dvd

[rich.]

hi chaps, our dvd machine is playing up, is it worth getting a blue ray thingy or stick with the ordinary type.. all ideas are welcome..

[TerryG]

A cheap DVD player is £11.99, a cheap blu ray is £44.99. Personally I wouldn't buy a DVD player but it largely depends if you have the spare cash for the difference and if your TV is HD and has a spare HDMI socket.

[rich.]

thanks mate, at the moment we have steam powered crt tv.. everything is on its last legs & i was thinking of trying to future proof things.. will the blue ray play ordinary dvds? kids have a lot of disney films

[tractorman]

AFIK, Blu-ray players will play DVDs without problems.

I'm in the painful process of trying to get a new LG "Home cinema" system working from my two year old LG 42" TV. The Home Cinema was £130 for a 5.1 system with Blu-Ray /DVD player (about the same as a soundbar!) It was only when I tried the system that I discovered that the TV only has inputs - not one output!! Beware of such things when you come to upgrade (I wondered why the TV was so much cheaper than other makes and now I know!).

However, the sound system works well when playing DVDs (I've got some free ones from various places!) and is supposed to work CDs too (so I can play my CDs through it). I suspect "ordinary" Blu-Ray players can also do that!

I bought a "new" Sharp Freeview recorder on eBay to get round the lack of outputs on the TV and it came with a replacement remote control. The remote control flashes nicely, but has no effect on the recorder - I can't get to the set-up menu, so it might be going back to the seller (who seems a decent type).

So, now you know one or two of the main pitfalls of modern TVs - the sound isn't always that great (though the 42" one is a LOT better than the smaller one I have upstairs - another LG) and check for outputs and inputs before you buy - the smaller TV has all sorts of "extra" outputs including Optical ones that are supposed to be much superior.

[JPB]

You can still take advantage of the superior resolution of Blu Ray without HDMI as even my much loved (CRT, 720p) Sony Trinitron works just fine with a Blu Ray device on Scart 3. The sis in law brought hers round to try it out once but as I have 2TB of motion pictures on a standalone HDD that connects to my PVR and a ready source of material, I skipped directly from Betamax (yes, I have all three of the other cassette-based video formats too ) to downloading from various sites that are not only legal, but a great way to learn both lip reading and a foreign language as I view.

For 4K and 1080p stuff, I watch on the laptop with my

B&O

Century playing the sound but a good large CRT takes a lot of beating and although LCD undoubtedly provides clearer text at 50Hz and standard definition, your existing CRT tellybox might yet surprise you with what it can do; green foliage and black backgrounds for two examples.
Scotmid had a BluRay player on special offer in its electrical goods outlets recently for a mere £31.99 and had I needed such a device then I'd have gone for that because digital devices don't have the potential for variations caused by the random mechanical differences that separate record decks, cassette tape transport mechanisms and speakers so buy the cheapest you can find and accept that they're all as likely as each other to die the day after their warranty runs out. Invest in a good soldering station that can cater for surface mount and double sided boards and the worst you'll see in any brand of modern device will be the likes of this:


That detonated cap is just as easily replaced by a conventional one attached to the remains of the original's leadouts. Roughly 80p to spend on that machine after 372 days. Must have been one of the better made ones!

[TerryG]

Blu Ray players do play DVDs but you would need to find one with a SCART output or buy an adapter. The cost difference is more than the price of a cheapo DVD player so I would buy one of them and when you upgrade your TV put the DVD player and old TV in the kids bedroom.