Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-Ray Player

It seems to me that at this particular point in time that $100 is the lowest price end of what one can reasonably pay for a Profile 1.1 player. The Samsung BDP-1500 would have been my preferred model, and I was a little disappointed to discover the next day that both Circuit City and Tiger Direct were offering it for $125 with free shipping.

In 2007, I bought was a 26 inch Vizio, which, when I connected it to my Sony DVD player using composite cables, I was disappointed that the DVD looked much less satisfactory than on a CRT. It was then that I learned about component cable, and its relation to progressive scan, and when I did that, along with fiddling with the Vizio's settings, the picture was much improved. I subsequently observed with other DVDs that when the source material was transferred to DVD from high definition, it produced a picture that surpassed the sharpness I had observed before in DVDs, but films transferred from standard def and encoded at lower bit rates tend to blur on HD screens. "Upscaling" DVD players are supposed to address this; Blu-ray players also "upscale". I was disappointed in the Sylvania Blu-ray player's upscaling abilities. I cannot say, however, that the sole fault lies with the Bluray player, as it could be held back by the inherent limitations of the Vizio TV.

With the Blu-ray itself I was pleasantly surprised. I had bought a copy of Pirates of the Carribean back in December in preparation for the point at which I would obtain the Blu-ray player, and contrasting it to the 480p of the DVD copy I have, Blu ray really does make DVD look like VHS. In the opening scene, what used to be a weak black blur becomes a well defined hat, and the freckles, hair, and eyes of the younger Elizabeth Swann stand out. In another scene, the skin tone of Captain Jack is tangibly swarthy. This was not why I made the move to Blu-ray. I wanted a 1.1 player that had the Bonus View picture in picture feature. The extra resolution is such a treat, though.

With the number of stand-alone upscaling DVD players, enough people seem to be content with "almost HD". Since the upscaling was lousy on my model, I cannot say whether I should hold out for a better player, or a better TV, or both. If all my DVDs will look lousy no matter what upscaler I buy, then I should invest in buying Blu-rays in the future, but if the Blu-ray upscales the DVDs to HD quality, why should I buy Blurays to begin with? I wondered about the possibility of encountering this dilemma before. That is why I did not make the switch based on resolution alone, but because of the enhanced features that a Blu-ray disc (might) offer, such as Bonus View.

But now that I can see that the Blu-ray discs do look appreciably better, do I go to replace a DVD collection that took years to amass, and do so at a higher cost than I was able to obtain the DVDs? Since I am unsure whether there is a better upscaling option, the only economical solution is to wait it out more, until prices on player and TVs drop further, and in the meantime, shop around for low prices on select discs in which the image resolution and bonus view features are a premium for enhancing the film experience. The studios have been slow to release all the catalog titles, perhaps in reaction to low sales. They need to drop the MSRP to $20, which means resale could drop then to $5 or $10, and at that rate I am sure a lot more people would start adopting Blu-ray.

Excellent player for the money. Loads blu rays fairly quickly. Loads dvds and cds very quickly. Great picture and sound quality. I checked with cnet.com before I bought and it was one of the most highly rated players for the money. If you are looking for a good, inexpensive blu ray player, I'd recommend this one.

this player was very simple to hook up and has very good quality picture on regular dvd's have not tried blu-ray disk yet but I think I will be very satisfied. For the price you can't beat this player.

Picture quality is great - about 30 sec. plus to upload dvd. This is my first blu-ray player, now I'm hooked!

I consider myself someone that does their homework before purchases, and this blu-ray player is all that most people need. It may not have all of the features that some people may desire, so look into its specific details, but if you are just looking to be able to VIEW BLU-RAY MOVIES, then you need not look further than this one. I bought one for myself, my sister, and one for my parents. Couldn't beat the price either! Load times are usually under a minute as well. Works great with 1080P and 720P TVs, haven't tried it with a 1080i TV yet though.