Four of the best Blu-ray players

Round-up by: Ian Morris

Last updated: 18 Jan 2008

With HD DVD on its last legs, it seems like a pretty good time to do a round up of some of the best and most interesting Blu-ray players on the market. Of course, it's not all a bed of roses for Blu-ray. Despite having a lot of studio support, the players come in a variety of capabilities and not one of them supports the same specification.

For example, Sony's own BDP-S1E doesn't support Profile 1.1, which means that if you buy it, you won't be able to enjoy enhanced interactivity and picture-in-picture support. A sniff around and you might get it for less than £500, but that's still more expensive than Sony's own PlayStation 3.

The good news is that if you want a PS3, it's a good Blu-ray player. Some say it's the best -- and they might be right -- because it's upgradable, has all the features of Profile 2 and Profile 1.1, and can also play PS3 games. You can pick one up for about £300 these days, which means it's one of the better valued high-end players on the market. Of course, this is because the PS3 is being subsidised by Sony. So if 20 million people bought one and never bought any games, Sony would go bust in three minutes flat.

If you don't want a Sony player, then how about going for either the high end or the low end? At the bottom of the range, there is the Sharp BD-HP20H, which at just £300 really is quite cheap for a standalone. It doesn't support Profile 1.1, but then again neither does the Pioneer BDP-LX70 and it costs quite a lot more.