Need help on secondary DVD player. What are people using? (1 Viewer)

[PatrickM]

I'm finally going to get another DVD player for upstairs in the family room so its decidely a non-home theater environment at this point. Its basically to watch movies with sound coming from the TV on a non-HD capable set so I'm looking for something that doesn't have a lot of glitches caused by fussy DVD's but is in the lower end of the price spectrum.

Presently I have a RP-91 downstairs in the HT room and its been great but I don't want put that type of money out for something not even hooked up to a receiver.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Patrick

 

[Bob McElfresh]

XBox Now you have an excuse to get one.

 

[Allen Longcor]

Panasonic RV31k is a very nicew player. Goes for about $130 I believe. Never had a problem with it. Only complaint is slight slow down during layer change on some discs.

 

[Trey Jones]

I'm with Bob. Get a gaming system that can play movies. You will kill 2 birds with one stone!

 

[JonBouche]

I would look at something from Pioneer, as there have been very few cases of them not playing discs and seem to be very reliable. I have a Elite DV-C36 5 disc changer and it has never once not played a disc.

 

[PatrickM]

Bob & Trey,

You know, I was going to get an XBox a little while ago but decided to buy a new car instead (hardly comparable hey?) so I hadn't really thought about it again until now. Not a bad idea.

I might have to go do that.

Thanks,

Patrick

 

[George Monroy]

Just be aware that I found that my Xbox will not play my Transformers season One DVD set. It may not play others.

 

[PatrickM]

George,

Thanks for the heads up. That would suck. I actually ran across an ad for the Toshiba combo DVD/VCR player which isn't that expensive. I know VHS sucks but my 2 1/2 year old watches a lot of kids tapes on the TV I'm connecting this too. Actually one of the reasons I'm getting another one is that I'm replacing my sons VHS shows with the DVD equivalents as they come out.

Patrick

 

[MitchellC]

I have the Samsung DVD-N501. It's a real nice player, with MP3, HDCD, VCD, and NUON compatability. I also like the design of the player itself (seen here, although opinions may differ). The remote isn't too bad; it has a joystick for menu control (and speaking of menus, you can change settings while still watching the movie in a box about 2/3 of the demensions of the total screen area in the bottom right corner).
Inputs include component, s-video, composite, and optical and digital coaxial audio connections. I'm not sure of RS-232 connectivity; I'll need to check if you want that info.
I haven't had any compatibility issues except it not detecting a few MP3's that were burned to a CD. Loading time seems somewhat long, but I don't have any other DVD players to compare it too. I don't have any VCD's or HDCD's, or NUON compatible discs so I can't comment on those.
Oh yeah, for music, the player has VLM, which basically moves various color patterns around the screen to sync with the music, which is pretty cool in a dark room with nice loud music.
Edit: I forgot to mention the MSRP, which is at $200. I bought it for about that much a while back after tax when it was on sale. Best Buy had it for $170 last time I checked in store, but it's still $200 at the site. Maybe it was one of their (many) weeklong sales.

 

[BrianKM]

Last time I was at Costco, they had a nice looking Toshiba for $107 with all the basic features or you could step up to the $117 model that decodes MP3s.