Page 1 of £40 Blu-ray player

If you can find a store that has any left, Currys are currently selling off the Curtis DVD1100 Blu-ray player for a touch under £40. It`s not the best looking player in the world, as it`s a cheap Chinese import, but it is Profile 1.1 and allows you to change the region code for DVD and Blu-ray.

I picked one up last night and it`s clearly a rebadged model, similar to the Sherwood and Tevion players that are being sold elsewhere. The Tevion is Profile 2.0, but that`s £120 at ALDI. It`s also a clone of the Momitsu player that is available from HKFlix for over $300, but again that is Pofile 2.0.

As a second player for the bedroom it`s got to be worth a punt. Tried it with a few discs so far and it`s played them all (including PiP discs), and the region hack works as advertised.

This item was edited on Monday, 10th August 2009, 14:57

Haha at that price Basbat will be getting one... :D

Tried 3 seperate CURRYS stores but they only had display models (none for sale). I finally found an ex-display one at the last branch with no box or remote and the price was £49.97. I was told I could phone and buy a remote for about £10 on top. The staff were not helpful at all. I finally found the box and the control in one part of the store and paid and brought home the scratched player. Lets hope it works...

Yeah, they have been on sale for a while now so they`re hard to get hold of. I know someone who picked one up over the weekend and was happy (boxed for £40). Dunno why yours was still £50 as they were reduced last week.

Mine has a few scratches on the front as well, but it`s because it`s fairly cheaply made. It was definitely a new, sealed player, unless someone shrink-wrapped everything beautifully after scratching it ;) I updated the firmware for good measure as well. Not bad for a bedroom player or even an entry-level main player. Wouldn`t have paid £120 for it like the one in ALDI though.

I was charged £39.97 at the checkout despite the £49.97 price-tag. Upon closer inspection at home I noticed that the power-plug was broken (one of the plug`s three "teeth" had been torn off).

I replaced the plug and turned on the player. However, I don`t get any video if I playback any higher than the 480p resolution. I`ve connected the Blu-ray to a Toshiba rear-projection TV via component YPbPr wires. DVDs play without a problem but any Blu-rays I play have a little jerkiness to the image.

Is there a way of fine tuning the player`s settings to get a clean image?

What mode do you have it in, PAL or NTSC? Also, try turning on the Film Mode.

This item was edited on Monday, 10th August 2009, 20:05

First up, thanks for taking the time to reply and send tips.

The Blu-ray is currently set to PAL (my TV can also playback NTSC).

Also, the FILM MODE option is currently set to "OFF" and despite trying to "ON" it fails to change the option. I can change other things such as AUDIO, DISPLAY, PASSWORD, etc but the FILM MODE will NOT change at all despite fiddling about with the remote.

Can you change this FILM MODE option on your player? Or is yours also firmly set to "OFF"?

I can change it on mine, but then I was using it with an HDTV. I`ll have a look into it tonight for you. Did you update the firmware? What material were you watching on the player when it was jerking?

I have not updated the Firmware. I know this is going to sound dumb but how can I carry out the Firmware. Cheers for any tips. ;)

The Blu-ray title I played, and which jerked despite having a solid image, was the following ballet:

SPARTACUS

Do you think it might be an NTSC / PAL issue?

If it`s HD it`s neither NTSC or PAL. However, the player does seem to do some sort of conversion. When you say jerkiness, do you mean very obvious or subtle? All 24p material will show some sort of jerkiness, whether played back at 24Hz or 60Hz. I tried an NTSC DVD with the system when I first got it and that jerked like hell because it was set to PAL and the player was trying to convert on the fly. Unfortunately there`s no auto mode for DVD.

Some people have reported that turning on the film mode helps, but I`m not sure why if it`s the 24Hz mode (but I don`t know if it is for sure because the manual is poor). As I said, I`ll have a look tonight.

With regard to the firmware, you need to download it from their website and burn it to CD-RW as an ISO image. After that you just put it in the player and follow the instructions.