In the Borukhovich household, it's in with the Blu-ray player and out with standard DVDs.
"The Blu-ray player is definitely a much clearer picture than the regular DVD player," said Marina Borukhovich.
Blu-ray players allow you to watch high-definition video discs. Consumer Reports tested more than two dozen costing from $130 to $700.
"Most of the players that we're seeing now have a new feature called BD-Live, which allows the player to connect to the Internet," described Jim Willcox of Consumer Reports.
This enables BD-Live players to access movie outtakes from movie studio Web sites.
"Some players with BD-Live are able to access movies, streaming movies from services like Amazon Video, On Demand, Netflix and Vudu," Willcox explained.
In most cases, you need to plug the player into an Ethernet connection, but some let you connect wirelessly.
Consumer Reports testers evaluated Blu-ray players for picture quality, assessing detail and color accuracy. They also assessed how easy it is to use a Blu-ray player.
If you want the BD-Live feature, testers rated the Sony Blu-ray player as excellent. It costs $230.
"The Sony is what's known as a BD-Live-ready player. That means it can connect to the Internet, but you have to add memory for that feature to become active. It'll probably cost you about $10 to $15 to add the memory you need," said Willcox.
But if you just want to play Blu-ray discs for much less, consider the $130 Magnavox player. Testers also rated it excellent.
"The good news is that all the players we tested had excellent picture quality, the feature that's probably most important," said Willcox.
Keep an eye on store advertisements for Blu-ray players because Consumer Reports expects prices will be coming down even more, especially around Black Friday. In fact, some players could drop to $99.
