DVD player

[Tim Lamb]

Sadly the family DVD/ tape player has died.

On line prices seem anywhere between £35 and £250. Current use viewing purchased DVDs. Ignoring the tape player bit, what do I actually need?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not much at all. If just playing DVDS is all you want.

£35 for a SCART or HDMI equipped basic player.

A bit more if you want it do do internet and be a set top box.

A bit more again to plug an aerial in and have it also record off air.

If you have a computer and a smart TV consider equipping it with a media server, ripping your dvds onto that and viewing them via DLNA.

I no longer HAVE a DVD player in the main house.

All my DVDS are MP4s on my server. All my TVS are smart and I can watch stuff on my laptop in ned as well.

[Tim Lamb]

OK. TV has both.

A little future proofing might be wise although I have resisted sharing my daughters Netflix account.

I like my Toppy:-)

Way beyond my knowledge/interest level. I just need something to play ET etc. when the grandchildren visit.

I think my wife's TV is moderately smart but you don't need much to watch the cookery programs or strictly!

[The Natural Philosopher]

Cheapest box that ARGOS or Currys/PCworld can deal, then. At this time of year probably giving them away.

[spuorgelgoog]

£4 in the Salvation Army shop :-)

Owain

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

Depends what you want to do I suppose. Do you record on it or just play commercial DVDs. There are loads of el cheapo players about. Panasonic seem quite reliable even if when they play CDs they put pauses between tracks. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

Of course if you want blue ray as well so you can play your Dolby Atmos version of Abbey Road its a bit more. Brian

[T i m]

<snip>

I believe we still have a SCART interfaced and lightly used DVD player (and remote) that we 'upgraded' when stepdaughter was in the hospice in March. Daughter wanted to watch a particular DVD with her in there (whilst she still could, all be it still in bursts) and the quickest way to get round the PAT testing was to bring in a new one and the room TV was HDMI only.

It's yours (inc free delivery) if 1) you want it and 2) I can find both it and the remote. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail], T i m [e-mail]> writes

OK Tim. I'll hold off buying a replacement as I can use Angela's for the time being.

I planned to ask you about W10 for her old laptop. I thought it was W8 but the label says Windows 7 home prem OA (HP ProBook 4520s)

The spare glass fibre stuff is boxed up waiting:-) Once Christmas is out of the way.....

[alan_m]

Reading your other posts, just go for a cheap bluray player with a HDMI output. If you buy one with just SCART and you change your TV in a couple of years time you would also have to change the Bluray/DVD player as well.

Forget about recording on a Bluray/DVD player box and don't bother too much about the SMART features that it may be supplied with. These can be provided for much better by dedicated boxes (see Toppy replacement threads in their user forums) and/or plug in sticks (Netflix, Amazon fire etc.)

As with a lot of boxes these days just make sure that you have provision to connect it to your hone network for software updates.

[ARW]

With a PAT sticker on it?

[spuorgelgoog]

Probably, the Sally Army are reasonably good about that.

Red Cross got reported for 1950s Class I electric sewing machine with a plug with unsleeved pins, missing cord grip screws, exposed inner insulation of the individual wires outside the plug body, and the female line connector for the mains supply and foot pedal not being touch safe to current standards.

Reported because I'd already told them about previous dodgy electricals they had out, and they still put out more. They don't have enough electricals to "make it worth testing".

Owain

[charles]

Why don't you offer to do testing for them - for free - as your 2020 charity contribution?

[Michael Chare]

Your next TV may not have a Scart socket.

[ARW]

Why not get Mike Adamson to do it for free?

[T i m]

Ok. I'll hunt it down. ;-)

Assuming it will run W10, or run it sufficiently (without drivers for things Angela may not use, like (say) the webcam or card reader) then it should authenticate and upgrade to W10 Home in situ (I understand from here). Alternatively, we could upgrade the hdd to a SSD, do a fresh install of W10, and then migrate any data back from the W7 drive (with it in an external USB caddy, I have some new ones here), subject to whatever programs she has / needs etc.

Cheers, no rush on that (other than getting it out of your way) as the heavy duty membrane seems to be holding for now and I'll not be going up there till it's predictably warmer and dryer. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[spuorgelgoog]

I don't have a 2377-22 or -32 certificate or a calibrated tester, and I do know that I don't know all the product safety and legal requirements I'd require to certify to for resale.

I already do voluntary work two days a week and I'm not looking for any more jobs.

Owain

[T i m]

And isn't there some thing that charity shops are selling the items we give them *for us*, it's just that most of us don't ask for the money back once that we have done so.

If that is the case, if they sell on some faulty electrical equipment, I wonder if it could come back on us (legally, if not practically).

Cheers, T i m

[Andy Burns]

Yes ...

[JoeJoe]

Make sure it is not region-specific. Used to be an issue in the past - not sure if still the case (maybe only with the cheap end of the market?).