Blu-ray has always offered high picture and sound quality from the very start. This is what it was designed to do by using different technology compared to DVD.
What traditionally went against it was the price. For a long time, you could buy a DVD player for under £30, yet a Blu-ray player under £300 was rare. Recently however, a price drop has happened, and they have become more affordable. If you are thinking about making the switch, here are the best cheap blu ray players on sale in the UK.
Sony S360 – £120
It looks stylish and handles blu-ray disks with ease. This is a stylish player, and at £120, is worthy of every penny. It is worth noting that though it is backward compatible with DVDs, CDs and MP3s, it cannot handle DivX, or HD DVD. Still, decent value for money nonetheless.
LG BD370 – £158
The wonderful aspect of this player, is that it can support DivX, Mpeg – 4, and MKV format. It can also support Youtube video, with content being accessed via a system of menus. It can also play happily from a flashdrive, which is great if you download tv and films from the Internet. It is a real steal at £158. There is nothing really to fault this machine other than it does not support analogue 7.1 audio output. If you have a lot of discs or media in DivX, or MKV format, then this could well be ideal for you.
Philips BDP3000 – £97
This device lacks the sharpness and ease of motion of many of its rivals, but at £97 it will make you think twice before dismissing it. It also requires a memory card to access BD-Live content which many may find annoying and it is unable to decode DTS- HD master audio. If however, you are just after a basic player to watch HD quality films, then this player will perform admirably.
Samsung BDP4600 – £181
This is arguably the most stylish design in our list. It is wall mountable, and has been designed to compliment Samsung televisions. The player also offers excellent sound and playback for blu-ray disks, and supports many file types. Disappointingly however, it does not support Youtube which is a bit of a surprise. It also has a lack of outputs, which in part must be down to the sleek finish. Samsung boast this is the slimmest player on the market. It is worth noting however, that this is the fastest disk loader of all the models featured here at 43 seconds. Only the Playstation 3 can load a disk faster than this.
As with most technology, the price is dropping for blu-ray players all the time. What costs £170 one day, may cost £90 a week later. It is worth checking prices and specifications carefully before parting with your cash, as this can make a considerable difference to your wallet.
How Does Blu-Ray Work?
It works by using a blue-violet laser instead of a red one. Other than the colour, the use of a blue-violet laser means that more data can be stored and read rather than using a read one, as its wavelength is shorter. Therefore more data can be stored on a blu-ray disk, than on a DVD. A lot more in fact, a single layer blu-ray disk can store up to 25GBs of information, where a conventional DVD stores under 2GBs. As more information can be utilised, better HD picture quality emerges.
Photos owned by the manufacturers.
没有评论:
发表评论