# Recommendations on a Blu-ray player?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-on-a-blu-ray-player/476824>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 12, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-on-a-blu-ray-player/476824 "2008-12-12T02:56:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-on-a-blu-ray-player/476824/21 "2008-12-14T01:07:44Z")

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> [@FilmGeek](#):
>
> Upconverted DVDs are no where near as good as Blu Ray.

I must respectfully disagree even though IANAFG :). I have a Sony Bravia 1080p 46" HDTV. I bought a high-end Pioneer Blu-Ray player, and have found that many good quality DVDs play incredibly well. Some don’t. For example, I rented Star Wars from NetFlix and got a standard version that I had to Zoom on to fill the screen. It was ho-hum. But I also have Wizard of Oz which just looks amazing. Just watched Live Free or Die Hard which looked great. I have also viewed several Blu-Ray discs and they look good but the difference is generally far from stunning.

I don’t know how much the upconvert results depend on the quality of the player. In hindsight I spent way too much on this player and Blu-Ray discs are too expensive, and I would have just gotten a high quality standard DVD player if I had it to over again.

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**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommendations-on-a-blu-ray-player/476824/22 "2008-12-14T01:49:37Z")

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> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> I must respectfully disagree even though IANAFG :). I have a Sony Bravia 1080p 46" HDTV. I bought a high-end Pioneer Blu-Ray player, and have found that many good quality DVDs play incredibly well. Some don’t. For example, I rented Star Wars from NetFlix and got a standard version that I had to Zoom on to fill the screen. It was ho-hum. But I also have Wizard of Oz which just looks amazing. Just watched Live Free or Die Hard which looked great. I have also viewed several Blu-Ray discs and they look good but the difference is generally far from stunning.

I’m going to have to second this, as much as it give videophiles the vapours. Movie with a lot of FX look great on BD, but on movies that are more actors and physical sets, the difference between an upconverted DVD and a BD is perceptible but by no means stunningly better.

Anyhow, [here’s an article that has some options for BD Live players.](http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6463_7-6645929.html) Wish I’d known to get a profile 1.1 when I was shopping ☹

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