Blu Ray Player

I have not yet detected any differences in performance with short lengths (1-2meters) and use fancy cables interchangeably with those from Monoprice. For the long cables and those I put in the wall(!), I have used some fancy brands, if only to sleep better.

My recommendation, though, is to look at cables (or adapters) which will more firmly anchor the connections than does the standard HDMI connector. That, IMHO, is the Achilles' Heel for all of them.

Kal

Well, so far, I like the JVC XV-BP1 for the modern new look and performance. Too bad JVC don't make design matching CD player, receiver and DVD player to the Blu-Ray XV-BP1 model. I would love to have the whole matching set for my audio rack. It has some nice styling to it. Maybe their next line will all matches! Samsung also makes nice looking Blu-Ray players but not matching set as well.

I saw other pricier Blu-Ray players but they looked quite boring. I am sure they all perform at the same level regardless of prices. In reality, nobody you bring home to watch movies will start criticizing the quality of your Blu-Ray player. Like your friends are going to bring their magnifying glasses and come closeup to your TV and get all technical and detail. ha ha ha

I have auditioned some Blu-Ray players from $50 - $500 and they looked the same to me in picture quality.

The PQ on the JVC is excellent. What I really like about this player is disk compatibility and speed of operation. Many players have problems loading disks, and are very slow in operation. Not the JVC. I use my JVC to feed a CIA VDA2 DAC via coax. The 2 CH audio quality is excellent. The new Chris Botti Blu-Ray is very, very nice with the 48/24 bit PCM soundtrack.

One thing I do noticed is when I am at a shopping store, I don't see very many selection of Blu-Ray movies. The selection of Blu-Ray movies are very limited in selection compare to regular DVD movies. I don't think people are catching up to Blu-Ray players yet or Blu-Ray players are going out of business. I hear Blu-Ray players may come to an end in production do to prices and in this awful economy.

If that's the case, why should people continue to buy Blu-Ray players? Remember laser disc players? It was pretty cool for a very short time frame. I remember buying a laser disc player and it went out of business the next year!