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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:

     

    Click here to buy Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu-Ray Player at Bestbuy for $199.99




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    Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu-ray Disc Player with 1080p Output Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu-ray Disc Player with 1080p Output
    Sale Price: $69.98
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    Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

    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
    GD Star Rating
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    Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu Ray Review, 3.3 out of 5 based on 3 ratings

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