Hello. I have been watching the pricing on the LG BH200 and I was ready to purchase it when I noticed that it went discontinued on a number of sites including crutchfield where I had it sitting in my shopping cart.

My question is at this point is it worth picking up a LG BH200 on ebay or a refurbished Samsung BD-UP5000 or a refurbished BH200? Lots of ebay items seem to be factory refurbished.

Does anyone have any reports on refurbished units?

I probably should just pick up a PS3 as a blue ray player and hope my
Xbox360 HD-DVD drive keeps working for the handful of HD-DVD's I own.

Thanks for any info.
Doug D

I picked up a up5000 from amazon refurbished and it's been good. Then I also picked up a brand new bh200 from ebay and it's been good as well. So if it's factory refurbished, to me they seem as good as new. If you want a back up, you can either pick up another 360 HD DVD drive or pick one of these.

It's not discontinued:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13847918#post13847918

It's just in the "very slow" process of being discontinued (like the Samsung Combo). It will be months before you can no longer buy one. I've seen at least one new one on eBay .com.

As you're considering two players it sounds like a Combo isn't for you :). If I was happy to own two players (or already did) I probably wouldn't want a Combo. If I was happy with a Xbox 360 Addon I'd possibly get a Panasonic Profile 2.0 BD Player.

Both the LG BH200 and Samsung BD-UP5000 Players are very good, both have reasons that make them better than the either. When Samsung release their firmware that will continue to be the case (i.e - Hacks vs. Analogue Outputs).

you can either pick up another 360 HD DVD drive
They are absurdly cheap. Any cheaper they'll literally be giving them away.

Thanks for the info guys. I have a few movies I purchased for my wife that she would not be too happy with me if she could not watch them anymore and unfortunately they are all HD-DVD's.

This is why I have been watching the prices on the combo players. The best of both worlds!

Looks like I will be doing a "buy now" on ebay soon.

Thanks.

You can still get them new at CircuityCity.com for $499. Not a bad price and includes free shipping. There are probably some coupons floating around the net as well. It ain't dead yet!

Just got one brand new from ebay. $429.00 plus shipping.
It's basically the crutchfield price before they pulled it from their catalog.

Looks like I'm finally going blue ! and red too.

I'm one of those early adopters of the 'wrong format' who vowed to never get hoodwinked again and buy the wrong technology ;>

As you're considering two players it sounds like a Combo isn't for you :). If I was happy to own two players (or already did) I probably wouldn't want a Combo. If I was happy with a Xbox 360 Addon I'd possibly get a Panasonic Profile 2.0 BD Player.

I had the A2 and the A35 and a PS3 yet I still picked up the 5k initially so I can use my A35 as "backup". :cool:

Then the BH200 price came down and was region free so I picked one up also. :D It depends what you want. Reon chip (5k) and the region free (bh200) got me sold. :)

I've been tracking ebay too (even after my purchase at $380+30 for shipping. For a while there were some for $375+40 shipping also for the BH200. UP5000 may be cheaper right now because the May firmware is not out yet.

I just purchased the BH200 from Best Buy after owning a PS3 as well as the Toshiba HD-A2. I am very impressed with the BH200 thus far.

For a while I had been up in the air about what to do in terms of a combo player...should I stick with separates? should I build a HTPC that can play back both? which combo player should I get if I'm going to get one?

I ended up choosing the BH200 even after the news release that they would be discontinued.

I would've built an HTPC...but the software is just not there yet...didn't want to build something Windows based...just wasn't seeing it all being as easy as a standalone. Plus I wanted my wife to be able to use it.

I decided to not get the BD-UP5000 for a few reasons...the BH200 felt like a better built machine (physically)...buttons on the BH200 felt more responsive and better thought out...I guess I just preferred the design of the BH200. I also preferred the user interface within the BH200. It's very simple and nothing too complex and it looks good.

Congrats on being a new BH200 owner. :)
I'm surprised you said you prefer the design of the BH200 as I heard a lot of complains that it looks like a VCR player. :D I have no problem with it though. I like it more than the design of the 5k too (I think it's because I personally do not like roundish electronics).

Yes I guess I can see why some people would say that the BH200 looks like a VCR. But I just felt like BD-UP5000 looked and actually felt quite cheap in person while I was comparing them both at Best Buy.

The BD-UP5000's main control button on the front felt like a botched version of an early ipod control interface.

This is of course just my opinion and I actually would've been interested to see them both head to head set up on my TV. I had read that both of them were excellent in PQ, especially the BD-UP5000. But that the BH200 was just as good.

In the end, your eyes see different than my eyes.

I used to work at Best Buy in college in the home theater department. When people would ask me my opinion about a TV's picture I would always tell them what my favorite one was. But I would always remind them that my eyes see differently than their eyes.

This is the same case when comparing these two combo players.

I don't have a major investment in HD DVD disks so one of these, at the current pricing, doesn't interest me. I'm using my Toshiba HD-3 until it fails then I can sell my disks to the niche legacy market and hopefully replace my favorite titles with Blu-ray versions.

Reading between the lines I'd suggest, that if you really want one of these, then don't 'lollygag'.

--- CHAS

The BD-UP5000's main control button on the front felt like a botched version of an early ipod control interface.

Actually I don't really like the buttons on the 5k (and I don't have ipod but I assume you are talking about the circular controls?) I love the touch sensitive buttons (very flat surface buttons) on the BH200 though. :D

Today I replaced my Tohiaba HD-A2 with a LG BH200 that I got for $499, so I'm finally on the BluRay bandwagon ... I just need to by some BluRay discs now! :p

You can still get them new at CircuityCity.com for $499. Not a bad price and includes free shipping. There are probably some coupons floating around the net as well. It ain't dead yet!

Woot! You just got me 90$ refunded via a price match! I kinda was torn paying this much for a player but knew it could play my 70+ HD DVDs as well as Blu-rays and now that it came in well under 500$, it is one of the most practical Blu-ray players on the market (sans the PS3). I have really enjoyed the past 1.5 weeks with this player and would truly recommend it to anyone on the fence.

I liked my new BH200 so much.... I bought another one! Now that it is official and it looks like HD-DVD and HD-DVD players are going away for good I didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of movies that I could not play, and I refuse to buy them again on Blu-Ray. :D

...and I refuse to buy them again on Blu-Ray. :D
Even if the video or audio quality is improved? ;)

Even if the video or audio quality is improved? ;)

I think "The Boss" would file for divorce or possibly render bodily harm to me if she saw me buy a Blu-Ray that I already had in HD-DVD. Although with an improved picture or sound........it sure would be tempting.;)

I own two 200s, and I've had the 5000 in the past. Sold the 5000 to a coworker, and I love my 200s. I'm keeping an eye out to snag a 3rd and have all my TVs covered.

Even if the video or audio quality is improved? ;)

Huh? HD-DVD is as good if not better than BD in both audio and video. As long as he can play his HD-DVD movies on the BH200 buying them again in BD would be nuts. If he was talking about SD-DVD that's a whole different thing....

Huh? HD-DVD is as good if not better than BD in both audio and video.
AV quality is only as good as the Encode (or Master) it's based upon. Universal at least is remastering it's HD-DVD catalogue for BD to make use of the extra space, including lossless audio on all titles (DTS-HD MA). Expect at the very least higher video bitrates too.

That is what Vinnie meant, not that one format is technically better than the other.

Many early BDs looked poor due to the poor Encode being used (Old MPEG2 Master) and lack of disk space (Singe Layer BDs). Whereas Universal etc... tended to create new VC1/AVC Masters, which much better handled the lower HD-DVD disc space available.

After applying firmware updates and region hacks as shown on the FAQ thread (this must be one of the most valuable sources of information on a particular product on AVS!), I think this player is hard to beat if your AV receiver or processor has HDMI inputs. So far I can:

-Play my many HD DVDs often with better results than on my Toshiba A35
-Play Blu Rays -Perfect playback so far!
-Bitstream multi channel Dolby True HD/DTS MA
-Play PAL / NTSC / All region SD (My projector plays PAL and NTSC natively, so no need to convert).
-Set the player for zone A or B Blu Ray (Big bonus!)

My HTPC plays both formats as well (LG combo drive) but with frequent compatibility issues plus no HD audio yet. This standalone is definitely worth the price and I will probably get another one for my second system.

Huh? HD-DVD is as good if not better than BD in both audio and video. As long as he can play his HD-DVD movies on the BH200 buying them again in BD would be nuts. If he was talking about SD-DVD that's a whole different thing....

AV quality is only as good as the Encode (or Master) it's based upon. Universal at least is remastering it's HD-DVD catalogue for BD to make use of the extra space, including lossless audio on all titles (DTS-HD MA). Expect at the very least higher video bitrates too.

That is what Vinnie meant, not that one format is technically better than the other.

Just to expound on what Brad & Vinnie said, this is not a format vs. format thing at all. As Brad said, the format has nothing to do with the video quality but is based on the encode. An identical encode on both HD DVD and Blu-ray will produce identical results. If the master is old, damaged, dirty, etc. than a high definition encode will make little difference. But, if a new master print is struck and color, shadow, etc. are cleaned up and stabalized, then an HD presentation will offer a noticeable improvement over the SD incarnation.

Now, audio is another story. Because of HD DVD's limited storage capacity, studios often chose to use DD+ or even "plain old" DTS instead of a lossless codec (TrueHD, DTS-HD MA) or uncompressed PCM. So, if a movie is released again on Blu-ray, and if the decision is made to do so, a significant audio upgrade can be made. The recently released Blades of Glory is a good example; Paramount had used DD+ on the HD DVD but opted for an uncompressed PCM (48kHz, 24-bit) track on the Blu-ray.

Hope this helps explain why someone might be willing to buy a Blu-ray version of a movie even if they already own the HD DVD version. Personally, I tried not to buy too many movies that didn't offer lossless audio or a really good video transfer, but there's a few that come to mind. The HD DVD of Sleepy Hollow is a prime canidate; the video offers only a MODEST (and I'm being generous here) upgrade compared to DVD and the audio is DD+. If it's released on Blu-ray with a fresh new encode and some quality audio, I'll buy it in a heartbeat!

-C.