Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Best bluray player under $100?

getting my parents a bluray player for Christmas. Doesn't need any wifi featuers as they have a new sony LED LCD for netflix, etc. and I don't think they'd ever use the bluray live content on some discs.

Found a lg bd550 on amazon which is $85 bucks after a 10% coupon I have but it only has 3 stars from Cnet.

Any suggestions?

Try Insignia (Best Buy's house brand). Fast startup times, great blu ray picture quality. Decent (not the best, certainly, but very good) DVD upscaling (the Sony will likely do a better job at upscaling than any blu ray player in that price range ...).

Try checking out the NS-BRDVD3. It is a Blu Ray 2.0 player, with ethernet, Netflix, Pandora and CinemaNow (I know you said you didn't need these things, in which case, they will go unused).

David, maybe think about looking around for a refurbished model. As a starter, I do know Tigerdirect.com sells refurbished Blu-ray players. That said, I'm pretty sure most online retailers do.

Here are some at the Sony store . It looks like they have some nice models at a good discount, too.

I've had problems with my Panasonic DMP-BD65, so you might want to stay away from them.

I have the Panasonic DMP-BD60 and my sister has the 65. Neither of us has had any problems with these players.

My sister has that LG and it works just fine, no better or worse than my Samsung BDP1600

Thanks for the input. I'll probably either go with the
LG for $85 bucks or an insignia model that is $99 and has built in WiFi so they could access 2.0 features if desired.

I have never used BD live and found keeping it off allows the discs to load faster.

The problem with a BD player that doesn't have network access is that doing firmware updates is a lot more work. BD player need to be able to receive updates for compatibility with newer discs.

That is the one thing I like about my 1600 over my sister's 550. I can do updates over my network while she, well I, have to download to USB drive and then install or did I write it to a DVD, I can't remember

I agree with Chris - don't overlook the networking features. I've updated to a PS3 and a new Denon receiver with networking and I've already updated firmware 3 times. I avoided updating firmware on my older Oppo and receiver due to the hassle.

Plus, you never know what streaming capabilities you'd like to take advantage of in the future. And newer discs will probably require firmware updates and you know who your parents will call when one of the discs cannot be played You might appreciate the networking features more than they will.

Bryan

Oop's. For some reason it got in my head that you were looking for a Blu-ray player under $200. Man, sometimes I wonder if my idle legs are starting to affect my brain.

Yeah, the LG 550 is profile 2.0 and does have an ethernet port for updates, etc. just no wifi.

I really don't like the look of the wifi included $99 insignia and the LG750 with built in wifi is about $65 more than the ethernet only option which is more than I care to spend.

Looks like the $85 no wifi option will be the way to go, and if they want wifi they can buy a linksys wireless gaming adapeter as I did with my denon3808.

Thanks for the input as usual.

My only input based on personal experience is to steer clear of the cheaper Samsungs. My BDP1590 works fine for BluRay, Pandora and Netflix but has serious problems playing most standard DVDs.

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.

HDGURU has a good list of 12 Blu-ray players under $100.

http://hdguru.com/12-blu-ray-players-under-100-3-under-85/3491/

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Mike

I mentioned it in another thread...but, I DO like my Insignia. I've had no problems with it.

Sony 570 is a must buy at $138 !!!

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good deal. I think it listed for $250 in feb. or march. when it was realeased.

I think bestbuy has it on sale for a similar price.

Grabbed a BDP S-570 as an XMas present for my assistant. Couldn't resist the $138 deal at Best Buy.

Now I have to find a bow.

My parents really enjoyed the bluray player. I ran through the setup with them and it connected to wifi easily and seemed to load up fast.

I need to loan them a couple of my concert blurays now...

Had XMas dinner at my paralegal's house. Her family loves the Sony 570. Some animated dragon movie. Looked great.

Glad to hear about your folks Terzaghi.

Yeah, as a bonus their Sony TV remote automatically controlled the Bluray player without any programming.