US Blu-ray players and 50hz compatibility

[emac213]

Just got my Orei this morning, so far I'm loving it. Only thing the remote is a pain, I have to freaking smash the buttons down to get a response.

[dobyblue]

Yeah it's pathetic.

I find if you hold it at roughly the same level as the player pointing towards it and just press it once solidly it seems to work better.

It sometimes hangs too and you have to power cycle it...but it plays absolutely everything I can throw at it and the disc load times are way better than my old Samsung BD-D5700 so I'm pretty happy with it at the price but at some point I'm still going to pick up an Oppo so I have one player for all my discs including my SACD/DVD-A collection (currently I have a separate SACD/DVD-A player that doesn't play Blu-ray discs and no Blu-ray player that plays SACD/DVD-A discs) and I'll just use the Orei for region locked or 1080i50 or PAL discs.

[dobyblue]

Looks like the Seiki SR212S currently being sold at Wal*Mart for $50 will play all regions (with the 8520 region hack) as well as convert 50Hz to 60Hz.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread....51#post7300951

http://www.kmart.com/seiki-blu-ray-8...ype=SKIP_LEVEL

[burngwngs]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Looks like the Seiki SR212S currently being sold at Wal*Mart for $50 will play all regions (with the 8520 region hack) as well as convert 50Hz to 60Hz.

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread....51#post7300951

http://www.kmart.com/seiki-blu-ray-8...ype=SKIP_LEVEL

Also at Kmart for the same price.

[King-Pause]

I am looking for the least complicated, (I am not computer or technical savvy) region,code,trouble free blu-ray players available at a reasonable price, say between $50-$200.

Any suggestions & help would be most appreciated! Thank You.

p.s. Does it extend the life or hurt(help) it of a PS3 player if you unplug it when you are not using it?

[burngwngs]

Originally Posted by luv-blu

I am looking for the least complicated, (I am not computer or technical savvy) region,code,trouble free blu-ray players available at a reasonable price, say between $50-$200.

Any suggestions & help would be most appreciated! Thank You.

p.s. Does it extend the life or hurt(help) it of a PS3 player if you unplug it when you are not using it?

The one mentioned above is only $50. It's not complicated at all. And once it's set you don't have to do it again unless you need the region changed. It's very simple and well priced.

[thesithempire]

Hey guys,

I just registered here so that I can confirm that the LG-BD220 does in fact convert 1080/50i to 60hz. It plays Caprica (which is 50i) seamlessly.

This was a bit of a journey, so if you're interested, read on. I had initially gotten a Panasonic DMP-BDT220, which I bought because my TV is Mitsu from '09 and uses checkerboard format to output 3D... meaning that I was restricted with the kind of 3D blu-ray player I could get. Since I needed to get a new blu-ray player anyway to play region 2 PAL DVDs and blu-rays (I live in the States), I figured I'd get one that could everything. Well, it was a good idea, but I hadn't done enough research beforehand.

I paid for the firmware update that would unlock the DVD and blu-ray regions, BUT my TV won't do a NTSC -- PAL conversion. So, I ordered an Orei convertor for $50.00, thinking that should do the trick.

No such luck. The first Orei 990 HDMI PAL--NTSC converter just didn't work at all. The second one worked, but had two major issues and one minor one:

1. It played Caprica fast and a little jerky. It was unwatchable. I have other PAL DVDs, and they seemed a little off, but ok. However, 4:3 is automatically stretched to 16x9 and I didn't care for that.

2. It wouldn't transfer the 3D signal properly. Foregrounds were ok, but backgrounds were blurry (and not just the normal out-of-focus -- I compared them w/o the converter).

3. The colors are totally thrown off. Yes, you can play around with that, but I couldn't quite them right (I've worked in photography development and a little nitpicky with getting colors right).

I kept hearing good things about Bombay Electronics, so I called them, and they advised getting a blu-ray player to do the PAL to NTSC conversion internally, which wouldn't mess with the colors or the 3D effect. Well, I returned the Orei's to Amazon (for full credit) and ordered from Bombay a dedicated player that was also region free (for DVDs AND blu-rays). I wasn't sure if the LG-BD220 would do the trick as far 50i, but the salesman felt it would and said I could return it if it didn't.

I'm happy to report it does. Caprica (which is ONLY available on blu-ray from France) looks stunning and plays right. My PAL DVDs also look great (and don't artificially stretch).

As to the player itself, I'm very impressed. I sold my Sony, which was fine, but wouldn't do everything I wanted. I'm keeping the Panny for 3D and regular use, and using the LG for region 2 PAL content. That might seem excessive, but I did at one time have a Denon DVD player which was region free (and internally switched Pal to NTSC) and a separate blu-ray player, so, in the end, I reasoned it was the only thing that made sense for me IF I wanted to keep my PAL discs and get more. And I do.

Hope this little story was helpful!

[Indiana Solo]

I have a Panasonic DMP-BD75, does anyone know if I will be able to play the French import of Caprica? I didn't see my player model in the op. Thanks for any answer in advance.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by Indiana Solo

I have a Panasonic DMP-BD75, does anyone know if I will be able to play the French import of Caprica? I didn't see my player model in the op. Thanks for any answer in advance.

Most Panasonic USA Blu-ray players cannot handle the 1080i at 50Hz signal. Also Caprica is marked as region B locked.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Caprica-Blu-ray/25928/

Therefore, if the above specs is correct you need a Blu-ray player that is able to play both region B and can convert 1080i at 50Hz to 1080P.

[CanadianEH]

I have a Canadian Samsung BD-P1600 and a BD-D5700 and neither of them will play a region B locked disc. The display comes up as 1920x1080 @ 60 hz, but then I get the region locked message.

[4K2K]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Most Panasonic USA Blu-ray players cannot handle the 1080i at 50Hz signal. Also Caprica is marked as region B locked.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Caprica-Blu-ray/25928/

Therefore, if the above specs is correct you need a Blu-ray player that is able to play both region B and can convert 1080i at 50Hz to 1080P.

It was marked as "Region B Locked" by pro-bassoonist who marks 50i titles as "Region B locked" even when they are Region Free.

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Therefore, regardless of the fact that is encoded for regions A/B/C...

he marks it as Region B locked (despite saying it is encoded for all regions).

[4K2K]

Originally Posted by thesithempire

Hey guys,

I just registered here so that I can confirm that the LG-BD220 does in fact convert 1080/50i to 60hz. It plays Caprica (which is 50i) seamlessly.

Thanks. I've added it to the compatible list.

[CaptainWebber]

Hey. I gotta ask you guys something: Is the Samsung HT-D5300 50Hz compatible also? This is literally the one model I can't seem to find any info on - this thread included; it's neither confirmed nor denied.

[CaptainWebber]

Seriously!? Nobody knows? :<

Freaking depressing. The only thing worse than being sure your blu-ray player can't play a movie or show is not knowing whether it can or can't....

[HDTV1080P]

If nobody knows the answer to your question then you might try and find a low cost region free 1080i 50Hz Blu-ray disc to import. This would allow you to test to see if your Blu-ray player outputs native 50Hz or is able to convert 1080i 50Hz to 1080P 60Hz. If you own a PC or Notebook computer with a BD-ROM drive, then 100% of those Blu-ray players will convert 1080i 50Hz to 1080P 60Hz since the software and computer graphics cards all have the capability to do so.