Watching a movie on an HDTV - a Blu-ray player delivers an incredible viewing experience.
Consumer reports tested more than 40 Blu-ray players, costing as little as $80 all the way up to $650.
The most important test - assessing picture quality. The good news - every Blu-ray player rated "excellent" for high-definition picture quality- from this Oppo, which sells for $500, to this Samsung, which costs $140.
And lower-priced players can still pack in plenty of features, like a USB port, so you can watch home videos on your TV and Internet capability, which allows you to access movies online if you pay for a service such as Netflix.
"Some of the Blu-ray players are Wi-Fi capable, which means you can connect to your home network wirelessly," Jim Willcox said.
Another consideration - how long it takes the player to load a movie. Consumer reports times how many seconds it takes until the first screen appears.
"This one took only nine seconds, but some took as long as 37," Thomas Maung said.
If a 3D TV is in your future, consumer reports recommends the $200 Sony DBPS570 Blu-ray player, with built-in Wi-Fi.
"Right now there's not a lot of 3D content, but all these machines will play Blu-ray discs and regular DVDs. And you'll be set to go should you decide you want to buy a 3D TV," Willcox said.
Not likely to go 3D any time soon? Then this Samsung BDC5500 is a good choice. And it's a consumer reports best buy at $140.
If streaming movies from the Internet is important to you, be aware that Blu-ray manufacturers have agreements with certain service providers. The two recommended Blu-ray players in this report stream movies from Netflix.
