Monoprice Blu-Ray Player - Page 3

My LG590 supports ntfs drives.

My Samsung D5500 supports ntfs drives as well.

OtherSongs, you've had the Monoprice for a few days now. Anything new to report?
I'm about to order one, for the analog outputs. Anything that should keep me from going ahead (other than some of the other issues that have been discussed here which are mostly unimportant to me)?
Thanks.
Franks

As I said in my earlier posts in this thread, it's an OK unit as a blu-ray player; it doesn't have all the bells and whistles but to me that's no surprise given it's very low cost.

I wanted a *backup* blu-ray player that has 5.1/7.1 RCA analog outs, and for that it's very adequate.

As has been pointed out in many AVS forums, *low-cost* blu-ray players with surround RCA analog outs are less common these days, and generally cost more than double what they did just 12 months ago.

The main downside is it's crummy remote that makes it hard to use; so far I've not tried any other remotes with it.

Assuming that a better remote (bigger buttons with better button placement) can be used with it, then it will get a stronger endorsement from me.

A few further thoughts on the general subject of why not to buy a higher end blu-ray player just now.

The "value-leader" w/RCA analog outs has been and continues to be the OPPO 93 and 95 players at roughly 7x to 15x the cost of the monoprice player.

OPPO has repeatedly discontinued it's players (both DVD and blu-ray players) early in the improvement cycle that constantly goes on with movie disc players.

I'm reluctant to spend that kind of money for an OPPO blu-ray player, given that it won't surprise me if another round of blu-ray player improvements shows up in the next 6 months to a year.

I mean what I really want is a blu-ray player that has *ALL* of the convenience and quickness of the best of the DVD player units; and AFAIK we're still not there just yet with blu-ray players.

Hows the 3D???

I don't do 3D, so I've no idea.

Either of the current OPPO 93 or 95 blu-ray players do 3D and also have surround RCA outs, as far as I know.

But they cost 7x to 15x the money that this low end 7.1 analog monoprice player does.

What are the App's it comes with?, Netflix, Youtube.....etc?

Thanks, OtherSongs I don't have a blue ray player and have not used a dvd player much in the past, have an old Onkyo and it just never looked real good on the big screen. I am going to try this out and use the 5.1.

You're welcome.

Post what you think after you've used it for a couple of days.

Count me in as curious as to what apps, if any, come installed.

Hello,

We just wanted to inform you all that our blu-ray player (8296) is capable of playing back both PAL and NTSC DVDs from any region. This is a highly sought out feature that many users will find useful making this an affordable region-free blu-ray player.

Regards,
Monoprice Tech Support
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Is it full 3D compatible With HD sound?

Will it produce both 50hz and 60hz, and optionally convert between the frame rates?

-Bill

You specifically said "DVDs from any region" but later say it's "an affordable region-free blu-ray player."
I'm confused by this, is this player only region free for DVDs or BDs also?

And does it play 1080i50 Blu-ray titles?

-Bill

I'm going to be a little pessimistic here and guess that we won't get much in the way of detail beyond the published specs on their webpage. And I very much doubt they will commit to commenting on BD region free capability for fear of the studios if not other player manufacturers. Our best bet probably lies with someone who's already made the purchase.

Expecting a few players to show up next week in this thread.

Mine should be here Thursday. I have B-locked BDs, a 1080i50 BD, and PAL/Region 2 DVDs to try.

Pros: 1080p w/ 24 FPS
Wifi
ANALOGUE AUDIO OUT
Premium Picture Quality
Premium Sound
Blu Ray discs look pristine and sound crystal clear (your mileage may vary depending on your equipment- see below for the equipment used in our usage)

Cons: Menu system a tad slow to respond to controls.
Disc loading speeds- though this is a con for blu ray discs in general
sometimes the player needs to be unplugged with a hard reset
remote control not back lit- but most are not
USB-audio only supports WMA!?
USB-video does not work with the .avi files I tried!?'
Does not come pre installed with youtube, netflix or those other downloadable services. Apparently the menu system is open source- so I will have to wait for the programmers of the world to create this upgrade.

This is a great buy- even if it was 2x the price it would be a great buy.

Highly recommended- I bought this since my legacy Marantz receiver does not have an HDMI audio input- it did have 7.1 analogue input- so this works great with that sending out dolby true hd, etc.

Audio- I have it set up to a Marantz receiver and full range Tannoy speakers and Tannoy 12" sub. The audio is crystal clear and better than when I used just dolby digital by fibre optic or component audio, etc.

Video- is set to 1080P (film mode) which changes the frame rate to 24 FPS. The video is sent to my Mitsubishi 1080P DLP projector and the picture quality is stunning. This is displayed on a 92" da-lite screen. On a smaller screen would yield equally good and/or better results. The large screen amplifies any studio recording errors by the filmmaker.

In fact it looks and sounds better than my PS3 (playstation 3) the previous blu-ray player. This is a great value with very high quality results.

Sorry, I do not know about the 3-D with this unit and have no equipment (or interest) to try it.

(this review was typed quickly on the way to work- sorry for the typos!!)


Setup:
Seating distance: 8-10 feet
92" Da-lite video spectre (1.5 gain)
Mitsubishi HC3800 (1080p DLP) (natively accepts 24fps and doubles to 48fps)
Mostly Monoprice auido and video cables (haha!)
Monoprice Blu Ray player via HDMI set to 1080 Film(24/fps) 5.1 analogue to receiver
Marantz SR4500 (Silver- limited edition!)
Tannoy Sensys DC2 (R+L)
Tannoy Sensys DCC (center)
Tannoy TS12 (12" sub)
Tannoy EFX 5.1 (rear channels)
PS3
Denon 5 disc DVD
Apple TV 1st Gen
Verizon Fios TV/DVR

Blu ray movies tested:
Rum Diary
Avatar
I Love You, Man
The Big Year

Orange, thanks for the update! Do you have the capability to test blu-ray region capability?

Given the poor remote, poor remote/unit response, and menu glitzyness in general, this is NOT a great buy at "2x the price"

FWIW I've been thinking about sending mine back, but suspect that I won't do that.

Just a note of caution by me, for those that are persuaded by this very positive review by orange7

When you say that the menus are glitchy, are you referring to the way the player handle's a BD disc's regular menus, or the player's settings menu?

Mainly DVD movie player settings; but I've tried fewer things with the blu-ray movies that I have.

For one thing you have to be quick or else you lose; and I've not been able to figure out if/how I can get the player to provide more time to use the remote, which by itself is very hard/slow to use.

For another I use the remote at an off angle, and it doesn't work, so I have to stretch my hand out, and then it only sometimes works. If I want to do anything that needs multiple button pushes on the funky remote, I stand directly in front of the player with a flashlight in my mouth and both hands on the remote so that I can be fast.

For another I was watching the recent Star Trek movie on DVD and got around to listening to the feature commentary by the director and others. Wow is that marginal on this player. When I stop it and push play it quickly restarts at the point that I left off at (which is what I expect), but now the audio is back to the 5.1 DD, and just getting it into the commentary audio is another pain. Definite negative there.

FWIW I only have 5 blu-ray movie discs and 5 blu-ray audio only discs.

The general blu-ray disc performance is better than that of DVD movies.

Blu-ray players in general have been pretty funky about stuff like stopping the movie. This monoprice player starts over at the beginning when you do that. My 18 month old Panasonic DMP-BD85 player at least will let me stop and also turn the player off; when I push play it's slow but finally pops up a menu giving me the option to continue from where I was last at in viewing the movie. That's still slow compared to a DVD player, but far preferable to this monoprice player.

Please let us know if the region-locked BD discs work!

I am not that familiar with blu ray region capability? Please advise and I will try and test this. I see a lot of people are concerned about this.


As far as the blu ray player, what matters to me most was the picture and sound quality- and this player excels.

I had been disappointed, in general with almost every blu ray player I have used when a blu ray is playing. For example, when you push stop- it seems to take too long. When the movie starts playing, it takes too long. Overall, I would say this is a java issue and not necessarily a blu ray issue. Though, my PS3 is pretty snappy.

The remote on the Monoprice player has to be aimed right at the unit for best results. Also, you have to hit the button and be patient, you sometimes have to wait 1-2 seconds for a response.

I suspect that there are only a few manufacturers of the chipsets used in Blu Ray players today. This is a state of the art blu ray player at a bargain basement price.

You would need a region-locked BD disc from region B or C to test the region free capabilities. USA = region A. A lot of discs sold overseas are actually not region locked, but many are.

DO NOT BUY

NOT REGION FREE FOR BLU-RAY

DOES NOT CONVERT 1080i/50 to 60hz

DOES NOT CONVERT PAL TO NTSC


This thing is a pos. It is slow as hell and the remote sucks. It has the same menus as an insignia so i tried the insignia remote hack but it doesn't work.

My Insignia is way better. if you want a region free player that will play anything (besides 3D) get an Insignia NS-BRDVD4 or NS-WBRDVD2 refurb from BestBuy.com.

But do the Insignias have 7.1 analog out?

amazon shows 3 different Insignias models (1 new model, 2 used models), all under $100, so I rather doubt any have "7.1 analog out"

They all get marginal owner reviews on amazon.

This Integra DBS-50.3 has 7.1 analog out. But I bet it's expensive. See: http://www.integrahometheater.com/mo...&class=DVD&p=i

FWIW I'm returning my 7.1 analog out monoprice player. Nice try on the part of monoprice, but the thing is just too klunky!

There certainly is a BIG price gap from the low end monoprice unit, to something that's recent and worth having!

The one 7.1 analog out blu-ray player on my radar is the soon to be released Panasonic DMP-BDT 500. Street price will likely be in the $300 neighborhood.