Buying a Blu-Ray Player

When it comes to HD, Blu-ray is the new gadget to buy. Blu-ray is an optical disc storage medium, very much like a CD or DVD. The quality that separates it from CDs and DVDs is that Blu-ray uses a blue wavelength light to read the disc (hence the name Blu), while CDs utilize red lasers. Since a blue laser's wavelength is substantially shorter than that of a red laser's, Blu-ray has the ability to store enormous amounts of information on one single disc. Earlier in its short life, Blu-ray was involved in a conflict with HD DVD, but soon won over as the leading manufacturer of HD DVDs announced that they would only be selling Blu-ray discs.

So now that you have decided on purchasing a Blu-ray player, the question is, which one? Since its inception in early 2008, the Sony BDP-S550 has taken the video community by storm. The S550 is a step up on its older brother the S350, as the S550 offers 1 more Gigabyte of onboard memory and onboard decoding for DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio (meaning it produces high quality surround sound). Look for the Sony BDP-S550 to be an average price of around $390-$450, as it is relatively new.

Another great stand-alone Blu-ray player is the Panasonic DMP-BD55. It has a slim, sleek design, and it's Profile 2.0 and compliant. This means that with the access to a mini-SD card and an ethernet cable, you will be able to access some internet enabled features on various movies. In addition to the ability to play high quality movies, the Panasonic Blu-ray player can automatically detect aspect ratio, meaning that if you throw in a movie that doesn't exactly fit the screen specifications, the player will self-adjust so as to play the movie within the correct proportions.

In addition to the video features, the Panasonic DMP-BD55 offers great sound quality. With onboard decoding for all high-resolution soundtrack formats, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, you don't need a new receiver to take advantage of the improved audio quality. This is a great Blu-ray player for those who love to mess around with the menu and tweak things, as the customizable features are many. The average price is around $380, so it's not that expensive either.

Even so, if you are looking for an extremely versatile gaming machine that offers the ability to play Blu-ray discs, the Sony Playstation 3 is the best alternative. It is a gaming console packed together with a Blu-ray player. With the ability to detect Blu-ray discs right after you put them in, the Playstation 3 has quick loading times, and pretty much all of the features a stand alone Blu-ray player would have. Besides, it only costs around $400 for a Sony Playstation 3 with a built in 40GB hard drive. And this isn't even mentioning the gaming possibilities that are available.

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