I don't mean that 100% and I do think it is the future of home entertainment as the picture quality is great along with HDTV. What bothers me is that I'm trying to find a Blu-Ray player and don't feel like paying a lot of money for it. It seems to just get a decent working player, you need to spend well over $300. At that price, I might as well spend a little more and buy a PS3 which at $400, I'm not very interested in since I just bought an Xbox 360.

I've been reading up a little bit on the players on various sites and some reviews. The problem I'm seeing is that some of the cheaper players ($200-299) don't neccessarily play all the discs and seem to need constant updating. I don't want to bother with that. I just want to buy a player and some movies and enjoy them. I don't want to have to hook them up online and then look for firmware updates...if they even exsist yet depending on the brand of player you buy. It already makes me miss the days of DVD where you can go out and buy a player and be reasonably assured it would play virtually any DVD unless it was some really cheap player or just defective.

Something else I think is dumb is that Blu-Ray is supposed to be so state of the art but if I'm not mistaken, some models don't even support DTS decoding or other of the top notch sound support. Some reviews mention that many players don't support newer features like BD or dick extras? Also, I'm reading what's included in the box and it seems that often times, an HDMI cord isn't included? Maybe I'm wrong there and misread it. If I did read it right, that's silly, what's the point of a Blu-Ray player and 1080p if it doesn't even come with the cable to best support the player? The cords aren't cheap so that's more money you have to spend along with the fact you can't best enjoy your new player right out of the box.

Now I'm not a technophile so I won't be surprised if I'm wrong on some of the info. If so, help me out to better understand all this. I also wouldn't mind hearing some opinions and reviews for the best Blu-Ray players out there for a reasonable price.

Blu ray is still in it's earlier stage. It's slowly hitting it's adoption rate, and your seeing players and disc prices drop. If you don't like the cost of "upgrading", don't ^^

Picture quality is a HUGE issue that really forces me into blu-ray. If you have under a 40" tv, you'll probably notice color difference, and "some" clarity, not much, but some. Around 40" you start to really see the difference as DVD's start looking pretty mucky. Anything bigger than a 50" and you can pretty much forget about DVD's... The picture just get's stretched entirely too far and it's just horrible. If you have an HD TV and aren't using a DVD upscaler, then I feel REALLY bad for you. The difference is just obscene.

As for the sound, you have a really good point. Not many systems can even produce the amazing sound quality :P But again, it's adoption rate will increase as players that DON'T support it will start disappearing :/ Anyone who upgrades to anything nowadays will pretty much be in the ok to support the sound.

1. The PS3 is still one of the best players. It isnt the best anymore but its up there. If you get the PS3 you at elast get access to a ton of games that are only available or sometimes runs better on the console.

2. Its because of the different software profiles. Look at it this way, all current HDMI tech is useless compared to the upcoming specs since the new spec will be able to send data back and forth between connected units unlike current cables. At this moment this improvement is useless but in the future the ability to have internet through HDMI will be a benefit but it is still unneeded. Tech is always evolving, this is also why ethernet cables are up to spec 6.

If DTS encoding is so important to you will have to find a true BR Spec 2.0 player as even the PS3 cant decode DTS.

Try the Sony S350, it is under $300 everywhere and is touted as one of the best for the money. It plays all Blu-Rays, got one for my Dad for Christmas and he loves it.

Amazon has it for $270

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-BDP-S350-1080p-Blu-ray-Player/dp/B001A4LVYY/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1231438919&sr=8-1#

Also as far as the firmware updates go on Sony Blu-ray players, you can actually have them send you a disc in the mail with the newest firmware update and you just pop it in when you get it an the player does the rest

You can get an HDMI cable for $10 that is probably better than the pack-in cable. Look for a profile 2.0 player with a network connection, or buy a PS3 and play games as well.

You think that's bad, my player doesn't even actually play all BR discs, they want me to buy a new player for it (BR 2.0 or something stupid like that).

Cords aren't cheap?  monoprice.com  There, saved you a hundred bucks, so go buy a ps3.  Still one of the best blu-ray players on the market.

As for why it doesn't include a HDMI cable, I'd assume that is because not all TV's have HDMI inputs.  Considering many people think the prices that monster charges are normal, they probably assume they are being ripped off if they then need to go out and buy a component cable.

Not true the PS3 decodes DTS just not DTS-HD.