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MoonOverMiami
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Post  Posted: Aug 18, 2008 - 07:16 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top
Post subject: Blu-Ray DVD Players

Anyone know where I can buy one...whether its in Shanghai or HK?

Thx!

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FooJay
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Post  Posted: Aug 18, 2008 - 08:08 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

PS3 <3000RMB

Best Blue Ray player out there, and pretty much only one with BD1.2 support.

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MoonOverMiami
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Post  Posted: Aug 18, 2008 - 08:27 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

I've read that a lot on other forums....is it really that good? Heard there may be an issue with the audio quality. Also that one would need to buy a separate controller if I don't want to use their game controller.

Any compatibility issues with discs (Blu-Ray, DVDs, and games) bought from the US?

Thanks again!

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FooJay
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Post  Posted: Aug 19, 2008 - 01:26 AM  Reply with quote  Back to top

You buy the remote control, then it acts the same as a BlueRay player.

I'll be honest, I don't actually have any blue ray disks, I just buy the Mini-BD's for 10rmb
(D9 with Mpeg4 encoded from real BlueRay)

It should work though, the ones here are either Japanese or US. (Hint, buy a US one).

Region 1: North America, South America, East Asia except for China (India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia etc.)

Region 2: Europe and Africa

Region 3: China, Russia and other countries

Note that the PS3 definitely does region checks for DVD, so its useless for that purpose.

It has optical out, so just stuff that into the amp, and have the amp decode.
I haven't had any issues with audio decoding myself (using Yamaha amp)

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Post  Posted: Aug 19, 2008 - 07:11 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

So far there is no Region Free BluRay Player out.

And Yes! the PS3 is the cheapest and "best" BluRay player out there.

The only thing the PS3 can't do is bitstream (PCM works fine) the HD Audio Codecs Dolbly TrueHD and DTS MasterHD. (which can be fixed with a software update)

But this is not a problem, because a) not all movies are encoded like this, b) you would need an A/V Receiver to decode it and actually some proper speakers that can reproduce it to full affect(including the ears to actually hear the difference) and c) you would need a 7.1 Surround system to really hear all uncompressed channels. for 5.1 PCM is enough.

At the moment there is not a single dedicated bluray player that is cheaper or as cheap/expensive than the PS3, plus you get a console and media center included for free.

The only thing you need additionally is the Remote Control for the technologically challenged( mind i didn't say woman) users. They cost around 250 RMB.

It's you call but buying anything else than the PS3 for a "feature" that no one will really use or hear would be stupid.

If you still insist on a dedicated players look for the Pioneer Elite BD players.
Or a player from the same brand as your TV. If you hook them up over HDMI , you can actually use the same remote control for both. It is supposly cross brand compatible but still sometimes the feature doesn't work.

Cheers
Dazzz


Last edited by Dazzz on Aug 19, 2008 - 07:13 PM; edited 1 time in total
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Post  Posted: Aug 19, 2008 - 07:12 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

Oh another thing: HongKong is also Region 1. So english movies from there will work also ( plus ordering them online Razz)
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Post  Posted: Aug 20, 2008 - 07:04 AM  Reply with quote  Back to top

Must agree with the others, PS3 is best BR player for the money. Mine is from Hong Kong.
I buy BR discs from Amazon USA and have these shipped to China, these play with no problems on my PS3.
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Post  Posted: Aug 21, 2008 - 07:37 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

Same here. Bought mine in HK, and have had it for little more then 1 year now. Works great!

Beats my Toshiba HD-player any day of the week (I'm not the least surprised that BR won the war in the end... Wink )

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MoonOverMiami
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Post  Posted: Sep 07, 2008 - 05:11 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

Great, thanks to all. I'm going to pick up a PS3. Should I buy it here or in HK? Just worried if I buy a PS3 here then it won't play my dvds from the US.

Also, what's the current price for PS3 over here? And where can I buy it (prefer to stay away from the electronics mall on HuaiHaiLu and XJH tbh)?

Lastly, is the 80GB available here or in HK?

Thanks again!

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Post  Posted: Sep 07, 2008 - 05:23 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

MoonOverMiami wrote:
And where can I buy it (prefer to stay away from the electronics mall on HuaiHaiLu and XJH tbh)?

We've been using taobao a lot. The advantage is that if you use zhifubao you can take the thing out of the box, check the manual (frauds usually can be detected by crappy manuals), try the thing out for a while to make sure it actually works, that kind of thing.

After you are happy, then you pay.

Good system 'cuz you know that here, once you have handed over the money you can kiss off any hope of service or return. (Almost always. Once in a while you get a pleasant surprise but you better not depend on that.)

There's hong kong sellers on taobao also, if you need that.
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MoonOverMiami
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Post  Posted: Sep 07, 2008 - 05:34 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

That's why I'd prefer to buy the system at a retail store like Best Buy, Gome, etc. They're usually authentic and at least they would exchange it should something go wrong right away.

I may end up going to the Sony Style store in HK to pick one up, though it seems like they only have the 40GB version. May also pick up a camcorder there too...the list price in the HK Sony Style store is lower than Suning over here by roughly 1,000 (eg HKD5,000 compared to RMB6,000)...and I can take advantage of the RMB-HKD exchange rate so it'll be considerably cheaper (roughly 10-12%) in HK.

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jeffoOffline
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Post  Posted: Sep 09, 2008 - 04:06 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

I saw BR discs in a DVD shop recently (about 60rmb), are they real copies or just another rip-off ?
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FooJay
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Post  Posted: Sep 09, 2008 - 05:24 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

Depends.

Personally, I buy the Mini-BD's myself, which are around 10RMB (D9 with HD encoded in MP4)
This does mean that some movies are 2 or 3 disks though. But I'm cheap Wink

And thats good enough for what I want to watch.
Not much in the way of HD movies out here anyway.


PS3 isn't officially sold here, so you won't find it at larger retailers, as they generally don't do grey imports.
The PS3 is pretty good quality product though, and I haven't seen many failed units (if any).
Whereas the XBox, *everyone* I know has had theirs fixed. I gave my Xbox 360 away - its too loud for me. PS3 for HD stuff, and Wii for games.

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jeffoOffline
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Post  Posted: Sep 09, 2008 - 05:28 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

Ok thanks, I'll stick to 720p releases Wink
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Post  Posted: Oct 13, 2008 - 09:18 PM  Reply with quote  Back to top

Hey, does anyone know if it's possible to get Blu Ray disk players for a computer in Shanghai?
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FooJay
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Post  Posted: Oct 14, 2008 - 12:06 AM  Reply with quote  Back to top

Sure, but its a little expensive, and you also need a decent fast cpu to decode.

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Post  Posted: Oct 19, 2008 - 09:27 AM  Reply with quote  Back to top

I have a AMD sempron cpu. Could that decode ?
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