If you haven’t seen season 1 and you love zombie action or just well made television shows then we implore you to watch it on Blu-ray before the release of season 2 of The Walking Dead. When the USA network AMC TV release more trailers for this you can be assured we will be posting them here on cheap televisions. With maybe the exception of the highly anticipated release of American science fiction drama television series Terra Nova from Steven Spielberg, Fox and Dreamworks Television we think The Walking Dead season 2 will be one of the best TV shows of the 2011 autumn TV schedule.

Philips BDP3100/05 Blu-ray Player

Product description for the Philips BDP3100/05 Blu-ray Player:

“The Philips BDP3100 Blu-ray player offers the complete cutting edge viewing experience, with full Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround to complement the pin-sharp Full HD picture, as well as handy features such as subtitle shift and DivX Ultra.

Offering 24 frames per second video playback as well as Full HD 1080p, the Philips BDP3100 Blu-ray player brings the full cinematic experience into your front room. Meanwhile the integrated Dolby TrueHD 7.1 creates sound virtually indistinguishable form the studio master, guaranteeing that what you hear through your speakers is exactly as the film makers intended.”

Philips BDP3100/05 Blu-ray Player Product Features and Technical Details

Philips BDP3100/05 Blu-Ray Player for sharp images in full HD 1080p
1080p at 24 fps for cinema-like images
DivX Ultra Certified for enhanced playback of DivX videos
Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA for HD 7.1 surround sound
Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Link plays video/music from USB flash drives

Main Specifications

Product Description: Philips BDP3100 – Blu-ray disc player
Product Type: Blu-ray disc player
Network Connection: Ethernet
Dimensions (WxDxH): 43.5 cm x 22.7 cm x 6 cm
Weight: 3 kg
Media Type: CD-R, CD-RW, DivX, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD, CD, BD-R, BD-RE, BD-ROM
Upscaling: ( up to 1080p )
Remote Control: Remote control – infrared
Sound Output Mode: Stereo
Power: AC 230V ( 50 Hz )
Form Factor: Tabletop

General

Width: 43.5 cm
Depth: 22.7 cm
Height: 6 cm
Weight: 3 kg
Product Type: Blu-ray disc player

Miscellaneous

Cables Included: Audio cable ¦ Video cable

Power

Power Device: Power supply – internal
Power Consumption Operational: 25 Watt
Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep: 0.5 Watt

Connections

Connector Type: 1 x HDMI ( 19 pin HDMI Type A ) – rear ¦ 1 x audio line-out ( RCA phono x 2 ) – rear ¦ 1 x composite video output ( RCA phono ) – rear ¦ 1 x component video output ( RCA phono x 3 ) – rear ¦ 1 x network ( RJ-45 ) – rear ¦ 1 x digital audio output (coaxial) ( RCA phono ) – rear ¦ 1 x USB 2.0 ( 4 PIN USB Type A ) – side

Audio System

Sound Output Mode: Stereo

Philips BDP3200 Blu-ray player

The PHILIPS BDP3200 Blu-ray Player

Design wise the PHILIPS BDP3200 Blu-ray player is a slim line design and looks as good as any slightly shiney black box that you’ll hide away in your home entertainment system ever will. I still don’t understand why DVD and Blu-ray players need to be so big though. The technology exists to make them much smaller and I guess it would be just as cheap to do so!

The The PHILIPS BDP3200 Blu-ray player comes with all the features you would expect like 1080p full HD playback and 24fps processing. Old DVDs get the now normal upscalling treatment to help give your DVD collection a new lease of life. Obviously the Philips BDP3200 Blu-ray player has HDMI connections as well as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA available for HD 7.1 surround sound.

Another cool feature of the Philips BDP3200 Blu-ray player is if you connect it to the internet you can watch YouTube videos on your HD television without the need for a PC or laptop.

Is Currys The Cheapest place To Buy?

One of the problems with the Currys stores is they’re not always the best for value (although they do offer convenience). So I’ve hunted around online to see who else is selling the BDP3200 Blu-ray DVD player from Philips to see if Currys is selling it for the cheapest price and if not where you can get the best deal for it.
Amazon.co.uk £76 including free postage
Asda.com £77.95 including £2.95 postage

Obviously you might be able to find the Philips BDP3200 Blu-ray DVD player cheaper than the two online stores I’ve listed above but I’m sticking to those that are pretty reputable. So you can get it cheaper but £3 for the convenience of walking into the shop and walking straight out with your new Blu-ray player and the ability to return it should you have any problems, Currys price is actually pretty cheap.

Philips BDP3200 Blu-ray Player Reviews

Ok time for some reviews of the Philips BDP3200 Blu-ray player and the only ones I could find were user reviews on the Asda website which gives it 5 out of 5 stars. There are only two reviews of the Philips BDP3200 Blu-ray player on there which isn’t great as we always always like the biggest sample of reviewers possible. Anyway one of the reviews says:

“A well packaged well featured player for an incredibly reasonable price. The onscreen menu system is very easy to understand and follow, I was over the moon to find the USB section allowed playback of movies from my portable 250 gig hard drive as well as my Flash Drives. The picture quality and sound from this unit is superb no complaints at all. The remote control is well laid out for ease of use, All in all this is a superb buy if you are looking for a player with the extra bonus of a USB connection this is for you.”

If you own a Philips BDP3200 Blu-ray player and want to do a little review for cheap televisions please add it to the comments section.

Sony BDPS370 Bluray DVD Player

Ok let’s start with the boring bits first and Sony’s description on the Sony BDPS370 Blu-ray Player:

“Bring a full High Definition cinema experience into your living room with the S370. Enjoy Blu-ray Disc movies in Full HD1080p quality and your existing DVD collection in near HD quality thanks to the player’s upscale functionality and HDMI connection. The S370 also features BRAVIA Internet Video allowing you to access movies, TV shows, and music from YouTube, BBC iPlayer and more. Connect via the Ethernet connection or the optional wireless adaptor (sold separately) to get online without the need for another cable. You can even use your iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control for the S370 by downloading the free BD Remote app.”

Sony BDPS370 Bluray Player

3 things stand out for us which are, 1 the claim the upscale ability of the Sony BDPS370 Blu-ray player produces near HD quality! We find this hard to believe but cheap televisions will hold judgement and wait to see what the user reviews actually say first. 2 the ability to watch Youtube and BBC iPlayer through the Sony BDPS370 directly onto your television screen! Now this isn’t anything new but I’ve seen so many flawed attempts not to mention on a large screen the youtube and iPlayer resolutions are just too small. 3 That you can use your iPod touch, iPhone and I guess the IPad as well to control the Sony BDPS370 Blu-ray DVD player. I wish this was an industry standard (being an iPhone user anyway) as I’d only need one phone to control all the gadgets in my house lol!.

The spiel about the Sony BDPS370 Blu-ray Player continues without much other interest other than to convince the reader of it’s amazing HD picture quality and so on below:

“Blu-ray is the clearest, most realistic video format to date, giving you images so sharp you can pick out every detail and crystal clear sound that makes you feel part of the world on screen. With Blu-ray you get five times the picture quality and ten times the sound quality of DVD, providing a powerful movie experience for all your senses. See colours come to life in 1080p resolution and experience the bangs, crashes and rumbles as if you were there with the latest multi-channel HD sound technology from Dolby”

Anyway let’s get to the reviews for the Sony BDPS370 Blu-ray DVD Player which on Amazon has scored 4 and a half stars out of 5 from 107 user reviews (the best kinds of reviews). This is a pretty large sample of reviewers which seems to verify that this Blu-ray DVD player from Sony isn’t only affordable but is also a very good performer! It’s hard for us to do a proper review of the Sony BDPS370 Blu-ray Player for cheap televisions as Sony are a bit rubbish and refuse to let cheap televisions have access to test TV screens and Blu-ray DVD players but we still live in hope that this will change one day! So the user reviews:

K. Mundell (N.Ireland): ” Just got this today for a relatives birthday present. Extremely fast and slick but was at first disappointed that the BBC iplayer wasn’t available this afternoon when I looked for it. Just got an update this evening (31/3/2010) and now BBC iplayer works perfectly, and yes, BBC HD works like a dream on iplayer. Had no problem streaming Lovefilm movies to my TV although I consider myself lucky as our Sky broadband is around 13 meg speed in real terms. One last thing is the HD streaming to the player looks the same quality as blu ray discs although our TV is 720p only. Lovefilm SD movies are the same quality as ordinary DVDs (or near DVD at least)”

Mr. John Hogarth “JonHoggy” (UK): “It’s quality, lush vivid colours and handles gloomy dark scenes with ease. It’s clever, the playback on .mkvs and .avis via USB is seamless (but only tried <4GB so far). It’s packed with features, connecting it to your router via ethernet and using the BBC iplayer is easy and some broadcasts are nearly on par with live freeview quality. Some of the other internet content is fun to use too, especially the Lovefilm HD film trailers. One thing to note, no cables are supplied with the player, it’s simply the unit and the remote. Superb all round performance, buy one.”

Eric N. Jones Sony BDPS370 after 2 months of use: “This player is neat, slim and unobtrusive and does everything it says on the box. I have one criticism: It’s not possible to read the display from a normal TV viewing distance.”

If that isn’t enough the professionals also rate the Sony BDPS370 Bluray DVD player pretty highly!

The guys at TechRadar reviewed the Sony BDPS370 giving it a gleaming review, confirming the customer reviews from Amazon and gave it 5 out of 5 stars! They described it as a ” Stylish Blu-ray player with superb picture and top class inherent capability.” They also go on to say ” The Sony BDP-S370 sports such delights as wired and wireless networking capability, a raft of internet video services including iPlayer in HD and what Sony calls a Monolithic design.” Looks like we’re onto a winner with the Sony BDP-S370 already!

WhatHiFi also give the Sony BDP-S370 5 out of 5 stars in their review which I think pretty much confirms everything we thought and confirms the users actual experiences are the same as the guys that test them! What they said was ” Sony’s first machine for 2010 shows no signs of weakness – the ’S370 is an exceptionally gifted entry-level player”. Which i think is enough of the reviews for this high definition Sony bluray DVD player. The technical details are below if anyone is actually interested but if you buy it, especially at a good cheap price you won’t be disappointed.

Technical Details

Home Video Black

Region Code DVD 2

Region Code BD-ROM B

SystemBD-ROM (BonusView, Profile 1.1)

BD-R/RE Playback

AVC-HD (Disc, USB)

DVD Video Playback

Audio CD Playback

DVD-R/RW (Video Format) Playback

DVD-RW (VR Format) Playback

DVD+R/RW Playback

CD-R/RW Playback

SACD Playback

USB Playback

DLNA Client (DMP/DMR)

JPEG (BD, DVD, CD, USB, DLNA)

DivXHD (BD, DVD, CD, USB, DLNA)

WMA (BD, DVD, CD, USB, DLNA)

MPEG1/2 (BD, DVD, CD, USB, DLNA)

MPEG4 (BD, DVD, CD, USB, DLNA)

MP3 (BD, DVD, CD, USB, DLNA)

MPEG4 AAC (BD, DVD, CD, USB, DLNA)

Picture Quality 1080p output (via HDMI®)

Precision Cinema HD upscale (DVD upscaling to 1080p)

Video D/A Converter 1080i,720p : 12bit/148.5MHz 480i/p, 576i/p: 12bit/108MHz

Precision Drive HD

Deep Colour

Preset Picture Mode

Audio 8ch Linear PCM bitstream out

Dolby TrueHD decoding Dolby TrueHD bitstream out

DTS-HD Master Audio decoding

DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream out

Audio D/A Converter 192kHz / 24bit

Construction

Display on Front Panel

Terminal HDMI® 1

Component Video Output 1

Digital Audio Output: Coaxial 1

Digital Audio Output: Optical 1

Analogue Stereo Output

Ethernet

Convenience Quick Start-up

Easy Set up

BRAVIA Sync

PhotoTV HD

Frimware update via Ethernet

Parental Control

Sony BDP-S760 Blu-Ray DVD Player

Both Techradar and What HiFi gave the Sony BDP-S760 Blu-ray DVD player 5 out of 5 stars in their reviews.

Techradar Sony BDP-S760 Blu-ray DVD player review said:

“I don’t think there’s any player currently available at this price point that compares for Blu-ray playback. I’m still a massive fan of LG’s BD390 for its media-streaming abilities, but maybe I’ll have to find a place in my rack for the BDP-S760 as well. It is a reference machine for the budget conscious.”

The What HiFi Sony BDP-S760 Blu-ray DVD player review said:

“Spin the Blu-ray of Fast & Furious, and the BDP-S760 produces an impeccable image, majoring on detail, edge definition and clarity. The welcome lack of on-screen noise gives the action a sense of realism that eludes rival machines.Switch to the Fast & Furious DVD and while the drop down from HD to standard-definition is apparent, the Sony still produces a punchy, accurately drawn image.”

I’m impressed already and will be puting the Sony BDP-s760 bluray dvd player on my cheap TV Christmas list .If you have recently brought on of these BDP 760 Blu-ray players from Sony please let me know what you think of it in the cheap televisions comments section below.

Cheap LG BD350 Blu-ray DVD Player Tesco

The LG BD350 Blu-ray DVD player looks a nice enough looking product for a cheap Blu-ray DVD player but its hard to find any reviews for it apart from a really rubbish review on Tesco (Reevoo )where someone said “The blu ray player does not come with connections to link it to a television, so to use the player, you have to buy a special lead separately.” Well no of course the LG BD350 Blu-Ray DVD Player doesn’t come with a HDMI lead! No Blu-ray DVD players do. Stupid!

A better review of the LG BD350 Blu-ray DVD player is on amazon but it seems to praise it far to much so I’d like to know what they thought the bad points are. The review says “Finally LG got it. This 5th generation blu-ray player of LG has got it al. You can play all kind of discs on this player without any delay or problems. Superb blu-ray playback, excellent dvd and cd playback. Good design. Very slim model. Easy remote control. Great player for the true film and music lover!”

LG no longer list this Bluray player on their UK website so I assume its a end of line model hence Tesco and Richersounds offer it as a special deal. The BD350 Blu-Ray player specifications are below. If you buy one please let us know what you think of this cheap Blu-Ray DVD player in the comments.

*  Black.
* Dolby sound system.
* Supports region 2.
* Playback compatibility BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE, DVD(NTSC), DVD(PAL), DVD-R, DVD-RW (video/VR mode), DVD+R, DVD+RW (video mode), DTS CD, audio CD, CD-R/CD-RW.
* DivX playback.
* JPEG photo playback.
* HDMI output socket.
* Upscales to 1080p.
* PAL progressive.
* Remote control.
* Size (H)3.6, (W)43, (D)20cm.
* Weight 1.62kg.
* Remote requires 1 x AAA battery.

Cheap Sony BDP-S360 Blu-Ray DVD Player

In the whathifi review of the Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray DVD player it describes the good parts as “Smooth operator thanks in part to Xross Media Bar; solid spec; silky smooth motion and bold colours with DVD and Blu-ray; fast, exciting sound”

Probably more useful for those of you looking for a cheap Blu-ray DVD player is one of the reviews by a consumer on the Play site which says: “The unit itself is surprisingly small it’s the normal width and height for a DVD/Blu Ray player/home cinema unit but it’s only about half the depth. It looks great too, the front panel is finished in a piano black, which you can’t see so well on the product images online, so it will compliment the majority of current TVs. A nice blu’ or white light runs in the middle of the fascia when in use which is a nice touch.”

I won’t go into all the technical specifications on the Sony BDP-S360 but leave you with this overview of this Blu-ray player from Sony: “Take your movie experience in High Definition to the next level with the new Blu-ray Disc™ player BDP-S360 from Sony. The S360 combines sophisticated design with high-class performance: excellent High Definition picture and sound quality, ease of use and great internet connectivity for BD-Live.”

Samsung BD-P4600 Blu-Ray DVD Player

In-fact I can’t think of any other Blu-Ray DVD player that can match if for looks? A number of shops and online retailers have also been having some special deals on the Samsung BD-P4600 Blu-Ray DVD player making it significantly cheaper than when it was originally released. There’s actually a lot of good Blu-Ray DVD player deals around at the moment and they will likely be one of this Christmas’s biggest sellers.

The reviews for the Samsung BD-P4600 Blu-Ray DVD disc player have also been very good from what I’ve found around the internet. Here’s some user reviews from around the net.

Play.com 5 out of 5 Stars from 4 Reviewers one of which said:

“This is a brilliant machine – I bought this and the new LED samsung. Both hung on my wall and looks stunning. The quality of the blu ray is exceptional, miles better than the ps3 which i have as well. I cannot say a bad word about it and when connected to my sound system it is amazing!! The DVD playback is upscaled but I am not a fan of any upscaled DVDs and most of mine are now redundant as I wont watch them. It is good, but once you made the ‘switch’ it never looks as good.”

On Amazon the users there have given the Samsung BD-P4600 Blu-Ray DVD player on average 4 out of 5 stars from 18 customer reviews, the best of which I think is:

“I swore that after some bad experiences with Samsung DVD/BD players I would never buy another one, however, whilst perusing the net for one my eyes were hooked by this sweet looking product. When I saw that it was Samsung I hesitated only slightly before my penchant for the aesthetic won the day! If you have a Samsung LCD or LED then this is a must buy for you – instant recognition when you turn the player on – can use either remote for TV/DVD – and it completes the look and makes an unbeatable eye-catching focus for any lounge.”

Now on to the industry reviews for the Samsung BD-P4600 Blu-Ray DVD player starting with trustedreviews which don’t give a review score but a verdict part of which says:

“With the BD-P4600, Samsung has created the most distinctive-looking Blu-ray player to date, with a gorgeous wall-mountable design that will please those who like their players to look as good as the pictures they provide. There’s much to admire on the inside too, such as WiFi support and built-in memory, which makes it easier than ever to experience Blu-ray’s interactive extras, while the swift disc loading times and wide-ranging format support are added bonuses (although video-on-demand would have been the icing on the cake).”

Cnet UK has another pretty in-depth review of the Samsung BD-p4600 Blu-Ray player but it is worth remembering they reviewed it when it was £100 more expensive than it is now. They gave it a review score of 8.7 and said:

“Ultimately, the Samsung BD-P4600 may be sunk by its price. Sony and Panasonic both have excellent models on the market that cost less and have a more traditional form factor. But that’s not to say the BD-P4600 isn’t a great player, because it is. We love the speed with which it operates, and we also like the picture and sound quality. Overall, it’s a good package and certainly a great choice for Samsung TV owners who have their set mounted on a wall”

Techradar also have a good review of this Bluray DVD player again giving it a good score of 4 out of 5 stars (review scores seem pretty consistent). Part of the summary says:

“For its few faults, this is a neat piece of BD technology from Samsung. It looks like the kind of lifestyle proposition non-techies might go for, and presents an interesting solution for anyone with a wall-mounted flatscreen, particularly if you go for the wireless dongle option.”

Right away from how the Samsung BD-P4600 Blu-Ray DVD player looks astetically and the online reviews and on to how all the bits inside the pretty looking box work and perform. The technical specifications are as follows:

Brand      SAMSUNG
Dimensions     19.5×46.1×42.0(H/W/D)cm
HD Playback format     Blu-Ray
HD Playback resolution     N/A
DVD-R playback     Yes
DVD-RW playback     Yes
DVD+R playback     Yes
DVD+RW playback     Yes
DVD-RAM playback     No
CD playback     Yes
SACD playback     No
VCD playback     No
MP3 playback     Yes
JPEG image playback     Yes
DivX playback     No
HDMI connections     1
Component video connection     Yes
Optical connection     Yes
Ethernet connection     Yes
S-Video connection     No
I-link connection for digital camcorders     No
Scart sockets     No
RGB enabled scart sockets     No
Progressive scan     Yes
HDMI upscaling     No
Digital Freeview tuner     No
Dolby Digital Plus     Yes
Dolby True HD     Yes
DTS HD     Yes
5.1 channel audio outputs     No
HDMI cable included     No
Remote control included     Yes
Other features
16/1.0watts :in use/powered-down power consumption
DVD-ROM playback
CD-R playback
CD-RW playback
Playback discs in 1080p screen resolution
2.0 Blu-ray profile

Cheap BDP3000 Philips Blu-Ray Player

The Philips BDP3000 is currently retailing in the shops at a very good price of around £130 from Argos.com and Pixmania.com which is seriously good for a well branded cheap Blu-Ray DVD player which seems to tick all the features boxes. Its also had some pretty good reviews from the likes of Whathifi getting 4 out of 5 stars and saying “A Solid performer at a tantalisingly affordable price”.

The Philips BDP3000 Blu-Ray DVD player specifications and features list cheap televisions was given says:

*  Blu-ray Disc playback for sharp images in full HD 1080p
* 1080p at 24 fps for cinema-like images
* DVD video upscaling to 1080p via HDMI for near-HD images
* DivX Ultra for enhanced playback of DivX media files
* x.v.Colour brings more natural colours to HD camcorder videos
* BD-Live* (Profile 2.0) to enjoy online Blu-ray bonus content
* Enjoy all your movies and music from CDs and DVDs
* EasyLink controls all EasyLink products with a single remote
* Dolby TrueHD for high fidelity 7.1 surround sound

Plenty of Blu-Ray DVD player jargon to look at but what really matters is how the Philips BDP3000 performs on your television screen at home. Looking at the user reviews at Amazon UK they seem to back up the editorial reviews from the BDP3000 Philips Blu-Ray DVD player with 4 and a half stars out of 5!

Philips BDP3000 Blu-Ray DVD Player Reviews

One of the reviews of the Philips BDP3000 Blu-Ray DVD player reads:

“Let’s not get too technical about this. What you want to know about any blu ray/dvd player is the picture quality. The picture quality is superb. You really can’t go wrong at this price and I honestly can’t see how much better the more expensive models can be. I have seen the Sony blu ray entry player, the Philips is a bit cheaper, the picture quality is the same. The Sony machine may look a little better. This one is bog standard black and no flashy bits. I was very impressed by the upscale of old ordinary dvd’s. Less impressed by the huge writing that appears on the screen when you skip chapters! If you are looking for some fancy machine to remember your name, make your tea, then this is not it. If you simply want a machine that shows off the best of blu ray then this does it. It might not be the quickest to get going, it may not always remember where you left off (it does sometimes) but it does the thing it is supposed to, the reason you want it, it displays your film in breath taking quality.”.

So if your in the hunt for a Blu-Ray DVD player this Christmas it seems this would be a seriously good contender for your hard earned money. Just one thing to keep in mind the BDP3000 is a lot chunkier than the new slim line models being made which do look cool, but they don’t come anywhere near in terms of value.

Samsung Plasma HDTV

So buying your new TV is now more complicated, and all the marketing terms and funny names for the TV sets just increases the frustration for many people trying to work out which television would be right for them. When flat panel technology began to get popular with consumers the TV’s were expensive, but now I think we have reached a level where a LCD or Plasma TV are at a relatively good price point especially with the finance and credit deals available even during this recession.

HDTV has changed the television viewing experience for the better, but again it has confused people a lot who may not understand it as well as others. I can only guess the number of people who have spent a bit more money buying a Full HD TV with the theory it will be better than a HD Ready telly (bigger numbers always equals better right?) but I bet its high. These people have actually spent more money but receive no HD signal via the likes of SKY HD or a Blu-Ray DVD player when a 720 HD ready set would probably suit their needs much better (cheaper can be better).

But it’s future proof right? Well yes, but by the time HD TV signals make their way to Freeview for the masses to enjoy I would imagine a new even higher definition technology would probably appear. Personally cheap televisions love HD but with the current financial crisis going on we can’t afford the cost of an extra £5 a month on our Sky TV subscription for Sky HD and normal standard definition DVD’s are so much cheaper than their Blu-Ray DVD counterparts we can’t justify spending the extra even though we know the quality is that much better.

It’s doesn’t matter if you’re searching to find yourself a cheap as chips television set or a top range monster, LCD or plasma or LED (LED TV’s are just LCD televisions with LED’s to backlight it instead of the old way of using florescent tubes) just make sure you do your research before giving your cash to the guy in the shop o the online store. You could save yourself some cash, get a cheap television and not get any less features or quality for your money.