Blu-ray discs still offer the best sound and picture quality, and these Blu-ray players are the best way to play them.
Maybe, just maybe, you’ve watched everything on your streaming services. Or maybe you’re off the grid at the cottage and have a killer Blu-ray collection. Either way, one of the best ways to fully experience the splendor of a 4K picture and sound, while also unlocking the full potential of your TV and AV components, is with a Blu-ray player.
With its stellar picture, impressive codec support, and affordable price tag, our team ranks Sony’s UBP-X700M as the best Blu-ray player currently on the market. But we understand that what works for someone else might not work for you. Depending on what you’re looking for, some of the other best Blu-ray players we’ve rounded up might be a much better fit.
Why you should buy this: It will make your standard Blu-ray discs pop on your HDTV or that new 4K TV.
Who it’s for: Viewers who want to make sure their older Blu-rays get 4K upscaling and their player is ready for the very latest.
Why we picked the UBP-X700M:
If you are looking for ways to make sure even your older Blu-rays perform as well as they can with your new 4K TV, this UBP-X700M model is a 4K Blu-ray player with excellent upscaling even for older formats. It’s also highly compact, super-easy to set up, and includes dual HDMI ports if you prefer an audio-only HDMI option in your setup.
It’s also a powerful audio platform, with support for 24-bit hi-res audio formats, as well as HDR10, Dolby Vision, and other support to ensure that you’re getting the most cinematic results for your experience.
In addition to awesome disc playback, the player’s powerful Wi-Fi chip and Ethernet port enable fast 4K streaming. Finally, Sony’s TV SideView app lets you control your screen from your smartphone, as well as share your entire smartphone screen with your TV, which is great for showing friends and family pictures and videos.
Why you should buy this: It offers Sony’s best picture and audio processing technologies in one highly capable device.
Who it’s for: Those who refuse to compromise on fidelity on either the video or audio side.
Why we picked the Sony UBP-X800M2:
There’s a reason Sony’s UBP-X800M2 is such a popular Blu-ray player. This player offers just about everything you could want, including gorgeous 4K resolution, high-end audio decoding that includes both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and both HDR10 and Dolby Vision to bring the very best performance out of every disc in your collection.
While you’ll pay a bit more for the UBP-X800M2 than for the UBP-X700M listed above, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth. That’s because it offers the company’s DSEE HX audio processing, which will make everything from MP3 to FLAC files sound absolutely astonishing, including the leading hi-res audio formats. So if your disc collection is as big on audio as video, this is likely the option for you.
Speaking of audio, the UBP-X800M2 has another trick up its sleeve that the UBP-X700M can’t match: It can transmit audio simultaneously over Bluetooth to a wireless speaker or a set of headphones.
