I’ve been thinking of getting a Blu-ray player for a while now, and with Cyber Monday approaching (or perhaps I’ll wait for after Christmas) I may want to pull the trigger. Here are my priorities:
Built-in WiFi - I don’t have Ethernet near where the player would be
Good up sampling - to play my existing DVDs
As many net video options as possible (Netflix, Vudu, Amazon, whatever)
Optical audio out would be nice (I currently have a 5.0 audio system - the receiver can do more, but that is what I have the speakers for)
Reasonably fast load times
Anything else I should look for?
All other things being equal, a region-free player is better than a single region one. Some movies and shows don’t get Region A1 releases (the Americas) but are readily available in B2 (the UK).
FWIW I had bought a Sony player and found it had troubles playing about 20% of my disks.It seemed to be a flaw in the model since a friend of mine who had the same one had a similar issue. I eventually just scrapped it and bought an LG which plays every disk I own. Ironically I preferred almost everything else about the Sony (the remote, the interface etc.) but I am happy with the LG.
I am reasonably sure unless you buy an extremely low end one, all will have WiFi and software that covers the major streaming services.
I just purchased the Samsung-BD-F7500-Upscaling-Blu-ray-Player and I’m quite happy with it. Loads very fast and streams Amazon Prime video very well. I don’t have any other service so I can’t comment on those, but it’s supposed to stream Hulu, Netflix, etc. Good 3D performance if you like that.
I agree you should stay away from appliances with a chaotic or evil alignment. And Lawful Good is perfect for a dryer or a microwave. But my experience is you’re better off with a Lawful Neutral Blu-Ray player. LG models might have issues with movies that are rated R or NC-17.
I haven’t been impressed with it. Most of these sidestream technologies trying to emulate Apple equivalents are unreliable and (in true Sony fashion) require same-manufacturer gear to work. I wouldn’t put any of these features on the must-have list, but have fun with them if they work for you.
I’d say get a PS3. Loads a lot faster than the standalone players I’ve used. Only thing it might not do is some of the streaming services (I know it does neflix, not sure about the others)
I’m not sure why people are recommending a PS3 as a Blu-Ray player. Certainly, it was the platform that drove BR to success over HD-DVD and into wide sales, but it’s overpriced and far from convenient to use as a simple player. A PS3 is $200 from Amazon; there are several excellent BR players (which, by the way, load much faster than the first gen) for $70-140.
You want a PS3 as a console? Great, and it will save you the need to buy a separate BR player. You want a BR player? You can do much better now buying one that suits your needs.
Are region-free Blu-ray players easily available? I use a PS3 to watch movies and it seems to phone home regularly for security updates. So can a region-free BD player get updates needed to play new titles without affecting the region-free aspect?