What is the Best Blu Ray Player?

blu ray dvd playerWatching movies at home has never been quite the same since the introduction of the DVD machine. Offering so much more convenience and power than the traditional VHS tapes, DVDs could easily be fast-forwarded, re-played from specific scenes, paused indefinitely, and usually came with tons of extras, such as commentaries and blooper reels. Not only that, but the picture quality is so much better with a DVD. It seemed that there could be no improvement on this wonderful technology, but then it happened. A new, even better kind of DVD was introduced. Here’s how to choose the Best Blue ray player for yourself.

blue ray dvd playerThe Blu Ray player is designed by Sony and gives a high definition picture with a ton of storage, so even more extras can be packed into the disc. More and more movies are being released on Blue Ray as well as DVD now, so if your favorite movie isn’t available in this new medium yet, chances are it soon will be.

This technology uses a blue laser to read the disc and to write data to it. The blue laser has a shorter wavelength than traditional DVD lasers, which allows for a ot more data to be read. This is why these discs are produced in high definition. High definition is almost like watching reality, because you can literally see every pore on each actor’s face. The characters on the screen could be right in front of you, it looks so real! People who haven’t made the switch to this technology yet soon will.

Right now, there are four different types of players available for this type of disc. There is the audio only player, plus three video players. The video players differ in how much data they’re able to read. Choosing the best Blu Ray player is a relatively simple process. You just need to decide how much detail and realism you want in your movie viewing experience. You also need to know if you want your player to also be able to play CDs, enabling you to have a complete entertainment experience from just one machine. Then, find the appropriate machine that’s within your budget, and you’re all good to go!

Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player, Black Customer Reviews

Reviews from amazon.com

Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player5 starLot’s of features for the price., December 8, 2009

I was very pleased with this Blu-ray player out of the box. During initial setup the player discovered my Panasonic HDtv, and self-adjusted to the best settings for viewing. First thing I did was plug in my Ethernet connection and downloaded the latest firmware for the device. Very easy set up.

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5 stargreat for the price, December 7, 2009

Great player for $109 on 11/30. Take off the energy saving and load load time is nil. I didn’t plan on using the bd live too much so I didn’t realize this wasn’t wireless as it didn’t effect the purchase. Why make anything that isn’t wireless these days? I’m going to run a cable from the 1rst story of my house to my room?! Still, great player and unlike some that are slightly cheaper it has an open/close button on the remote. Something you might not think to look for but if you don’t have one it will agitate the bujesus out of you. doesn’t come with a flash card but for the price I wouldn’t expect one. Also the fan isn’t noisy so far which has been a problem on others for me in the past.

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5 starWorks for me!, December 5, 2009

When my final DVD player failed for the final time, I decided it was time to consider a BluRay player as its replacement. I read reviews from all over the Internet, and everything I read pointed to this device as being one of the best overall choices available for my particular needs. I was amazed at the price… it was over $50 less than what I payed for my Toshiba DVD player just a year ago. It took only minutes to set it up and, since it’s connected to the Internet, I downloaded and installed the latest firmware with no problem. Video quality is excellent… I have a Samsung PN58B650 Plasma TV and a Denon multichannel receiver. I can find no fault whatsoever with this player. Some have commented on the delay reactions… long load times, unload times, etc., but I’ve not found the amount of time required for these functions to be any more than what I experienced with DVD. DVD’s played on this unit have far better video quality than they did with my Toshiba up-converting DVD player, too. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone considering a BluRay player purchase.

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4 starGreat Deal – Amazon Streaming is good, December 4, 2009

I got this with a deal Amazon had around Black Friday 2009. Our DVD player was an ancient carousel that took up too much room and didn’t do any of the new cool internet enabled things. This one has almost everything I want. The Amazon streaming is great. We got a good amount of credit at the Amazon Video-On-Demand store for buying this and have already tested it out and enjoyed the convenience of being able to point and click for episodes of shows we missed and movies we want to see. I honestly think cable and satellite providers are doomed given new technologies like this. Combine this DVD player with a Windows 7 Media Center with dual tuners attached to an OTA antenna and you can almost replace your Cox/Dish/DirecTV.

The only things it doesn’t do that I wish it did are Netflix – even though I don’t subscribe I would probably subscribe if this player had it – and Pandora. However, it is updateable, so those features can still be added.

I honestly don’t even care much about the blu-ray player part. I think removable media is going the way of the buggy whip, so the only reason to even own that part is for your legacy discs. I am pretty sure digital downloads will surpass purchased DVD’s in the next few years.

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4 starGreat picture quality, but a little slow…, December 2, 2009

I bought this based on the other reviews here. I was mainly looking for something that would give me the best possible picture at a reasonable price. After using the player for a couple of months, I’d have to agree with the majority of the reviewers here. A summary of my PROs and CONs are:

PRO
1) Great picture quality.
2) Has read every disc I’ve thrown at it (smudges and scratches aside).

CON
1) Very slow to start up and load discs (much more then what I had expected – its really painfully slow)
2) The player gets hung up on discs that have the slightest smudge (both of my older standard DVD player have no problems with the same slight smudge, so this was surprising)
3) Navigating Blue-Ray menues can be a little slow.

In summary, if your looking for a player that puts out a top quality picture at a low price point, and don’t mind wiping smudges off your discs before loading or waiting around for it to start up, then it’s a good player to consider (I’d give it 5-stars if it wasn’t for those two things). If it drives you crazy to wait for a player to startup/load, or if you want a player with all the latest features (Netflix streaming for example) then you might want to look elsewhere.

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