#2: Philips BDP3000/05 Blu-ray Disc Player
Experience the world of Blu-ray
Enjoy the thrill of full high definition videos with five times more details than you have ever seen before. Get the most out of your existing DVDs with HDMI 1080p upscaling. Go beyond the movies and explore bonus features online with BD-Live
Blu-ray Disc playback
Blu-ray Discs have the capacity to carry high definition data, along with pictures in the 1920 x 1080 resolution that defines full high definition images. Scenes come to life as details leap at you, movements smoothen and images turn crystal clear. Blu-ray also delivers uncompressed surround sound — so your audio experience becomes unbelievably real. The high storage capacity of Blu-ray Discs also allows a host of interactive possibilities to be built in. Seamless navigation during playback and other exciting features such as pop-up menus bring a whole new dimension to home entertainment.
EXCELLENT BLURAY PLAYER
Ordering and speed of delivery were A1 – as has been everything else purchsed from Amazon.
Anyone wanting an excellent Bluray player should look no further than this Philips model. The picture quality and sound are up there with the best and, a great added advantage, is this player`s ability to play just about any type of disc thrown at it, including VCD SVCD! Additionally it is very easy to hack enabling it to play any regions DVD – note it is not possible to hack the Bluray side at present, so only Region 2 Bluray discs are playable.
Anyone interested in hacking the DVD side proceed as follows………..
1. Make sure there is no disc in the tray when you switch on.
2. Press “home” key on remote control.
3. Enter number “1389310″.
4. Switch off. Wait a few seconds and then switch on…now region free.
Congratulations to Philips on producing such a great player at this price.
A good budget Blu ray player
At Amazon’s price [] the Philips BDP3000 Blu ray disc player is one of the cheapest of the current range of players on the market today. It is a good entry level player with some useful features found on more expensive models.
I have used a Sony BDPS350 player for around a year and it just has the edge on the Philips for picture quality when used with my Samsung full HD 1080p TV – but the Philips has a higher audio output. The Philips has three ways to connect to your TV depending on whether you are using an HD or SD model. HDMI is available to connect to an HD set – but no HDMI interconnect cable is provided; component video is also available and composite video is provided to connect to a standard TV. There is a three phono to three phono lead provided for this.
The player is very light and can move when the buttons are pressed, but it seems to be fairly well made however. There are minimal controls on the player itself, which looks quite stylish, with most functions on the remote. Unfortunately the TV function buttons on the remote only work with Philips TVs and cannot be programmed for other brands. The player features BD Live Profile 2 which is accessed via the Internet – unfortunately this player is not wireless enabled and has to be cabled to you router to achieve this, no Ethernet cable is provided.
The BDP3000 gives very good results for a player at this price, whether used with a standard or HD TV. The upscaling function when playing standard DVDs to an HD TV is quite impressive – not as good as the Sony however. It does load discs much quicker than the Sony though. It also sounds good when playing CDs through a HiFi – as it should from the inventor of the CD!
The BDP3000 is very easy to set up and from box to playing the first disc took less than five minutes. The menu system is straightforward and I have left the defaults active for now. To update the firmware the player needs to be connected to your router but, as all is working well, I have not attempted this as yet. If budget is an issue, or if you have a Philips TV, then the Philips BDP3000 could be a good choice as your first Blu ray disc player.
Good player at a very good price
This is quite a chunky piece of equipment. I see many reviewers find the appearance attractive, but compared with the current slimline Panasonic and Sony blu-ray players, I wasn’t too impressed initially, the Philips being much higher and its curved corners looking a bit dated to my eyes. The remote again looks a bit, well, dated, to me. However it works fine, although I think the main play/stop/pause buttons should have been bigger.
But it’s the quality of the pictures and sound that really matter, and this player surprised me. Blu-ray discs load more quickly, than, say, on some Panasonics. The picture quality is fine, and I have had no problem with any discs (although I only have six blu-ray discs so far). In my view blu-ray is still in its relative infancy anyway; not all discs are transferred as well as they should be. And to really appreciate the finer detail you need a large TV screen. My Sony is 32″, so all my comments are based on that. The one blu-ray disc that I think really demonstrates the quality possible is 2001: A Space Odyssey 2001 – A Space Odyssey [Blu-ray] [1968], which looked wonderful played on the Philips BDP3000.
But, let’s face it, most of us have quite a collection of DVDs which we’re not going to throw away, nor replace very quickly, and it is crucial that any player gives good quality when playing these. Again the Philips comes out very well indeed. It has upscaling (inserting extra lines to give a sharper, more detailed picture) in common with many players now, and it made a very good job of upscaling my best DVDs. In fact not that inferior to some blu-ray discs, which is another reason I won’t be rushing down that path yet. I found this a fine DVD player, as good as anything I’ve previously owned, and the best upscaled DVD discs (Lawrence of Arabia Lawrence of Arabia – Two Disc Set [DVD] [1962]- an incredible bargain- was truly impressive) really excellent.
You can zoom in up to 4X playing DVDs (Blu-ray discs don’t allow you to zoom in at all on any player), although you do have to go through a menu to get there. But it works well; useful if there is some detail you want to examine. There is a large on-screen display to show you the status (e.g. paused, zoomed, what chapter number/ number remaining) which is far superior to the little fiddly displays on many players. I can’t comment much on the sound as it’s just playing back through my TV, not through a sound system, but I found nothing to complain about. Again, I’m not interested in the internet possibilities so cannot comment on that either.
The player comes with remote, batteries, phono leads (no HDMI lead which you must have to get the best quality), mains lead and a surprisingly understandable manual. My last experience of a Philips manual was for a DVD recorder, and it was incredibly long, and quite incomprehensible.
I really like this Blu-ray/DVD player (despite first appearances), and have been using it a great deal. This is a genuine bargain item and I thoroughly recommend it.
