Sadly, my current Blu-ray player, an LG BD530, died. At least in terms of playing DVDs/CDs. Won’t recognize any disc, so I can’t even attempt to clean the laser. It’s been having a problem recognizing discs for a few months now. Sigh. It lasted about 2 1/2 years. I won it at the company Christmas party back in 2010, so it replaced the Phillips BDP7200 I had purchased a few years prior, which I got at a massive discount, because they had the price completely wrong, saved a couple hundred bucks. Only thing, it is huge and slow to load. Still works, though.
And, yes, I do actually have a few other DVD players. I have one that is a DVD recorder (don’t use it anymore). I have a portable DVD player with a 7 inch screen that I’ve had a long, long time, first one I ever got. Though I had been using my original X-Box for DVDs (lost the remote when I moved). I have another which is a great upscan, which I have in the bedroom. Oh, and somewhere in the attic is a VCR (there’s also a CD player and cassette deck up there. You young whipersnappers might have to Google those). Plus laptops, including one with Blu-ray.
Anyhow, I perused a few website looking at what they had available, and noticed the Phillips BDP 2985 at Wal-Mart, due to the price. Even though I don’t have a 3D TV (yet), I figured I might as well purchase a player that does 3D disks.
Pro’s
- Tiny footprint
- Excellent video quality
- Connects to Youtube, VuDu, and Netflix
- Played 10 minutes of Underworld: Awakening in high definition through VuDu, no pauses or freezes, sound and video were excellent
- Has both wired and WiFi connections built in
- Loads disks very fast
- It was a snap to program my Time Warner Cable remote to control the player. Never could get the LG to work right
- Has link to Youtube which connects to my Droid, so I can find videos with the phone, easier to type than using the remote to scroll through letters, and make them play on TV
- Did I mention it was only $78?
I hate to call these “cons” since they are more of “oh, well’s”, considering it was $78
- No standard audio outputs, just via HDMI and coaxial. I had hooked up directly from player to stereo, reduces a bit of loss, but, I can just play from TV audio output to stereo for those times I use the stereo
- Only two buttons on device, on/off and open/close. They’re both on top, and since it is sitting on top of stereo, cable box, and they are on the place above the fireplace, can’t even see them. Going to have to get used to them
- Remote does not have an open/close button, nor can it control volume. The volume thing is the only real con
- Not much in the way of audio or video settings
- Youtube HD playback kept having buffer issues, but, then, has that on laptop and Droid, too
The only thing I do not know about is the 3D. I’ll have to wait till I have a 3D TV. And, if it sucks, well, I can get another and use this one in my bedroom to access Netflix and VuDu. It was $78. Well worth the value. Spending at least another $30 for one with a better remote didn’t seem worth it.
