Cheap Blu-ray players Go high def for £50!

Blu-ray's the latest shiny disc format vying for a place in your film collection. They might look similar to DVDs, but Blu-ray discs can hold near ten times as much data, making them the top format for high def movies and games.

This is a run-down of all the current top deals on Blu-ray players. If you're unfamiliar with the jargon, check the Blu-ray FAQ below.

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• Blu-ray FAQ

Blu-Ray's only worth getting if you've a HD screen to play the discs back on, otherwise you either won't notice the difference or just won't have the HDMI input most Blu-Ray players rely on to get connected.

All players below come with remote controls, and they'll all play your DVDs too:

Philips Blu-ray player £77 instore.
Philips BDP2500, available from ASDA

As part of ASDA's January sale, this Philips BDP2500 is reduced to £77 in some stores, or online* (£4.95 delivery). It's a 'Profile 1.1' player, which means it doesn't offer BD-Live functionality, i.e. connecting to the web to download or stream additional Blu-Ray content. Yet if you just want to play high def Blu-Ray discs you won't find a cheaper name-brand player.

If you do want the Profile 2.0 functionality, Richer Sounds has limited stock of the Philips BDP3000 for £89.95, but you'll have to phone ahead to track one down. Otherwise you can get it for £97 delivered or instore from Sainsbury* or John Lewis*.

Sony Blu-ray player £95 delivered.
Sony BDP S360, available from Play and Amazon

This Sony is reduced to £95 in the Play.com* January sale, and costs the same at Amazon*. Typically it looks quite smart, but doesn't offer the range of features seen on the rebrand model above, and isn't multi-region. As it's a Sony, the sound and picture quality are excellent and there's no chance of being left without the latest firmware updates.

There's little to complain about here; load times can be a little slow, but this is common to pretty much all cheaper players. Plus, the latest BD-Live content is supported straight out of the box.

Samsung Blu-ray player for £103 delivered
Samsung BDP-1580, available from Debenhams

High street & online department store Debenhams is currently offering the well-specced Samsung BDP-1580 for £99 plus £4 delivery.

If you'd like some movies with it, online film renter Blockbuster is currently offering a package deal with XMen Origins: Wolverine, Terminator: Salvation and Fast & Furious Blu-Ray discs for £129.99, with free delivery.

The player's scored quite highly in reviews, and if you've other recent Samsung home entertainment equipment you'll be able to control it all from one remote.

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Blu-ray FAQ

The Blu-ray format gets its name from the blue-violet lasers that are used to read discs. For a while, Blu-ray's future was uncertain as it competed with rival format HD-DVD. The so-called format war ended in February 2008, when Toshiba pulled out.

Intriguingly, the Blu-ray format has been all but ignored in China, which favours its own 'China Blue' high def (CBHD) discs.

But enough digression; here are some frequently asked questions:

• How much do Blu-ray films cost?
  
  As the format becomes more widespread, prices are dropping, with 3 films for £20 deals popping up more and more often. As with DVDs, the best new release prices are online.
  
  
• Do I need an HDTV for Blu-ray?
  
  Technically you could likely play Blu-rays on a standard definition TV, but you'd be defeating the object. To notice the difference between Blu-ray and DVD, you'll need an HDTV and an HDMI cable.
  
  
• Will it replace DVD?
  
  Almost certainly, but since the players are backwards compatible with DVDs anyway you needn't go out and buy all the same films again. It'll still be years before Blu-ray sales outstrip DVD sales.
  
  
• How much fits on a Blu-ray disc?
  
  Single layer discs can fit 25GB of data, and dual-layer discs will hold 50GB. In video terms, the larger discs can do about 9 hours high definition or 23 hours standard definition.
  
  
• Do the discs scratch easily?
  
  According to the manufacturers, Blu-ray discs use advanced-yet-cheap hard coating technologies which make them more scratch resistant than DVDs. This is probably to be taken with a pinch of salt (remember the manufacturers said CDs were 'virtually indestructible' too). Blu-ray players also have inherently better error correction than their DVD counterparts, but best not to rely on that either!
  
  
• What's BD Live?
  
  A feature of more recent 2.0 players only, BD Live allows players to get enhanced Blu-ray content off the web, usually in the form of extras and downloadable games. As such, all players with this facility have network ports to plug into your home network, and some memory to store content (with the exception of the Philips above, which makes you use a USB stick).
  
  In future, expect to see more online services which can stream films and TV to your Blu-ray player, making this a promising feature to have.
  
  
• Is there only one type of Blu-ray?
  
  For the purposes of watching, as with DVDs, you'll only get BD-ROM discs, where the ROM stands for Read Only Memory, or basically, unrecordable. There are also BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (Rewritable), which are slowly being adopted in the computer world.