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Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu Ray Review

February 7, 2009

Insignia brand has enjoyed some success with their HDTV and Blu-ray dis players. Insignia, Best Buy’s in house brand, consistently delivered comparable products at lower price. Insignia’s first effort, NS-BRDVD, delivered acceptable performance for relatively small price. The player included Profile 1.1 and solid video quality for both Blu-ray and DVD formats. Good 1080p/24 mode playback quality was nice bonus. The audio support lacked the onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio and TrueHD. However, it did have capability to output these formats in bit stream formats. Also, the overall operation time on the player was on the slow side. The player also came with bare minimum connectivity that lacked Ethernet or USB connections. In short, it was a minimal effort to bring a relatively inexpensive Blu-ray player to the market.

What's New!

The second effort, NS-2BRDVD, is a marginal upgrade to the original model. Aesthetically, Insignia has chosen to retain the overall shape of the original. The player retains the boxy look. The disc tray is located on left side of the player. The LCD dominates the middle and the directional dial replaces the single function buttons for the stop, pause, play, forward, and rewind. The NS-2BRDVD forgoes the SD card slot that was marginally useful in its predecessor. The remote control retains the basic shape and function.

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Audio and Video Features

The audio options are identical to its predecessor. It has no onboard decoding of DTS-HD Master Audio and limited Dolby TrueHD. However, it can decode Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution. It also has support for MP3 and WMA files. The player lacks connectivity for 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio outputs. It comes with standard HDMI interface, optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, composite video outputs, and component video outputs. Most users will want to utilize their HDMI interface to experience full 1080p resolution. With upgrade to Profile 2.0, the player comes equipped with Ethernet port as well as USB port. This is most likely the main upgrade over the previous model. Most of the newer Blu-ray movies come with BD-LIVE contents only supported by Profile 2.0. As of this review, the Profile 2.0 is not fully implemented on this unit. The upcoming firmware upgrade should fix this problem. The audio quality is on par with its predecessor. The sound comes out very crisp. The lack of some High resolution shouldn’t turn off buyers as it is difficult to differentiate them unless you own high end speaker system.

The video quality is on par with the original model. The problems with moire and uneven edges are present in some scenes. These defects are fairly hard detect unless you are specifically looking for them. For most viewers, you shouldn’t have problem with these defects. Moires can be prominent in certain fast sequences. From the test, it does not look like Insignia made any upgrades to its video processing. The upconversion of SD DVDs are fairly good over the HDMI. Overall, the video quality could be better. Normal users won’t find too many faults with video quality.

NS-2BRDVD supports most medias including various DVD medias and CD medias. It supports basic MPEG, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 AVC(H.264) formats. It lacks support for various MPEG-4 formats such as DivX, XviD, or WMV.

Conclusion

One of the chief complains about the original model was its slow overall performance. From powering up to loading disc, the unit took longer than most other players. Also, the player took longer than average to load Blu-ray movies. However, it didn’t have problem with regular DVDs. The performance did not improve with this unit. The player response time is very slow. When you press forward or reverse on the remote, it takes good 3 seconds for the player to respond. Also, the player needs good 40 seconds to power up before you can even open the tray to insert a movie. This might seem like a minor gripe but it does get tiring when you don’t get reasonable response time with the remote control. The lack of book-marking feature was also annoyance. Most players keep track of where you left off in the movie. This player does not keep track of the place. This could be a big deal for family who frequently switch out movies.

Pros

Price
Easy to set up
Upcoming Profile 2.0 support
Ethernet and USB connectivity

Cons

Only Profile 1.1 out of the box
Some video quality issues
Lack of high resolution audio decoding
No 5.1 or 7.1 channel output support
SD Card reader gone

Rating:

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Insignia NS-2BRDVD - Blu-ray disc player - upscaling
Average Rating:

Description

Enjoy high-definition brilliance from all your movies with this Blu-ray Disc player that supports 1080p upconversion and features Dolby Digital and DTS decoders for enhanced audio performance.

Features

Blu-ray Disc format compatible: For high-definition movie playback with resolution up to 5 times greater than DVD.
Delivers greatly enhanced video performance with standard DVDs: By upconverting their video resolution to HDTV compliant 720p
Plays BD-ROM discs: Backward compatible with DVD, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD and CD-R/RW discs. Compatible with MP3, WMA and JPEG formats.
Built-in decoders: For next-generation Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD high-resolution surround, plus lossless Dolby TrueHD (2-channel).
HDMI output: Provides an uncompressed all-digital audio/video link for the highest quality connection and supports

Written by admin · Filed Under Exclusive Reviews, Insignia Reviews, Reviews

Insignia NS-BRDVD blu ray player reviewed by George Williams

August 26, 2008

I purchased my Insignia NS-BRDVD from bestbuy.com. This is my very first BD player. I was waiting for the format war to end once it did I search the internet for the review of various Blu-ray players. I decided to research on various Blu-ray players in order to make the best possible buy for my needs. I needed relatively inexpensive player that would compliment my flat panel tv. This player was perfect in terms of price to performance ratio.

I did not need the latest BD profile player since I am not expecting to utilize the internet contents of through the player. This player is profile 1.1 compliant. 1.1 profile allows picture in picture feature. The 2.0 profile is kind of useless at this point and not worth the money. This player also lacks the multi channel audio outputs and high resolution audio decoding. If you can overlook these shortcomings, the rest of the player is perfectly capable blu-ray disc player for under $300. The 1080p 24 frame is pretty nice feature as well.

The player itself is not the most exciting looking design. But who really buys electronics based on the exterior looks? It's a basic box design with tray on the left and blu-ray logo on the right. There is small LCD display screen for general information display. The SD card reader is nice bonus if you plan to view digital pictures. The remote is nothing to gush over. It is pretty standard remote and it does its job adequately. The menu is pretty easy to navigate and straight forward.

The audio option is pretty basic. The player has capability to decode Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution. You will need receiver for other high definition audio decoding. But for me, this was perfectly fine for my needs. I have basic receiver home theater set up. If you are audiophile you most likely aren't looking to buy relatively cheap blu-ray player.

We watched various blu-ray movies including Batman Begins and 300. Both looked fantastic on the flat screen tv. The audio was excellent as well. We also tried out various standard DVDs to compare the upconversion. The upconversion was excellent in terms of picture quality.

This player is perfect for budget minded consumer like myself. It does everything the more expensive players can do and much more. At sub $300 price point, you can't beat the performance or the value.

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Rating: