What is the point....???

chris

Prominent Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2000
Messages
1,235
Reaction score
29
Points
270
Location
romney marsh, kent, uk
Not sure if this should go ere or in the blu ray section.

But.....
I have been off here for a couple of years and since i came back i see loads of post's in the blu ray player section about " can a player do this" "can a player do that".

Everyone wants there players to have iplayer, youtube, google, play xvid, divx, mp3, mkv etc etc.
Why would you need a player to do this, if your computer already does.....???

I've tried youtube on my TV and iplayer on my PS3 and i find it hard work with out a keyboard and the quality is not as good.

What's wrong with a Blu Ray player just playing a Blu Ray and the computer does everything else.
If you must have all the other formats, why not just get a Blu Ray Drive for the PC or evern make an HTPC.

I know i'm getting on a bit now, so i'm prob an old fuddy duddy, but i can not see why anyone would want their Blu Ray player to be a PC.

Maybe someone can explain it to me........:confused:
 
Hi Chris - welcome back.

The formats (divx, mkv, mp3 etc) are only 'wrappers' containing digital information burnt onto a CD/DVD/BD disc. All the player does is 'unwrap' and stream out the digital information within.

It certainly makes for functionality or versatility. You want a particular function from your player and someone else wants another function from their player.

Same versatility with a mobile telephone - can do everything except cook lunch.

By the way, the blu-ray player is a computer in disguise. Both share the same components.

:thumbsup:
 
I have a computer in my office and a Blu-ray player in my living room with the latter connected to a large screen TV and I bought that specific model a few months ago specifically as it could access the internet and in particular YouTube as I'm often quite happy watching some music videos of bands from "the old days" rather than a TV program
 
Actually I'm with you Chris. I have a small 42" plasma, a 106" projector screen and a 37" LCD for gaming in my house . To all 3 I have a Dune Network media Player (Bluray player), HTPC (15 Terabytes of Bluray ISO's) and a PS3

The problem I have is quality. On a decent screen I have trouble watching DVD's let alone poor quality divxs/youtube/streamed media/anything off the Internet.

I really don't understand how anyone can bear to watch somerthing badly copied with blocking, poor definition\low rate encoding etc For me to watch something these days it has to be the original Bluray quality source or I get really irritated

Ive had friends who have shown me copies of the latest films they have "acquired" and copied to USB stick etc and I cannot see how they can bear to watch them - they look awful to me
 
I'm the same, people go on about streaming films from Lovefilm but the quality is less than DVD standard - I can't bear to watch anything other than Blu-Ray quality. My PC is for everything else as the video window is small and quality doesn't really come into it.
 
I know i'm getting on a bit now, so i'm prob an old fuddy duddy, but i can not see why anyone would want their Blu Ray player to be a PC.

Maybe someone can explain it to me........:confused:

This is because as PC is a pain to setup as a Blu-ray HTPC. I set mine up and even after all finicking and whatnot it still was not as good as a dedicated blu-ray player.

You could buy a Popcorn hour and a Blu-Ray player, but why not just buy a blu-ray player that does both.

And I agree anyone playing DIVX on a Blu-ray player is a bit daft, I would just like MKV and AVCHD playback nothing more.
 
I'm the same, people go on about streaming films from Lovefilm but the quality is less than DVD standard - I can't bear to watch anything other than Blu-Ray quality. My PC is for everything else as the video window is small and quality doesn't really come into it.

Funnily enough I had a popup on my Lovefilm the other day telling me a couple of films I had listed were available streamed but as Blurays - need to check that out. Cant believe I have the bandwidth at only 10 meg though
 
Possibly because not everyone wants a PC, with it's complexity, cost, noise etc, in their living room when they could simply have an online connected BluRay device that gives them the content they want. You can build some beautifully simple and silent HTPC's these days, but that's still more complex and expensive than buying something like you're questioning.

I don't see the confusion about why people would want a simple and 'Wife Friendly' way of getting online content onto their living room PC's? If people were asking for a BluRay player that could create PowerPoint presentations and perform complicated 3D animations I'd be with you. But wanting access to iPlayer, YouTube etc in as simple as possible way isn't that difficult to comprehend, is it?
 
It must just be me getting old then.....
Obviously people want these and use these features or they would not be on there.
But if i want to watch a film.....i go in the living room and put a film on.
If i want to watch youtube, iplayer or search google then i come out here and do it on the PC.
I can be out here and on youtube and seen what i wanted, long before the time it takes me to type it in useing the remote for the TV.
I dont evern know what half these things are.....
What is a AVCHD or an MKV.......dont think i've ever seen a Xvid or Divx movie and what is a popcorn hour and why would you want popcorn for an hour.....

I guess powerpoint and 3D animation creation will be the next thing added to our TV's and Players.
I guess it's the same with games....
If i want to play a game i will put the Xbox, PS3 or the WII on....i've never played a game on the PC because there are to many buttons involed.
 
What is a AVCHD or an MKV.......dont think i've ever seen a Xvid or Divx movie and what is a popcorn hour and why would you want popcorn for an hour.....

I have been off here for a couple of years

You can't expect to keep up to date with technology if you take two year leaves of absence :D
 
I'm the same as you Chris and a few others. I'm fortunate enough to have 2 dedicated rooms (living room and office). The living room has a no frills tv, blu-ray, hd player and amp. My office has my pc, tv, amp and ps3 where I can watch youtube etc.

Like Rick and sniffer, I really can't watch anything that has a poor quality transfer, and with a ridiculously slow broadband connection, poor quality is the best I can achieve if streaming.
 
Personally I'd like some PC capabilities on my main TV without all the hassle of going through an OS and having a big noisy box to look at and listen to.

e.g. A friend of mine was showing me his 'Boxee' recently. I was *very* impressed. His missus' dad was sat in his front room and asked to see a YouTube video that he was in and within a few seconds it was up on the screen on his big telly (rather than all of us trooping up to his study to watch it on a PC). Other than the fact the Boxee case is big ugly monster, I'd be very tempted. I can see me buying something similar soon and if it had a Blu Ray player included, all the better. :)
 
Ive got a Dune - still cant stand watching poor quality internet video on it though, plus trying to use a remote to navigate an internet site is extremely tiresome. And dont even start on inputting letters
 
Other than the fact the Boxee case is big ugly monster, I'd be very tempted. I can see me buying something similar soon and if it had a Blu Ray player included, all the better. :)

Boxee is just free open-source media-management/player software though isn't it? We have an HTPC with Win 7 which we use for watching youtube etc could have a BD player in it but doesn't. Can watch any itunes stuff etc. I ran Boxee on it for a while but gave up in the end as I coudn't work out what value it added for me.
 
I use my BD player for downloaded videos on USB stick and for iPlayer - both very good and useful.

Cheers,

Nigel

i use mine to stream movies wirelessly from the pc, occassionally iplayer as well
 
I'm not a fan of iPlayer at the best of times, but having used it on the PS3 I felt the desire to walk into the ocean with some lead shoes. Never again have I used it on the PS3.

Blu-ray players are for Blu-rays, PCs are for the internet and other media. Dedicated media streamers are OK, but I use a HTPC because that way everything works properly.
 
Last edited:
But if i want to watch a film.....i go in the living room and put a film on.
If i want to watch youtube, iplayer or search google then i come out here and do it on the PC.

iPlayer is a TV catch up service, I want this on my TV :)

The PS3 has changed how we view TV, it means we can catch up on BBC/ITV/CH4 etc shows when we like, we can pause/record via PlayTV ... we can do all of these on one box under the TV which for may makes a lot of sense.

Add services like LoveFilm and surely you can understand why people want these from a BluRay player, if you are going to add a new device under a TV, why not have one that does "everything", for a reasonable price and easy to use?
 
I'm not a fan of iPlayer at the best of times, but having used it on the PS3 I felt the desire to walk into the ocean with some lead shoes. Never again have I used it on the PS3.

Blu-ray players are for Blu-rays, PCs are for the internet and other media. Dedicated media streamers are OK, but I use a HTPC because that way everything works properly.

Couldn't disagree more. I would be lost without BBC iPlayer on my Blu Ray player now. The girlfriend and I use it all the time and I don't think either of us would be happy to crowd round a pc/ laptop when we could watch it on the big screen.
 
I use iPlayer a lot on my blu-ray player, it's incredibly useful and much better being able to sit on the sofa and watch programmes from it on the telly rather than sitting upstairs at the computer. It also works a lot better than the PS3 version!

I've found the selection on the PS3 4od seems limited so the one programme I wanted to watch on it recently (Wild Thing I Love You) I seemingly could only watch on the computer - wouldn't do that often as it was a right pain sitting at a desk and watching on a small screen/computer speakers.
 
Do people who use iPlayer not have Sky+ or any other type of PVR? I've never used iPlayer because if there's something I want to watch but am not in front of the tv, I record it.
 
Do people who use iPlayer not have Sky+ or any other type of PVR? I've never used iPlayer because if there's something I want to watch but am not in front of the tv, I record it.

I can only assume this is the case. I only use iPlayer when the Sky box fails to record something. Why would I want to watch it in pixelly-vision when I have access to BBC HD and BBC One HD (along with about 25 other HD channels).

And people do realise that you can connect a computer to a TV, MS wanted everybody to have a Windows PC under their TV, it seems they must have failed :eek: I have an HTPC with a dual tuner freeview card (might upgrade to FreeSat) and it is more usable than the PS3 especially if you install Never Miss TV you get all the OD services and Sky Player if you have Sky via Media Center.
 
Last edited:
Couldn't disagree more. I would be lost without BBC iPlayer on my Blu Ray player now. The girlfriend and I use it all the time and I don't think either of us would be happy to crowd round a pc/ laptop when we could watch it on the big screen.

I wouldn't worry - pretty much everything makes him want to do himself in.

Sent from my sofa via my wireless keyboard to my HTPC.
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom