Seiki Blu Ray Photo
See more details about the Seiki Blu-Ray Player
Physically the Blu-Ray player is quite small and light. You can easily hold it one hand. It's about half the size of my old white Xbox 360 console. The red light on the front may bother some people (it's always lit when plugged in); and turns blue when you power it on. The remote control is pretty basic looking. Nothing fancy at all here, which is expected at this price.
Reading Reviews
Anyways, I did a bit of research on it beforehand; since I'm pretty paranoid about these "no name" electronics brands (It's been a nice surprise so far, actually. Apparently, I have the "newer" model that doesn't overheat and burn out after a couple of months (issues the older ones had). It has the latest firmware that gives it additional capabilities too.
Good Features, Region-Free Playback
What all that means at the end of the day for me is that it has "out of the box" playback capabilities for the following files: mp3, avi, mov, wmv, rvmb, and mkv (which is more than what an Xbox 360 or PS3 can do). I am also able to use my external hard drive and play files right off of it. Oh, and it plays DVDs/Blu-Ray discs too...Now I have to see if it has been able to shed its infamous reliability issues, and then all is good.Update: I've read that it also plays Blu-Rays from different regions which is a great bonus...So I went ahead and got a couple of Blu-Rays from the UK; and they play with no issue. Sweet.
Update 2: Here's the web page I used to see which Blu-Rays are region free. For example, I purchased Life from the UK (Region B, 50Hz Blu-Ray) and it plays it perfectly fine. The PS3 supposedly cannot play 50Hz Blu-Rays so this is a nice bonus for owners of this player.
Update 3: It does freeze up more than I would like it to. It still works, but those rare times that it freezes are annoying nonetheless.
I picked up of these at a Walmart in Ottawa for $49 on Black Friday and finally hooked it up via HDMI today. Plays old dvd's well, avi files and stuff off USB. It did lock up on me after I ejected a disk of avi files.
ReplyDeleteNow I just have to find a blu-ray disk and/or some raw avchd files to try it with. So far its ok for what I paid. I hope there is a firmware update soon that allows it to stream off my home network via the ethernet port.
Picked mine up at the same price, and it simply does the job. I probably would not have picked up if it was more expensive, seeing how the "big brands" have offerings in the $99 range already. Also, it did freeze up on me once as well (but not during playback). Could not reproduce it, but if I can I will report it here.
ReplyDeletei went to that website, and i can't find an update, is there one yet? im just wondering in case i buy a new blu ray dvd and it doesnt work.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell there are no updates yet...Who knows when (or if) there will be any...
ReplyDeleteIt's not a bad little machine. Too bad I missed the $50 special at walmart, I paid $100 & tax for mine. It's a pain in the ass to always have to pull the player out if you want to play anything on a memory stick. Also it doesn't play MP4s. This is my first blu-ray, so I can't really comment or compare it to other products. So far, no problems. So far, no update. I hope they come out with a patch to play MP4s, and next model put the usb slot in the front.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the USB is on the back panel and is a real pain to reach. Haven't tried mp4 files yet, but don't really have any so not an issue for me. Still works as expected; so far, so good.
ReplyDeletea male to female USB extension cord 18" or longer will solve the no USB in front problem
ReplyDeleteGood point, a short cable like the one you pointed out would resolve the issue. Maybe not attractive looking to have a loose cable out, but it would work.
ReplyDeleteFYI, the other day the disc tray seemed to act strange...I couldn't eject it after multiple attempts with the remote control and on the player itself. Eventually I got it out, but I was concerned for a while.
ReplyDelete