The Blu-ray player thread

[MarcMorris]

I'm going to sound stupid here but what are MKV and AVI files?

They are container formats.

AVI (Audio Video Interleave) | AVI RIFF File Reference

MKV (Matroska) | matroska.org

These are generally the file formats associated with ripped files shared via torrent sites and the like - highly compressed and a pale reflection of the original DVD or Blu-ray.

[the dude]

I agree, very tempting. Got a PS3 for Xmas and really enjoying the blu-ray experience. The thrill of buying dvds had gone to be honest as i have most of the ones that i want. Now I've gone blu the thrill has come back and i'm looking forward to future releases.

[claire]

I picked up the Limit player today. Will set it up at some point over the weekend.

Now, I just need to order some Region A discs ...

[AndyBlade]

Anyone know if these Limit players are any good? My local HMV has about 10 of them, and I'm tempted at the price even though I've never seriously considered blu-ray up to now. Obviously, I dont expect bells and whistles, but it'd be nice to know they worked, were bug free and not just cheap tat before splashing out.

[Companero]

I've heard fairly positive things and you really can't go wrong for all region DVD and Blu-ray at that price, mate.

[AndyBlade]

Thats true enough, especially when you consider my first DVD player cost me over £400, then another £60 to be chipped for multi-region. My mind is pretty much made up, so they'll probably all be gone when I go back tomorrow.

[Companero]

I've got a PS3 which is locked to Region B. My trouble isn't so much the cost but rather convincing my wife that we've got the space. That said, if I told her that I wanted to spend another £50 in order to have a device that would allow me to play a lot more discs, she probably would have something to say about spending the money too

What I will say is that get that player sooner rather than later, mate. I live in London and was looking in local stores over the weekend (Wandsworth and Sutton) and neither had any stock. When I was in a smaller central London store there was just one on Monday and I read on another forum that someone was having trouble finding one too. Word must be spreading fast and if HMV are selling them at that price I would guess it's clearance stock and once it's gone it's gone. Though I could be completely wrong about this.

[viva la gore]

Am I missing something here? Why not just order them from the website?

[AndyBlade]

The Limit players? They're £30 more on the website.

[claire]

I say just go for it, Andy mate!

At that price, it's a great bargain. I received my extra HDMI cable yesterday and am waiting for three Region A discs to arrive imminently (In The Realm of the Senses, Repulsion and King Of New York) then I'll be able to check that the multi-region thing works okay.

I haven't set the player up yet to check the quality of region B discs, or that it is indeed multi-region DVD out of the box, but reviews have all been positive. I'm lazy, basically.

Plus, with it costing just £9.99 for a 3-year warranty, there really is nothing to fear. If you don't like it, take it back and get a refund - and either flog any BDs you buy on eBay, or trade them on this forum.

[claire]

Just set this up. It was a one-minute job. Haven't got my region A discs through yet to test the remote hack, but I can confirm it's region free DVD out of the box - and quality on the DVDs looks nice.

Checked out the region B blu of Hidden and that looks good too.

[AndyBlade]

I picked one up yesterday. Given that technology hasnt really advanced much past the invention of the wheel where I live, there were still loads of them left. It looks a bit clunky, but for the price thats all well and good. Havent tried anything yet, I have nearly £100 in Amazon vouchers to blow, and up to now couldnt find anything I really wanted, so most of that will probably go on blu rays.

[claire]

Just typed in the hack and tried Criterion's Region A "Repulsion" blu-ray in the Limit player. It works.

Spiffing. Or, as they say in my neck of the woods, "fuckin' get in there, you cunt".

[hellochas]

I still can't understand for the life of me why Region coding was developed for Blu-Ray. How thick can you get?

[claire]

I should point out that, while the code 973500 enables this player to play Region A discs, you need to type in 973502 to enable it to play Region B discs afterwards! And then back to 973500 to play another Region A disc, and so on ...

It's not a chore, given the price and the convenience of not having to worry about whether forthcoming titles will be locked in specific regions.

[christats]

The only critisism of the Limit player I have read is that its a bit noisy and has issues with certain discs freezing.
I think I read so far was Snow White,Terminator Salvation and No Country for old men.
Region A or B I don't know.?
Firmware updates fix these sometimes,do they.?

I was thinking of getting a new multi region DVD anyway,so tempted.

[claire]

It sounds a bit worryingly hit-and-miss re the quality of your Limit players.

Mine is virtually silent and - touch wood - hasn't stuck on any discs yet. Apparently some players don't like RCE discs, but this can be rectified by typing in 973510. I haven't tried this out.

[Count Yorga]

This is probably not a bargain but I just got my first Blu-ray player. A Pioneer BDP 320 and I am very satisfied with it. Ordinary dvds looks amazing. I never expected them to look that good. Now if only I could make it regionfree for BD ...
/Yorga

[Myersfan73]

This is probably not a bargain but I just got my first Blu-ray player. A Pioneer BDP 320 and I am very satisfied with it. Ordinary dvds looks amazing. I never expected them to look that good. Now if only I could make it regionfree for BD ...
/Yorga

It's a fantastic player. I have one in my bedroom, was using it down stairs whilste I was waitng for my LX71 to be repaired. Picture and sound are mint. If you have a decent screen and amp it's well worth the cash.

Review: what hi-fi

[samtyler]

Just bought 3 of these players from ebuyer so I thoguht I'd do a mini review.

It is a foehn & hirsch player which plays anything you put it in, there is a remote hack code to get it to play region A locked titles.

It is on offer for £57.99 with free delivery


http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168916



on opening the box the first thing i noticed was the size, this is the smallest dvd or blu ray player i have ever seen, it is literally just a bit bigger than a large ex rental video case.

first off, i tried some region 2 dvds and uk blu rays. They all played fine, the picture quality on this is more than comapareable to my PS3, in fact, if there is any difference, i would say this players picture is a little sharper than the PS3

on trying the region 1 dvds, i entered a code 933511 and it played the film straight away, upscalling it to 1080p

next i tried a couple of fox region a locked blu rays, i watched point break then road house straight after each other, all the way through, with no problems at all.

to put the player back to uk settings, you enter the code 933512, and i then skipped through some parts of sunshine just to make sure it was all still working fine for uk titles. Again it played flawlessly

overall a great investment for £57.99.

My only small gripe.

the player does make a low humming sound when watching blu rays, however i currently have this set up on a glass unit and once i lifted the player the humming was vastly reduced.

either way, it was not noisy enough to interfere with watching the film, even during quiet scenes

for anyone that wants a blu ray player that plays anything for a really great price of under £60, i think you would be hard pushed to find better.

Someone on the pre cert forum also just bought one of these and compared it to their more expensive Samsung player, they stated that this foehn & hirsch gave a higher quality picture.