Oh, it's the Blu-Ray

For those of you thinking about investing in a Blu-Ray player, there are things you need to consider. Blu-Ray players not only play Blu-Ray discs, some offer the opportunity to download updated special features for your movies, stream movies from online sources and play files from an external hard drive. These features are dependent upon which blu-ray player you desire to purchase for the price.

A great basic blu-ray player is Panasonic's DMP-BD45. This player has basic blu-ray playback with DVD upconverting. (For those of you who don't know, dvds are usually at a resolution of 480p. HD video is 1080p. Upconverting makes your dvds look better on your HDTV) It has surround sound output and only costs around $150.

For those of you who want more features with your blu-ray player, LG's BD590 can be had for $350. Along with a blu-ray player, this player comes with access to Youtube, Picasa web picture album, Netflix, Pandora, Vudu and includes a 250GB hard drive for any movie files you want to add directly to it. It comes with a USB drive so you can access any videos on an external hard drive. Except for the PS3, this is my recommendation for people who want it all.

Lastly, though, is the PLAYSTATION 3. For the cost and features, this is truly the deal. For the smaller hard drive (160GB), the device is only $300. In additon to playing Netflix, Youtube, CNN video, Comedy Central and many other videos that you can find online, this is the only video gaming device that can play blu-ray discs. So, for $300, not only do you get a wonderful blu-ray player, but you have the ability to play the newest and most advanced video games to come out on a console.

Am I biased? I do only own one of the three options I wrote about above, but I understand some of the needs that a consumer may have. I also know that not everyone NEEDS to have all the bells and whistles. Hopefully, I have provided a little information about some of the options that are available to you for blu-ray devices. I have provided a link below for the best blu-ray players for certain situations, if you desire to look more.

And please, if you have any ideas or questions about something you'd like me to explain for you involving technology, let me know. I would be more than happy to spout off!





FOR MORE IDEAS, CLICK HERE