Sony Blu-ray Discâ„¢ BDP-S1 Blu-Ray Player

Pros: picture quality
Cons: poorly designed remote

Purchased to use in a dedicated home theater setup with a Sony VPW 50 front screen projector using a 117" screen. Picture quality is outstanding - @ 1080p. Very impressed watching the BBC Planet Earth series. Conventional DVDs look almost as good.

Only two drawbacks to the unit.

1. Slow to start. It takes a minute or so to boot up the unit and another minute or so to load a disk, so you need to wait while and not get antsy with the remote.

2. Truly lousy remote control - not back lit, and has generally black / dark gray buttons on a black or gray case. Even my $90 Oppo DVD has a better remote.

Pros: Picture
Cons: Cost

Out of the box it looks beautiful. Picture is also great. Side by side the Toshiba HD-A1 (HD-DVD) I still like the HD-DVD product better. Mostly for the cost. Bluray only fails in the cost factor and the uncertainty in of which direction the HD market will go. 500 is easier to swallow. If you've got to have Bluray go with the PS3. The picture and sound are the same to me. The only thing that the PS3 is missing at this time is the upconvert for DVD's. So if Bluray bombs you'll still get use out of the PS3.