Unbiased Review: Magnavox NB500MG1F
June 6, 2010
While Magnavox does not enjoy the same reputation as Sony or Samsung, it does offer up some value in offering low priced electronics. If you are looking to buy a Magnavox Blu ray player, you are most likely looking at the rock bottom price instead of performance and features. The Magnavox NB500MG1F is a Blu ray disc player that is short on features but comes at a low price.
Features
If you are looking for a feature packed player, you need to look elsewhere. The Magnavox NB500MG1F is bare bone minimal system fit for a children’s room to play the Disney DVDs and occasional Blu ray discs. The Magnavox NB500MG1F does not come with any of the features found on more substantial disc players from Sony or Samsung. What you get is the very basic Profile 1.1 player with Bonus View capability. You won’t be able to run any BD-LIVE contents on this player. Also, the Magnavox NB500MG1F does not come with onboard decoding for high definition audio formats. It is only capable of decoding DTS digital and Dolby Digital. It is not capable of decoding DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD audio formats. The Magnavox NB500MG1F does not come with media streaming or internet streaming. You will need to look elsewhere if you want Netflix or YouTube on your Blu ray player.
Design
Like the features, the Magnavox NB500MG1F’s design is very basic. The front face includes the disc tray on the left and playback buttons on the right. There is no LCD anywhere on the player. The connectivity includes HDMI, component video, composite video, RCA audio out, and SPDIF output. Surprisingly, the Magnavox NB500MG1F comes with SDHC memory card slot. You can view JPEG photos via the card slot. The included remote is adequate at best. It felt little small for my hand and the buttons seemed little small as well.
Performance and Video
The overall picture quality wasn’t bad compared to other players. While not as crisp as other players, it did not display any artifacts during the playback. The usual moiré, jaggieness, and motion blur were absent from the playback of The Dark Knight. While the video processing had no problem, the booting and loading times were horrendous. The overall time to boot and load disc was reminiscent of first generation players. Some Blu ray discs took over one minute to boot and load. Also, the DVD upscaling was fairly poor. The picture lacked the sharpness displayed by other upscaling Blu ray players.
Audio
You can expect very basic audio options on Magnavox NB500MG1F. The lack of onboard high definition audio decoding is disappointing. While it had no problem decoding the listed audio formats, the lack of high definition decoding and lack of MP3 support makes it outdated. The overall audio playback had no problem for Blu ray or DVD playback in Dolby digital and DTS digital format.
Overall Opinion
You should know what you are getting when you purchase Magnavox NB500MG1F. That is, you get a very basic player without too many features and performance. The lack of internet streaming and Profile 2.0 support is the two biggest complaints. Even with the low price, you can easily get a better player for around $150 that performs a lot better. Overall, avoid this player unless you intend it to be a secondary player.
Buy Magnavox NB500MG1F Now!
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Magnavox Blu-Ray Disc Player With SD Card Slot Sale Price: $44.99  Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days  |
Description
Experience the superior picture quality of Blu-ray movies in full 1080p high-definition on your HDTV with this Magnavox Blu-ray DVD Player.
Features
- Full HD 1080p Video Output
- 24fps (frames per second) for Cinema-like Picture Quality
- HDMI Output
- Blu-ray Player 1.1 to enjoy Advanced BONUSVIEW
- Energy Star Compliant
Video
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We bought this at Wal-Mart like everyone else when the motor powering the tray for our old blue ray became sluggish. While it was barebones and the box advertised Netflix which it did not support, we were able to watch our blue rays. 4 months later we began getting the same disc error msg as everyone else with new blue ray discs and were advised that we needed to update the software. Within days of this starting the player completely quit playing bluerays that we own and had watched the whole time on it and now sometimes will not load DVD’s either. Magnavox is a crook for selling these to consumers.
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Not Impressed
I got this cheap at Wal-Mart. I knew it wouldn’t have any “special” features like Internet connection or screen-in-screen, but I expected the actual movies to play just as well as any other Blu-Ray player. I was wrong. The picture is maybe 5% better, and I can tell no difference with the sound. I do not have an HD TV, which seems to present a problem with this Blu-Ray player because, compared to other DVDs, the picture is squished like it was fullscreen, even though it was a widescreen DVD.
Another problem I ran into was the awful loading times. It took longer than my old DVD player to load. Alll I can say is thank goodness there is still a DVD player attatched to this ripoff. I haven’t tried it yet, but I am clinging to hope that it works like my old DVD player did. If you want Blu-Ray, than I seriously suggest spending a little more money for a decent player, because if you plan on buying this, you might as well stick to your old DVD player.
I don’t know if these problems still exist with the more expensive players, but if they do, I have no isea what all the hype is about. I am very disappointed.
EDIT: I tried a DVD and the picture was still squished. The sound actually seemed better than the Blu-Ray. Even more reason to use a DVD player instead of this overpriced ripoff. Accordingly, I changed my original 2-star review to a 1-star riview.
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Basic Blu-Ray player
NB500MG1F
This was the $78 special at Walmart. What would you expect for $78.00. It play Blu-ray’s just fine. Great piture, great sound. one problem is, it is just very, very slow.
But besides that it great.
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For A Basic BD player is well worth it for $78
Bought this at Wal Mart for $78 (my PS3 gave up the ghost due to YLOD) as didn’t want to spend a lot of money to play my collection of Blu-Ray movies. I was surprisingly pleased after I hooked it up to my 40″ Samsung 1080P via HDMI, because the picture quality was excellent. Can’t connect to internet but I don’t care, as I just want to play blu-ray movies on it. Lacks fancy features but it was not a big deal for me. Played Harry Potter and Avatar without any problems but my only concern now is that I can’t find any firmware updates online (in case it’s needed in the future but right now, it is not an issue.)
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Wouldn’t even load
I was excited to find this player at Wal-Mart for $78. When I got it home and plugged in I couldn’t even get it to load. The splash screen would come up and I’d hear the whirring sound of it trying, but it would never get past there. I tried multiple discs – DVD and BluRay – neither worked. Perhaps I just got a bad one, but I was reminded that sometimes you get what you pay for.
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Good, basic bluray player
This is pretty much a bluray drive with an HDMI output. Very simple, nothing special about it, but it does do what it was made to do well: play blurays. The loading times and menu navigation are a little sluggish, especially compared to the PS3, but it’s not bad. I can still watch a movie within a minute of putting it in the player, and that includes skipping the previews and FBI warnings.
The only bad part for some people might be the lack of internet connectivity. There are a lot of blurays that have BD-live features, which means it connects to the internet for even more special features. I’m not too into special features, just the movie itself, so I don’t really care. Some newer bluray players allow you to watch your Netflix instant queue but I can do that on my Xbox 360 so also no big deal for me.
If you buy it at Walmart like I did it does not come with an HDMI cable so you’ll have to spend another 25-30 bucks on that, so you might as well get the Samsung for $128, which does have internet connectivity and Netflix. But if you already have all that junk or just don’t care about it then this is a good buy, Looks and sounds great! I”m happy with it although I will keep the receipt and box just in case it breaks down quickly.
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GREAT VALUE FOR THE MONEY
I’ve used this player for about a month (connected to a 1080p LCD TV via HDMI with sound reproduced through an audiophile quality 7.1 system) and so far it has performed flawlessly, both mechanically and electrically on a variety of discs, including Blu ray, standard DVDs, CDs and even home made DVD-Rs. Blu ray discs take a little longer to load initially than standard DVDs but no more so than other current Blu ray players that cost considerably more. I consider the absence of the usual LED display on the front panel a plus rather than a minus and if needed all information is available where it should be: on screen at the flick of a button on the remote. The simple unassuming design of this machine is more in the European style and is quite attractive, in my opinion.
Particularly impressive were the Blu ray discs of “How the West Was Won” (in smile box format), Walt Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” & the 1958 version of “South Pacific”, all originally filmed in high resolution film formats and with discrete 6 or 7 channel sound mixes far more dynamic and sophisticated than the jiggled, precariously lit visuals and compressed homogenized digital sound mixes in today’s films. These movies have never looked or sounded better on any previous home video release, in my opinion.
I can’t vouch for its long term durability in such a short time of use but other Philips based DVD players I have owned in the past have proven to be quite durable. The remote is small but useful and fairly well laid out, no better or worse than more expensive players in its functionality. The most important aspect of this player is it provides, for a ridiculously low price, the spectacular picture and sound of Blu ray and also makes standard DVDs look better too. Even if you use this player for about a year as an interim player until you can afford a more expensive machine, it is still worth the price since you can relegate the Magnavox to a family room or bedroom system later. Unless you crave a feature laden player (Netflix streaming, etc) you may find that you will be more than satisfied with the picture and sound this little player provides for a long time to come.
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Great so far
Got it as my first Blu-ray player after a number of both cheap and expensive regular DVD players. Not the fanciest but does everything I want without costing an arm and a leg.. Looks great matched up with a 37 inch lg 720p tv. Like having my own person theater. All for $120 at walmart
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Low priced entry- inferior product.
Paid $78 for this at a box store, should have known better. There is a reason it was only $78… After 4 movies, I was fed up and returned it. Spend a little more for a better unit, this is not it.
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Not worth it for DVD alone.
I picked this up for $78 on December 23 @ Wal Mart. I was looking for a regular DVD player for a new 720p LCD. This player was $78, a Sony DVD $68, and a Phillips DVD $50. I figured an extra $28 was a good enough deal.
Took it home, hooked it up via HDMI and the regular DVD quality was grainy. It did not live up to my Xbox 360 nor the Phillips $50 DVD player I went back and picked up.
I would recommend a better Blu-Ray player if you plan on playing mostly DVDs. I did not test this with Blu-Rays.
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Good starter Blu-Ray player
We received this as a gift this Christmas, and the kids were very excited to get it up and running. They finally got to watch the Blue-ray movie they got last Christmas!!!
Positives:
Out of the box and hooked up in under 5 minutes since there really isn’t much of a way to mess up (if you can read the directions and plug in cables!) As for resolutions/etc, we only hooked it up to run into an “old fashioned” CRT TV – the flat panel might come next Christmas! After it was all set up (I am a guy after all – the directions get read after setting it up!) there are settings for all sorts of features… maybe the guy that had grainy resolution on his 720p can check to make sure the HDMI is set to “auto” instead of “480″.
Negatives:
The only feature we miss is a display to show how far into the movie you are… there are several light on the front, but no display for minutes, tracks, etc. I have read through the manual and tried different things, just doesn’t appear to have one.
Conclusion:
Overall, easy to set up and easy to use, I wouldn’t have a problem recommending this to anyone so far (we’ll have to see on the reliability). Slow load times are common to every Blu-ray player I have used over the last couple years.
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CHEAP
I bought this player on black friday.It works ok but has a very long pause during layer change that I really don’t like. I will probably bring it back and get a panasonic or sony player. You get what you pay for.
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