I wrote a couple years back complaining about the software to up and run an HDD player or Blu ray player..

Too slow to start up.. & never being able to stop and replay a disc without it going back to square one again( chapter one),, major frustration..

Well imagine my recent surprise on my fourth purchase in the past 5 years of yet another  High DEF dvd player ( LG Blueray BP200 model with wifi under $80.. )

One.-  it starts up and hit the menu within about 25 seconds ,..
Two-  then if playing a BD disc I can hit stop and eject and the player (when tray is enclosed again) finds the ''exact  spot'' within seconds of that disc playback part two..     

Why didn't someone else report this or was it not terribly important to you..

I also like the extra menu over my previous player YouTube..  I can set it up with my own ID and the channel will playback all my personal videos and favorites from my Youtube login.. all in 16x9 if present..

I knew that first $400 player I first bought was crap.. compared to today's high efficient (and cheap) models..

What do you call "better"?

With many of these plastic cheap players you have to be lucky to get more than a year's lifetime before they break down. In terms of build quality, I wouldn't state they're building "better and better Bluray players these days"...

BTW the ability to resume a blu-ray disc where you left off is NOT a player feature - it depends on the disc (java vs. non-java).

Quoting Grendell:

Quote:
No, they're not. They're Cinavia crippled.

Of course, knowing the DVD Profiler community, I would suspect everyone here is "happy" about it.

I had no idea what you meant about Cinavia so I had to look it up - it appears that it is mandatory on all Blu-ray players since 2010.

If a user finds the new Blu-ray players, even "crippled", perform in a way that increases their enjoyment why shouldn't they be "happy"?

Quoting Grendell:

Quote:
No, they're not. They're Cinavia crippled.

Could you explain how they are "crippled"?

Our first DVD player was a Sony. I'm guessing now but it must be 10 years ago. Cost a couple of hundred GBP. Nice build quality, nice picture. Still running.

When we bought the 50" Pioneer, we bought the matching (and top of the range) DVD player. Better picture than the Sony - well, the HDMI helped! Nice build quality and still running. Paid £900 for it, again guessing, but must be around seven years ago.

2/3 years ago we went Bluray with an LG for around £300. What was interesting was that the DVD picture was better than the Pioneer, for about a third of the price. However, build quality was not in the same league as the Sony or the Pioneer. But the real downside was Bluray playback - when it worked it was very good, but every new "blockbuster" required another firmware update, and it never could get through the race scene in Iron Man 2 without freezing. It finally died after 18 months. Was that because it was a "cheapie", or were we just unlucky?

For the replacement of the LG, I decided (with permission, naturally) to spend a bit more in the hope of getting a better quality machine (both in the PQ and the firmware departments) and we now have an Oppo 93 (£650). Again the PQ has got better, and the firmware has never failed to load a BD....although Argo did take several minutes to get to the menu. So we'll see how long this one lasts, I would hope longer than the LG!

So where does that leave us? For sure the PQ has improved over the years, but the improvement from Sony to Pioneer is more likely due to using HDMI, rather than component video. Having said that though, the DVD playback of the LG was better than the Pioneer for much less money - shame that it died so young! The Oppo is just very good; so we'll see..........

I've not made any comments about audio because we've never used the analogue outputs from any player - it's digital all the way from player through to speakers (at least for the all-important front three, the rears and sub are analogue).

I'm curious about the firmware issues though. Why did the LG need a firmware update for nearly every new Blu and still hiccupped from time to time, yet the Oppo gets updated infrequently, but manages to play all my new Blus without any trouble (even Argo, once it had got to the menu screen)?

Quoting Kulju:

Quote:
Quoting Grendell:
Could you explain how they are "crippled"?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cinavia+crippled

Quoting Grendell:

Quote:
Quoting Kulju:

Quote:
Quoting Grendell:
Could you explain how they are "crippled"?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cinavia+crippled

I am curious:  what legal activity are you unable to perform with a player crippled so?

Thank you, DVD Profiler Community, for demonstrating my assumption.