Look for price, picture quality, load time and audio format compatibility.
The #1 Blu-ray player on cnet is the Panasonic DMP-BD35. The reason this is so well reviewed is because it’s a fair price, it has decent load times, good picture quality and, if you have a home theater, it is capable of decoding the HD audio formats. Because this player has received such good reviews it’s in high demand right now. For example, Amazon had it for $226 on December 10th, but is currently listing it for $399. That’s $100 above MSRP and $50 more than it’s big brother the BD55 (which is actually a better player).
The other top two Blu-ray players are the Sony BDP-S350 and the Samsung BD-P1500. My only complaint with those two is that they aren’t able to decode all HD audio formats. (This deficit has no impact unless you have a surround sound system.)
So those three are the basic models. If you want additional features, like Netflix streaming or 7.1 analog connectors you can step up to the next tier.
Blu-ray.com is an excellent source for all things Blu-ray. Here’s their list of BD players:http://www.blu-ray.com/players/
In my opinion the best website for electronics reviews is cnet.com. Here’s their take on both the best Blu-ray players and the best Blu-ray players under (or formerly under) $250:http://reviews.cnet.com/best-blu-ray-pla…http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6463_7-6606…