Well I ended up going with the Sony BDP S-570 instead. Reviews of the LG550 mentioned several people had problems with blurays skipping and I decided something with built in wifi would be nice (even if it's just for updates and profile 2.0)
Got it on amazon for $138 which was a little more than I wanted to spend.
The Sony 570 has built in wifi which will allow for ease of firmware upgrades, access to profile 2.0 content, etc. All reviews of the 570 are excellent in terms of bluray playback without issues. There are a few negative reviews in regards to the streaming services occasionally cutting out but this isn't and issue as they will use their TV for all of these services.
The TV they have is a Sony LED so they will be familiar with the menu interface, etc. Also it should be easy to program their TV remote to control the Bluray player.
I was going to get a 4' monoprice hdmi cable for $2.50 but I woudl have to pay for shipping and wasn't sure if it would arrive on time with out the expensive 2 day shipping option.
I went with an amazon basics HDMI cable which is 6.5 feet long (a little longer than I wanted to give them), but at $7.99 with free 2 day shipping through amazon prime it was the better deal.
I've never tried amazon brand HDMI cables but I'm assuming it will work just fine.
