Which is the best LCD TV?

Which is the best blue ray/dvd player up to $250, maybe $300, to buy for my LG 37" 1080P LCD TV?

• Hi... I just bought a new LG 37LH30 37" 1080P LCD TV. Have very limited knowledge of blue ray/dvd players. As a movie buff, I want to know which is the best combination blue ray and dvd player to buy, up to $250...maybe $300. Criteria: full 1080P, maximum Dolby sound features, ability to play as many different kinds of dvd's, plus upconverting/upscaling of dvd's to 1080P, deepest contrast ratios (making black darker), a unit that is rugged and reliable and dependable, one that works well and meets expectations, doesn't break down easily, lasts the longest, has best reliability and user satisfaction, including best warranty and customer service, and will last at least 2-3 years. I'm not a gamer, and also not interested in using it for camera or camcorder interaction. Want to watch both blue ray and dvd movies on rented disc, plus on-demand movies from my Time-Warner cable TV source, and download movies & TV shows from the Internet. I'm not familiar with most blue ray/dvd technical features and what they mean, or differences between Dolby features, or which capabilities rank most important. My research indicates the following order, from the top down, are best for me: Panasonic DMP-BD35K, Sony BDPS350, Samsung BD-P1500, and the LG BD300. But I'm not a techie and am operating blind...especially since I've never had or used a dvd or blue ray player before. Need help! Thanks to all... Klitos

• Answer:

  I'll get right to it. Good luck being able to see a difference between any of these blu ray players on a full 1080p set with HDMI connection. With digital everything has changed. Back when everything was analog, price mattered a lot because the analog signal had to be treated with kid gloves from the source to the display. People didn't even want to run everything to a receiver because it would degrade even more. You had to pay extra for the better or best parts, but now it's all different. with digital, the blu ray player doesn't have to be that high end. it's just pulling all the ones and zeros off the disc and sending them to the TV. If it's a full HD set, it's not going to up or down convert, it has really very little if any processing to do, and because it's digital the TV will get the exact set of 1s and 0s that were on the disc with virtually no errors. By the way, players don't make blacks darker, colors brighter or anything else, that's the TVs job. I have a 37 inch Vizio full HD in my room, it's the VO370M, is a nice 10 bit panel (really an LG panel) connected with HDMI to a cheapo 99 dollar magnavox blu ray player and the image is truly stunning. Of course this set doesn't have the deepest blacks, or a state of the art picture, but the detail, the color quality and brightness are fantastic. I think where you will see the difference is how these players handle DVD. Because there is upconversion going on, you need some good hardware/software to handle it all. Also if you want the fastest load times and a blu ray player that's going to pass all the test disc stuff and test patters, best blu ray players for the money in my opinion are the OPPO players. They have the processing power to get every ounce of detail from DVDs with the least artifacts. There are other brands that are really good for that, but you will pay a lot extra for them, a lot more than the OPPO stuff. So if your DVD collection is super important, and you are very picky, then spend the bucks, otherwise, just get the cheapest blu ray player that will give you the features you are looking for. My sister spent 250 on her Samsung blu ray, and a lot more on her Samsung LCD, and it doesn't look any better than my bedroom Vizio. My living room plasma blows them all away, but that's another story. About 300 bucks this is all the blu ray and DVD player anybody could ever need http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-80/ If you are really serious http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-83/