Video Player ReviewsVideo Player Reviews
Yamaha A-1020 Universal Blu-ray Player
- Written by Chris Heinonen
- Published on 18 March 2013
The number of Universal Blu-ray players on the market continues to be strong, despite the much-discussed "death" of SACD and DVD-Audio formats. While no longer mainstream enough to be found at your local Best Buy or other big box retailer, SACD especially remains a thriving format in the audiophile market. The A-1020 is a Universal Blu-ray player that handles virtually all disc formats you can throw at it. In addition to its Blu-ray and audio playback abilities, is has the ubiquitous Netflix support and integrated Wi-Fi for streaming the content. It sounds like a good package from the specs, but with the universal player market being so competitive it really has a lot of good competitors to deal with.
Pioneer BDP-62FD Universal Blu-ray Player
- Written by Chris Heinonen
- Published on 06 February 2013
Every year Pioneer updates their Blu-ray players, and every year I wind up happy yet disappointed with them. Each year performance and features seem to improve only to have a flaw, like edge enhancement or poor colorspace support, derail the Pioneer from being really top notch. This year Pioneer is offering the BDP-62FD, a $400 universal Blu-ray player that carries the Elite badge and features dual HDMI outputs among other features.
Yamaha BD-A1010 Aventage Universal 3D Blu-ray Player
- Written by Kieran Coghlan and Chris Heinonen
- Published on 25 April 2012
Last year, Yamaha released the Aventage product line, which included first several A/V receivers, then also a Blu-ray player. The Aventage product line is Yamaha's new premiere brand, similar to Sony's "ES", and Pioneer's "Elite." Last year I reviewed the Aventage RX-A2000 A/V receiver. This time, it's the Aventage BD-A1010.
Oppo BDP-103 Universal Blu-ray Player
- Written by Chris Heinonen
- Published on 21 January 2013
For years now, Oppo has dominated the high-end of DVD and Blu-ray players. Virtually every other reviewer and enthusiast I know has at least one in their system, if not more. I've personally been using their players going back to the DVD days, and have had every single one of their Blu-ray players, including their new BDP-103, reviewed here.
Cambridge 751BD Universal 3D Blu-ray Player
- Written by Chris Heinonen
- Published on 24 April 2012
In a bit of a surprise, the Universal Blu-ray player market has gone through a big upswing recently. While DVD-Audio and SACD might be considered dead audio formats to the mainstream media, more and more players for home are including support for them now. One fairly recent addition to the group is the Cambridge Audio 751BD Audiophile Blu-ray player. It also supports 3D Blu-ray, and I was quite excited to have the chance to try out this unit myself.
OPPO BDP-105 Universal Player
- Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
- Published on 21 November 2012
OPPO continues its tradition of being leader of the pack with the introduction of the BDP-105 Universal Player. It has every type of input that one could want, making it truly a player that can handle all types of media and sources. The video quality is superb (video results coming in Chris Heinonen's review of the 103 which has the same video circuit as the 105), and the audio quality (tested in this review) is what we have come to expect from OPPO: audiophile-grade.
Pioneer BDP-52FD 3D Universal Blu-ray Player
- Written by Chris Heinonen
- Published on 06 February 2012
Of all the new equipment that I saw at the CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis in 2011, my favorite booth visit was to Pioneer. Showing me around their booth and their new products, it was obvious they had read our review of their last generation of Blu-ray players. So, here is another one, in this case, the BDP-52FD, which is 3D-capable, and will play DVD-A as well as SACD, making it a universal player.
Sony BDP-S790 Blu-ray Player
- Written by Chris Heinonen
- Published on 17 September 2012
The Sony BDP-S790 Blu-ray player does a good job of performing at a high quality level, but at an affordable price. Dual HDMI outputs, Original Resolution mode, and multiple video settings are available to work well in any system.
Samsung BD-D6500 Blu-ray Player
- Written by Chris Heinonen
- Published on 26 December 2011
One of the major differentiations between Blu-ray players now has been their online content support.
Sony BDP-S590 Blu-ray Player
- Written by Chris Heinonen
- Published on 05 June 2012
Sony was the inventor and chief advocate of Blu-ray and has probably put more players into homes than any other company with the PlayStation 3. However when we ran a pair of their players through our HDMI Benchmark, one of which is the subject of this review: the Sony BDP-S590.
LG BD670 3D Blu-ray Player
- Written by Stephen Hornbrook
- Published on 12 December 2011
I am starting to feel very comfortable with LG products of late, having recently reviewed a couple home theater Blu-ray systems...
