Phillips Blu Ray Player is... - Page 4

I purchased the Philips player from Amazon for $599.00. A week later the price came down to $549.00. I contacted Amazon and they are crediting me with the difference. The player is great, no glitches whatsoever. I'd suggest playing "Legends of Jazz Showcase" if you really want to see what Blu-Ray can look and sound like at its best! Enjoy!

If a disc only has DTS Master, will this player downconvert to regular DTS through optical or coaxial?

Thanks for the heads up! I just emailed Amazon, and they're giving me a $50 credit too. The email response appeared to be a form letter, so this must be a common request. Mine shipped on the 7th and I received it on the 12th. I wonder what the cut off time is for a refund is, 2 weeks, 30 days???

Anyway I've been very happy with the player.

Rick Moll

Hi all,
1. Thanks for the information, I've been thinking about going Neutral and this helps.
2. It's refreshing to see people talking in a civil manner about the different formats, I was afraid this "war" had turned everyone in jerks.

Got my Philips in today. So far, this former HD-DVD-exclusive guy is very impressed. The picture and sound on the Prestige are first-rate. The uncompressed PCM is as good as (if not better than) any Dolby TrueHD track I've heard.

Anyway, had a question about the Philips: is there anyway to show time remaining on a disc? I had no luck in the manual, but thought maybe I was overlooking something.

I own a Toshiba A2 and recently purchased the Philips 9000 Blue-Ray player from Amazon for $549.00 (and free shipping). The Philips picture is beautiful..on a par with HD DVD, and l couldn't be happier. Both players go through a Benq 8700 projector (l use a Blue Jeans cable HDMI to DVI cable)..and it works perfectly..no issues at all. I don't know what firmware it came with, but l am inclined not to upgrade it since l am of the belief that if it is not broken..don't fix it. I watched Chicago (Blu Ray edition) on the Philips last night, and the quality was amazing! I use the analog out for audio (left & right sterio) into my Harmon Kardon receiver as l prefer Logic 7 for my surround sound application. I am not that technically oriented, but l can find no faults at all with this player. One thing l did notice in comparrison with the Toshiba..the Philips disc tray is smooth as silk unlike the Toshiba which is kind of clunky..but the Toshiba works fine so really not an issue.

Looking at jumping into the HD or Blu-Ray Market and I would like to get a player that can replace my present SD Player, which I also use for audio. Does the Phillips Blu Ray Player play movies on DVD+R/DVD-R and DVD+RW/DVD-RW. Also will it play CDs with MP3 files on it. Thanks

While I have not tested DVD+/-RW, I can tell you it does play DVD+/-R's flawlessly, even Double Layer media for both formats. I was happy about this since my HD-A1 chokes on DVD+R DL's. I still think the Philips is a great player for the money.

I am surprised your A1 didn't play DL DVD+R's. I never had a problem with mine on the Verbatim and Memorex.

Mine had problems at layer changes (with HDV HDDVD authored content). Every single disk I burned will skip at the layer change, sometimes freeze, sometimes advance by a chapter and continue, but pretty much the 5 minutes after layer change is gone. I burnt quite a few disks before I realized this was happening.

I have the same problem if I use Memorex. Using Verbatim eliminates that problem.

^
On my old A1 I never had a problem with Memorex or Verbatim DL+R DVDs on SD content. I only used Verbatim's on HD content knowing they were higher quality. I never tested the Memorex with HD.

Whats the best price you have seen on this player and where was it? My local Walmart has one in there clearance section. I talked to the department manager and she told me that she would price match any price for the same model new in box. All I have to do is print the site and take in by there. I would love to get this player.

Amazon.

last night l played a non hd dvd in the Philips Blue Ray deck and then the same disc in my Toshiba A2..the up-conversion picture on the Toshiba is vastly superior to the Philips. For high definition material, they seem to be about the same ..beautiful picture on both.

At my local Walmart there was no price on the Phillips so I had them scan it and it came up $898.00. The Samsung was $699.00. No HD-DVD players in stock...

So it works in principle, but in practice if your HDMI cable is connected to a monitor that doesn't process audio, then in practice it doesn't work, because you get an error message. Right?

Hey, what happened to the Philips at Amazon for $550.??? I saw it there on 3/1, went back today to buy it and the price was $780. !!! What's up with that? Were the $550's really reconditioned ones, even though it didn't say that? Anyone know?
I have the Tosh A1 and was hoping to go format neutral with the Philips, but I can't for this much $$$. (And, No, I'm not going to go the PS3 route!).

I don't blame you for not going the PS3 route. The price of $7** that you see is from another dealer selling through Amazon. Amazon themselves are now sold out of this player. I'm not sure if they're getting anymore and if so I'm not sure what the price is going to be. BTW, the price of $5** was for new units.

First time posting on this side of the format fence...

I really am trying to go format neutral, but the strange way this player handles
audio and video is disconcerting. I bought the player because it was relatively
cheap on Amazon and I wanted something to play "Casino Royale" and the variety of titles which aren't available on HD-DVD.

I tried hooking up video with HDMI and audio with Toslink and got the annoying
"HDMI not supported" nag screen to which others have alluded. I don't know
why I thought a supplemental Dolby Digital track or down conversion to Dolby Digital or DTS was standard (it is on HD DVD). Now I have the player hooked to
my receiver's 5.1 analog outputs, and for some reason can't get any audio out of
the side speakers when I run the speaker test mode, though they do appear to
be working when I play a disc.

Bottom line - I don't really like the 5.1 analog outputs, but wasn't planning to get
an HDMI receiver for a while (my money's pretty much tied up paying for a new
JVC DLA-RS1 projector). My 55 year old ears would also probably be quite happy
with a somewhat better than Dolby Digital bitstream track.
However, since I'm not willing to "dumb down" the video to use component outputs so I can go bitstream, I'm forced to use the analog outputs. Who makes these design decisions, both for the players and the discs?

Does the even cheaper Samsung player have similar audio and video limitations?
Is any information available about the upcoming (cheaper than current model) Sony which might lead me to trade in the Philips and wait for the Sony?

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

Dennis

P.S. I'm not really interested in the PS3 (though I might be if I could actually
find a 20gb model in stock). Something about using a videogame as a high
definition playback device seems just plain wrong, though many of course
disagree.

WOO HOO! Just ordered the Philips BDP9000 for $549 with free shipping from Amazon.com. Once I placed the order, the price shot back up over $800! I think that's an okay deal. I'm sure the prices on these things are going to just keep free falling due to the format war. I wish it had HDMI 1.3 for the lossless audio, but I'm sure I'll be happy. Now... I just need to convince the Mrs. that dropping $550 on another movie player player (XBOX 360 HD DVD, upconverting DVD / VCR) was a good idea. If they find a note with my body, it WASN'T suicide...

Well I have been thinking about getting one for my outdoor movie theater experienc. And since Disney is Blu ray exlusive it would make sense to use a Blu ray player. The Philips so far seems like my bes bet. I can wait it out another month or two until the weather is ready but so far I like this player. It would either be this one or the sammy that I find for a great price... I will hope it is the Philips...

This post was in January. So now that we are in March, suzook11, do you feel Blu-Ray's AVC has caught up to VC-1 with the current releases? If you buy Casino Royal, let me know if you feel AVC used to encode that movie surpasses anything you've seen on VC-1 or equals it. It would be interesting to hear your response.

BTW, I want to impress on everyone the importance of installing the firmware update. Without it, some discs won't play at all. Other discs will play, but the HDMI audio quality is compromised. t sounds bright and bass shy. After the update, the sound is warm and natural.

Does the BDP9000 have BD-Java support?

Anyone? I guess a better way of asking is: Is there anyone who can't do something feature wise right now with their BDP9000 (not including audio)?

it supports BD-Java, but make sure you get the latest firmware update. All current blu-ray discs seem to be fully compatible (other than for true DD-TrueHD or DTS-HDMA output of course).

Whew! Glad to hear it. For $549 shipped from Amazon, the BDP9000 should do the job until this format war is resolved. The PS3 isn't an option in my household, as my wife's only request is that I don't have two game systems. My XBOX 360 with HD DVD ain't going anywhere. I'm now format neutral