Monoprice Blu-Ray Player - Page 2

A front panel USB port allows you to connect a USB memory device (FAT32 formatted flash drive or HDD up to 2 TB size), which will be automatically used by the player as a storage device for BD Live internet content. The USB device can also be used as a source device for music, videos, and image file playback.

deal breaker, fat32 is worthless, almost pulled the plug, unless when someone get's it they can verify ntfs,

Yes my players do the same thing and if you manually subtract elapsed time from total time you can get remaining time but I prefer to leave the units display on remaining(or countdown) time.
This feature was available(but never really very universal) on DVD players but it's almost impossible to find on BD players. I believe all Sony DVD players have the countdown timer which is why I ended up with mostly Sony DVD players. Pioneer was also good on including remaining time but couldn't be made to be on the units display without also being OSD. Don't want to watch a whole movie with the OSD on but like to glance at the unit to see how much time is left of the movie.

Just so we are clear - what I was saying is that the front panel display on my Sony BD players toggle between time elapsed so far (counting up) and time remaining (counting down). So if you toggle to time remaining with the remote, it will display the time left, counting down until it gets to zero, on the player panel display.

Open firmware possibilities might make this player invaluable. Could also drive the price way up in the future.

And possibly region free!

That's what I'm wondering about...is it region free or region mod-capable/hackable? Can it play 1080i/50 BDs, for that matter? How complicated is it to tinker with its firmware? And so on...?

I just got it an hour ago. It looks nice.

The earliest I'll post about it is tomorrow night or the following night, as I have to hook it up and then use it with at least one BD movie that has great sound, and also a great sounding redbook CD. As well as a great sounding DVD movie.

FWIW it's marked "made in China" (no surprise there), the construction looks really decent given what it cost me, it has no HDMI cable included (I don't understand why so many here seem to think that having a cheap HDMI cable included would be a plus), and the manual is English only (30 pages) with somewhat smallish print size.

I've a couple of questions on using an ethernet cat6 cable to connect it:

1. Connecting it to the net via my Comcast cable modem ethernet out connector, do I use a straight through ethernet cable or a crossover ethernet cable?

2. Connecting it to my tabletop PC, do I use a straight through ethernet cable or a crossover ethernet cable?

FWIW, I received another email from MP, this one answered my previous question on how long they have had this BD player. The response was:
"The unit is very very new and was released just last week"
So there you have it

I just saw this player myself. Interested, but under the "specifications" tab it says a decoder is required for everything except stereo.
I thought multichannel analog output required a player to decode multichannel sound itself?
How do you incorporate an external decoder when you are using analog outs from the player?

Seems like a player if it came out 2-3 years ago would of been a great deal.
Open source is nice, as long as you have enough interest with the right people, otherwise it's just a selling feature that might be worthless.
FAT32 still has me saying no deal

A small review:

A. Biggest disappointment is that the remote has very small buttons, making the unit hard to use. You'll definitely want to use a different remote than what it comes with.

B. Other than that it offers decent value. The main one being the rear panel RCA 7.1 analog audio outs.

C. With blu-ray movie disc it gives a very good picture and surprisingly good audio; I only used it with the RCA 7.1 analog audio outs.

D. It clearly has it's own DAC(s) and internal converter; I used it with blu-ray movie DTS-HD and also with DVD movies with DD5.1 and DTS5.1

E. With regard to the USB input on the front panel, that is part of "BD Live"
E1. I tried it with a FAT32 memory stick, and it sees the partition but didn't see the .flak files on it. Reading the limited info in the manual, maybe it'll see .wma files?
E2. Anyhow I've got rather good hi-rez files (free) from http://www.2l.no/ (there's a small pull down menu in the top right corner; left click "Choose HD audio files" and go from there; you'll need a fast internet connection).
E3. So next is to convert my various .flac to other formats and find out if any audio on a USB stick actually works.

I didn't get around to the ethernet stuff, but am still looking for input here on:

1. Connecting it to the net via my Comcast cable modem ethernet out connector, do I use a straight through ethernet cable or a crossover ethernet cable?

2. Connecting it to my tabletop PC, do I use a straight through ethernet cable or a crossover ethernet cable?

Thanks for the review!

Doubt any player plays .flac files, I'm sure it will play mp3 or wav files, format your stick to NTFS and see if it reads it
Main reason i dont want another fat32 player is you cant stick any file over 2gb on fat32, there goes any .mkv video over that size

The current OPPOs do.

-Bill

Per wmcclain: "The current OPPOs do."

FWIW the manual (and also the outside of the cardboard box the unit comes in) only mention WMA and not MP3 nor WAV formats.


Given that the unit has at least RCA 5.1 analog rear panel outs, what's the cheapest current blu-ray player that'll take a NTFS formatted USB device?

Maybe one of the current OPPO units?

Or does such a blu-ray player even exist?

Yes, the OPPOs do, but start at $499. I recall at least one LG player supported NTFS but I don't have the details.

-Bill

"Other than that it offers decent value. The main one being the rear panel RCA 7.1 analog audio outs."


Why does the MP literature seem to claim only 5.1?

FWIW, the manual has this to say:

The Multi Channel sound output is a real plus. I bought the Sony BDP-S550 and a Panasonic DMP-BD80 since I a discrete analog input on my Boston AVR7120. I also have an older Kenwood for the lower level so this might be a good match for that. I don't know any major brand still having 5.1 outputs for thislow a price.

I have a LG 390 which does NTFS and has 5.1 out's, which i dont use,would I find a huge magical sound difference?, I doubt it, bought from Ebay $30

Given that you seem to want a blu-ray player to see USB device with NTFS file system for files greater than "2GB" I fail to understand your above comment on "sound difference" as sound files less than an hour long are far under 2GB in size.

Whereas for ripped blu-ray movie, then I can understand that.

othersongs, i'm interested in over 2gb for .mkv playback reasons, not audio, i never tried 5.1 analog , just use coaxial or toslink on my Yamaha receiver

OPPO 93 at ~$500 seems to me to be for you. Or maybe the ~$1000 OPPO 95?

I personally don't follow the whole blu-ray player nightmare.

Maybe I'll get around to buying an OPPO 93 or 95, but not anytime soon.

Can anyone comment on the picture quality?

Fat32 has a limit of 4 Gb not 2Gb

The PQ with a blu-ray movie is a pleasant surprise.

The PQ with a DVD movie is only so-so.

The SQ is good on everything I tried.

Their web site lists FLAC and WAV but, strangely, not MP3. The BDP-93 will
definitely play MP3's and FLAC's (and thus will the BDP-95.) I've never tried
to play a WAV file.


The Oppos can access NTFS devices. Are they the cheapest?

This is very cool! I noticed this when I was looking for speaker cables on the website, and after a cursory look on google, I thought it was trash and ignored it.

so is this a good alternative for the PS3
i use my PS3 for 3D playback, but it doesn't support True HD Audio while playing 3D content only DTS-HD.

OK so is official that it does not have DTS-HD Master Audio via analog output?

UPDATE
nvm I see it has DTS-HD® High Resolution Audio but not Master so wont work for my needs. What a shame