10/27/12 7:19 PM

The Samsung dual unit DVD VHS player we bought back in '05 is now having difficulty playing DVDs....Movies are stopping in the middle of playing (DVD only) etc...

Probably time to invest in something...but what? Tips on buying a Blu Ray? Don't really buy movies anymore in any format, so should we just buy a cheap DVD player instead?

Any suggestions?

10/27/12 8:24 PM

Might as well get a Blu Ray player. They are certainly cheap enough and will play any format DVD you happen to have. I expect even the libraries will soon loan Blu Ray discs and bike race videos will be in that format too.

10/27/12 8:41 PM

Ditto on the Blu-ray. When our DVD player karked it a couple of months ago I purchased a Phillips Blu-ray player that was around the $120 mark. Found some instructions on the web for making it region free and haven't had any problems playing any of our DVDs from different regions. And it even plays the couple of Blu-ray format discs I purchased (the BBC "Bird flight" documentary series) just to see what the format is capable of.

10/28/12 7:15 PM

Do you have broadband?

I tend to think most, if not all, mass-distributed physical media are going to be obsolete relatively soon. Blu-ray as a format is not destined to be long-lived, IMO, because of the availability of streaming or downloadable media files. I haven't watched a movie off physical media (other than my HDD) in years. At least not stateside, bandwidth what it was in Afghanistan we often actually did revert to such cavemannish ways of watching movies as physical media...but def not since I've been back in the states.

Things are moving to the cloud, and it's not always a good thing. When all your personal documents are on someone else's server...who owns that information?

I'm actually very afraid for my career because of it. As a network engineer my job is to perform the magic of getting bits from your computer to another computer and most of the rest of IT has no idea how we do what we do. BUT there are companies (BASTARDS!!!) like Nicera, that was just bought by VMWare, who are writing software and protocols designed to virtualize and automate networking.

10/28/12 8:46 PM

quote:

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there are companies (BASTARDS!!!) like Nicera, that was just bought by VMWare, who are writing software and protocols designed to virtualize and automate networking.

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10/28/12 9:29 PM

Clean the laser with some alcohol with a non linting q-tip, or a tooth pic you mash the tip in the alcohol, then use compressed air to dry. I'd actually use the air before as well in the entire unit [outside] to blow the Sahara out of it first...

Optical pickup is mucked up probably...

10/29/12 6:20 PM

quote:

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mass-distributed physical media are going to be obsolete relatively soon

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10/30/12 8:11 AM

Not being a Netflix user, I can't comment. The moment I realized they use ms silverlight I stopped considering them. I also tend to get my movies through less mainstream options, so my view is probably skewed as it is with most things.

10/30/12 9:57 AM

This means I'm going to have to buy the White Album again.

12/9/12 11:26 AM

Tried wiping the lens off...no luck. Also read on another forum about some adjustment screws behind the lens, so tried that as well...still no luck.

Looks like I'll be off to shop for a cheap blu ray. We watch stuff we already own every once in awhile and also have red box around the corner for new releases...

12/9/12 12:27 PM

A year ago I had good luck recycling electronics at Best Buy, but I've heard they've changed their policy. Apparently they only take consumer electronics and they limit the number of items per person per day. Too bad because I have some old computer parts that need to be kept out of the landfill.

Does anyone have suggestions about recycling electronics?

Considering China's rare earth mineral policy , its percentage of production and holdings perhaps it is much to our benefit to recycle. Our environmental concerns and their intellectual property (IP) issues are also important factors. The IP issues revolve around a policy of "sure you can buy the minerals, but you need to allow us to manufacture the finished product too." Of course that means putting IP in capable Chinese hands and thus allowing it to proliferate within their country, further diluting the value of the IP.

12/9/12 10:13 PM

I would highly recommend a Bluray player with wifi, as Coapman is correct physical media will soon be a thing of the past. I just purchased a Bluray player with wifi and a built in browser for less than $100. There are lots of choices in that price range this time of year.

12/10/12 9:56 AM

Yep - Tom...that was the first thing I saw when I started looking at them...was that they have wifi.

I already have a Vizio TV that is wifi connected as well, so I can stream from Hulu, Netflix etc straight to the TV. But will still get wifi on the blu ray too.

1/3/13 9:00 AM

After recently watching compression artifacts crop up more and more, I doubt consumers will totally sacrifice the higher quality of physical media for the convenience of streaming or downloaded entertainment. By compression artifacts I don't mean pixellation but actual blurring and stuttering in movements. The more channels there are, the worse it gets.

It's an issue of fixed bandwidth, increased current demand and advancing Ultra HD / 3D technology. Focusing on the Ultra HD side (Wikipedia article) the coming sets have 4x to 16x as many pixels as a 1080 screen. At the same time people are going to be using more services on the internet, cloud and streaming to start.

1/3/13 3:27 PM

Ended up going with this one (Sony BDP S390):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006U1YVZ8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Haven't rented a Blu Ray disc yet, but it worked fine with my DVDs I have here at home (of course).

I also did a trial subscription with Hulu - not impressed with their library of content since they don't have the rights to stream stuff that the networks allow you to watch from the network's website...I'm a bit of a junkie for a few cable shows that you can't get through Hulu, but can get them on the website of the network that hosts the show.

Anyone tried hooking their iPad up to their TV with an HDMI cable and streaming a TV show through a network website?

1/3/13 3:41 PM

Cox Communications has an iPad app that allows us to stream some, although not all, of their channels. It rides on the wifi connection - no need for a cable.

1/3/13 6:29 PM

Will have to look into that, but figure that they require you to still subscribe to cable to use that. I'm trying to go completely away from having a cable subscription and only have internet...

Just wasn't sure if the iPad to TV via HDMI cable streaming of internet video was doable or if there was something that kept people from using their iPad/internet as their main TV source now that so many cable networks have their shows available online...

1/4/13 8:55 AM

I just use my AppleTV to stream video and audio from my iPad or iPhone. I also use the AppleTV to stream movies from Apple and Netflix and Hulu is available also but I haven't used it. I would be using it to watch hockey if the NHL would ever get their act together.

I've found that I would rather watch various Podcasts than watch what's on TV. There is a lot of good content out in the Podcast world.

1/18/13 11:22 PM

My VHS/DVD combo player quit, the VHS part that is. And this is probably the 3rd VHS player I'm on.

What to do with VHS tapes? I mean the ones with programs recording on them...

1/19/13 9:47 AM

...but I would just check local yard sales or Craigslist for bargains. I've seen some high-end VCRs going for a song because there is no demand for them.

1/19/13 11:36 AM

I've been to yard sale often enough (not specifically for VHS player). A lot of the time, the owner can't guarantee the player could actually play, either because they hadn't used it for quite some time, or they're having trouble with it and just want to get rid of it. Apparently, the tape transport mech is temporamental enough to be the first to go...