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Trying to find an affordable multi-region Bluray player. Help?

Squirminator2kSquirminator2k they/themNorth Hollywood, CARegistered User regular
edited April 2012 in Help / Advice Forum
I have a vast, vast, i]vast[/i] library of DVDs from the UK, and I have a rather nice Philips multi-region DVD player to play them on. It upscales, converts PL to NTSC on the fly (or whatever), and it's pretty user friendly. Unfortunately I just moved and we appear to have misplaced the remote. As if that wasn't bad enough, Philips no longer manufacture a remote that is compatible with the device, and the cheapest price I can find for a second-hand remote is $60. Which is a bit shit, obviously.

We've decided that rather than simply buy a new DVD player we should probably upgrade to Bluray. We need to find a Bluray player that can, at the very least, play any region DVD (we're less fussed about multi-region Bluray capability). it also has to output PAL DVDs as NTSC, like our DVD player does, as our TV doesn't seem to support PAL signals.

So far we've found one affordable option - the Toshiba BDX1200 - however all indications are that this model outputs PAL discs in PAL, which is obviously not ideal for our needs.

We'd really like to avoid having to pay more than $120, if at all possible. Any tips?

Jump Leads - a scifi-comedy audiodrama podcast
Squirminator2k on

Posts

  • JarkeldJarkeld Heemskerk, NH, NLRegistered User regular
    As an option to continue using the other player: a Logitech Harmony remote. It has quite a lot of devices it can control. Prices start at $20.

  • Squirminator2kSquirminator2k they/them North Hollywood, CARegistered User regular
    My understanding from researching a replacement remote for my DVD player is that it doesn't play nice with universal remotes. The remote for my TV is universal and after an hour of manually searching for the right code/frequency/whatever to control the DVD player I gave up.

    Jump Leads - a scifi-comedy audiodrama podcast
  • JarkeldJarkeld Heemskerk, NH, NLRegistered User regular
    The logitech ones have a huge database to search though via an internet connection (remote to pc via USB). Could try and find out if your type is included (have a 300 and a 525).

  • Squirminator2kSquirminator2k they/them North Hollywood, CARegistered User regular
    I'll give it a look. Cheers.

    Jump Leads - a scifi-comedy audiodrama podcast
  • AllforceAllforce Registered User regular
    Squirminator2k wrote:
    So far we've found one affordable option - the Toshiba BDX1200 - however all indications are that this model outputs PAL discs in PAL, which is obviously not ideal for our needs.

    We'd really like to avoid having to pay more than $120, if at all possible. Any tips?

    Unfortunately your search isn't going to go much further than that Toshiba, which isn't even the most reliable player as a lot of users report playback issues such as stuttering and skipping.

    You're looking at custom firmware or actual hardware modification on other players in order to get region-free blu-ray playback which IMO is a pain in the ass, or just forking over 400+ bucks for an Oppo and never looking back.

    My advice? Buy a Logitech Harmony remote refurbished. The i300 is like 20 bucks refurbished usually and I guarantee you it will work with your current player. Then buy a cheap LG blu-ray player for 50-60 bucks. You're out 75 bucks tops and you got all your physical media bases covered, and one remote to rule them all!

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