Best Blu Ray Player

The LG BD370 looks very sleek – the cool blue ring displayed on the front really sets off the sleek black finish to the unit perfectly. It boots up really quickly, playing Blu Ray discs in a matter of seconds. It up scales DVDs extremely well too. The 1080p output is crisp and hugely impressive; a definite improvement on the 1080i output from Sky+ HD. Sound is greatly impressive too.

The LG BD370 is also remarkably simple to use, you can have it connected to the internet within minutes of unpacking it, this device also has updatable firmware, which can be downloaded directly to the device or to disk or flash drive direct for the LG website then up loaded to your Blu Ray player. This machine even comes with the YouTube function. The YouTube support is excellent and providing you have a good internet connection streams really well. This is a great addition to the product as you can easily spend many hours surfing the tube checking out videos with very little effort at all.

The Live functionality is really simple to use, the LG BD370 gives you access to not only youtube but BBC iplayer and demand 5 aswell as various other players. This is a great feature to have as you can watch back some of the programs you may have missed in the week.

This device also comes with a sleek and responsive remote control that can be linked to an LG TV to control its main functions. This is a handy little extra to have as it saves you having to hunt around for another remote that you have inevitably lost down the side of the sofa, every time you want to watch a film.

The home menu display is also slick looking and all of the options and settings are simple to access, navigate and set. This device also has the capability to play DivX and other media files straight from your flash drive. This is great to have as you can play your home movies through your LG BD370 so that you can watch them on your TV as oppose to your computer. You can also upload and view your pictures from your flash drive too, although they are up scaled to the size of your TV they still display in great quality. If that’s not enough, you will be happy to know you can also play your music directly through the USB drive.

All in all, for the amazing price of just 70 pounds, this is a fabulous piece of technology and it comes very highly recommended. It looks really modern and stylish, it’s jam packed full of great features, it has a really fast operating and loading speed, it’s very easy to use and it outputs a fabulous 1080p picture and excellent sound quality. Which adds up to an epic film viewing experience. The LG BD370 is potentially the best Blu Ray player for anyone making the transition from DVD to Blu Ray, you won’t be disappointed.

One of the most sought after Blu Ray players on the market at the moment is the LG BD550. This LG model has a glossy black finish and a simple unfussy look to it. DVDs look great when played on this machine and its improved image quality will easily win over any sceptics. Blu Ray discs look superb and colours and sharpness appear just as great as they do on more expensive players.  Although this may not be the best Blu Ray player on the market it is perfect for beginners as its very user friendly and easy to set up, it is also excellent value for money currently retailing at around 70 pounds. Blu Ray technology has become so much cheaper over the last 12 months as this player now does what a 300 pound machine would have done back then.

The LG BD550 is very easy to set up you pretty much just have to connect it to the TV via a HDMI cable and turn it on. There is a USB port on the player so you can play films and video files straight from your data stick. You can also play films from discs in DivX format which is much more convenient then having to watch them on your PC. The disc loading times on Blu Ray discs isn’t as quick as DVD, but the machine its self is much quicker than some of the higher spec older models.

If you have an LG tv then you can take advantage if the LG BD550’s “simplink” feature, this means you can control both your TV and Blu Ray player with the same remote control, which can prove quite handy as that’s one less remote to lose down the sofa…This device also has upgradable firmware which can be done by downloading the file to a disc or USB direct from the LG website and uploading it to the Player.

As this is a fairly basic model there are some features that it does not possess. Such as, there is no Netcast facility, so you won’t be able to watch BBC iplayer or Youtube straight from your broadband. There is also no optical output and the device doesn’t allow digital networking so you will not be able to share content with other devices.

To sum up the LG BD550 I’d have to say this is the perfect machine for those of you who want to take the leap to Blu Ray and replace their DVD player. It straight forward to use and probably contains more features than most people would ever use. If you are looking for WiFi and an excess of advanced features then this isn’t for you, but if you are looking for a machine that is simple and easy to use, can play DVDs, Blu Ray disks and files from your USB stick and comes at a great price for what you get, Then the LG BD550 is the Blu Ray player best suited to you.

The LG BD570 is another great piece of technology brought to you by LG. This Blu Ray player is really easy to get started, you literally just need to remove it from the packaging and connect it to your TV via a HDMI cable, then you just run through a few simple set up options and you’re ready to start enjoying your favourite movies on DVD and Blu Ray.

This machine supports full 1080p HD for an out of this world quality of picture. There is also no faulting the clarity of the sound and the DTS works exceptionally well through a good surround sound system. The LG BD570 also lets you play files directly through a networked laptop, so good by wires.

The LG BD570 has really simple and easy to navigate menu, making it very user friendly. This device will pretty much play anything you throw at it; you also won’t be disappointed with the quality of up scaling, this provides great improvement to picture quality on standard DVDs.

You might be happy to know that the LG BD570 also has WiFi connectivity to allow you to link to your home broadband and stream material straight from a NAS, or access youtube, BBC iplayer or demand 5. You can also plug a flash drive straight in to the USB port and watch media files, view photographs and listen to music through your TV. This machine also has the BD live feature.

The BD live feature utilizes your internet connection to allow you to download additional content for you BD-live movie (Blu-Ray disc). This is great as normally when you buy a DVD or Blu Ray disc; it comes with a certain amount of extra features, some good some bad. Like them or not you only have what’s on the disc when you first buy the movie. But with a internet connection BD live player your movie is able to download additional features other that the ones that came on the original disc, this also allows you to participate in adding features to your movie.

Unfortunately the LG BD 570 does appear to be somewhat under powered when it comes to driving Java GUI, so you might find it’s probably not quite has smooth as it could be. Also the outer casing and remote control could be made a little better as they currently do have a slightly cheap feel to them. This can be over looked though as you can pick one of these up for around 90 pounds, which is a great price for this much technology.

So all in all the LG BD570 may not be the best Blu Ray player, but never the less it is still a really good buy, it is really simple to use and very user friendly, so it’s great for first time Blu Rayers. It also has a great range of new technology for someone looking for something slightly more advance, it provides great picture and sound quality and to be fair all this for just 90 pounds,  you can’t really go wrong.

If you’re looking for plug and play simplicity, then this is the Blu Ray player for you. The Panasonic dmp-bd75eb-k is a small compact design, great for use in the lounge or bedroom. As far as set up goes it doesn’t get much simpler than this, you literally just plug it into your TV via a HDMI lead; turn it on and away you go.

The Panasonic dmp-bd75eb-k has a super fast disc loading time, that is considerably quicker than that of its past generation players. This machine is equipped to cope with the highest picture resolution of 1080p and provides excellent picture and sound quality every time, so that you can enjoy all your favourite movies to their full potential. This machine has exceptionally quick load time and up scales DVDs really well.

The remote control is a good size and very responsive. It also has the “simplink” feature which will allow you to operate your TV and Blu Ray player with the same remote control, providing your TV is also Panasonic.

Unfortunately the Panasonic dmp-bd75eb-k only features HDMI and video/left right audio (red white and yellow) connections. This could be a problem if you wanted to connect in to a top of the range surround sound system via an optical cable. So in that respect I suppose this machine is slightly more suited for the bedroom as appose to the lounge.

On a more positive note the Panasonic dmp-bd75eb-k does have a USB drive; this means you can plug a USB stick containing music or video straight in to the device and watch and listen to your media through your TV. Although this is a good feature to have you may find that I will not be able to load files over about 4 GB as it will only run at fat32, so that pretty much rules out feature length HD home movies.

So all in all we conclude that the Panasonic dmp-bd75eb-k is probably best suited for newbie’s to the Blu Ray world or people just looking to upgrade from DVD. This device has everything you need if what you are looking for is a player to watch DVD and Blu Rays on, thats simple and easy to use and doesn’t require much setting up. Also you are only looking to pay around 75 pounds for this Blu Ray player so if simple and affordable is what you are looking for then this is surely the right machine for you. However if you are a bit of gadget guru and you’re looking for an all singing all dancing Blu Ray player that you can hook up to your home cinema system or tap in to your home WiFi and stream live video from youtube, BBC iplayer or demand 5.then this really isn’t the device for, depite the range of features the Panasonic dmp-bd75eb-k player has, they are not a patch on some of the more advanced machines. We hope you have found this review somewhat insightful and it has aided you in deciding which is the best Blu Ray player for you.