Top 10 Blu-ray players

Everything is just about right to go Blu in 2009. There are abundant Blu-ray players and software available in the Asian markets, but more importantly, prices have dropped by quite a bit in recent months. These days, entry-level players and movie titles can be picked up for as low as S$400 (US$294.50) and S$40 (US$29.45), respectively, during promotions and sales fairs.

If that's not affordable enough, there are always the US online retailers such as Amazon.com and Deepdiscount.com for Blu-ray titles. The former offers frequent "buy two get one free" promotions, while the latter dishes out additional free discount coupons on top of their marked-down prices. Another alternative is to source for used copies in local forums, which can go for as low as S$25 (US$18.41) each.


Click here for a feature comparison table.

	1.	Sony PlayStation 3       CNET Asia rating: 8.8 out of 10 The good: Swanky design; all games in HD; PSP-like user-friendly interface; plays Blu-ray and upscales DVDs to 1080p; built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; 80GB hard drive; wireless and optional force feedback controllers; backward-compatible with PS2 and PS1 titles; built-in memory card readers; online play is free; onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoder. The bad: A USB port on the back would've been nice; glossy black finish is a fingerprint magnet; runs hot and noisy; power guzzler. The bottom line: The Sony PlayStation 3 features a swanky design and bevy of features making it one of the most versalite console for gaming and home enterainment. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	2.	Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray player   CNET Asia rating: 8.8 out of 10 The good: Good picture quality; Viera Cast function has promise; simple but pleasant design. The bad: No 7.1 analog audio outputs. The bottom line: The Panasonic DMP-BD60 is a capable and likeable player which plays back Blu-ray movies with minimum fuss and maximum quality. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	3.	LG BD370 Blu-ray player       CNET Asia rating: 8.7 out of 10 The good: Excellent Blu-ray image quality; YouTube player; support for most Web video formats; HD audio output. The bad: Some minor build quality issues. The bottom line: The LG BD370 Blu-ray player is a fantastically optioned piece of blue laser finery and a new benchmark for budget players. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	4.	Pioneer BDP-LX71 Blu-ray player   CNET Asia rating: 8.5 out of 10 The good: Solid picture and sound quality; styling is symmetrical and lovely; great selection of outputs including 7.1 audio. The bad: It's quite big; expensive; no internal DTS-HD decoding, only pass-through. The bottom line: The BDP-LX71 screams quality and is a good player with superb audio-visual quality and excellent connectivity options. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	5.	Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray player   CNET Asia rating: 7.6 out of 10 The good: Excellent image quality on Blu-ray Discs; Profile 2.0-compliant; onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, plus bit-stream output; 7.1 analog-audio output. The bad: PlayStation 3 may still offer a better value for some buyers. The bottom line: The Sony BDP-S550 offers excellent image quality and a solid feature set, but consider it only if you need multichannel analog outputs. Review | See full specs | Rate this