All-Region DVD and Blu-ray Player Advice

[swo17]

Planning on it! I suppose the true test will be how it handles stuff from other regions. I don't actually have anything like that yet, but I just ordered a bunch of stuff that should fit the bill. (That Eureka holiday sale couldn't have come at a better time!)

[TMDaines]

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_9932.htm

Is this the region-free Tevion Blu-ray player at UK Aldi stores?

Yes, that's the one. It's not region-free out of the box, but there's a simple remote hack.

By remote-hack you mean just pressing a few buttons? Or does something physically have to be done?

[tojoed]

By remote-hack you mean just pressing a few buttons? Or does something physically have to be done?

Just a few buttons, thus:

No disk - enter 973501 for multi reg.DVD and reg A blu and 973502 for multi region DVD and reg B blu

The 0 makes the DVD region free and the 1 & 2 correspond to A & B.
It will then always be region free for SD. If, by any chance, you play a Region C Blu, the number is, you've guessed it, 973503.

[nsps]

I brought some R2 and/or PAL discs over to swo17's and the playback and conversion looked quite nice. Also interesting: the on-screen graphics are identical to my Insignia NS-BRDVD3 (which at the moment has no known remote hack). Do a lot of different brands use the same menu and display graphics?

[perkizitore]

And the same firmware updates too :-"

[Tribe]

Is the Momitsu BDP-799 then the "state of the art" insofar as region free blu-ray players are concerned? I think it might be THE affordable region free blu-ray player since I've found very little, if anything, out there that is either region free or hackable. However, it seems a tad tedious in terms of having to readjust manually before every use. Does it appear likely this might change and future blu-ray players will be freely and easily hackable for region purposes in the future?

[perkizitore]

I don't think it will change, you will still need the remote codes. Blu-ray players are much more sophisticated than DVD players.

[Tribe]

Can anyone vouch for Regionfreedvd.net as a source for an affordable region-free Blu-Ray player?

[swo17]

Is the Momitsu BDP-799 then the "state of the art" insofar as region free blu-ray players are concerned? I think it might be THE affordable region free blu-ray player since I've found very little, if anything, out there that is either region free or hackable. However, it seems a tad tedious in terms of having to readjust manually before every use. Does it appear likely this might change and future blu-ray players will be freely and easily hackable for region purposes in the future?

Good timing with your post--I have had this player since Wednesday (so naturally, I've had a chance to watch like 10 movies or so on it) and was just about ready to post some of my findings:

1. Once I found out what the codes were (which are different than the 899 codes) I was pleased to find that they do NOT need to be reentered manually each time you power on the machine. I have read that the Blu region resets to A every time (don't have any region B Blus to try this out) but DVDs from all regions play right off without needing to make any kind of adjustment. (I have tried this with some R1s and R2s and assume it would work for other regions as well.) The only time you should ever need to change the code manually is if you are playing a Blu-ray that is not region A or region free.

2. The upscaling looks quite a bit better to me than what my Panasonic DMP-BD35 player was doing (which I already thought looked pretty good). From a reasonable viewing distance away, most upscaled DVDs look very good on both players, but if I get really close to the screen, I can see some digital blockiness on the Panny. On the Momitsu, I am fairly convinced that some sort of algorithm is being used that is filling in the extra pixels in such a way that the whole image looks like it has been pleasantly bathed in film grain. I don't know if it is actually possible that this is what is happening, but I will vouch for upscaled images looking great and not digitally blocky.

3. The Blu-rays I've watched have looked orgasmically good, though in all fairness, they were both Pixar movies. Still, I told a couple of kids who were staying at my house over the weekend that if they went right up to the screen, it would look like "real life." Much to their father's chagrin, they spent the rest of the weekend ooohing and aaahing at a viewing distance of about two feet from the screen.

4. This could have been an issue with my old player (which is currently on its way to the repair shop) but the Momitsu navigates lightning fast through Criterion's Blu-ray menus. My Panny had a hard time with those.

5. The 799's front display has a minute and second counter but not an hour counter. So if you are an hour and a half into a movie, it only displays 30:00. (If you hit the status button though, the right time does show up on the screen.) Not necessarily a huge issue, but just thought I should mention it.

6. The disc tray seems a tad flimsy, and the only way I can really take a disc out is by sticking my finger in the hole of the disc to remove it (I can't really get my fingers around the edges of a disc to take it out that way). It also makes a kind of mild grinding noise whenever it opens or closes. But since it has made this sound consistently and I haven't noticed any playback issues related to it, I'm thinking this is just the player's normal noise. Again, I don't consider these dealbreakers, just thought I should mention them.

7. Regarding my experience with atacom, I had no issues with them whatsoever. I wanted the player quickly, so I ordered the 3-day shipping, and it came right on time. I received emails to confirm that they had received my order and that they had shipped it. Now, right after I initially placed my order, I looked into atacom's customer ratings (something you should always do right after giving your money to a potentially shady website). I was a bit concerned to find that they had a rating of F from the Better Business Bureau. From what I can tell, they are a legitimate business, but if you have problems with your order after receiving it, you may have some trouble getting any assistance from them in resolving the matter. I don't know what the failure rate might be on a product like this to know what the risk of getting a bad player might be. Most of the complaints I found against the site were from people who had bought bad motherboards or other computer parts from them. There is probably a good chance that you will be just fine ordering from them, but if any of this makes you uncomfortable, you might be better off ordering from xpcgear.com (though I haven't done any research into how reputable they are).

[Tribe]

2. The upscaling looks quite a bit better to me than what my Panasonic DMP-BD35 player was doing (which I already thought looked pretty good). From a reasonable viewing distance away, most upscaled DVDs look very good on both players, but if I get really close to the screen, I can see some digital blockiness on the Panny. On the Momitsu, I am fairly convinced that some sort of algorithm is being used that is filling in the extra pixels in such a way that the whole image looks like it has been pleasantly bathed in film grain. I don't know if it is actually possible that this is what is happening, but I will vouch for upscaled images looking great and not digitally blocky.

Swo, what's the size of your tv screen?

[swo17]

I have a 50" Pioneer PDP-5020FD plasma.

[manicsounds]

I emailed Gary Tooze about this, since he has both the 799 and 899.
He says he prefers the 899, as the 799 is "small and clunky" and the machine whirs louder than the 899.

[swo17]

I would imagine the 899 is sturdier, but is it available anywhere? I gave up trying to find one and just settled with the 799. Also, to be clear, the "whirring" only really occurs while loading or unloading a disc, not during playback.

[Perkins Cobb]

5. The 799's front display has a minute and second counter but not an hour counter. So if you are an hour and a half into a movie, it only displays 30:00. (If you hit the status button though, the right time does show up on the screen.) Not necessarily a huge issue, but just thought I should mention it.

Oh, man, that's going to make Satantango seem even longer.

[zombeaner]

I also have the 799 and I've been very happy with it. I've played Region B BDs with no problem and tried all combinations of NTSC/PAL and region coded discs with no issue. The timer thing is irritating, the noisy disc tray is also irritating, but not deal breakers. One thing I've noticed is that it automatically wants to stretch any 4:3 DVD material to 16:9. I changed the output to "16:9 Pillarbox" but it seems to revert to automatic stretching.

[Lazertron]

@swo17

Thanks for your opinion on the 799 which I can agree on 100%. I bought the Momitsu at HKFlix a month ago and it gave me no trouble whatsoever with anything I put into its tray (I'm located in the PAL region).
I compared its upscaling capabilities to the PS3, which were slightly better, but overall I'm totally satisfied and... it's code free all the way

[karltmc]

I just got the Momitsu 799. I am able to play all my Region 1 DVDs on it and, if I enter the codes, both region A and B Blu-rays. But none of my Region 2 PAL DVDs will play. I keep getting a message on my TV that says "mode not supported." Is there some problem with the conversion from PAL? Is there some setting I should have my TV on? If anyone has any thoughts, I would appreciate it! I am at a loss.

[swo17]

Hmmm...there is a place in the settings where you can toggle the TV type between NTSC and PAL. You might try playing with that. However, my Momitsu plays PAL discs just fine with it set to NTSC. (My understanding is that my TV is NTSC only, and that my player recognizes this and outputs everything as NTSC, no matter the source.) I am new to this myself though. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[karltmc]

I just figured it out. I switched the resolution from Auto to 1080p and now it plays PAL DVDs. Ugh. I am new to this too and not very good with these machines!

[Ben Cheshire]

The new Kogan machine (Kogan.com.au) whirs really loudly particulalry on disc entry, but also througout playing there is a faint whining audible from across the room which just does not happen on the PS3.

The Kogan has plenty of user control. Hardly any auto-detect settings, unlike the PS3; so, as David has mentioned before about an Australian region free player, with this unit you have to select NTSC or PAL for every SD disc you play; all of which play without any codes needing to be entered. I haven't tried a non-region-B BD on it yet. I've found myself fiddling with settings more than I ever have on my PS3. On the whole getting my first region-free player has made me appreciate why the PS3 is still the industry leader as a blu ray player; it really plays discs beautifully with no video noise at all, and its SD upscaling is far superior to the Kogan, in my opinion.

[anvilscepe]

My Momitsu 799 has just arrived – damn you fed-ex ground! It came with a handy instruction print out. If anyone needs these, even though I know manicsounds already posted them, I can scan and PM a link.

And Christmas came early in the form of two films, hand-picked by the HKFlix staff: Beautiful Swordswoman and 13 Worms. #-o

[grey]

Re: Oppo BDP 83 problem with The Leopard - Can anyone tell me if the pixillation was just in the first scene (the pan across the house) or did it occur in other places in the film? Thanks.

[perkizitore]

The problems are all over the place, but hopefully they will fix it with the new firmware upgrade!

[TMDaines]

I tried my local Aldi in Northwich today for one of the Tevion Blu-ray players to no avail. The only electronics they seemingly had were a scanner and some speakers. I asked a member of staff who gave me a quizzical look before saying that she didn't think that they had had any Blu-ray players delivered.