by Ann-Katherine Souilliard

Created on: May 22, 2008

With the high cost of Blu-ray players, everyone is trying to get the most out the one they purchase. This can make finding an affordable one a little difficult because the technology is so new that is it continually being upgraded and you don't want the four or five hundred dollar piece of technology that you just purchased to be obsolete in six months. That said what are the options out there right now that will be the best player for the money you plan on spending?

If you want your Blu-ray player to do as much as possible, your best bet is still Sony's Playstation 3 gaming console. The Playstation 3 retails for $400 for the model with a 40GB hard drive and $500 for the 80GB hard drive model. If you play video games, the 80GB model is the better option because it is fully backwards compatible and it will play the games for the older Playstation systems. The 40 GB model will play games made for the original Playstation but not ones made for the Playstation 2. A big advantage to purchasing the Playstation 3 as your Blu-ray player is that it connects to the internet via an ethernet connection and will download updates to its firmware to keep current with the advances in Blu-ray technology. The price for the 40GB model is comparable to that of one of Sony's lower end freestanding Blu-ray players that do not have ethernet connectivity so even if you never plan on playing a video game on it its still a pretty good deal. Sony is currently repackaging both models with new games or movies, so they are currently difficult to find but the new packages are due out before the end of the summer.

Sony also has the best buy in freestanding Blu-ray players (probably because they originated Blu-ray technology). The Sony BDP-S550, due out this fall, has the most current version of Blu-ray technology built in and will have ethernet connectivity to keep it up to date. It most likely will only have HDMI outputs and which version of HDMI it will use is still being determined. Unfortunately, no more details were available on it at the current time other than that Sony expects it to retail for around five hundred dollars.

The best buy in freestanding Blu-ray players that are currently available is a model that Panasonic released at the start of May. The Panasonic DMP-BD50 retails for seven hundred dollars and has the most current version of Blu-ray built in and it has ethernet connectivity for updates. The only downside is that it is locked into HDMI version 1.3 which is not the most current version of that technology available. It does have analog audio outputs which is an advantage for people looking to add a Blu-ray player to an existing sound system that does not have HDMI inputs.

With the demise of HD-DVD technology, expect more manufacturers to get into the Blu-ray market so more, cheaper players will probably be available by the end of the year. When sizing them up, keep in mind that the technology is constantly improving and you should try to pick a player that can keep up with it.

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