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The best Blu-ray players in 2024 make it easy to catch up on your favorite shows
Physical media is far from dead. In fact, it’s a better time than ever to own your favorite TV series and movies, given that they often disappear from streaming services in the blink of an eye. So if you’re someone who collects Blu-ray discs for your home theater setup, you’re going to want to start with a great Blu-ray player first.
A great Blu-ray player can make all the difference when it comes to getting the most out of what you watch. With the advent of 4K and HDR, they’ve evolved to deliver crisp, crystal clear picture and sound quality. So no matter what you buy on Blu-ray, you can enjoy it to the fullest at home with the right player.
But which Blu-ray player should you bring home? Whether you’re a casual viewer or a dedicated film fan, we’ve rounded up some picks.
The best Blu-ray players in 2024
Best Blu-ray player: Panasonic DP-UB820
If you’re looking for the best Blu-ray player for most users, look no further than the Panasonic DMP-UB820. This player has a nice balance of features, performance and value. That makes it the best choice for just about everyone who needs a Blu-ray player.
It has full HDR support for vibrant colors, sharp textures and accurate black tones. Even when you play standard, non-4K Blu-ray or DVD discs, this player’s upscaling ability sharpens and enhances picture quality so it’s almost like seeing your favorites come to life in a new way. It also has Dolby Atmos support so it can fill your room with loud, clear sound.
Aside from connecting it directly to your TV or stereo system, it can use Wi-Fi for video streaming and even has a dedicated HDMI audio output for even higher-quality sound. That means it should mesh well with just about any setup you have going on in your living room with little muss or fuss.
Best premium Blu-ray player: Panasonic DP-UB9000
If you want the absolute best in home entertainment and have an elite home theater setup, the Panasonic DP-UB9000 is the ultimate 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player. Yes, it’s pricey, and that’s because it’s for the most elite cinephile. That’s why everything about it says “luxury” in many ways.
The heavy metal build and premium design make it clear that this player is in a class of its own. It supports all the key HDR formats, including HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision. You can also count on it for fantastic audio quality. With high-quality DACs, two-channel and 7.1-channel analogue outputs as well as support for Hi-Res Audio, this player has you covered in terms of audio. To top it all off, the DP-UB9000 comes packed with plenty of smart features.
This level of performance doesn’t come cheap, so you’ll absolutely be paying a pretty penny. But if quality is of the utmost importance to you, this is the Blu-ray player of your dreams.
Best budget Blu-ray player: Sony UBP-X700
Don’t want to spend an entire paycheck on a Blu-ray player? You don’t need to. The Sony UBP-X700 is an affordable player offers an impressive array of features and performance that belies its budget-friendly price point.
Its exceptional picture quality may come as a surprise, given that this player is so afforable. But whether you’re watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster or a classic film, this Blu-ray player can offer a great-looking picture that you can be proud of, even if you’re watching only top-of-the-line 4K releases.
It supports multiple HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10, ensuring that you can enjoy the widest possible range of 4K content. While it doesn’t support HDR10+, this omission is hardly a dealbreaker considering the player’s affordable price point. Despite not being marketed as a hi-res audio player, the UBP-X700 can even play high-resolution audio files and supports various formats such as WAV and FLAC.
For less than $200, you really can’t do better than this Blu-ray player, so be sure to grab it if you want to have high quality at a low price.
Best Blu-ray player and console combo: PlayStation 5 Slim
If you need to play Blu-ray discs but want a multifunction player to handle it, you can’t go wrong with a PlayStation 5, namely the PS5 Slim, which means you can play movies as well as video games from the same device.
As a 4K Blu-ray player, the PS5 Slim is a great space-saving option for anyone who loves video games, movies and TV. It lets you enjoy your favorite movies and TV shows in high definition, then switch over to the latest and greatest games without having to get up and change the disc out given the PS5 Slim’s spacious hard drive.
You don’t need a remote since you can use the included DualSense controller, and given that there are tons of new games always releasing in tandem with films and TV, you can kill two birds with one stone with this device. Plus, you’ll have more space free, without having to have both gaming console and Blu-ray player.
CBS News
Mob hangs and kills 3 men accused of kidnapping girl in Mexico
Three men accused of kidnapping and robbing a girl were lynched by a crowd in central Mexico on Saturday, local authorities said.
Lynchings have increased in Mexico in recent years, with experts saying the perception of impunity leads communities to take justice into their own hands.
The trio were killed on Saturday afternoon in San Juan Amecac, 42 miles southeast of the capital Mexico City, a local government statement said.
“Three men died after being detained and lynched by residents for the alleged robbery and kidnapping of a minor,” it said.
Police rushed to the scene but the men “no longer showed vital signs” by the time they arrived, it added.
Some 300 people participated in the lynching — hanging and beating the men until they were dead, according to local media.
The uptick in vigilantism is taking place amidst a broader increase in violence in Mexico since 2006, fueled by drug trafficking.
In June, four men were lynched and then burned in the nearby city of Atlixco by a crowd that accused them of stealing a vehicle.
In March, residents of the southern city of Taxco lynched a woman they accused of murdering an eight-year-old girl. Two men also suspected by locals of involvement were attacked but survived, the BBC reported.
In 2022, a mob in Mexico attacked a young political adviser and then set him on fire over child trafficking accusations shared on chat groups.
In 2018, two men were burned to death in Puebla after rumors spread on WhatsApp that they were child abductors, BBC News reported. The rumors turned out to be untrue.
CBS News
184 killed in Haiti, U.N. says, as gang leader allegedly orders massacre of elderly on voodoo priest’s advice
The United Nations human rights chief said Monday that 184 people were killed over the weekend in the Haitian capital, as Port-au-Prince was rocked by a spike in gang violence that pushed the death toll from Haiti’s spiraling security crisis to at least 5,000.
“Just this past weekend, at least 184 people were killed in violence orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, in the Cite Soleil area,” Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva. “These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people.”
Volker appeared to be referring to a reported massacre carried out by a gang leader in the impoverished Cite Soleil neighborhood who targeted elderly people he suspected of sickening his own child by witchcraft.
The Reuters news agency quoted the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) as saying on Sunday that Monel “Mikano” Felix, leader of the Wharf Jeremie gang, had ordered the murders in Cite Soleil, and that all the victims of the attack were over 60 years old.
RNDDH said Felix had sought advice from a voodoo priest who told him elderly people in the area had harmed his child, who died on Saturday, leading to members of his gang killing at least 100 people Friday and Saturday with machetes and knives.
Cite Soleil is a densely populated neighborhood near the port in Port-au-Prince. It’s among the most impoverished and violent areas in the small country.
Haiti has been gripped by political chaos for years, leaving room for heavily-armed criminal gangs to seize huge swaths of territory in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. Much of the capital remains lawless despite hundreds of police from Kenya being sent in to help reassert law and order.
International airlines have largely stopped flying in and out of Haiti amid the chaos and bloodshed, with several U.S. carriers halting flights entirely after planes were hit by gunfire in November. American Airlines said over the weekend that it no longer planned to resume flights from February as previously stated, joining Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways in postponing all Haiti routes indefinitely.
CBS News
Australia synagogue fire “likely a terrorist incident,” police say as they seek suspects in Melbourne arson
Melbourne — Australian police said Monday they are hunting for three suspects over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue, designating it a terrorist act. Mask-wearing attackers set the Adass Israel Synagogue ablaze before dawn on Friday, police said, gutting much of the building. Some congregants were inside the single-story building at the time but no serious injuries were reported.
The fire sparked international condemnation, including from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing,” Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference.
Investigations over the weekend had made “significant progress,” Patton said, declining to provide further details of the operation.
Officials from the federal and state police, as well as Australia’s intelligence agency, met on Monday and concluded that the fire was “likely a terrorist incident,” the police chief said.
“Based on that, I am very confident that we now have had an attack, a terrorist attack on that synagogue,” Patton said.
Australia’s reaction to antisemitism “on the rise”
Counterterrorism police have joined the probe. Under Australian law, a terrorist act is one that causes death, injury or serious property damage to advance a political, religious or ideological cause and is aimed at intimidating the public or a government.
The official designation unlocks help from other federal agencies for the investigation, said Australian National University terrorism researcher Michael Zekulin.
“Basically you get additional resources that you might not otherwise get,” he told AFP.
There was no information to suggest further attacks were likely and Australia’s terror threat assessment remained at the level of “probable,” said Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has denounced the synagogue attack as an “outrage,” announced the creation of a federal police taskforce targeting antisemitism.
“Antisemitism is a major threat and antisemitism has been on the rise,” Albanese told a news conference, citing the synagogue blaze and recent vandalism.
The taskforce will be made up of federal police to be deployed across the country as needed, officials said. They will focus on threats, violence and hatred towards the Jewish community and parliamentarians.
The war in Gaza has sparked protests from supporters of Israel and the Palestinian people in cities around Australia, as in much of the world.
In January, Australian lawmakers ushered in a series of new laws in a bid to get to grips with a spike in antisemitic acts, including banning the performance of the Nazi salute in public and the display or sale of Nazi hate symbols such as the swastika. The new laws also made the act of glorifying or praising acts of terrorism a criminal offense.
Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said at the time that the laws sent “a clear message: there is no place in Australia for acts and symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust and terrorist acts.”
Israeli, Australian leaders “respectfully disagree” on definition of antisemitism
Netanyahu attacked the Australian government’s stance in the run-up to the fire.
“This heinous act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment emanating from the Australian Labor government,” he said after the attack, declaring that “anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism.”
Australia voted last week in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution that demanded the end of Israel’s “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
New Zealand, Britain, and Canada were among 157 countries that voted for the resolution, with eight against, including the U.S.
Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus rejected Netanyahu’s accusation.
“He’s absolutely wrong. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Netanyahu,” Dreyfus told national broadcaster ABC on Monday. “Australia remains a close friend of Israel, as we have been since the Labor government recognized the State of Israel when it was created by the United Nations. Now that remains the position.”