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Buyer's Guide: The Best Blu-ray Players
A huge Full HD TV with 3D support and top-quality hi-fi speakers might take pride of place in your living room, but what's that dodgy old DVD player doing in the corner, sending a ropey picture to your top quality TV? It's time to get yourself a Blu-ray player that's up to the same standard as the rest of your kit. This buyer's guide lists all our current favourites.
Pierre Anzil
Translator: Sam McGeever
Updated: April 5, 2012
Translator: Sam McGeever
Updated: April 5, 2012
More Blu-ray Player Reviews
If you'd like more information about our Blu-ray player reviews, then you might like to consult the full selection to see which other products have paid a visit to our lab:
- Reviews: Blu-ray Players
- Reviews: Blu-ray Players
- Picture quality. Colour reproduction needs to be absolutely perfect, but that's not all. A good Blu-ray player also needs to be able to display old-fashioned DVDs properly as well, as it would be a real pity to neglect your DVD collection because your new Blu-ray player makes a mess of them. If you have Blu-ray 3D discs, you can expect to spend a little bit more for the privilege of watching in three dimensions.
- Inputs and outputs. Don't want to have to get rid of your trusty 7.1-channel analogue amp? Well you shouldn't have to—as long as you choose the right Blu-ray player!
- Media player. We know that not everything you want to watch comes on a DVD or a Blu-ray disc. It would be a shame to miss out on content stored on your hard drive, but if you look out for the 'DivX plus HD' standard, you can be sure to avoid any annoying 'file not recognised' messages.
- Online content. Sony, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic and LG all have their own online content platforms, but these can be quite variable. Some of them are so slow as to be unusable, while others add a wireless keyboard which can make surfing the web a real treat.
- Design and Build. What would you rather have in your front room: cheap plastic or classy brushed aluminium? It's not just the choice of materials that's important: different products can be made with very differing levels of attention to detail. Over time, cheap plastic can get scratched while aluminium that isn't tough enough can get dented.
With these factors in mind, here's our pick of the best Blu-ray players out there right now.
Editor's Choice 
With no analogue audio outputs and a fairly high energy consumption, this games console doesn't really stand up to comparison with a traditional Blu-ray player on paper. However, it produces an impeccable picture, supports 3D and has an unrivalled range support for multimedia content. That's something that other Blu-ray players won't beat for a long time..
Two Alternatives 
PS3 Style
Barely as big as a sheet of A4 paper, this Blu-ray player looks really quite similar to Sony's PS3. Plus, the BDP-S185 uses the same Crossbar interface as the console for an easy way to access content stored on peripherals or online (music, VOD, network streaming etc.) It's a user-friendly device that delivers accurate picture quality.
| MARCHANDS | € |
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| Amazon mark... | 49.95 | ||
| Compuvest | 62.15 | ||
| Buy.com | 83.99 | ||
| Dell | 88.00 | ||
| J&r mus... | 88.00 | ||
| Ebay | 89.00 | ||
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Great Value 3D
The BDP7600 might have a plain exterior, but that hides a powerful Blu-ray player. The Net TV platform is a little slow, but it really comes into its own if you use it with a wireless keyboard. The media player can do almost as good job as a dedicated device and image quality is quite simply perfect. This is THE Blu-ray player we've been waiting for!
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Buyer's Guide: The Best Blu-ray Players
