All-Region DVD and Blu-ray Player Advice

[kemalettin]

can anyone tell me the sizes of Momitsu 799 and 899 please.I want to import that from xpcgear (cheapest place i could find ) and im worrying about customs..Thanks

[swo17]

The 799 is small and square. The retail box measures about 13" x 13" x 4" (everything rounded up to the nearest inch) but of course, who knows how big the box they ship it in might be. I can't speak for the 899 but I understand it's a longer machine.

[pashalifi]

This refers to the previously discussed playback problem on the modified multiregion Oppo bluray player, with The Leopard BFI bluray.
I sent my disc to Oppo at their request, to allow them to investigate. They've checked the disc and emailed me - here's what they said:
We received the disc and verified the playback errors. Because this disc is not yet available to purchase, we were wondering if we can keep the disc for further testing. The error is likely related to encoding rather than the disc itself. For this reason, having access to this Blu-ray will be instrumental in figuring out why we can’t play back the film correctly.

So they're keeping the disc to work out what's causing the playback problem. This might be irrelevant if the BFI withdraw it and reissue a new version (see Leopard post for details), but I'll report agan if I hear any more.

[perkizitore]

Maybe this appears on another disc in the future, it's not irrelevant!

[manicsounds]

OPPO is starting to sound like some of my friends.
"Oh, can I borrow it for a little longer...?"

[denti alligator]

My PS3 died, and I'm torn about what to replace it with.

I liked the PS3 for superb upconversion and great audio (lossless, HD).

However, I still use my HTPC for PAL and non-North American discs (including Blu-rays), and I like to be able to incrementally zoom in on Criterion's window-boxed releases as well as non-anamorphic titles.

The problem is that the PS3 still looked better (if only slightly) and was so much more convenient.

Now: is there an all-region DVD-BD player with excellent upconversion and something like incremental zoom or ways of dealing with annoying windowboxing?

If not what's the cheapest BD-player that is region free and has excellent upconversion?

The Oppo 83 is tempting, but a bit expensive.

[swo17]

Do you see an ad on this page for the Momitsu 799? If you want a region-free player, your cheapest option is the Momitsu or one of its clones (which may be even cheaper, but I can't vouch for them). The upconversion is excellent, though my only point of comparison was my previous Panasonic BD player (which was also supposed to have great upconversion). I don't know anything about the player being able to zoom incrementally though, unfortunately. If you read the last couple pages of this thread, I and others have gone into more detail about the Momitsu.

[manicsounds]

My PS3 died, and I'm torn about what to replace it with.

Because of Final Fantasy 13, I'd say just get a PS3 Slim....

[denti alligator]

The Momitsu looks appealing.

Can someone compare the upconversion to the PS3?

What are its cons? Any?

[denti alligator]

I ended up getting a Panasonic BD60, because it was on sale ($119) and C-net said it could play PAL (leaving open the hope that it could be hacked).

C-Net is wrong. It can't play PAL discs.

Oh well. Anyone know of a modification kit that includes PAL-NTSC chip and some kind of region free-ing?

[fdm]

C-Net is wrong. It can't play PAL discs.

Coulda told ya that. Take it back and get something else.

[denti alligator]

C-Net is wrong. It can't play PAL discs.

Coulda told ya that. Take it back and get something else.

Well, to get a PAL & NTSC player that is as cheap won't be easy. Plus, my HTPC does PAL no problem, and is region-free. It also upconverts nearly as well, only not so much with interlaced discs.

[perkizitore]

The best US Momitsu clone here.

[fdm]

The best US Momitsu clone here.

The 5004 (rather than the 5003 mentioned earlier in this thread)?

[Minkin]

The best US Momitsu clone here.

The 5004 (rather than the 5003 mentioned earlier in this thread)?

Yes. It looks like the 5004 is cheaper (on Amazon 170 vs 183), plus the 5004 is Profile 2.0 (vs 5003 with 1.1). Apparently it uses the same codes as the 899 I believe.

Anybody have any experience with the player? It being 80 dollars cheaper, available from Amazon with free shipping (much better than Momitsu purchased from F rated websites) and being region free plus profile 2- I'm going to purchase it within the next day.

[perkizitore]

Hold your guns, Oppo will launch a cheaper player in 2010. If the player will keep the Anchor Bay chip and its region free capabilities, will have to see. If it does, it will be a steal for less than 300$.

[grey]

Has anyone tried the new public beta firmware for the Oppo 83? Will The Leopard BR now play without pixillation?

[Minkin]

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

[perkizitore]

You owe the Beaver announcement to me, i informed Gary.

[fiddlesticks]

You owe the Beaver announcement to me, i informed Gary.

[perkizitore]

[Minkin]

Alright, in my excitement- I forgot to thank you perkizitore-without you, I would still be without a player. I bought the player only knowing your statement and a single review saying the thing worked at some odd tech forum- so I took a gamble and it paid off rather nicely. Since the Momitsu is so difficult to attain (only through BBB rated F online retailers) and since it is $100 cheaper- I would imagine the Sherwood is the route to take now.

[nsps]

Well, to get a PAL & NTSC player that is as cheap won't be easy. Plus, my HTPC does PAL no problem, and is region-free. It also upconverts nearly as well, only not so much with interlaced discs.

Best Buy's Insignia NS-BRDVD3 can be had on sale for $99 and does PAL play back (but is not region-free). As I mentioned before, the operational and menu graphics are identical to swo17's Momitsu, but no region hacks have been found for it.

[perkizitore]

It's a Samsung clone i think, not a Momitsu one and that's why it's not region-free, but it has Netflix.

[unclehulot]

Well, to get a PAL & NTSC player that is as cheap won't be easy. Plus, my HTPC does PAL no problem, and is region-free. It also upconverts nearly as well, only not so much with interlaced discs.

Best Buy's Insignia NS-BRDVD3 can be had on sale for $99 and does PAL play back (but is not region-free). As I mentioned before, the operational and menu graphics are identical to swo17's Momitsu, but no region hacks have been found for it.

I bought this player for my folks as an xmas present, and I must say I think it's a hell of a lot better than the Visionquest player I got as a 2nd (region-free) player (the build quality is awful on that Visionquest, and it's started to freeze up on Blu Ray discs with some frequency, requiring unplugging the thing to get the disc out!).

The Insignia streams Netflix wonderfully, and plays quite a bit that one throws at it, including H.264 files, from burned media or via the USB input (and it deals with the USB-fed material much better than my Oppo players, which tend to stutter). The player's menu navigation is a bit loopy at times, but I could live with it. The interesting thing is that it plays several MoC DVDs that I have on hand that specify Region 2, including Tabu, Judex & the Mabuse set. So...IS it region unlocked? I don't have any Blu Rays here that are region locked to try, and I'm 1500 miles away from my full collection to experiment further. Also, I'm assuming that in playing PAL dvds it converts them internally, but is there a way to output PAL as PAL? If I hadn't been throwing so many $s around lately I would definitely pick one of these up for my own stable of equipment!