
If you are willing to pay a higher price for a soundbar that delivers perks like voice control and distortion-free sound quality, you might just love this top pick from Bose. High-end soundbar: Bose Smart Soundbar 700 Best of all, the price is quite affordable. This budget-priced option from JBL pushes its rich bass sounds through a wireless subwoofer to the tune of 300W of power. It’ll enhance the sound quality and your overall experience with your favorite titles. If you’re a movie buff, we don’t blame you for wanting a soundbar to go along with your new Blu-ray player. Low-cost soundbar: JBL 2.1 Home Theater Starter System (Keep in mind that you’ll need either a high-end soundbar or a proper surround sound system to play back and enjoy the sound quality of high-resolution audio formats.) Most Blu-ray players cover the basic formats like Dolby Digital and DTS, but if you want to hear the high-resolution versions of your movie soundtracks, you’ll need one that can play back DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X. High-resolution audio support: If you are a home theater enthusiast, or if you like playing around with different audio formats on your Blu-ray movies, you will want to make sure the Blu-ray player you buy supports all of the audio formats commonly found on Blu-ray discs. As such, 4K upscaling will never look as good as the version found on a native-4K disc. Upscaling is great for making content look better, but just keep in mind that upscaling is only an approximation. In some cases, a Blu-ray player can even upscale the 1080p image from a disc up to 4K resolution. For example, most Blu-ray players can play back DVDs at their native 720 x 480 resolution but will upscale them to 1080p images for an HDTV. Upscaling: Upscaling is the act of taking a low-resolution video source and stretching it (and in many cases, improving it) to a higher-resolution screen. If you don’t have a streaming box already, or if you just like the convenience of having one remote control that manipulates all of your media, look for a Blu-ray player with built-in apps. Streaming video and WiFi: Some Blu-ray players come with built-in WiFi and streaming apps for watching video from streaming services like Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Prime video. 3D TVs are a bit of a rarity because TVs stopped including the feature after 2016, but many projectors continue to support 3D. But past that, there are some features that set our favorite players apart from the rest.ģD Blu-ray support: If you’ve got a 3D TV, you will want to make sure your Blu-ray player can play 3D Blu-rays. Portable Blu-ray players usually have their own built-in screens, so they’re ideal travel companions.Īll Blu-ray players have the same basic functionality: they play back Blu-ray movies.

If you plan to watch movies in multiple places, however, we recommend that you get a portable one. If your Blu-ray player will live near your TV for most of its life, you would probably be best off with a traditional Blu-ray player. Blu-ray players that stream videos offer the best of both worlds: the superior video quality of Blu-rays on disc with the convenience of streaming video, all from one interface. If you don’t own a streaming device or a smart TV, consider looking at Blu-ray players with built-in streaming video apps. On the other hand, if you’ve got a standard 1080p HD TV, a Blu-ray player is the perfect match.

If you own a 4K TV, you might want to buy a 4K player instead of a standard one so you can take advantage of every last pixel in your home theater. In contrast, 4K Blu-ray players play 4K Blu-ray discs, which have a maximum video resolution of 3840 x 2160 (aka 2160p).

Standard Blu-ray players play Blu-ray discs, which have a maximum video resolution of 1920 x 1080 (aka 1080p HD).

Start by answering the following three questions. Key considerationsīefore you start shopping, take a moment to consider your own home theater setup and how you plan to use your new Blu-ray player. Check out Netflix’s Blu-rays-by-mail service, which will bring all of your favorite hits (even those that aren’t streaming on Netflix) right to your door. Video stores may be long gone, but you can still rent Blu-ray movies – you just need to do it by mail.
