Thursday, May 11, 2017

Upgraded

I just picked a new blu-ray to upgrade from my older aging blu-ray player.  I was hoping a newer model with better hardware, firmware, and software would be better.  I upgraded from a Sony to a Sony!  My old Sony was getting on five years old I think, so it had to go.  The fact that my new Sony also had dual band wi-fi is also a big plus, Netflix needs it sometimes.


Here is my new player sitting on top of my old player.  As you can see it's definitely not as wide and slightly taller than my older player.  Both of them a super light, so don't drop it or it's toast.  

The new one plays CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and 3D players and can upscale to 4K UHD.  The front has a USB port and the unit plays multiple image, audio and video files.  In the operating instructions it doesn't note that it plays VCDs, but I tried one out and it worked so that's a bonus.


Here is my new remote on the left next to my larger old remote.  I like that they simplified it and made it smaller.  I actually never even used the number buttons on my old remote.  There is an app to download for Android or Apple that allows you to use your smart phone as a remote.


This is the main menu once the unit is turned on.  One thing I don't like is there is no ability to edit the "Featured Apps" as I will probably only use two of those apps.  In the "My Apps" section you can add (using the + button) or remove whatever apps you like.  The Opera TV app also contains additional apps.  Most of the apps pretty much suck, but I found a movie and TV app in Opera that had a couple anime movies and shows I want to checkout, the rest of the movies are pretty much trash.  I mean like actual trash, I know they are free, but you could pay me and I still wouldn't watch them.

On the bottom right hand side of the screen you see the disc tile which will tell you what movie disc is in the unit if one is inserted, the USB is the middle icon and the icon with the two screens on the right is for screen mirroring.  You can display whatever is on your phone screen onto your TV through the unit.  If it can do this then I'm sure you can stream video or audio to the unit, but I haven't figured that out yet.  It guess it's sorta the same, but they called it "miracast".

In addition to all that the player is also supposed to be able to play select Playstation 3 games by streaming from the cloud.  You need a Dualshock 4 controller and a Playstation Now account to be able to do this.  I borrowed a controller from Cody and I still need to sign up for a free trial Playstation Now account to give it a try.  It's cheap of Sony to only give you a seven day free trail, XBox used to give you a month of XBox live for free.  The Playstation Now account seems pretty pricey if the unit can only player certain games.  I will at least try it and see how it works.  I have a feeling the streaming aspect will result in some choppy gameplay and many "buffering" moments.

The first movie I watched on it was Ultraman Fight Victory because I it's short, action packed and a lot of fun.  Then last night I watched I Am A Hero, another Japanese movie.  Good zombie movie with all the craziness and zombie attack action happening at the end.  It hasn't been picked up for distribution in North America yet and I'm surprised, but it will probably happen at some point.  Since I just watched I Am A Hero, that means I'll be watching Meatballs II soon on the Crackle app.  FYI, White Water Summer is also on there.

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