After a few hours of shopping and installation, you now have your beautiful new flat screen TV, fully decked out with a modern TV picture frame from HD Envy, mounted to the wall of your home theater. It is stunning, pristine, awe-inspiring. But it can’t do too much just yet. Sure, you can get your standard digital cable signals, but you want something really special to bring out all of that top-performing hardware in the back of your set that you spent so long researching. And for this, you’ll need a Blu-Ray player.
When on the hunt for a Blu-Ray player, you should keep a few concerns at the forefront of your mind. Because not all Blu-Ray players are built equal (nor are their prices, which can range from $99 to $999 and more), you want the one that matches your TV and sound system best. In particular, you want to look for the video resolution, audio decoding, the Profile of the Blu-Ray player and the “extras” like online services.
While most people would assume that a Blu-Ray player automatically outputs the coveted 1080p Full HD resolution, this isn’t always so. You need to first make sure that your HDTV can accept a 1080p signal. If it can, you’re in luck – the next time you sit down with popcorn in hand, you will likely be blown away. However, if your flat screen TV can only produce a 1080i or 720p resolution, all is not lost. Paired with a Blu-Ray player and the correct cables, these TVs will likely perform better than they would if a DVD player was attached. This is because a Blu-Ray player not only plays Blu-Ray discs at 1080p resolution, but it can also play DVDs, and in many cases, upscale their resolution to as high as 1080p from the native 720p.
Home theater audio is another consideration when shopping around for your dream Blu-Ray player. All Blu-Ray players must support a minimum standard of sound formats. These are extremely accurate reproductions of theater-grade sound that you’ll notice as an improvement over DVDs right away. The minimum that a Blu-Ray player must support is Dolby Digital, DTS and PCM. If you’re looking for even more oomph, look for a Blu-Ray player that can handle Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-Master Audio. When examining the sound format compatibilities of your Blu-Ray player, keep your sound system in mind. Can your AV receiver decode these more advanced digital formats? If so, you might not need a more expensive player that does the decoding internally. If not, you might. Also when determining which audio suite is best for you, keep in mind that most Blu-Ray players with internal decoding require an HDMI connection in order to work – so if you have a receiver without HDMI capabilities, look for a player that has multi-channel analog outputs.
Blu-Rays are categorized into several Profiles so you can get a one-glance understanding of some of their capabilities. A Profile 1, Version 1.0 player is the oldest model of Blu-Ray, and covers everything produced in 2007 and earlier. After 2007, Profile 1, Version 1.1 was made possible. This new version added picture-in-picture capabilities (called BonusView) and an increase in internal storage for updates and other hardware and software necessities. The latest and most robust profile is Profile 2.0, also known as BD-Live. This covers everything that Profile 1 players have, upgrades the internal storage to 1 GB, and, probably the most popular feature, includes an Internet connection capability.
Once you know the basics of Blu-Ray, you can begin to check out the extra stuff to fine-tune your selection. Maybe you want to access Internet services like Pandora Radio and YouTube on your TV – get a Profile 2.0 with those capabilities. Or maybe you just want the basics, watching movies in beautiful 1080p quality – a Profile 1 with 1080p and some nice sound decoding would probably do well for you.
Your modern home theater just isn’t complete without a Blu-Ray player (and maybe that nice leather frame from HD Envy to compliment it). As more Blu-Rays hit the market, you can pick and choose the features, price-points and extras that you want, in order to get the perfect experience for your next movie night.
Tags: audio/video
