In our largest test of Blu-ray players so far, we found that satisfying picture quality has become almost a given, while features and price vary considerably. You can pay as little as $160 for a recommended model or as much as $500, depending on the capabilities, bells and whistles you’re willing to pay for. Portability commands top dollar. The first portable Blu-ray player we’ve tested, the Panasonic DMP-B15, is priced at $700. Our latest Blu-ray player Ratings (available to subscribers) include 27 models that have a few features in common. All have BonusView, a picture-in-picture feature that lets you view additional content in a smaller window while a movie is playing, and all can upconvert standard DVDs to quasi-HD resolutions. Only a handful of the players, mostly priced at $300 and up, have BD-Live, a feature that allows the player to access directors’ commentaries, deleted scenes, games, and more from the movie studio’s servers. Other models are BD-Live-ready. These players, all priced at $200 and up, have the required Ethernet connection, but need additional memory (typically a 1GB USB flash drive, which costs $10 to $15) for the BD-Live feature to work. Another feature showing up on some of the higher-priced models is the ability to stream movies from online services such as Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand, or receive music streams from Internet radio stations such as Pandora. And more players now have USB ports or SD card slots, so you can play digital photos, music and even videos on your TV. One model, a Panasonic, has a built-in VHS player, a space-saving option for those who still watch tapes. Again, you’re not likely to find these features on the lowest-priced players. We expect prices to drop over the next several months, especially during November’s Black Friday shopping period. Rumors suggest we’ll see the first $100 model. So keep checking back here for updates. —James K. Willcox