Best Blu-Ray Players

Blu-Ray Players have three different profiles, and each profile has a different set of required hardware features, which affects the kind of special features you can play on certain discs.

Profile 1: Profile 1.0 is the original hardware requirement for Blu-ray players. You'll have no problem playing back a movie, listening to standard audio commentary or using interactive "pop-up" menus, but you won't be able to access advanced features like picture-in-picture video commentary or download any extra content online.

Manufacturers are no longer allowed to create Profile 1.0 players, but it's not rare to see the older units still being sold. With the price of Profile 1.1 players falling quickly, you should avoid the profile 1.0 players.

Profile 1.1 There are different hardware requirements, but it basically boils down to the addition of picture-in-picture functionality. Typically, Blu-ray movies use this feature to enable a small window of video commentary, where a director or actor talks about a scene while it happens in the background. Profile 1.1 players need to have the secondary video and audio decoders necessary to play a smaller video in the corner, many Blu-ray Discs include this feature.

Profile 2 Despite Profile 1.1 also being known as Final Standard Profile, there's actually still another Blu-ray specification, Profile 2.0, also known as BD-Live. The reason it's called BD-Live is that the major difference between profiles 1.1 and 2.0 is that Profile 2.0 requires that the player have an Internet connection, usually via an Ethernet port. Although some Profile 1.1 Blu-ray players have an Ethernet port, these are strictly for firmware updates and can't be used to access downloadable content. The other major requirement is 1GB of storage capability. All that means is that the player has to have some way of adding storage to the player.

Ok, so it's not exclusively a Blu-Ray Player, however the built in player is of the highest quality, and with the PS3's ability to download the latest software and firmware updates as soon as they become available the PS3's Blu-Ray payer will always be ahead of the competition and never out of date. You may be thinking at a little under £300 it's a bit pricey for a Blu-Ray player (and you would be right). But if you have any interest at all in gaming then it is well worth the extra money. It also has the ability to store and show photo's and home movies, browse the net, access email and messenger and download demos and film trailers from the online sony store. So there are a lot of reasons to invest that little bit extra for a PS3.

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This Samsung is a bargain at under £140. Experience Full HD Blu-ray Discs, or get more out of your existing DVDs with up-scaling that converts SD DVD to Full 1080p high definition. This isn't the most stylish set available but you can't really argue with the price, and quality wise is up there with the best.

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With this great Sony player you get astounding HD clarity. This player also outputs HD1080p / 24p True Cinema picture and up-scales existing DVD's to provide the best possible picture quality via HDMI connection. It is also Blu-Ray Live enabled so you can enjoy all the special features on the latest Blu-Ray discs.

Right now at play.com you can get Slumdog Millionaire On Blu-Ray free when you buy the Sony BDP-S350.

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