black and white (and i tried EVERYTHING ).

So i can either get a new notebook (which i have no use for and which would cost far too much) or a new dvd-player.

[melandron]

i got my DVD when they first came out, we no i lie it was a while after, so it cost me more than they do now, I picked up a VERY nice LG for £200 3.5 years ago and have been happy with it ever since.

[wakey]

Originally Posted by wu_trax

same with me so far, but now i got finally got a BIG tv and i really want to watch all the stuff i download on it.
I tried with my notebook, but it sucks and for some strange reason shows the picture only in black and white (and i tried EVERYTHING ).

So i can either get a new notebook (which i have no use for and which would cost far too much) or a new dvd-player.

The black and white situation is due to your norebook outputting the signal as NTSC onto a PAL tv. You can normally change the output signal type on the display tab of windows (normally via the advanced tab on the settings tab)

And as I said on your thread if you have a big tv those KISS systems apparently produce pretty poor quality images for DVD's which while not noticable on smaller tv's are noticable the larger you get and obviously your divx/xvids wont come out too great either on a large tv due to the compression algorithms used.

[wu_trax]

Originally Posted by wakey

The black and white situation is due to your norebook outputting the signal as NTSC onto a PAL tv. You can normally change the output signal type on the display tab of windows (normally via the advanced tab on the settings tab)

yes, thats what i read too, but it was already set to pal in the bios. I think the whole notebook is of horrible quality and just sucks.

And as I said on your thread if you have a big tv those KISS systems apparently produce pretty poor quality images for DVD's which while not noticable on smaller tv's are noticable the larger you get and obviously your divx/xvids wont come out too great either on a large tv due to the compression algorithms used.

That sounds bad . I do have a more or less 'big' TV (82cm). It isn't exactly 'high-end quality', so if i add a dvd-player that doesn't produce good quality images, i probably dn't see much at all .