In my opinion it really doesn't make much difference when it comes to brand, other than having the right features you are looking for. It's not like the analog days where you had to pay more money for a multi-head VCR with hi-fi sound and S-video output and get really good connectors, or what have you. The digital signal of a Blu-ray should theoretically be the same whether it is Sony or LG. I think the upscalers might be a bit different across brands but I've never heard of a DVD looking worse on a BD player than a DVD player so worst case it looks the same.

I've had experience with Sony, Toshiba and LG players. As far as I can tell they all work the same, but Sony is the most expensive, Toshiba is in the middle, and LG is the cheapest, simply because of brand name value. I'm sure if you got an LG player you would have no complaints. Check the reviews before you buy to make sure it is reliable though, some cheap models tend to skip or have long load times but LG is a pretty decent brand, especially for the price you pay.

I got a Samsung BR player because I have a Samsung TV. It's been working fine for me. (The TV AND the player)

<p>AFAIK Sony's PS3 was long time one of the best DVD upscaler on the market. (At the dawn of BD.)</p>
<p>Maybe you want to look for a more like "cheaper" Brand product, if you are planning on importing movies from Europe or Asia, because the BD Players of big brands seldom have region free options.</p>
<p>Also region free european BDs (exspeccially from germaqn smaller labels) may not work on an US Player, if there is PAL encoded SD material, like trailers or extra features.</p>

I've been pretty happy with the two Panasonics I own. The upconversion is top notch, and startup/load times are tolerable. My LG BD/HD DVD combo, not so much, but it's a weird beast to begin with. I would have gotten rid of it, if not for the region hacks someone thoughtfully put out there. I had pretty rotten luck with LG electronics back when they were Goldstar in the 80's. Had I known about the name change sooner, I might not have bought one of their players.

I have read Toshiba's early BD models were made by someone else, as they were in a hurry to get in the market, and make people forget the whole HD DVD debacle. Don't know if that's still the case.

My first BD player was a Sony, aside from having a noisy fan, being almost as large as a Laserdisc player, and being really slow, it did have good upconversion.

Thankfully, the days of constant firmware updates seem to be behind us.

If you can get a 3D capable model at a good price, go for it even if you don't have a 3D set yet.

What's "right" changes every six months or so these days. (At this rate there will be a tiny BR player the size of thick DVD case before too long.) I still remember when Pioneer kept the same models in their product lines for 18 months or longer.

The refresh rate is only an issue if you like sports, play lots of videogames, or want all your movies with the "soap opera effect" turned on. (Most sets have it turned on out of the box.) Your eyeballs will tell you more than any spec sheet. Watching a scene from a movie you know like the back of your hand helps too.

Most properly mastered DVD's look good upscaled. Some older discs can look a bit ragged, especially if you sit close to the screen. It's also important a set have proper zoom modes for letterboxed material, especially if you still have a lot of old video formats lying around. My Panasonic players can zoom letterbox on the fly, not sure about the other brands.

My LG Blu Ray player was about 60 bucks a year or 2 ago. It plays AVCHDs (which is why I chose it). Overall I haven't had any problems with it, and it does a fantastic job upscaling dvds.

Aesthetics. Unfortunately those motors will break at some point, and they will be very difficult and expensive to replace.

I don't trust slot loaders myself, I've seen CD's in car players get scuffed up too much.

Right now at Gamestop you can get a used PS3 for about $120. The disc tray will probably conk out in ten or twelve years, but for an extra $40 compared to a stand alone player that's a pretty good fee to get access to the great PS3 library. For all anyone knows standalone BD players have the same lifespan.

If you have the original models from first release they even were PS2 compatible but these probably aren't what Gamestop sells used these days.

DominicCobb said:

I got a Sony a couple of years ago for under a hundred and it is pretty damn good. I don't have it hooked up to the internet, but I know someone has the same player as me and theirs is, and it's got some cool capabilities. I don't really know what else to say except it's quick, and when I turn it on it turns on my TV too. I don't know how it does that.

My Samsung TV & player do can do that. It's done through the HDMI cable...they talk to each other. The BR turns off if I turn the TV off, too.

It's soo cool. :)

All my stuff does that.  It's a magic process called "using a universal remote." :p

SilverWook said:

I don't trust slot loaders myself, I've seen CD's in car players get scuffed up too much.

I hear you. Everytime I load a disc into my car player, all I can think of is this:

 

I have a Sony BDP S-360 and the only problem I've had with it is that the latest firmware update is somehow incompatible with recent 20th Century Fox titles.  I couldn't play Avatar, Predators or The A Team.  Either there's a bug in their firmware they haven't fixed or Fox is so heavy handed with the copy protection that the player can't read through it.

hairy_hen said:

If you can afford it, I definitely recommend getting an Oppo player, because the company's support for their products is fantastic and you'll get top of the line performance for a fraction of the price from any other high end manufacturer.  Otherwise, the PS3 is widely respected for its Bluray capabilities and will give better results than many standalone players out there.

This is great advice. If the idea of spending $500 on a Blu-ray player doesn't make you choke, the Oppo BDP-93 is the way to go. Oppo's latest firmware adds 24fps playback for film-based DVDs, which is really nice if you have a lot of DVDs and something that pretty much no player supports because it requires top-flight video processing (like only the Oppo can do). The PS3 would be next on my list.

I really like my Oppo, but I've gotten to the point where I'm sick of dealing with FBI warnings, copyright warnings, commentary disclaimers, and forced trailers (there are literally 5 or 6 trailers on the remastered Total Recall BD). I'm experimenting with ripping my BDs (losslessly) to MKV, storing them on a media server, and using a dedicated media player to access them.

Ziz said:

I have a Sony BDP S-360 and the only problem I've had with it is that the latest firmware update is somehow incompatible with recent 20th Century Fox titles.  I couldn't play Avatar, Predators or The A Team.  Either there's a bug in their firmware they haven't fixed or Fox is so heavy handed with the copy protection that the player can't read through it.

I have a Sony player too. Though it still plays Avatar since I haven't updated the firmware since ever really. Never had to bother. Plays everything I put into it so far. Aside from this one time I experimented and tried to play some old wmv files in it. Played some of the wmv files, just not all. I also put some mpg files in there that it played just fine.