Crazy question blue ray player Update

[wenrob]

Being the cheapskate that I am, I'm actually loving buying tons of DVD movies on Ebay right now for about $4 each (including shipping) because so many have ditched their old collections.

When I started moving on to DVDs many of the movies were in the Vault so I bought my fair share on eBay, haha. I have passed the DVDs onto oldest DD. Like me, she's a little bit of a Disney nut.

 

[wenrob]

I don't know of any Blu-Ray player that doesn't play DVD. They've been so cheap since at least 2010 that I can't think of a reason not to get one. Also - many of the newer machines have "upconverting" that tries to create a higher definition image through interpolation. Some DVD players do it, but it makes more sense to do that with a Blu-Ray player that by definition has a high-def output.

We actually ended up with Blu Ray players that wouldn't play DVDs. It didn't even occur to me that there would be any that didn't. I ended up boxing them up and exchanging them for the ones the kids have now. (which is how they went from cheap players to middle of the road ones)

 

[bcla]

We actually ended up with Blu Ray players that wouldn't play DVDs. It didn't even occur to me that there would be any that didn't. I ended up boxing them up and exchanging them for the ones the kids have now. (which is how they went from cheap players to middle of the road ones)

How old were they? I was thinking that might have been possible back when HD-DVD was still around as a competitor to Blu-Ray, but that was almost 10 years ago.

There are even some unique standards out there, like one specific to China.

 

[wenrob]

How old were they? I was thinking that might have been possible back when HD-DVD was still around as a competitor to Blu-Ray, but that was almost 10 years ago.

There are even some unique standards out there, like one specific to China.

This was two and half years ago. They were $50 with a Black Friday sale at Target. They were capable of streaming, could play other formats but not DVDs. At first I thought they were broke but looking at the box DVD was not listed as a format. Like I said, it didn't even occur to me to look.

 

[BrianL]

The players have to have two lasers and two sets of pickups to read both DVD and Bluray, so it is possible to have devices that only do one and not the other. What happened in my player is a cracked DVD knocked the blue laser out of alignment, but the red still works. I still use it for DVD only, but the bluray capabilities are dead.

 

[wenrob]

The players have to have two lasers and two sets of pickups to read both DVD and Bluray, so it is possible to have devices that only do one and not the other. What happened in my player is a cracked DVD knocked the blue laser out of alignment, but the red still works. I still use it for DVD only, but the bluray capabilities are dead.

Our first Blu Ray player played everything but Blu Rays. You'd get two thirds into a movie and it would shut down. Back then it was fairly common for them to overheat.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

We actually ended up with Blu Ray players that wouldn't play DVDs. It didn't even occur to me that there would be any that didn't. I ended up boxing them up and exchanging them for the ones the kids have now. (which is how they went from cheap players to middle of the road ones)

Thank you for the warning I well make sure it plays dvds before dh makes the purchase

 

[Micca]

Ha, my famous last words. I collected Disney VHS and then they started releasing them with these new fangled DVD things. $5 more and you could get the VHS and the DVD as a package. I turned my nose up at them because I didn't think they'd catch on. I eventually replaced all of the VHS with DVD and then DVD with Blu Ray/DVD/Digital HD combo packs. I am not going 4K, I'm not...

My story with Disney video is similar. When I first got a VCR (1980) my goal was to record all the Disney stuff I could find at the slowest speed for VHS (so the tapes would run 6 hours.) I felt it was a modest hobby. Then Disney got on-board with releasing movies on VHS so I thought I should upgrade. Then along came laser-discs (they were shiny discs like dvds but the size of a 12inch record album.) Finally there was DVD so I bought whatever was available again. When blu-ray was introduced it was a bit slow to catch on (remember the format war between HD-DVD and blu-ray?) I noticed that Disney did a quick upgrade to their DVD catalogue, but this time I waited because I was confident that blu-ray Disney movies were coming. I've bought all the Disney blu-rays and have a library of the titles I'm interested in, which is most of them. I now notice that title like Pinocchio and Bambi are being reissued on bluray for the folks who missed the first iteration of them. Anybody doubt that a 4K release of the whole library is ready to roll out when consumer interest kicks-in? And yeah, I'll probably buy them again.

In answer to the original question I'd go along with the others who say get a decent quality player for the main tv and a cheaper unit for the other tv.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

I should have updated sooner just did not know what to say.

We decided one in the bedroom where I hang out because I will be the primary user as far as entertaining it is not going to happen like I thought it would

 

[bcla]

My story with Disney video is similar. When I first got a VCR (1980) my goal was to record all the Disney stuff I could find at the slowest speed for VHS (so the tapes would run 6 hours.) I felt it was a modest hobby. Then Disney got on-board with releasing movies on VHS so I thought I should upgrade. Then along came laser-discs (they were shiny discs like dvds but the size of a 12inch record album.) Finally there was DVD so I bought whatever was available again. When blu-ray was introduced it was a bit slow to catch on (remember the format war between HD-DVD and blu-ray?) I noticed that Disney did a quick upgrade to their DVD catalogue, but this time I waited because I was confident that blu-ray Disney movies were coming. I've bought all the Disney blu-rays and have a library of the titles I'm interested in, which is most of them. I now notice that title like Pinocchio and Bambi are being reissued on bluray for the folks who missed the first iteration of them. Anybody doubt that a 4K release of the whole library is ready to roll out when consumer interest kicks-in? And yeah, I'll probably buy them again.

In answer to the original question I'd go along with the others who say get a decent quality player for the main tv and a cheaper unit for the other tv.

LaserDisc was interesting, but it had certain issues. It was bulky and I had a few discs that suffered from laser rot.

It was also inherently an analog format (basically an FM carrier wave) and couldn't self correct like digital video. I remember seeing waves on some movies going through the image.

 

[wenrob]

My story with Disney video is similar. When I first got a VCR (1980) my goal was to record all the Disney stuff I could find at the slowest speed for VHS (so the tapes would run 6 hours.) I felt it was a modest hobby. Then Disney got on-board with releasing movies on VHS so I thought I should upgrade. Then along came laser-discs (they were shiny discs like dvds but the size of a 12inch record album.) Finally there was DVD so I bought whatever was available again. When blu-ray was introduced it was a bit slow to catch on (remember the format war between HD-DVD and blu-ray?) I noticed that Disney did a quick upgrade to their DVD catalogue, but this time I waited because I was confident that blu-ray Disney movies were coming. I've bought all the Disney blu-rays and have a library of the titles I'm interested in, which is most of them. I now notice that title like Pinocchio and Bambi are being reissued on bluray for the folks who missed the first iteration of them. Anybody doubt that a 4K release of the whole library is ready to roll out when consumer interest kicks-in? And yeah, I'll probably buy them again.

In answer to the original question I'd go along with the others who say get a decent quality player for the main tv and a cheaper unit for the other tv.

Yeah, I thought it was a modest hobby too, lol. My kids don't even pretend to be surprised when I come home with the latest Disney release. They get watched a LOT though. They were worth the price for us. I have no doubt 4K is waiting in the wings. Didn't seem like 3D caught on very well though.

 

[wenrob]

I should have updated sooner just did not know what to say.

We decided one in the bedroom where I hang out because I will be the primary user as far as entertaining it is not going to happen like I thought it would

Congrats, hope you enjoy it!

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

None, I'm old school. DVD will ever die!

Ha, I'm older school we still have a VCR! We have 1 bluray player and I think a dvd player somewhere.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I use Redbox. In fact I just rented "Resident Evil The Final Chapter"! I do prefer a player on each TV.

A bonus feature of DVD players is that you can watch YOUTUBE and other stuff on there if you have WI FI.

 

[bcla]

The real odd thing is that often DVD may look pretty close to Blu-Ray with animation with bright colors. Of course I buy Blu-Ray, but it doesn't seem that much better, especially with decent upconversion.

 

[wenrob]

The real odd thing is that often DVD may look pretty close to Blu-Ray with animation with bright colors. Of course I buy Blu-Ray, but it doesn't seem that much better, especially with decent upconversion.

There's a huge difference. I probably wouldn't notice but with two kids the same age often they want the same movie. That means one gets the DVD and one gets the Blu. We're setting up timers so seeing the same scenes going from one room to the other. Even with up conversation the Blu Ray wins hands down.

 

[xlxo]

I own one dedicated Blu-Ray player.

However, I have 3 laptops with Blu-Ray drives. I also own a Blu-ray burner.

Love the 1080 resolution.... however my Blu-ray plays have been dust collectors in recent years with Video on Demand and Kodi.

 

[ford family]

LaserDisc was interesting,

"There's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day"

ford family

 

[bethbuchall]

We have only one, but we also have only one tv. I think it depends on how likely you are to want to watch movies on each tv. I know a friend whose family uses one in the living room, the basement rec room, and a bedroom.

 

[rwdavis2]

Got 2. I've found that a number of movies on blu-ray are hardly any better than their DVD counterparts. So no need to re-buy your movies.