Introduction to Video Player Reviews

As physical media is slowly replaced by streamed content, it’s important to understand just how you’ll get the very best video source material to that shiny new display. Whether it’s a television or a projector, you’ll need some way to feed it. In the past we had scores of DVD players to choose from but now Blu-ray is the gold standard when you’re talking about shiny discs. And Ultra HD Blu-ray is just starting to appear on the market and with it, expanded color gamuts like Rec.2020 and extended contrast from HDR encoding.

Audio formats are equally important. Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro 3D represent the latest technology that seeks to make movie sound more realistic and enveloping. Knowing how to get the most from them is a key factor in our reviews of players, AV receivers and surround processors.

For those looking to stream their content, we include coverage of media servers and streaming devices. A wealth of content can be found on the Internet and no technology has been left out here. HDR, Ultra HD and advanced audio codecs are just as prevalent as they are on Blu-ray disc.

Once you’ve decided on a new display, be it television or projector, we can show you the best sources to use for your ultimate home theater experience.

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Video Players Reviews

Cambridge Azur 650BD Universal Blu-ray Player

Chris Eberle and Adrian Wittenberg

Cambridge Audio is a long-time bearer of high standards in British-made audio and now video products. They have been turning out quality components since 1968. While they are best known for fine yet value-conscious audio offerings, they have recently introduced a new receiver, the Azur 650R and the subject of this review, the Azur 650BD Universal Blu-ray Player.

Blu-ray Players

Sony BDP-N460 Networked Blu-ray Player

Kieran Coghlan and Adrian Wittenberg

“Convergence” is a buzz-word in the consumer electronics industry that we have heard a lot about over the last two years. The idea is that eventually, all our media and information needs will be handled by just one super-appliance in the home. Sony's PS3 was possibly the first significant step toward an off-the-shelf convergence device. Home Theater Personal Computers (HTPCs) are custom built boxes that also approach the convergence ideal.

Blu-ray Players

Denon DBP-4010UDCI Universal Blu-ray player

Robert Kozel and Adrian Wittenberg

Denon has long been a well-respected leader in the disc player market, producing some excellent universal disc players over the years. Just a few years ago, a universal disc player needed to tackle CD, SACD, DVD-Video and DVD-Audio. Today's disc player must now add Blu-ray to the list in order to claim the title of universal disc player. Such is the case for Denon's new BDP-4010UDCI. Read our review to see how it performs.

Universal Players

Denon DVD-A1UDCI Universal Blu-ray Player

Chris Heinonen and Adrian Wittenberg

My wife often enjoyed making fun of how many optical disc players I had in my AV setup. When it was the most out of control, I had an HD-DVD player, a PS3 for Blu-ray movies, an Oppo Universal DVD player, and a Sony SACD changer for music. While DVD-A and SACD didn't catch on with lots of the public, some of us built up a collection of the titles that we want to be able to listen to, and we would like to avoid having an AV rack full of extra players like I do. Denon's new DVD-A1UDCI Universal Blu-ray player handles every format out there, including Blu-ray, SACD, and DVD-A, outputting the signals digitally through its HDMI port.

Universal Players

Panasonic BD-60 Blu-ray Player

Chris Heinonen and Adrian Wittenberg

Panasonic has a long tradition of producing well regarded, competitively priced disc players. Many of their DVD players were among the best at producing a 480p image, and at a very reasonable cost. Panasonic was at it again with Blu-ray, being one of the main companies out there with a large line of affordable players for consumers, with some extra features that other companies don't include.

Blu-ray Players

OPPO BDP-83SE (Special Edition) and NuForce Edition Universal Blu-ray Players

John E. Johnson, Jr.

OPPO's BDP-83 Universal Blu-ray Player has been very successful, as it is one of only a few players that will ouput all codecs (CD, DVD-A, SACD, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio) in digital format through an HDMI connection. Now, with the Special Edition of this player, called the BDP-83SE, along with a tweaked version of the SE, called the BDP-83SE NuForce Edition, analog audio performance is improved significantly, and in fact, both players perform like units costing much, much more.

Blu-ray Players

Onkyo DV-BD507 Blu-ray Player

Adrian Wittenberg and Gabe Lowe

It wasn't but about 18 months ago that Blu-ray players were still considered high end devices, selling mostly to enthusiasts, videophiles, and the like. Recently, the market for these players has really taken off, mostly due to the big box retailers dropping prices to DVD player levels. The fact that one can walk into a Wal-Mart and purchase a Blu-ray player for under $150 makes it somewhat of a commodity item at this point. Why not own one? Blu-ray discs are indeed more expensive (sometimes prohibitively so), but on the rental front, you can get them from Blockbuster or Netflix on the cheap, and enjoy your films in much higher quality.

Blu-ray Players

NAD T587 Blu-ray Disc Player – Benchmark

Jim Clements

The NAD T587 represents NAD's first foray into the Blu-ray arena. NAD started big by building the T587 to the Blu-ray Profile 2.0 spec. The T587 can also handle CD and DVD discs among other formats such as DiVX. It is not a universal player and will not spin DVD Audio or SACD discs. Its circuitry is based on the Broadcom decoder. A nice touch is that the player comes with auxiliary feet that closely resemble Vibrapods.  This player is reviewed as one of the Imagine Affordable System components.

Blu-ray Players

OPPO BDP-83 Universal Blu-ray Player – Benchmark

Adrian Wittenberg

There has been a lot of anticipation for OPPO Digital's brand new BDP-83 Blu-ray player. This is in part because OPPO has had an excellent track record for producing top notch affordable DVD players, such as the DV-983H (one of the only players in Secrets's history to score a perfect 100 on Secret's rigorous DVD Benchmark) and in part because the BDP-83 is the first Blu-ray player to hit the market offering the features to make it a truly all-in-one solution media solution for high definition playback. These include the ability to handle SACDs as a bitstream or PCM, and the ability to play DVD-Audio discs. The BDP-83 also decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio internally, giving you the option of using the 7.1 analog pre-outs on the rear panel if you have an older receiver, or use the HDMI output to deliver these high resolution movie soundtracks to your receiver in digital form.

Blu-ray Players

Pioneer BDP-09FD Elite Blu-ray Player – Benchmark

Chris Heinonen and Adrian Wittenberg

Many people have been waiting for Blu-ray players to hit the magic price point of $200, where people think mass adoption will start to take place and it will slowly overtake DVD as the dominant home video format. However, there's also another range of players that are starting to come out now, those of reference quality designs with virtually no expense spared. The BDP-09FD from Pioneer is their entry into that arena.

(Check out the video tour of the player's features at the bottom of Page 2.)

Blu-ray Players

Denon DVD-1800BD Blu-ray Player – Benchmark

Tyler Stripko and Adrian Wittenberg

The Denon DVD-1800BD is Denon's newest and least expensive Blu-ray player. For the $599 MSRP you get a Bonus View (profile 1.1) compliant player with HDMI 1.3a and component video outputs, bit-streaming (not decoding) of all the latest lossless surround formats, a front panel SD card memory slot for the playback of MP3 and JPG files, and full Divx and Windows Mediaâ„¢ Audio playback support.

Blu-ray Players

Toshiba XD-E500 DVD Player – Benchmark

Brian Alvarez and Adrian Wittenberg

I can remember a time when Toshiba offered entry level DVD players and also high dollar flagship models like the SD-9200. As DVD players became a commodity Toshiba logically focused on mainstream consumer players much like the XD-E500 reviewed here.  The XD-E500 is a main stream DVD player priced at $99.99 and offering the features a player of this price offers. This includes the obvious DVD playback, the almost universal support amongst new DVD players for DivX playback, Mp3 and WMA.

DVD Players