Blu Ray player recommendation...

[Professor Zoom]

I'm going to steer clear of the "physical/owned vs. temporary/unowned" media argument (look between the quotation marks and you can guess my attitude) and actually take a slightly different direction in answering the OP's question.

Unless you're one of those who doesn't care about picture quality, or you don't plan on ever watching anything made prior to 2005 that hasn't been completely overhauled and changed from the original (Trek Remastered, for example), I'd actually be more concerned about the TV you have than the player. One of the things that turned me off HDTV and Blu-Ray initially was the fact my first exposure was 1080 LCD. And, frankly, unless you're watching sports, nature documentaries or concerts, 1080 LCD makes everything look like shit.

Anything made prior to the digital age is all grainy and pixelated - and like 20 year old VHS tape recordings. Newer films show up deinterlaced, which means the sheen of the film appearance is all but removed. The result being everything looks like it's shot on videotape. Which is great if you want to see Alice in Wonderland or Avatar look like The Starlost or 1970s Doctor Who. (I've been accused of talking out my ass on that one ... until I took someone to a tech demo and sat them down in front of a 1080 LCD and they agreed with me instantly.)

So what turned me around was getting a 780 plasma set. That gives you superior picture - not 1080 perhaps, but for most people you can't tell - and the film sheen is retained so it actually looks like a movie and not chromakey'd Doctor Who. And older DVDs look great, as does broadcast television in SD (for those who aren't paying the extra for the HD stations). I can't imagine everything Netflix sends out is full 1080 HD - the bandwidth would be atrocious - so I bet that stuff looks a lot better on a plasma, too.

Alex

I don't have a 1080 tv, so no worries there.

The blu ray is less about picture quality, though it is, I guess, and more about bringing netflix streaming to me TV set.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

You can't have DTS HD or Dolby Digital TrueHD from PS3

I suggest this player

http://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/video/LG-blu-ray-dvd-player-BD570.jsp

It can play mkv files from ntfs partitions too!

From the site:

Wi-Fi Connectivity
Yes
NetCast™ Entertainment Access
Yes
Internet Services
Netflix®, Vudu™, YouTube™, Roxio® CinemaNow, Pandora®, Picasa™, AccuWeather®
Blu-ray Support
Yes
Full HD 1080p resolution
Yes
Upscale Standard DVDs
Yes
USB 2.0 connectivity
Yes
No. of HDMI Ports
1
Express Reaction Startup
Yes
Disc Capacity
1
Disc Playback Capability
Blu-ray™ Disc, BD-R/RE, DVD, DVD±R/RW, Audio CD, CD-R/RW
Video Content Format
DivX®/DivX HD, MPEG4 AVC, HP@L4.1, MPEG2, HP@ML, SMPTE VC1, AP@L3, MPEG2, HP@ML, AVCHD, MKV
Home Link Playable Content Format
DivX®/DivX HD, MPEG2 TS/PS, MPEG1 SS, XVID, MKV, AVI, WMA, MP3, AC3, AAC, JPEG, PNG
SimpLink™ connectivity
Yes
Limited Waranty
1 Year Parts/90 Days Labor

This is a great player. I got one for Christmas.

 

[TheSeeker]

I've just taken a plunge into the Bluray pool and purchased a Samsung BD-C6500T at the recommendation of my brother (he has the same one). It's got WiFi, can connect to the internet and has netflix. The best part is it's come down in price here $20 since I bought it and where I bought it they have price protection, so I got the $20 refunded to me.

When my brother bought it, it was $219, now it's $169.

Here is the link to Future Shop where I bought mine.

Here is a link to a review of the unit at Bluray-Players.net. Although this one doesn't have the T in the model name I think it's identical.

That sounds pretty good. My Mom and Stepdad just got an HD TV and this might be just what they are looking for.

 

[hamudm]

I'm a collector and I like having physical media and stuff I can look at to know it's there and exists. I don't like searching through what I want to watch on a menu I want to go to uo to my shelf, select the video and put it in and enjoy.

I have over a thousand dvd/bluray/hddvd collection and Netflix is AWESOME IMHO. Being able to watch a bunch of stuff that I enjoy although may not be inclined to hunt out and purchase is a great option. Case in point: The Burbs, Farscape, etc...

 

[BillJ]

Unless you're one of those who doesn't care about picture quality, or you don't plan on ever watching anything made prior to 2005 that hasn't been completely overhauled and changed from the original (Trek Remastered, for example), I'd actually be more concerned about the TV you have than the player. One of the things that turned me off HDTV and Blu-Ray initially was the fact my first exposure was 1080 LCD. And, frankly, unless you're watching sports, nature documentaries or concerts, 1080 LCD makes everything look like shit.

This is complete and utter bullshit. Sorry. Do 80's TV shows (like TNG) recorded on video tape look bad? Yes... because the source is only 480i. Film has a much higher resolution than 1080p HD.

Have studios tried to pass off films scanned at DVD resolution (480p) as High-Def... yes. And you have to watch out for those... HighDefDigest.com is a good place to get honest reviews. But a film scanned at either 1080i or 1080p resolutions will look absolutely stunning. Check out 2001: A Space Odyssey or Close Encounters of the Third Kind or The Road Warrior or Blade Runner, all films shot before 2005.