Welcome to the exciting world of buying your first Blu-ray player. No matter if you are a technophobe or a gadget freak, there is a Blu-ray player out there for you. The first issue anyone relatively new to Blu-ray will encounter is that there is an abundance of new terminology and functionality to get your head around. Fear not as below we offer advise around three areas to enjoying the new wave in visual and audio excellence (your choices will obviously influence price):
1 To Brand or not to Brand
As happens with most new technologies, the Brands (e.g. Panasonic Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony, etc.) are generally the first to offer products around the new technologies. This is no different with Blu-ray players; just take a look at /a>
2 The Basics (must have)
Fortunately, for the average user, even a ‘bottom of the range’ Blu-ray player is likely to provide more functionality than you’ll need. There are however two very important items to be aware of:
• Ensure the Player is either ‘region-free’ or encoded with the region code for where you live (i.e. you want to ensure that you are able to play Blu-ray discs sold in your home country). It is however very unlikely that you won’t be buying a compatible Player if you buy from a reputable retailer in the country in which you live (i.e. if you live in the U.S.A. and buy a player online from England, you may well have problems playing many Blu-Ray Discs).
• Buy at least a ‘Profile 1.1’ Blu-ray Player. As time goes on more Blu-ray Disc content will be incompatible with ‘Profile 1.0’. The good news is that if you are buying a relatively recently released model of Blu-ray Player then you’ll be buying at least ‘Profile 1.1’.
3 The Niceties (like to have)
As noted previously, there are many features which will come with any Blu-ray Player you are unlikely to ever use. There are however some features which are definitely worth considering and that will influence your purchasing decision;
• Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R or BD-RE). Instead of your Player being merely a, well, Player, Blu-ray Recordable is becoming more available meaning you may record onto Blu-ray Discs (HDD recordable Blu-ray Players are an alternate option to BD-R or BD-RE).
• BD-Live (also known as ‘Profile 2’). This adds interactivity and additional content possibilities to your Player through being connected to the Internet.
Summary
The average home enthusiast has no reason to be concerned about buying the wrong Blu-ray Player. Just follow the few recommendations in his article and you’ll soon be loving every minute of your new Hi-def home theatre.
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