Happy New Year to all. Our 14 year old very basic MATSUI DVD player finally died so we need something new.
Obviously I went to the shops/google thinking what I wanted was another dead basic DVD-only player which would last another 14 years 'cos it's not juggling multiple functions that can all go wrong.
Obviously I now feel that I need a Blu Ray player (so I'm future-proofed) with smart app functionality (so I can watch Iplayer on something better than a Wii, 4od, Youtube on my tellybox, Netflix and more...?) and which has built in Wifi so I don't end up with ethernet cables trailing round my house.
I would LIKE to spend c.£60
I know that's unrealistic and EXPECT to spend c.£85
I MUST not spend >£100.
Anybody got a tip?
A problem shared is a problem halved, but a worry shared is a worry doubled
What Hifi have a feature test on cheap blu-ray players this month. Not much on their website to go on though.
I bought the magazine yesterday and was having a read last night. Can't remember any of it now, but will post back with some more info later on tonight.
My tip: Don't buy one with Wifi in it, they're a gimmick and probably won't work as well streaming HD from Netflix etc. as they'd like you to think. Instead, get one without and put the difference towards some homeplug AV200 adapters to save trailing ethernet cable everywhere.
That might not be a bad idea. I could get the Sony BDP-S1100 for about £50. what do two good AV200 adapter cost? £20-25?
I've never used these things before. are they reliable? even in an old house with old wiring?
A problem shared is a problem halved, but a worry shared is a worry doubled
I've got a cheap Toshiba blu-ray player on account of it being region free. It doesn't have the networky stuff at all, but I have something else to do that. Anyway, it seems fine!
As Matt said, homeplugs are going to be more reliable than wifi. Have a look for some AV500 ones though, better performance and I'm sure I've seen some at a similar price.
The AV200 ones will no doubt do the job fine, but y'know, bigger numbers are always better!
I'd like to get rid of my BR player for one that's region-free. That way I could also ditch the region-free DVD player. But, although not a Sony ho, I'd prefer Sony because it all works together and I have teh lazies
I've heard varying reports about how they perform when they're on different loops. They'll certainly be on different loops. Will that be an issue? I'm not looking for amazing performance just better-and-more-reliable-than-wifi.
AFAIK that was only applicable to Homeplug 1.0. Newer Homeplug standards use the neutral side of the circuit which has less issues (noise) . That's what Wikipedia says anyway.
I got this http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-bd-e6100_Blu-ray-Player_review
from Waitrose for 60brick today. looked a good price and I think it does everything I want. Can't play with it yet though 'cos now must wait for a reasonably priced HDMI cable in the post since the cheapest over the counter one appears to be 20-SODDING-QUID!!
A problem shared is a problem halved, but a worry shared is a worry doubled
If you ever go on HUKD, the next time you see them pop up at ~£1 a cable buy about 5 so you've got some spares. Unless this is going to be the only HDMI device you have.
bastard by name