What are good models of Blu Ray DVD players?...

[dave4shmups]

I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for one (and I don't have a PS3, just a 360, BTW), and my HDTV only has one HDMI input. I don't what manufacturers are good, and which one's aren't, or whether I have to use an HDMI cable with a Blue Ray player. I do have component inputs on my HDTV. I don't want one for the better picture quality, so much as I do for the extra features which are increasingly on Blu Ray only. So I wouldn't care if I used regular old AV cables with it.

[Fudoh]

If you buy a NEW Blu-Ray player, manufactured after february 2012, then HDMI is mandatory. HD output through component (from BD) is forbidden by now. Most cheaper players now only offer HDMI and composite. From a quality standpoint (in terms of BD picture quality) it hardly makes a difference wether you pay $80 or $500 for a BD player. The differences are mainly in DVD upscaling quality and other features, like netflix access or media player playback.

The best players around are from Oppo, but here we're talking $500.

If you are shopping for an older player with component HD playback, be aware of the fact that component from BD is limited to 1080i60, so you're missing out on 1080p24 (studder-free playback of movie BDs).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Some of those older 2006-2007 produced Blu-Ray players from various manufacturers including the Sony BDP-S550 Blu-Ray player have the usual multi-A/V outputs including component video, HDMI, RCA composite video & S-Video. In the audio department, there'd be the usual RCA styled left & right phono outputs in addition to Toslink (Digital Optical), Digital Coaxial output, and lastly, a 7.1 analog audio output for use with the older stereo A/V recievers that didn't have HDMI inputs yet (but used component video input/outputs from a few years earlier 2003-2005).

By going with a stereo A/V reciever setup, you'd plug in one HDMI cable from said Blu-Ray player into the reciever and a second one going from the HDMI out port of said reciever into the HDTV's single HDMI input. Easy as pie. Not to mention most basic modern-day A/V recievers already have built-in support for 3D Blu-Ray players and 3D HDTV monitor setups. You can easily hook up the 360's HDMI cable into the A/V reciever and still play your favorite games via selecting the proper input channel on the reciever's handy remote.

The newer basic Sony Blu-Ray players in the $150.00 price range & up, some do have 3D Blu-Ray capability from the get-go (which was added as a new feature/highlight back in 2010 -- just when the newfangled 3DTVs were being introduced to the North American A/V market).

With a PS3 console, it doubles as a standard Blu-Ray & 3D Blu-Ray player from the get-go.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[dave4shmups]

OK, thanks for the advice! I definitely don't care about things like Netflix access. I'd like to get one of the new slim-PS3's (the ones that come with Uncharted 3), but I don't know anything about their durability. I'm assuming it's fine; as Sony has been making PS3's for years now.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The durability of the PS3s have come a long ways since the 1st gen consoles from late 2006. You won't be dissapointed if you pick up the latest PS3 that comes with Uncharted 3 as a pack-in game.

Those cool widgets such as Netflix are there to provide extra value-added content if you do wish to sign up for those particular services. You can even watch free streaming movies, anime and classic TV shows off of Sony's own Crackle widget on their own dedicated Blu-Ray players and on the PS3 as well. How cool is that?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BuckoA51]

I'm no fan of Sony the company but I've really found the PS3 to be a great blu-ray player, especially on discs that are heavy on special features or if you use things like BD-Live, other players can really chug along but the PS3 remains quite responsive, I guess all those cores are useful for that

[PC Engine Fan X!]

What's nice about the PS3 is, if any newer Blu-Ray revisions are released, a simple firmware update is all that's needed to get it to the latest specs. With a dedicated Blu-Ray player, you'd have to hook it up to a high-speed connection or use the handy built-in Wi-Fi to upgrade it to the latest specs. Yeah, some dedicated Sony Blu-Ray players have an option to boot up Blu-Ray discs faster but at the expense of activating a cooling fan (that remains continously "on" until powered down for the night) to do so (or if you select normal boot-up without cooling fan functionality, start up times could be anywhere from two to three minutes tops). Such is the trade-off for the ability to start up Blu-Ray discs faster (with the newer Sony Blu-Ray players from 2010 onward).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[neorichieb1971]

I've got 3 PS3's (60GB's) and only one had a blu ray disc drive issue so far.

If you want standalone I would go for a Panasonic. If you want a PS3 I would go for the slim model thats been out a couple of years now. Its quiet, got HDMI 1.4 and its reliable. Plus you get netflix, youtube, internet browser, firmware updates, media serving and so much more. If your a games player, the PS3 is far and beyond the best choice.