Question: I just purchased a 42-inch Panasonic plasma TV ($665 at Sears!) and would like to upgrade from DVD to Blu-ray. You have written favorably about Oppo products before but have not mentioned their Blu-ray player. Do you think it would be a good fit for me? It will be connected to the TV with a Wii video game and cable box, but no sound system.

A: The $499 Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player is regarded by many as the finest on the market. What primarily sets its apart is its performance with regular DVDs. Any Blu-ray player will provide astounding image quality with Blu-ray discs, but DVD picture quality varies widely and is usually mediocre to bad. The Oppo has some of the best DVD image processing available at any price and will make your DVDs look as good as they can possibly look. The BDP-83 also plays Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio high resolution audio formats and has high-def audio decoding and multichannel analog outputs.

The reason I think the Oppo may not be your best bet is the $499 price. Most people do not spend nearly as much on their Blu-ray player as they did their television! If you wanted to squeeze the best possible picture out of a huge DVD collection, if you had a separate sound system, or if you had a much bigger, more expensive TV, it would make more sense. I'd consider these alternatives before springing for the Oppo.

Since you have a Panasonic plasma a Panasonic Blu-ray player probably makes the most sense. The TV and Blu-ray player remotes will be compatible so when the movie plays all you will need is the Blu-ray remote to control disc playback as well as the TV volume, and when you turn on the player it will automatically switch TV inputs for you. Panasonic is also one of the few brands that provide top-notch image quality with regular DVDs. It is not quite as good as the Oppo, but it is still excellent by any measure. Currently the Panasonic DMP-BD60 sells for under $170 and you can get the DMP-BD70 Blu-ray/VHS combo player for under $250. Either of these would make more sense in your system and are my top recommendation.

Since you apparently like video games the Sony PlayStation 3 also belongs on your shopping list. It is one of the fastest, most reliable Blu-ray players available, plays high-def video games, connects wirelessly to your network to stream media to your television or sound system, play most any computer audio/video file, and can stream Netflix if you have a Netflix account. It sells for $299 + $25 for the Blu-ray disc remote.

For those looking to get into Blu-ray at the lowest possible price some wonderful bargains are out there. At the time of this writing Best Buy has their new Wi-Fi-enabled, Netflix- streaming Insignia NS-WBRDVD on sale for only $129. The LG BD370, a Netflix-streaming player known for very fast performance, was on sale for $129 at Amazon.com.

Not only have Blu-ray player prices come down, Blu-ray movie prices have dropped dramatically as well. If you have an HDTV, this year is the time to upgrade that DVD player to Blu-ray. As you can see, now the price won't make you turn blue!

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