Pick of the Day – Blu-ray Player
2009
At last count we have used over a dozen different Blu-ray players and with the current trend of adding streaming services instead of addressing outstanding issues it appears the times aren’t changing. Each generation suffers from the same issues of the previous one.
Now we absolutely love Blu-ray and couldn’t enjoy a home theater without one. If you are looking for your first Blu-ray player we have two questions and if you can answer yes to both your choice is pretty easy.
- Can you live without an IR remote (the controller works so well there is no reason to purchase the RF remote)?
- Are you willing to spend $100 more than the least expensive models?
If you said yes to both the Sony PS3 is still the safest choice and best solution. Here are just a few of the reasons.
- It will play virtually every Blu-ray disc
- It’s faster than almost every other player
- Its audio and video quality is equal to exceeds every other player
- Firmware updates address issues before they become issues unlike other players
- It offers way more additional features than the current Blu-ray players are adding
- Retains a much higher resell value
- It’s an extremely powerful HD gaming system
So after using Blu-ray players for several years we are still right where we were in the beginning. Trying to find a good reason not to use the PS3 as our Blu-ray player. You can now buy a less expensive stand alone player which is what we would recommend versus going for the upgraded models that typically offer a few more streaming features that may or may not be relevant going forward.
If you are determined to avoid the PS3 at all costs and you care about superb Blu-ray and DVD playback go for the Oppo BDP-83. At $499 you’ll be paying a little more but you’ll get a player designed to excel with both Blu-ray and DVD rather than tacking on a few features and hoping you’ll find one interesting enough to purchase the player. Unfortunately none of the players are mature enough that they should be branching out. Let’s complete the Blu-ray player before we try to turn them into any number of other devices.
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