Blu-ray Players

It was in September of last year that we first got wind that OPPO was developing a Blu Ray player. Since then we have received a boatload of emails asking us when it would become available. The good news for those who have asked is the answer is it is available today! The BDP-83 can be found online for $499.99 and is available...

It's pretty clear by now that Blu-ray won the high definition video disk war. By the end of this year HD DVD will be a distant memory and those who want to watch High Definition movies will need a Blu-ray player. There are a bunch of options out there for those in the market, and the Sony PlayStation 3 has been talked about as the most capable player available. For a long time it was the least expensive way to get a Blu-ray player. That isn't true anymore, but it's still close. It's currently available in two models, a 40 GB model for $399.99 and an 80 GB model for $499.99. Today we'll ignore the gaming side for the most part and look at how the device performs as a home theater device...

The format battle for HD disc is heating up this year as both HD DVD and Blu-ray push for entry level products under $500 with the goal being less than $200 by the end of the year. Panasonic just released the DMP-BD10A with an MSRP of $599 and one of our readers, Jack Wilson of BAJ Access Security, offered up one for a quick review.

The purchase of this product adds a Blu-ray 5 disc starter pack of the following titles: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Transporter, Fantastic Four and Crash. Limited quantities of players were shipped with the starter pack and promotional blurbs on the outside of box. If not included, this promotion runs until 09/30/07 to be claimed via US mail. Please check the Panasonic site for details.

One of the biggest complaints with the Blu-ray and HD DVD disc format war is the need to buy separate players for each format. If HD and film is your passion you have a difficult choice because not all movies will be released in both formats. A large portion of the potential "high definition disc" consumers are waiting for one of two things before investing their hard-earned dollars in another format: 1) a clear winner in the format war, or 2) a universal player. When LG unveiled their universal player at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES)...