With the viewing format changing from DVD to Blu Ray , I thought I would post these Aldi specials as they might be an affordable step up for some who might want to take the plunge. This Blu Ray player also has a 12 month warranty.
$ 249 *
* Playback at HD resolutions and upscale DVDs (1080p/1080i/720p)
* Dolby Digital 7.1 channel audio
* HDMI 1.3 component video output
* USB interface
* Includes remote control, AV cables and batteries
Blu Ray Movies
ea $ 19.99 *
* Outstanding movies in outstanding definition
* See and hear your favourites like never before
* Classic titles include Lady in the Water, 10000BC, Blade Runner The Final Cut, Ant Bully, Fool’s Gold, Superman Returns, The Fugitive, Scooby-Doo the Movie, Polar Express, Under Siege, Lethal Weapon 2, Unforgiven, The Bucket List, The Prestige and Troy
* Titles may vary from store to store
Also another good value item
Freeview Compliant set top box - 2 year warranty
$ 149 *
* Receive all free to view digital channels available in your area
* HDMI output
* Seven day electronic program guide (EPG)
* Parental controls
* Multi-language on screen display
* Includes remote control
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theyve come down in price pretty quickly
That Aldi Blu Ray will be on offer for 199,- coming Thursday while they still sell BR players 500m further down the road at WOW for the sensational special price of 399,-
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
Im not sure why anyone would bother with a CD solution when the future is Terrabyte drives and Media Tanks. Just my opinion but you need to be forward thinking in this day and age.
DM500s Black with rear on/off switch $99 inc post , DM800 sim 82 $250 inc post, DM800SE $310 inc
pros:
very cheap
can unlock for multiregion DVD (open dvd tray and enter 91130 into remote)
supports many video and audio formats
plays divx well from USB
cons:
can't play mkv, h264
long start time for blu-ray discs (40 second)
questionable long term reliability (some Bauhn gear are Supernet clones)
It looks like a reasonable buy provided you're comfortable with the risk of it dying after 18 months. I've seen several cheap 12 month-warranty high def products do this. Otherwise hunt around and haggle on price for Panasonic BD35 or with extended warranty.
Plenty of people reckon you're better off looking for units from discount retailers. I've well and truly come around to that position too. I've made my share of no-name purchasing mistakes over the years and am convinced it's smarter to wait and save up for better quality than to be seduced by the price and features of cheapies. All their features are worth nothing once they start giving disk read errors or fail to boot.
There's something to be said for hard disk or network based players over optical, that's true, but Blu Ray has enough momentum now. It's not going away any time soon and for most people buying their favourites on Blu Ray at $19-25 is a reasonable deal (but only for favourites; for everything else just rent or borrow). But if I was looking for a multiformat player I'd want something that supported h264.
Last edited by gw1; 04-10-09 at 11:20 PM.
sdrambo (21-10-09),Uncle Fester (09-10-09)
That would normally come at 100% extra cost compared to the $199,- for the Bauhn.
The similarity with the Braun logo is a bit naughty and the remote also has the look and feel of some Loewe remotes I have held in the past.
Regarding name brand products, my experience has been the opposite. A name is no guarantee for reliability. Both my Sony and Panasonic Camcorders have given me many problems and eventually died with much less than 100 hours of use.
My Philips DVD player was the worst one I ever had but the first DVD player I ever bought which was from Aldi (around 1998) still works today after extreme heavy usage over the years. The kids just can't get it kaputt.
Today I have learned to spend as little as possible for new technology so it will not hurt too much when I have to dump it due to failure or redundancy.
I bought the Bauhn yesterday and I am very happy with it.
Alone the up-conversion of SD DVDs was worth it. Far less jitter with camera pans and action scenes, less rainbows on my BENQ DLP projector and overall very crisp. Far better quality than the demos I see in the shops when they present SD on LCD screens.
I have yet to acquire and test Blue Ray media but as my projector is only 720p, I don't expect a huge difference. I know what I can get out of it from the HD-TVbox and the up-converted SD DVDs get very close.
That said, I am aiming to get a 50" trueHD Panasonic plasma a little closer to Xmas, as I predict a further price drop, perhaps early December. Not because it is a brand name but it is the best flat screen picture I have seen to date and then hopefully it is Blue Ray all the way...well, until true 3D-HD interactive TV is on special offer.
Thanks gw1 for the region-0.
I have a lot of region-2 DVDs for which I have supported the media industry with a lot of money over the years.
Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...
@nomeat the Panasonic plasma is the way to go. Had one for about 12 months fabulous picture.
for those intrested:
I suppose it depends how good the upscaller is. Don't forget that having 1080 display, every resolution other than 1080 will be upscalled/downcalled to 1080 and the build in upscallers are mostly decent ones (depends on manufacturer)
On top of that, if you got decent receiver you can do the scalling there.
My setup is HTPC, Sony STR-DA4400ES receiver
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langI d=-1&productId=8198552921665491066#additionalImage1 "
and Samsung 1080 LCD. All of above can do the scalling. I would not expect the cheap unit to do same or better job than the above units (might be wrong thou)
Cheers
Last edited by mborkp; 18-10-09 at 07:13 PM. Reason: for clarity reading
dick smith has a sony blu ray player for $191 i think.. and also a samsung unit for 150$
Hi,
I think I simplified a bit in my previous post. I read bit more about tv scalling and what should be noted that the scalling at DVD player level might be necessary.
citation:
The FLI2200 has a couple of implementation choices. There is optional external memory that can be used, which does of course raise the cost. All current FLI2200 implementations as of this writing use the optional memory. If the memory is not used, then film mode detection is disabled and all deinterlacing is video mode. You would never want this in a DVD player, but it would be just fine in a display device (a projection TV). A display device must deal with all kinds of sources, a large portion of it being video. A TV manufacture is always trying to get the costs down because as consumers we like to spend as little as possible. It would be perfectly acceptable to have the FLI2200 in a display running in video mode only. You could then use a progressive DVD player for all of your movies. Of course, this would mean other sources like laserdisc (LD) and VHS would not look as good, but LD and VHS are going the way of the Dodo.
whole article here:
Cheers
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