All-Region DVD and Blu-ray Player Advice

[cdnchris]

Is the remote any better for this new player? My one complaint with the Seiki I bought is that you have to angle the remote a certain way to get it to work... somewhat.

[fdm]

I bought a Seiki yesterday and am very happy with it. My only problem is that there doesn't seem to be any way to get around the player stretching 1:33:1 dvds (like Criterion's Casque d'or) to fill the entire screen. When I push the set up button and look into the TV setting it's displayed as 16:9 "full screen" and "automatic" and also grayed out so that there appears to be no one to alter the setting. Anyone else encounter this?

Just a guess, as I don't have your player, but when my player misbehaves in a similar manner, sometimes it's because there is a disc in the player. Try without (or with, as the case may be) a disc. I suggest automatic is the setting you want.

[Jack Phillips]

I bought a Seiki yesterday and am very happy with it. My only problem is that there doesn't seem to be any way to get around the player stretching 1:33:1 dvds (like Criterion's Casque d'or) to fill the entire screen. When I push the set up button and look into the TV setting it's displayed as 16:9 "full screen" and "automatic" and also grayed out so that there appears to be no one to alter the setting. Anyone else encounter this?

Just a guess, as I don't have your player, but when my player misbehaves in a similar manner, sometimes it's because there is a disc in the player. Try without (or with, as the case may be) a disc. I suggest automatic is the setting you want.

I had a problem like this on a different player. I had to take the setting off 16:9 and put it on something else (sorry, my memory doesn't get any more detailed than that). It seems counterintuitive, but after the setting change 16:9 images still played in 16:9, and 1:33:1 played without being stretched. That's all I can remember.

[Telstar]

I bought a Seiki yesterday and am very happy with it. My only problem is that there doesn't seem to be any way to get around the player stretching 1:33:1 dvds (like Criterion's Casque d'or) to fill the entire screen. When I push the set up button and look into the TV setting it's displayed as 16:9 "full screen" and "automatic" and also grayed out so that there appears to be no one to alter the setting. Anyone else encounter this?

Just a guess, as I don't have your player, but when my player misbehaves in a similar manner, sometimes it's because there is a disc in the player. Try without (or with, as the case may be) a disc. I suggest automatic is the setting you want.

I had a problem like this on a different player. I had to take the setting off 16:9 and put it on something else (sorry, my memory doesn't get any more detailed than that). It seems counterintuitive, but after the setting change 16:9 images still played in 16:9, and 1:33:1 played without being stretched. That's all I can remember.

Yeah, I had to do something like that with a player once too. The problem here, though, is that the Seiki doesn't seem to allow you to alter its setting from 16:9. Unless I can figure this out I may have to hook up another player to my system since I probably have hundreds of dvds in my collection that are going to be stretched in such a way it's going to be tough to watch them on the Seiki.

[jindianajonz]

Have you tried fiddling with the settings on the TV itself to see if you can get it to play nice with the Seiki?

[Michael Kerpan]

Have you tried fiddling with the settings on the TV itself to see if you can get it to play nice with the Seiki?

I wound up changing the setting on the TV end. That worked...

[WilliamGreen]

I ended up buying this one back when it was introductory priced. It was crash-prone at first but MacGo seems to have done a good job stamping out the bugs to where it's pretty stable in the latest version. Not sure I'd buy it at the current $39.95 though. I haven't met any region code issues until now for both Blu-ray and DVD, so I think it might fit your bill.

[Michael Kerpan]

I ended up buying this one back when it was introductory priced. It was crash-prone at first but MacGo seems to have done a good job stamping out the bugs to where it's pretty stable in the latest version. Not sure I'd buy it at the current $39.95 though. I haven't met any region code issues until now for both Blu-ray and DVD, so I think it might fit your bill.

Is this some bit of software you are talking about?

[Telstar]

I'd been curious about why there were volume controls on the Seiki's remote, until I bought a sound bar the other day and discovered that I was unable to get any sound out of it when playing a bd/dvd, regardless of how high the sound bar's volume was set, unless the Seiki player's sound was also turned up. According to the guy at Seiki customer support, this is "normal."

[Zot!]

I'd been curious about why there were volume controls on the Seiki's remote, until I bought a sound bar the other day and discovered that I was unable to get any sound out of it when playing a bd/dvd, regardless of how high the sound bar's volume was set, unless the Seiki player's sound was also turned up. According to the guy at Seiki customer support, this is "normal."

I assume you are using the analog output? That would seem normal to me, Oppo similarly has such a control. I assume it is to try to match output signals from other devices.

[Telstar]

I'd been curious about why there were volume controls on the Seiki's remote, until I bought a sound bar the other day and discovered that I was unable to get any sound out of it when playing a bd/dvd, regardless of how high the sound bar's volume was set, unless the Seiki player's sound was also turned up. According to the guy at Seiki customer support, this is "normal."

I assume you are using the analog output? That would seem normal to me, Oppo similarly has such a control. I assume it is to try to match output signals from other devices.

The player is hooked up to my tv by HDMI cable

[Adam X]

Well, it might be "normal" for Seiki, but that's pretty much where it ends.

[jindianajonz]

Well, like Zot says, Oppo have a similar volume control, as do Playstations. I think the purpose is to allow you to set all your players' outputs to a similar volume, so that when you jump from a movie to a playstation, you don't get suddenly hit with a blast of 20db higher sound.

[Adam X]

Yes, though (at least with Oppo,) they're not factory set to output zero volume from the player until you turn it up. Volume settings on such units are a little like 'gain' on an audio desk (though with a negative value as well), and really shouldn't be preset to restrict audio ouput entirely.

EDIT: though on re-reading Telstar's post, it sounds as if everything was working fine when running audio directly to the TV via HDMI, which suggests the player's volume level is there perhaps solely for the analogue outputs, which is just kind of perplexing really.

[Oedipax]

Just wanted to put in another positive word for the Seiki SR4KP1. My old Momitsu-clone Curtis Mathes player was showing definite signs of imminent death so I went ahead and bought the Seiki as a replacement. Just a couple months ago I bought a 4K Sony TV as well, which has an internal 4K upscaler algorithm for HD content. But I have to say, the 4K upscale this player is doing (using I suppose technology licensed from Technicolor) does a great job, much better than what the TV does on its own. In fact the TV no longer does any scaling, since you can configure the Seiki to upscale/output 4K natively. Now I think it's going to become my primary player over my PS3 - the difference is that good. I also tried playing back some 1080i50 titles and the difference in conversion is huge there - no more intermittent pixelation and glitchiness on fine detail, as was the case with the Momitsu. For the price, I think the Seiki is a steal.

The only thing that gives me pause about it, really, is the fact that it has its own internal color/contrast/brightness settings. I've left them on the defaults and everything looks good to me, after comparing the same title with my other player. I had no intention of tweaking, other than wanting to make sure the default settings weren't giving an altered signal before it hit my TV's calibration settings.

[Red Screamer]

That Seiki SR4KP1 is currently $50 on Sears' website

[StevenJ0001]

That Seiki SR4KP1 is currently $50 on Sears' website

Wow, thanks!!

What's the deal with this player stretching 4:3 content to 16:9? Michael Kerpan said he fixed this by changing the TV settings, but I don't like the idea of having to change the TV settings each time I use this player (since I'll only be using it when I need region free).

[scubadonc]

What's the deal with this player stretching 4:3 content to 16:9?

I've never had this problem. Could just be an issue between that particular TV and the player. Mine never stretched an image on my RCA or Hisense. Regardless of potential, easily fixed, stretching issues, it's a great player at an amazing price.

[StevenJ0001]

What's the deal with this player stretching 4:3 content to 16:9?

I've never had this problem. Could just be an issue between that particular TV and the player. Mine never stretched an image on my RCA or Hisense. Regardless of potential, easily fixed, stretching issues, it's a great player at an amazing price.

Yep, at $50 I don't have much to lose. Thanks!

[pzadvance]

Hey guys, new to this whole concept but I think my current Samsung is crapping out on me and I'd like my next player to be region-free. I'm looking at the new Sony BDP-S6500, which "RegionFreeDVD.net" says is region free. Now, if I just went to Best Buy tomorrow and picked up this model, would I be good to go and able to switch region codes out of the box? Or do certain players need to be "fixed" in order to unlock this capability? And anybody have any experience/heard anything about this model?

Thanks!

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I have a Sony BDP S1100 which I should imagine shares the same principle. With the machine switched off you press either the yellow button for Region 1 blue for Region 2 and so on which then activates the machine automatically ready for the disc.

[jindianajonz]

Pza- in my (admittedly limited) experience, Sony players need to be modified in order to unlock region free capabilities. Although the site you linked to is very vague on the subject, the line "the player we tested is one of our own, and is a Region Free model" leads me to believe they had performed modifications on this model. Their FAQ is likewise kind of ambiguous on the subject, but they do mention "Our best advice is to find a model with the features and options you need, then compare the price from a major electronics store to the price of the region-free model" which implies the big box stores will only carry a region locked version.

From what I've heard, Seiki from Sears is one of the very few companies that allows region switching out of the box. Because it's Best Buy, you can always try it and return it if it doesn't work out, but I'd be very surprised to see them selling an unmodified region free player.

[David M.]

BDA Licensing prohibits players from being "unlocked" with key presses. So generally you need to buy players that have either been mod-chipped, or had custom hacked firmware installed.

The only exception name-brand player I know of are some Toshiba ones. How they got away with that without upsetting the BDA, I don't know.

[Lemon Curry]

Longtime lurker here posting for the first time to confirm that my aging Panasonic machine (DMP-BD65) will play region B discs by simply pressing "stop" at the lock screen followed immediately by "top menu." That's seriously all it takes.

Whether this loophole is built into the player itself or the way the discs are authored I cannot say. I've only ever tried it with MOC / BFI blu-rays since those are the only region B ones I own. It doesn't work with DVDs, since this player won't accept PAL content of any kind (even if it's region free).

[jorencain]

Wow - thanks for the heads up! I just tried the same thing on my Panasonic DMP-BD35, and it worked for me too. I just tried one disc (MOC "Profound Desires of the Gods").