TECH DVD Player Recommendations Needed

packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Now that we have a new smart tv that has enough ports to add things like a DVD player, I'm in need of some suggestions. We don't have any Blue Ray dvd's just older ones for shows and movies I refuse to rent online. Amazon Prime has Northern Exposure, some of the episodes are free, and a bunch are not free and if you want to watch them it's $3.99 per episode, and that ain't happening!

For instance I have all six seasons of Northern Exposure, and most of the X Files, and a large collection of Native American movies (Sundance and the like). Plus I have some craft/educational DVD's I'd like to watch again. Also have some old western movies on DVD.
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
packyderms_wife said:
Now that we have a new smart tv that has enough ports to add things like a DVD player, I'm in need of some suggestions. We don't have any Blue Ray dvd's just older ones for shows and movies I refuse to rent online. Amazon Prime has Northern Exposure, some of the episodes are free, and a bunch are not free and if you want to watch them it's $3.99 per episode, and that ain't happening!

For instance I have all six seasons of Northern Exposure, and most of the X Files, and a large collection of Native American movies (Sundance and the like). Plus I have some craft/educational DVD's I'd like to watch again. Also have some old western movies on DVD.
Click to expand...

Go with a Blu-ray player anyway. Even if you don't have Blu-rays, most players have what's known as "upconverting". The difference in visual quality can be amazing. I recently rewatched the 1990 theatrical rerelease of "Night of the Living Dead," and for the first time, I could actually READ THE LOGO on the side of Ben's truck.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
dvo said:
I think all of ours are Sony Blu-Ray players. No complaints. They just don’t get used as much as they used to.
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Thanks. Now that we have a decent tv that functions properly I think a dvd player would get pretty good use here. Plus OC tells me there's usually one or two DVD's in the free library box each week. Apparently my neighbors are watching movies and then swapping them out for something new to watch via the little free library.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Blacknarwhal said:
Blu-ray is a platform. Blu-ray discs are the next step up from DVDs. The next step up from Blu-ray is "4K", and if you get a 4K player, you may do better still. There's upconversion there too.
Click to expand...

With the 4K will the video/audio of my 1990's dvds will be quality, not pixelated or having the sound skip?
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
packyderms_wife said:
With the 4K will the video/audio of my 1990's dvds will be quality, not pixelated or having the sound skip?
Click to expand...

If the discs are scratched, you likely won't get those problems fixed. But like with my 1990 Night of the Living Dead, the difference is shocking. But you're going to need a 4K television to get the full effect. A 1080p television will still give you improvement, though.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Blacknarwhal said:
If the discs are scratched, you likely won't get those problems fixed. But like with my 1990 Night of the Living Dead, the difference is shocking. But you're going to need a 4K television to get the full effect. A 1080p television will still give you improvement, though.
Click to expand...

Our new Roku tv is 4K, drives OC nuts because he says it's "too" bright, lol. That's because our old "smart" tv, that is well over 12 years old, picture was getting darker over time. He says the same thing about the 4k tv in my studio as well, that the picture is too bright.

Okay well I'll look at Amazon to see which Sony Blu-Ray is in my price range, and also check the backs of my DVD's. I'm thinking that only one has a scratch on it as I was very careful with my CD's and DVD's back in the day... they were spendy.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
Only consider a blue-Ray player. It plays DVDs too, and is more recent technology.

However, if streaming is something you’re thinking of, go to www.vudu.com - that site lets you buy individual movies and tv shows or series. You then own that streaming content and can view it thru that service. There is no monthly membership charge; you just buy the vids you want. (It also has rentals, but I rarely rent.) Prices are competitive.

By way of price comparison, I just opened the service and looked up “Northern Exposure”. Each SEASON is available for $20 to own. Individual episodes are priced at $1.99 to own.

I’ve used the Vudu service for at least a decade.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Dennis Olson said:
Only consider a blue-Ray player. It plays DVDs too, and is more recent technology.

However, if streaming is something you’re thinking of, go to www.vudu.com - that site lets you buy individual movies and tv shows or series. You then own that streaming content and can view it thru that service. There is no monthly membership charge; you just buy the vids you want. (It also has rentals, but I rarely rent.) Prices are competitive.

By way of price comparison, I just opened the service and looked up “Northern Exposure”. Each SEASON is available for $20 to own. Individual episodes are priced at $1.99 to own.

I’ve used the Vudu service for at least a decade.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll check them out that's certainly cheaper than amazon prime. Is their library pretty extensive? I'd rather watch what I already own, we'll see what happens.
 
von Koehler

von Koehler

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Consider getting a DVD player that has Blu-ray and has multiple region capabilities.

The British edition of Northern Exposure has both Blu Ray and all of the original sound track music.

It's worth it just to hear the very last episode.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
von Koehler said:
Consider getting a DVD player that has Blu-ray and has multiple region capabilities.

The British edition of Northern Exposure has both Blu Ray and all of the original sound track music.

It's worth it just to hear the very last episode.
Click to expand...

Thanks! So what is this multiple region capability? TIA
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
packyderms_wife said:
Thanks! So what is this multiple region capability? TIA
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When DVD movies came out, piracy protection was added of course. One of the methods employed was “region.” IIRC, there are 7 regions around the world. The US is “region 1.” A DVD encoded for Japan (I don’t know what region they are) wouldn’t play on DVD players sold in the US, as the region codes wouldn’t match. That’s why, for DVD purchases off eBay or Amazon,it is vital that you make sure the disc is region 1.

Now, also IIRC, blue-Ray discs only have 3 world-wide regions, as they employ different anti-piracy controls.

That help?
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
Okay, I looked them up. For DVDs:

These are the DVD region codes:

Region 1 - Canada, the United States and U.S. territories.
Region 2 - Japan, Europe, South Africa, the Middle East (including Egypt) and Greenland.
Region 3 - Southeast Asia, and East Asia (including Hong Kong).
Region 4 - Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean.
Region 5 - Eastern Europe, Russia, the Indian Subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia.
Region 6 - China.
Region 7 - reserved for unspecified special use.
Region 8 - Special international venues for air and oceanic travel.

The error message ERROR: Playing Of This Disc Prohibited By Area Limits is displayed on the DVD player. will display when attempting to play a region-coded disc on a DVD player coded to play discs from a different region. For example, if you try to play a disc manufactured for release in China (region 6) on a Sony® DVD player meant to play discs in the United States (region 1), you will receive this error message.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
For blue-Ray:

Blu-ray Disc media does have region codes, but unlike DVD players, the region codes for Blu-ray Disc media use letters instead of numbers to indicate a particular zone or region where the discs can be played.

The Blu-ray Disc region codes are as follows:

Region A: North America, South America, U.S. Territories, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast Asia
Region B: Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand.
Region C: Asia (except for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other areas of Southeast Asia)
Region FREE: This is not an official setting, but discs that have the region FREE symbol either have no flag set or have all region flags (A, B & C) set.

NOTE: The region codes for commercial Blu-ray Disc movies can be found on the back of the Blu-ray Disc case.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Dennis Olson said:
Like I’ve ranted for years, the vast majority of people know absolutely nothing about the technology they use every day.
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True... and most people have zero clue as to what it takes to make the clothing that they wear on a daily basis, or even the food they eat. Until now I haven't had a need for a new DVD player, since my old tv (non smart tv) had a dvd player built into it which was high tech at the time... ala 2001 or so.
 
Meemur

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
I'm following this thread, too. I will need a new DVD player before long.
I borrow the bulk of my DVDs for free from the library, but people give them to me, too.
Sometimes I buy them for $1 at estate sales or the Dollar Store.

I can't stream in my area. We don't have the speed, nor are we likely to get it anytime soon out here in the boonies.

That's OK. None of us can afford a high speed broadband account.
 
von Koehler

von Koehler

Has No Life - Lives on TB
packyderms_wife said:
Thanks! So what is this multiple region capability? TIA
Click to expand...

For Blu Ray DVDs, the world is divided into three different regions. A B or C

America is A
England is B

A disc encoded for A can't play in a player designed for B, and vice versa.

A multi region player gets around this by being able to read any disc by any region. It just has a changed software in its system.

I bought my Sony S1700 payer from Amazon and it plays everything. Costs $144
 
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Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
Meemur said:
I'm following this thread, too. I will need a new DVD player before long.
I borrow the bulk of my DVDs for free from the library, but people give them to me, too.
Sometimes I buy them for $1 at estate sales or the Dollar Store.

I can't stream in my area. We don't have the speed, nor are we likely to get it anytime soon out here in the boonies.

That's OK. None of us can afford a high speed broadband account.
Click to expand...

If you WANT high speed, you're getting more options these days. The mobile phone companies--T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon--are increasingly offering 4G service, which works pretty well. Plus there's Elon's StarLink.
 
von Koehler

von Koehler

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Meemur said:
I'm following this thread, too. I will need a new DVD player before long.
I borrow the bulk of my DVDs for free from the library, but people give them to me, too.
Sometimes I buy them for $1 at estate sales or the Dollar Store.

I can't stream in my area. We don't have the speed, nor are we likely to get it anytime soon out here in the boonies.

That's OK. None of us can afford a high speed broadband account.
Click to expand...

If you are borrowing DVDs from the library I suggest gently wiping them with a mild cleaner like Windex first before playing them.

This removes a lot of dirt and fingerprints which can cause playback problems.

When Netflix used to rent out DVD's they were often dirty. I found many fingerprints and dried soda pop.
 
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Tex88

Tex88

Veteran Member
von Koehler said:
If you are borrowing DVDs from the library I suggest gently wiping them with a mild cleaner like Windex first before playing them.

This removes a lot of dirt and fingerprints which can cause playback problems.
Click to expand...
Don’t use Windex LOL. Dish soap water is OK but Windex and other glass cleaners containing ammonia are the worst. Wanna ruin car glass or your expensive glasses and lenses? Use Windex!
 
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