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Feb. 15th, 2022 04:01 amWeird tech thing I discovered: If I'm watching old DVDs on my newer BD player connected to my 4K TV via HDMI, and the DVDs don't have progressive scan, the picture looks blocky, like it's been compressed badly. Newer DVDs with progressive scan look fine. But, if I play the same old DVDs on an older player connected via component video, they look fine. Something about keeping the signal analog all the way to the TV and letting that do all of the upscaling seems to be the trick.
Perhaps I could replace my BD player from 2010 with something much newer, something that's inherently 4K-capable. New BD players cost between $70 and $1000. That's quite a range. I'd have to see if the more expensive players have features I would actually need. I'd be okay with spending between 200-300 if the features justify it.
I'm picky about my electronic devices. I've learned to be, because impulse-buying such things often didn't end well. If I do some research ahead of time, about what something has or doesn't have, I usually end up happier with it, even if I spend substantially more money on it. It goes the other way too: If something is more expensive due to features I don't need or want, then I can save a few bucks and not feel like I'm missing out.
So sure, a $70 player would work for the core purpose of taking anime from a disc and putting it on a TV. Do I want the player to be wi-fi capable? Handle discs with native 4K video? Any other bells and whistles that would get put to use? The price gets pushed up.
The selection range of players these days has... Shrunk. A lot. It seems like only a few years ago, there were 20 different brands, and they each had 20 different models. Now? I'm seeing about 12 total, and they're all from only 3 brands (LG, Sony, Panasonic). Walmart or Amazon may have a few more but that's hit-or-mostly-miss. I'm kinda bummed that Pioneer got out of BD players. They made good hardware. At least Sony is still doing that.
In my 2018 trip to Japan I was close to getting a Pioneer player. I was in the store, the display model was right in front of me, and all I had to do was flag down a sales associate. Instead I backed off. Two things stopped me from getting it: I didn't have enough Region-2 DVDs to justify a dedicated player, and it ran on Japanese 100VAC/50Hz (and thus could burn out on US 120V). Maybe that's just the marking, and the power supply was designed to be more universal (80V to 240V is common) but I didn't feel like taking that chance. It's that "kinda regret not getting it, not feeling bad I didn't" sort of thing.
Perhaps I could replace my BD player from 2010 with something much newer, something that's inherently 4K-capable. New BD players cost between $70 and $1000. That's quite a range. I'd have to see if the more expensive players have features I would actually need. I'd be okay with spending between 200-300 if the features justify it.
I'm picky about my electronic devices. I've learned to be, because impulse-buying such things often didn't end well. If I do some research ahead of time, about what something has or doesn't have, I usually end up happier with it, even if I spend substantially more money on it. It goes the other way too: If something is more expensive due to features I don't need or want, then I can save a few bucks and not feel like I'm missing out.
So sure, a $70 player would work for the core purpose of taking anime from a disc and putting it on a TV. Do I want the player to be wi-fi capable? Handle discs with native 4K video? Any other bells and whistles that would get put to use? The price gets pushed up.
The selection range of players these days has... Shrunk. A lot. It seems like only a few years ago, there were 20 different brands, and they each had 20 different models. Now? I'm seeing about 12 total, and they're all from only 3 brands (LG, Sony, Panasonic). Walmart or Amazon may have a few more but that's hit-or-mostly-miss. I'm kinda bummed that Pioneer got out of BD players. They made good hardware. At least Sony is still doing that.
In my 2018 trip to Japan I was close to getting a Pioneer player. I was in the store, the display model was right in front of me, and all I had to do was flag down a sales associate. Instead I backed off. Two things stopped me from getting it: I didn't have enough Region-2 DVDs to justify a dedicated player, and it ran on Japanese 100VAC/50Hz (and thus could burn out on US 120V). Maybe that's just the marking, and the power supply was designed to be more universal (80V to 240V is common) but I didn't feel like taking that chance. It's that "kinda regret not getting it, not feeling bad I didn't" sort of thing.
