All-Region DVD and Blu-ray Player Advice

[Lathe]

So, I ordered the Sherwood Momitsu clone and it arrived today! So I unboxed it, plugged it in and changed settings (default language is English) and made sure that the NTSC to PAL switch was there (it is) and checked the other similarities found in the Momitsu manual. I then took out my copy of MoC's Nosferatu (which states it is Region 2 on the back). I went to the main screen- hit the 973522- which I thought strange since it gave me no visual or audible cues to say the code had worked or even that I was typing it in! It might as well have just been me hitting a few random buttons- which I didn't entirely expect. The disc worked- but then I looked online and learned that Nosferatu was Region 0- so I tried my backup plan. In went a region 1 coded dvd and the player shot it back out saying something like "dud" on the screen. I next tried a region 1 bluray and a blue screen appeared telling me I had the incorrect region code for this disc. Back I went to switch everything to region 1 and all worked. No faults to report other than a slightly difficult to read setup screen and odd beeps from the player every once in a while. I was worried when DVDBeaver and other sites stated that the Momitsu was modified but I can now put those fears to rest. A Bluray player for 160 dollars is quite the deal- even more so when it is region free.. I suggest taking advantage of Amazon having the players in stock while they are available. That and DVD Beaver features the following:

ALL SOURCES CONFIRM THAT The Sherwood BDP-5004 Blu-ray Disc Player HERE is a clone of the Momitsu 899 Region FREE Blu-ray player

Ah, very nice to hear! I've been reading this thread from about page 7 (August 2009, I think ) because I've REALLY been trying to learn about this.

NOW, I do like Sherwood, have for years, here is the BIG QUESTION!!!

Does it have by ANY chance and by all that is GOOD AND HOLY, 'Incremental Zoom' capability...??? Something that I have my heart set upon is to be able to zoom IN in small increments. I have read that this requires an expensive chip. NOW, I asked HKFLIX about the MOMITSU (I'm not sure if it was the 799 or the 899) and I got a vague 'Yes' but it is NOT in the specs clearly (I don't think it uses the word 'Incremental') so I'm not sure. Also, they answered another important thing is that does it have X/Y scaling (being able to move the picture up or down - due to subtitles in NON- anamorphic films that have to be zoomed but only somewhat.

So, does ANYONE here know OR at least KNOW about a machine that DEFINITELY does these 2 things for sure:

1) INCREMENTAL ZOOM IN

2) X/Y SCALING (of 2ndary importance)

Thanks mightily!!!

Lathe.

[TMDaines]

My Momitsu BDP-799 clone [Limit BD-M100] appears to automatically zoom in on Berlin Alexanderplatz, which is pictureboxed.

[Lathe]

My Momitsu BDP-799 clone [Limit BD-M100] appears to automatically zoom in on Berlin Alexanderplatz, which is pictureboxed.

Thanks kindly for mentioning that; I know that some players do intuitively do that, however, for many of the rare traded films that I have I really do need some kind of Incremental Zoom capability.

The frustrating thing is that I keep finding these older posts and players that totally do this, but NO ONE seems really to care with all these nice dazzling new players about this feature at all...

[sharunasbresson]

quite frustrating to follow this post for an ignorant like me who live in italy and can't take advantage of your advice.

I definitely need to find a similar forum in italy but it's not so easy as you may think...

if anyone could help me decide wich Plasma Tv and wich Blu-eray player to buy her ein Italy I would be very very grateful

["membrillo"]

I use an Oppo DV-983H for DVD so I have no use for upscaling capabilities of a Blu-ray player.

For anyone else in the same boat that is looking for an Region Free Blu-ray player, a Region Free Panasonic DMP-BD60 is available by a seller on Amazon for $299. ($100 cheaper than any other sellers I was able to locate on the net)

I received mine last week and am extremely satisfied with it.

Has no problems with PAL extras. So far has played every disc I have tried.
Loads quickly - just as fast as my PS3 (I have BD-Live turned off)
The picture quality exceeds my PS3 by a fair amount, but the picture controls are not as good as the Oppo BDP-83.
Bitsreams or decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD
Is MUCH quieter than the PS3

[loachparty]

Having a problem with a 799 we just installed @ work.

Can't get DVDs to upscale and send out through HDMI though composite works. I get the loading graphic on the 799 menu but once the disc loads it goes totally black. I get audio.

Can't use composite in day-to-day use 'cause it's going to a ceiling-mounted projector and we're running everything through a switcher that has no free composite inputs.

I don't see how it would matter but the signal is being amplified because of the long cable run. The menu looks fine.

The install crew had no idea either & have ran through both 799 and projector settings in various combinations.

Argh.

Any thoughts? Anything I'm missing?

[perkizitore]

Latest firmware here.
You should probably direct your inquiries there.

[loachparty]

Thanks. The firmware installed is from October, hopefully that does the trick.

[TMDaines]

Having a problem with a 799 we just installed @ work.

Can't get DVDs to upscale and send out through HDMI though composite works. I get the loading graphic on the 799 menu but once the disc loads it goes totally black. I get audio.

Can't use composite in day-to-day use 'cause it's going to a ceiling-mounted projector and we're running everything through a switcher that has no free composite inputs.

I don't see how it would matter but the signal is being amplified because of the long cable run. The menu looks fine.

The install crew had no idea either & have ran through both 799 and projector settings in various combinations.

Argh.

Any thoughts? Anything I'm missing?

Sounds very much like your projector doesn't support HDMI?

[Lathe]

Soooooo, Incremental Zoom anyone...???

Anywhere...?

Anyhow...?

Please...

Well, I found out today that it can't be THAT hard to find; I just went into Frys and the guy showed my a $50 Toshiba that zoomed in in about 25% increments which IS better than my older MOMITSU. Also, in addition to zoom you could move the picture up, down, left, and right.

So... if a $50 player had that then it shouldn't take rocket science (or even God forbid a helpful comment here... *cough... ) for me to find a nice player like these that will do that. At least that gives me a little hope.

[TMDaines]

HMV's Limit Blu-ray player has new firmware.

This player looks more and more of a bargain everyday.

[denti alligator]

Latest firmware here.
You should probably direct your inquiries there.

Does this work for the Sherwood, too?

As for incremental zoom: build yourself an HTPC.

[perkizitore]

HMV's Limit Blu-ray player has new firmware.

This player looks more and more of a bargain everyday.

I think it's the same firmware with the Momitsu one i posted above. This is for Momitsu 799, i am not sure if it works for 899 too. Give it a try, i don't think the player will accept it if it's not compatible.

[manicsounds]

momitsus and their clones dont have incremental zoom

[TMDaines]

momitsus and their clones dont have incremental zoom

Nope but they appear to automatically zoom in on pictureboxed releases (at least it seemed to on my Berlin Alexanderplatz CC)

[TMDaines]

HMV's Limit Blu-ray player has new firmware.

This player looks more and more of a bargain everyday.

I think it's the same firmware with the Momitsu one i posted above. This is for Momitsu 799, i am not sure if it works for 899 too. Give it a try, i don't think the player will accept it if it's not compatible.

Momitsu firmware doesn't work with the Limit machines.

[Lathe]

momitsus and their clones dont have incremental zoom

Ah..., thank you kindly M.S! Now, that wasn't so painful, was it?

I do appreciate that; I was pretty much coming to that conclusion. You know what I should do is just go ahead and buy the Sherwood for everything normal, which is about 98% of everything anyway and then pick up the bloody $50 Toshiba to play the little bit of weird stuff that I have

So, in closing then, if I do buy the Sherwood BDP-5004 BD-Live 2.0 which is supposed to be a clone of the Momitsu 799 as claimed on the DVD Beaver site, all I have to do then is input the Momitsu codes in the remote to set the Region Free status for normal DVDs and R1 Blurays (type 'A' I guess) right? I think those codes are somewhere in this 4 year thread.

BTW, if any of you have any other last suggestions please by all means feel free to mention them!

Thanks all! O:)

[Minkin]

So, in closing then, if I do buy the Sherwood BDP-5004 BD-Live 2.0 which is supposed to be a clone of the Momitsu 799 as claimed on the DVD Beaver site, all I have to do then is input the Momitsu codes in the remote to set the Region Free status for normal DVDs and R1 Blurays (type 'A' I guess) right? I think those codes are somewhere in this 4 year thread.

The Sherwood BDP-5004 is a clone of the 899 not the 799. So, DVD Beaver has all of the specs on it here: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/hardwarer ... dp-899.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The remote codes of the 899 are the same as the Sherwood- 9735DB- and the Dvd remains at wherever you last had it and the Bluray changes back to A when you power it off. The Sherwood is a great player (I own it) and I certainly recommend it.

[Lathe]

The Sherwood BDP-5004 is a clone of the 899 not the 799. So, DVD Beaver has all of the specs on it here: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/hardwarer ... dp-899.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The remote codes of the 899 are the same as the Sherwood- 9735DB- and the Dvd remains at wherever you last had it and the Bluray changes back to A when you power it off. The Sherwood is a great player (I own it) and I certainly recommend it.

Thanks Bro! I sure wish in a perfect world that I could get a player like this with some kind of flexible zoom though

You mention a DIFFERENT Sherwood though... Sherwood- 9735DB...??? I thought we were talking about the Sherwood BDP-5004 Did I miss something here?

[Minkin]

Thanks Bro! I sure wish in a perfect world that I could get a player like this with some kind of flexible zoom though
You mention a DIFFERENT Sherwood though... Sherwood- 9735DB...??? I thought we were talking about the Sherwood BDP-5004 Did I miss something here?

No problem! Oh, sorry- the 9735DB is the remote code to change the regions- I need to punctuate better. The model is still the Sherwood BDP-5004.

[Lathe]

Thanks Bro! I sure wish in a perfect world that I could get a player like this with some kind of flexible zoom though
You mention a DIFFERENT Sherwood though... Sherwood- 9735DB...??? I thought we were talking about the Sherwood BDP-5004 Did I miss something here?

No problem! Oh, sorry- the 9735DB is the remote code to change the regions- I need to punctuate better. The model is still the Sherwood BDP-5004.

Oh yeah, I should have recognized that, sorry...

[perkizitore]

HMV's Limit Blu-ray player has new firmware.

This player looks more and more of a bargain everyday.

I think it's the same firmware with the Momitsu one i posted above. This is for Momitsu 799, i am not sure if it works for 899 too. Give it a try, i don't think the player will accept it if it's not compatible.

Momitsu firmware doesn't work with the Limit machines.

Sorry, i thought that it would, Limit being a clone. Glad we have it sorted.

[loachparty]

Having a problem with a 799 we just installed @ work.

Can't get DVDs to upscale and send out through HDMI though composite works. I get the loading graphic on the 799 menu but once the disc loads it goes totally black. I get audio.

Can't use composite in day-to-day use 'cause it's going to a ceiling-mounted projector and we're running everything through a switcher that has no free composite inputs.

I don't see how it would matter but the signal is being amplified because of the long cable run. The menu looks fine.

The install crew had no idea either & have ran through both 799 and projector settings in various combinations.

Argh.

Any thoughts? Anything I'm missing?

Sounds very much like your projector doesn't support HDMI?

Even though the menu, etc. displays properly?

Anyway the previous firmware suggestion didn't work (not compatible as later noted). The forum linked doesn't have a thread for the Momitsus specifically just that clone but I'll try there later.

Re-installed the existing Firmware, no dice.
Ran through all the resolution / aspect ratio functions.

The weirdest thing is that I tried another DVD, Up the Yangtze FWIW, and the FBI warning, top-level menu and Zeitgeist logo display beautifully... but everything else, chapter menu, rest of the main program beyond logo, etc. go black still. So weird.

[fdm]

I get black screen, audio only when I try to play PAL supplements on my Region A locked, NTSC only blu-ray player. Perhaps you're not toggling the Region-ness properly, or the NTSC/PAL settings?

[Perkins Cobb]

I'm just now starting to play with my Sherwood in earnest, and it has some of the most infuriating operational tics I've encountered in any kind of disc player. For one thing, I can't adjust any of the setup settings without first ejecting whatever disc is in there.

Worse, if I pause the disc during playback and shut off my TV (to avoid burn-in), once the Sherwood loses the signal it automatically goes into standby mode, and then defaults back to the menu screen when I fire up the TV again. And then I can only resume playback from the beginning of the movie. Has anybody found a way around this?