Kind of......it doesn't appear to be on Amazon but from further reading it seems any modern Samsung will be OK

You only need a display such as those (or another that can accept & display 50hz sources) if the Blu-ray player you are using can't output 50hz titles at 60hz (ie. if it can play 50hz titles, but can only output them at 50hz). If the player you are using can output the 50hz titles at 60hz (such as a various Samsung players) you should be able to use any US HDTV.

Thanks. Added player to the list.

Just got the Samsung HT-D4500 home theater for Christmas and it also plays 1080i/50hz. Plays all the extras on all of my Arrow blu-rays flawlessly.

Thanks. Added it to list. It outputs it at 60Hz?

Doby.. I'll have to look at the stats on the tv and see, but I assume its playing it at 60hz. I watched about 5 minutes of Torchwood Miracle Day and it looked great... didn't notice any issues with the picture quality at all.

--Rick

Can anyone point out which players will convert 1080i50 > 1080i60 but can also be made region free?

The disc I ordered was originally listed as Region Free, now it's Region B locked (confirmed) so my purchase of this BD-P2550 is redundant as it cannot be region hacked. I don't want to spend $100+ on a Blu-ray drive and blank media just to remove the region code.

Can anyone confirm or deny if either the Panasonic DMP-BDT210 or the Samsung BD-D6500ZA are compatible?

I think, reading back in this thread that the Panasonic DMP-BDT210 is not due to the firmware being locked to NTSC only but I don't see anything about the Samsung. They're both 3D players regardless.

Thanks a bunch for any help.

You guys are much smarter than me when it comes to the technical aspects of these things so I was wondering if someone can explain to me how my Samsung HT-D4500 blu-ray player can easily play the SD PAL features on all of my Arrow blu-rays but will not play any of my region 0 PAL dvds! If I put in any Arrow blu-ray disc, it plays all of the SD PAL extras just fine. If I put in a SD region 0 PAL DVD, I get a message that says:

"Cannot play this disc. The video format of the disc does not meet required video output format of this product. Disc purchased from abroad may not be playable."

From the looks of the list it doesn't look like any players other than the Oppo's can be made region free AND convert 1080i50 > 1080i60 on the fly, would anyone agree or disagree with that sentiment?

Oppo's are out of my price range, although that would be my next player of choice so perhaps my hand may just be forced earlier than anticipated. Replace my Pioneer Elite DV-48 for SACD/DVD-A with a 3D Oppo Universal player.

I can confirm that the Samsung BD-D6500 will happily play all region blu's from the UK

Thanks. Added to the list. Does it output 50Hz titles at 60Hz?

I like how the picture looks in stores like best buy. It moves REALLY smooth and the color looks amazing! Are all blu rays like that with HDMI and a HDTV?

If you're talking about really smooth motion (ie. smoother than how it was filmed), it's probably the motion interpolation (motion compensated frame interpolation or MCFI) function of the TV (motion plus on Samsung/Motionflow on Sony?) which generate estimated (not real) frames between real frames.

MPEG uses MCFI but it has the source frames to tell how close the estimated frames are, but TVs don't have the 'real' frame for the points in time they are generating the estimated frames for.

In some stores they might set the TV picture controls (contrast etc.) really high too ("torch mode") to make them stand out compared to other TVs in the bright store lighting.

I own an LG BD530 and have been able to play 3 Blu-rays that I bought from the United Kingdom (Zulu, Almost Famous, and Pride and Prejudice 1995). The UK P&P '95 disc on the http://www.amazon.co.uk website says "Please note that this product will not play on US spec 60i Blu-ray players as the Blu-ray discs are authored to UK 50i specs." It also says "1080i" on the back cover yet it will play on the LG BD530. I don't know if it outputs 50Hz as 60Hz.

It is connected to an Insignia NS-LCD19-19 720P 19" TV on my kitchen table. Both the TV and the Blu-ray player were inexpensive.

Though I think there's a good possibility that the Player & TV are 50Hz compatible (since other LG ones are, and Insignia TVs have been reported to be before), have you tried pressing the Display button on the TV (or similar button on that or the player if there is one) to tell you what the content type is (if there's no way the TV tells you the source format and the player doesn't either, another way is if there's a frame advance button and a time display on the player, you could advance counting the number of frames until the time changes - if it keeps changing the seconds every 23/24 presses you'd know it was a 24p title).

Looking at this site (which may not necessarily be correct) all 3 of those titles seem to be 1080p24 titles, not 1080/50i
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Zulu-Blu-ray/1594/ - listed as 1080p (ie 1080p24)
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Almost...-Blu-ray/1386/- listed as 1080p (ie 1080p24)
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Pride-...-Blu-ray/1674/- listed as 1080p (ie 1080p24)

Also, another site has run a BDInfo on the Australian version of that Pride and Prejudice (1995) title which they think is identical to the UK one, and the disc title of disc 1 is "PRIDE_PREJUDICE_UK_D1", and it says it is encoded at "23.976 fps". Also, according to a poster on AVforums, the UK P&P is encoded at 1080p24 despite the packaging saying 1080i.

So I don't think these 3 titles would confirm whether the player is 50Hz compatible - even though there's probably a good chance it is.

Lg bd670c
 

I can confirm that the LG BD670C purchased today can play blu-rays with 50 Hz material. Tried two discs purchased from Amazon.uk, the movie Once and the BBC program Return to Cranford. The extras from Once would not play and Return from Cranford just went blank after the initial screens on my Sony 560. Both worked without a problem on the LG.

Thanks. Added to the list.

is there a cheap player that will play everything on a 1080/50i bluray?

I don't know. I can watch the output on my panasonic plasma if that's any help