Blu-ray Disc™ Player with Wireless Internet Apps

Customer Reviews

Love the picture quality Review by rsb

I love the picture quality and the sound we get when we watch movies. I wish that I could get the following firmware updates:

Youtube
Hulu plus

Remote control is hard to push, but overall I love the way it plays movies.

(Posted on 1/11/12)

For $139 (Costco) nothing compares. I would like a few modes however. Review by gradyzero

The device connected to my 100 Mbps Wi-Fi DOCSIS 3.0 gateway flawlessly. (Motorola Surfboard™ SBG6850 using WPS). Speed test shows no problem with 1080p, The DOCSIS 3.0 specifications provides for up to 145 Mbps over 802.11/n. So I assume the device is n capable even though the n spec is still in the proposal stage. The other issue which I have yet to try is its ability to connect to an ad hoc Wi-Fi not just and infrastructure Wi-Fi. If it won't do ad hoc, fix it quick, because with the roll out of so called "4G" mobile networks" people will want to use their cell phones as a Wi-Fi router if they are stuck on a DSL connection at 6-10 Mbps.
1. It needs a Web browser, Firefox while not my favorite, minus all plugins, could be nice, it is Open Source as it came from now defunct Netscape™ and is free under the GNU license. However, disable the browsers ability to download except to a USB device, and then add a virus and adware/malware checker for protection. Again, Source Forge provides many Open Source virus checkers for Linux under the GNU license. Once again, no cost to Vizio beyond code sharing. AVG provides a free one, probably the best on the market.
2. The ability to connect to other LAN devices using for example SMB mounts for a Windows PC would be nice. Since in many cases our PC and Macs have accumulated 10s of thousands of music and video files over the years. Those without DRM should be streamable over the LAN just and the WAN. The absence of this is ability in the top end device is almost a crime. I assume the underlying OS is Linux so the codecs are freely available with no licensing cost. Ffshow and Source Forge both provide codecs for most every video and audio format in common use today at no cost. You need to be able to render, WMV, H.264, MPEG, MPEG-4, MP4, M4P, SLV, FLV, MOV and QuickTime video and MP3, WMA, and VOB, DivX, M3P, and wave WAV. On second thought, why not just build in the Open Source Classic Media Player available from Source forge, it comes with all of these audio and video codecs.
3. Add the Silverlight™ and Macromedia™ (now Adobe™) Flash™ plugin for the browser. The client side plugins are available free for the Linux platform. There is hundreds of HD streaming channels on the Internet that are free or almost free and your current device limits its use to only a few source, all which cost money. I cannot even watch my own .WMV video collection through it. Where is YouTube? Even Direct TV streams YouTube now. Where is HBO to GO, Where is HuLu? My company is in the process of launching an HD TV Music Station that will cost $1.00 per month.
4. A file browser that is capable of browsing a USB Thumb Drive or even larger USB device such as a Maxtor One Touch hard drives. Auto mount and USB storage device to the mnt folder upon plugin to the USB port as R/O. This would prevent using these devices from use as a capture device for copyrighted material.
5. The remote control is lousy. The buttons are hard to push. They stick. The thing is almost very black and gets lost in a dark room easily. Which really doesn’t matter because you cannot read anything on it without light and a magnifying glass anyway? Needs some work, again leave out the Blu-ray drive and you can spend more on the remote. One nice feature is that it does also control my Vizio TV. Which IMHO are the best made HD Televisions on the market in spite of their lower cost.
With the addition of these 5 items, you will have created the world’s first, user expandable, home media center for under $ 150. Oh, while you are at it you might even leave out the Blu-Ray drive to cover the cost for the new development, nobody is going to use it any way when the prerecorded movies cost $ 60 and you can stream them from Vudu ™ for $6. DirecTV™ and Comcast™ also now provide software for the Windows ™ and the Linux (Android©) platform that can stream directly to the Linux based device assuming it has the CPU and GPU power to handle it. If not, consider the Tegra ™ as an inexpensive and very small footprint video rendering GPU engine. Of course, in this review I have just invented your next new product. The Vizio™ Expandable Home Media Center. Please notify me when it is available.
I will be waiting on your new ROM flash for the BR-213 or better yet the new device w/o the $70 Blu-ray™ disk player. If not we will just have to build a custom ROM for it at xda developers®. I need a new xda ROM project after the Taboonay 2.2 ROM my team built to replace Acer's “not ready for prime time” Android® 3.2 stock ROM on the Ionia Tab® A500.

(Posted on 11/12/11)

fair Review by dante

horrible remote control unit. Sound quality has to be adjusted to almost high volume compared to Vizio tv control.

Customer Service EXCELLENT

(Posted on 10/7/11)

Good player, only minor issues Review by Chekkaaa

Well, it's my first Blu-ray player, so I don't have much to compare it to. It works well. The internet was easy to set up with Wifi Protected Setup, and I LOVE the Netflix app.

The only problems I've had are minor:
1. The picture gets really dark randomly while watching movies and stays like that for a few minutes, then goes back to normal. Annoying, but not a dealbreaker. I'm assuming this is the "screensaver" function. If so, it's horribly broken. Why would I want the screen to darken in the middle of a movie? It really should only do that only when it's paused for a long period of time or something.
2. The firmware update removed the ability to connect via a wireless connection, requiring a wired connection. However, this was fixed by resetting the player back to the factory defaults.

(Posted on 9/12/11)

Everything works good Review by bdwilson

This VBR231 has been working fine. The remote seems cheap hard to press buttons yet the player it self has sensor buttons. Netflix is my only issue. The interface needs a search by movie title option. All my other devices have a search by title option. I do not like just browsing netflix and not being able to see everything unless I queue it up on the computer. I hope the next update will add Netflix search by title name.

(Posted on 9/12/11)

Works great! Review by Zach

I like it a lot. Since its wireless I have it hooked up in the bedroom and thats why I bought it. Wireless works great. Remote does kinda suck as other people said in the sense that its hard to press the buttons but the upside of that is that my son likes to press buttons and he can with that remote. All it needs is two things in my opinion....Hulu Plus as I think a lot of people are leaving their cable companies lately and the other is a sleep timer. If it had those two things, it would be perfect.

(Posted on 9/1/11)

Works great, but small hiccup... Review by kmb48

The VBR231 is great. The interface is intuitive, and it was easy to get up and running. The only hiccup we had was after the first firmware update. The data downloaded fine, but after the install and automatic restart, I no longer had a wireless connection option. The only option displayed was for an ethernet connection. The problem was resolved after I went into the Settings and reset everything (including the activated connections) back to the factory defaults. My wireless network magically reappeared, and we were up and running. I have since downloaded the most recent update, and after the restart, everything worked normally. The player connected to the wireless network automatically, and we were up and running...

Overall, can't beat the the value, and I would have to recommend it...

(Posted on 8/8/11)

everything but the remote Review by rich

my review is simple and short: we love everything but the remote! the buttons are hard to push on the remote and it does not respond quickley and it makes you frustrated otherwise it was great!!! i give it 4 thumbs up and if it werent for the remote i would give it five!

(Posted on 7/2/11)

Wireless Connection Review by purpltaz27

For anyone who has to reconnect the wireless every time you power on, try resetting to your factory default settings to wipe out all wireless networks. After the firmware update, I was having this issue because I had two "saved" networks and it couldn't decide which one to connect to. After clearing it, it connects every time now. Takes about 10 seconds after power-up.

Overall, highly recommended. Minor problems were fixed with the latest firmware update. Since we don't have cable, this gets treated almost like a cable box since we utilize Netflix on a daily basis.

(Posted on 5/31/11)

Reliable, but could use a few enhancements Review by TheManster

4 out of 5 stars
For the price, no other company can touch this, especially with this unit having built in w-fi. Out of the box I could not get it to work wireless, and was about to give up. I hooked it up with a cable, upgraded the firmware and now it works like a champ.

Some things I hope will be included with future firmware updates:
-Youtube
-Blockbuster On Demand
-avi, divx, mkv, mp4, wma support off disc and USB
-Fix the Weather App to remember my location (Zip Code)

(Posted on 5/18/11)