My 10-year old dvd player finally expired and I bought this one today: Sony BDP S3700.
I don’t have cable or satellite. I do have a Roku3. The DVD player has a port to connect an HDMI cable to the TV, and so does the Roku. The TV only has one HDMI port. I connected my old DVD player to the TV with the 3-headed, red-white-yellow cable (don’t know what it’s called).
Right now I have both the Roku and the DVD player connected to the router. And I have an HMDI cable connecting the DVD player to the TV. The Roku, though connected to the internet, is out of the DVD-TV loop. This DVD player performs the same function as the Roku, giving access to “channels,” like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, etc. (The DVD onscreen instructions refer to the channels as “apps.” I thought “app” was short for “application,” i.e., software. Everything in the world isn’t an app. :rolleyes: But whatever.)
Two questions:
a) Since the DVD player seems to be performing the function of the Roku, do I even need the Roku any more?
b) If I still do need the Roku, there must be some kind of connector/hub that will make it possible for me to connect two HDMI cables (Roku & DVD player) to my TV, right? Does this serve any purpose?
a) My experience with Sony players and Apps is that they are never quite as good as the ones on a dedicated Roku/AppleTV/FireTV (same for my Smart TV). Having said that, if you are happy with the Sony, unplug the Roku.
b) There are HDMI switches. Don’t know how well they work. Some, with fancy remotes, lots of connections might be as expensive as a new TV with more connections. Here is a cheap one.
The “three-headed cable” you’re referring to is a set of RCA connectors of which red and white are stereo analog connectors, and the yellow is called “composite video” which is an absolutely terrible way to connect a DVD player. You’d want minimally an svideo connection (which is a round multi-pin plug) but never mind – you now have HDMI with the new Blu-ray player and that’s the best of all
You may not need the Roku any more if the streaming Sony Blu-ray player offers sufficient streaming capability for what you need. But if you do, or if you introduce any other HDMI connected devices into the system, you’ll need an HDMI switch. Commonly HDMI switching is performed either by the TV if it has multiple HDMI inputs, by an HDMI-switching receiver if you have a home theater setup, or if you have neither of those, you can buy standalone HDMI switches for that purpose. But HDMI is the only way to go for HD video, and it can carry multichannel digital audio, too. A common arrangement is for the TV to get both video and audio via HDMI and then pass the audio through an optical cable to a receiver so you get better sound than out of the TV. However it gets complicated as to what the TV will or will not pass through and the other alternative is to connect the Blu-ray player’s optical out directly to the receiver.
When you say the Sony “Apps” (i.e. “channels”) aren’t as good, can you explain a little? I pretty much confine my watching to Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, and AcornTV. Do you mean that Sony doesn’t have as many channels as the Roku, or that the Sony versions of Amazon, Hulu, etc., aren’t as good as the Roku’s versions?
But if I do want to connect the Roku and the DVD player at the same time, looks like I’m going to need an HDMI switch, right?
I’m definitely going to need my Roku. I just scrolled through all the Sony’s channels, and one that I MUST have is AcornTV, and it’s not there. I guess what **jsag **meant about the channels not being as good is that the selection isn’t as good. And it’s definitely not.
For both questions: yes, probably. Roku updates its firmware/software through the wireless, while I don’t think many DVD players do that, or at least it’s not as easy.
I can’t speak for Sony, but my Samsung TV and Samsung DVD player both have “smart” features yet I still choose to use the stand alone Roku. The Samsung devices appear to have the channels I use, but my experience with their interfaces is not very good. I think this is true of software in general from these sort of companies. The streaming services aren’t their core business, but they have to have a check next to that feature on the box to remain competitive. So they implement it, but it’s not something they’re particularly competent at and I suspect they farm it out to the lowest cost developers possible. So the interfaces are clumsy and annoying. Roku lives and dies by streaming service support and adding enough additional value to justify their existence in your living room. I think they do a better job.