blu-ray players

[waltchan]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I realize that names don't mean much anymore; but, Panasonic seems to be one of the few brands that makes decent stuff and those $70 players seem to be a good deal, if they'll hold up.

Watch out for Panasonic. All non-3D Panasonic Blu-Ray players are outsourced and made by an unknown Chinese manufacturer (don't know who, but I'm guessing Hi-Sonic Corp.). Get LG instead. Even Sony still assembles all their Blu-Ray player right now. Toshiba Blu-Rays are made by Venturer in China that also produce RCA.

[soundman2]

Eric H!

My friend used a standard DVD recorder hooked up to the blu-ray player. That's it!

[Ronald1973]

Originally Posted by waltchan

Watch out for Panasonic. All non-3D Panasonic Blu-Ray players are outsourced and made by an unknown Chinese manufacturer (don't know who, but I'm guessing Hi-Sonic Corp.). Get LG instead. Even Sony still assembles all their Blu-Ray player right now. Toshiba Blu-Rays are made by Venturer in China that also produce RCA.

At my last job (which I worked at for 4 1/2 years), we stocked both LG and Panasonic blu-ray players. Let me state up front that I'm partial to LG. My 55" LED TV is made by LG. Out of the box the Panasonic players looked like absolute junk and nothing in comparison to the LG's. We consistently sent the Panasonic players to our service department and they even said the things were a thorn in the side. LG's did go to service here and there but considering it was rent-to-own store, there's no telling how much abuse they suffered either. You couldn't pay me enough to have a Panasonic.

[radio63]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I remember years ago, when NBC (when that company still had its radio network) aired, over the NBC radio network, its 60th anniversary celebration program in 1986. There was a warning at the end of the program: "This program may not be reproduced, duplicated, or recorded, in any manner whatsoever." Two or three short audio tones followed the warning; I believe these tones were used to trigger a crude (by 21st century standards) copy-protection scheme.

However, I doubt if it actually worked as intended, as I am sure many people (myself included) recorded that broadcast on audio tape for posterity. I lost my own audio copy of the show years ago in a move, but I'm still going to try to find it online so I can download it to my computer and thence to a CD-R disk. I already have NBC's 75th anniversary broadcast on VHS, but there were certain parts of the 60th anniversary show I'd like to hear again (such as the old radio commercials for now long-defunct companies like Allis-Chalmers, which manufactured farm machinery in, I believe, the '50s through the seventies -- I still remember the jingle: "The world needs more...of what Allis-Chalmers makes!") Who knows? Maybe that jingle is on the NBC 75th anniversary broadcast as well.

Jeff,

At the risk of hijacking this thread, I wanted to respond to your memories of the NBC broadcasts you mentioned. Are you sure you are not referring to NBC's 50th Anniversary series of broadcasts from 1976? I'm very familiar with these shows, listening to them when I was a kid when they were first broadcast and many, many times over in the intervening years. This was a series of five, fifty-minute programs each covering a decade in the history of NBC. One of the sponsors was Allis-Chalmers as you recalled, with the commercials voiced by Joe Garagiola. Also, at the end of each program was the warning "This program may not be recorded, duplicated, or re-broadcast, in any manner, whatsoever." I don't recall the tones you mentioned though.

By 1986, NBC radio was in deep decline, RCA-NBC having been purchased by GE, and the next year GE would sell off NBC radio to Westwood One. So I kind of doubt they would have even bothered to produce a 60th anniversary radio special if they were going to dump the radio network. As a collector of programs such as this, I have never heard of one being produced for the 60th anniversary on radio, although there was a 60th anniversary TV show with a little bit on radio history. Anyway, just some thoughts since I have never seen those programs referenced here before. Recordings of the shows are available on-line, although often the commercials have been cut out. Thanks!

Gilbert

[lnx64]

Originally Posted by Ronald1973

At my last job (which I worked at for 4 1/2 years), we stocked both LG and Panasonic blu-ray players. Let me state up front that I'm partial to LG. My 55" LED TV is made by LG. Out of the box the Panasonic players looked like absolute junk and nothing in comparison to the LG's. We consistently sent the Panasonic players to our service department and they even said the things were a thorn in the side. LG's did go to service here and there but considering it was rent-to-own store, there's no telling how much abuse they suffered either. You couldn't pay me enough to have a Panasonic.

I am not fond of Samsungs modern TV's for a similar reason here. They make the TV itself, but the panels, usually not more than half the time.

Samsung has at least 3 different panel suppliers, themselves being one of them. I can't remember the two others, but the codes to look for a S, A, and C. S is the Samsung panel, the best you can get from them, A is the 2nd best panel, and C is a cheap Chinese panel. My 40" Samsung uses the C panel, and at first it looks fine. Then after 2 years, it develops a nasty image persistence, and a non-uniform spreading of the backlight. I've never seen the A or S panel though so I'm only going on what other people have said about them.

Sadly though, every Samsung I have run into so far, are C panels.

[ChrisW6ATV]

A = AU Optronics.
C = Chi Mei.

I own a 2010 Samsung 46" set with a "C" LCD panel, and it does have a relatively narrow angle for the best black-level performance, but dead-on straight its black performance is fantastic. My other Samsung is a 32" set with (if I remember right) a Samsung panel. That set also has nice cut-off black level when viewed straight on, and nearly as good over reasonably wide angles as well.

By comparison, one LG set I briefly owned (a 32" set with the "good" IPS panel, 32LD450 if I remember right) had really mediocre black-level performance (only dark gray rather than true black when viewed straight on), but, yes, that mediocre black stayed the same at most angles.