I don't really need Blu-Ray playability, but region free DVD and being able to play avi, mkv and all other stuff would be very nice. Any tips?

BD+ protection has not been truly hacked yet. Your best option is AnyDVD and sometimes you have to wait a couple of weeks before they can give you an update with a workaround for the latest blockbuster.

I've always heard good things about the OPPO players, but it's so damn expensive! Why don't you consider an HTPC?

Are you happy with your current DVD Player? Then keep it and buy a WDTV for all the things your DVD Player can't do. It's a tiny little device.

As I understand from your last post:


You don't have a High Def. TV-set, so I wouldn't recommend you an expensive player. IMHO the WDTV (or maybe a Popcorn A-200) is what you are looking for.

Are there systems that can be controlled by a simple remote controller? Putting a keyboard and a mouse near the TV is no option for me.

Well, no. My DVD player is not region free or unlockable in any way (with freeware or anything - I checked).

So I want to buy a new player which can play all region's DVDs AND avi/mkv/etc. Would be nice to have only to put one plug in the wall.

The whole point of an HTPC is that you can customize everything! A random XBMC-Wiki search: http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Remote_Control_Reviews




then maybe some of the LGs Players?

I can't find if they play all regions of DVDs. I searched on LGs website, but maybe there's a better review site out there? Which one are you using?

About upscaling DVDs by using HDMI (a feature present on almost all players I found): I guess I need a HD tv for that, right? Mine is only HD ready.

I don't think that DVD players are region free by default. The manufacturer must implement the region coding to be allowed to use the DVD logo imho. You need a firmware hack to get the player region free. Most LG players can be hacked: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks?dvdpl ... rch=Search

I haven't seen a DVD player that supports mkv. The new players are BluRay and not even all of those support mkv.

i got a WD HDTV Live and love it plays everything ive tossed up into it!

Looks nice, but it can't play DVD discs. Why isn't there a device which can do both? Play media AND play discs?

Because playing discs is rapidly going out of fashion (and one of the reasons i'm not a fan of blu-ray/hd-dvd. No innovation there.) and for a lot of people is no longer applicable.

Throw in XBMC can play isos

I've got a Aspire Revo, love it!

There is. Just read my posts above.

What's the big difference between this one

and this one?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-BDP3000 ... B0026WNDV8

The prices are so far apart, there must be something, but I can't seem to find it.

The LG can read mkv files and H.264 video; the Philips player can't. Thence the Philips player is shit.

Edit: The LG player can only read FAT filesystem via USB. LG BD 390 has W-LAN and NTFS support, but is more expensive.

Amazon is not a good place for comparing specs. You asked about a place to read reviews? Dunno any, I visit a High Def. tracker with a busy forum and I read there about the players people are using.

http://www.avsforum.com/ has also lots of info. The community is very active and many custom firmwares for the newer MKV players come from that forum. Try that one.

I know the LG players supports MKV/x264. I think the Philip doesn't, but I'm sure there are other things that explain those prices. I don't know anyone with a LG player, so I can't say how good it is, I just read that it supports discs and MKVs. edit: chupacabra already answered this

What spud says is true. Geeks, the potential buyers of these media tanks, don't care about playing discs, so most of these players don't support discs (DVDs/Blurays) out of the box. That's why I recommended you keeping your old DVD player and buying something like a WDTV for the rest.

My DVD player is OK, but cannopt be hacked region free. Therefore I need a player who can play my R1 discs.

Maybe it is even cheaper to buy a DVD player (make it region free) and then buy a WDTV to play all else. I'd lose the advantage of one device with one plug, though.

edit: I checked this last option:

1) LG BD 390: 260 Euros.
2) New DVD player 35 + WDTV 105 = 140 Euros.

I would like to play h.264/mkv files from disc. I'll wait for the LG to get cheaper or new players to appear.

Edit: I used to look at videohelp.com for feature comparison. They have a nice search feature there.

LG BD 390: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers?DVD ... me&hits=50
Philips BDP 3000: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers?DVD ... me&hits=50

Region free hacks are also posted on that site. Unfortunately you can't always trust the specs.

The LG is more aimed at the future. The thing is that I think 260 Euros is a bit much. But... I found a webshop which sells them for 220 including delivery, which is more reasonable already.

I'm gonna check this player out in a store, to see what it can do myself. If I like it, I'm gonna buy it.

It would be nice to try some h.264 rips. Could you please report back after you tested it?

Discs have no future, so I wouldn't say LG is more aimed at the future

Anyway, check some forums (maybe avsforum?) and read what people are saying about the player! I know it doesn't support FLAC (read here), which is widely used for remuxes (read here) and remuxes have are becoming popular. I also read some complaints of LG owners about encodes done with wpredp=2. wpredp=2 is a new x264 default setting, so 99.9% of all the newer encodes come with it (read more here).

The WDTV supports FLAC and it doesn't have problems with wpredp=2.