LG BD370
It's now three years after the first standalone Blu-ray player went on sale in the Australian market, and we've seen prices drop from an incredibly lofty three grand (!) to under AU$300.
It's also taken this long for Blu-ray to get its act together on the interactivity front. While the ill-fated HD DVD had its features sorted at launch, we've seen Blu-ray go through three separate profiles to land at Profile 2.0 (or BD-Live). If you're looking for the most future-proofed Blu-ray player, get one based on this version.
Features to look for in a player nowadays are Ethernet and USB ports (for BD-Live and YouTube/Picasa), onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio and 7.1 channel outputs, and firmware upgradeability.
If you're looking for value-for-money, then our pick is the new PlayStation 3 Slim, which has most of the above features and is still one of the best players available. If you want the ultimate in DVD and Blu-ray picture quality, though, then there is only one word: "Oppo".
LG BD370
Sony BDP-S5000ES
Sony PlayStation 3 Slim
Panasonic DMP-BD60
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Player
