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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.
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UnitedHealthcare CEO death reveals wider outrage over healthcare system, insurance
The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is surfacing the public’s deep frustration with the health insurance industry.
On “CBS Mornings” Friday, Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News said the main issue is that health care costs are too high.
“What we see in this country is that the number one cause of bankruptcy is health-care-related expenses,” she said.
After groceries, transportation and rent, health care costs are the No. 1 cost of concern to families in this country, according to KFF polling.
“We’ve gotten to a point where health care is so inaccessible and unaffordable, people are justified in their frustrations,” Gounder said.
Can the insurance industry do something about high costs?
There are things that can be done, Gounder said.
Under President Barack Obama, for example, there was the Affordable Care Act, which helped to expand health insurance.
“You had Medicaid, you had the marketplace, then you also have subsidies to make it more affordable to purchase plans on the marketplace,” Gounder said. “Those were made even more generous during the pandemic, and then those more generous subsidies were extended under the Inflation Reduction Act under President Biden.”
But, there is still the challenge of why health care costs are rising.
“You have efforts to extend coverage and make more people have health care be available, but prices are going up,” Gounder said.
What could change in U.S. health care look like?
In the U.S., people are faced with both rising health care costs and insurance premiums.
According to a KFF poll from earlier this year, a quarter of U.S. adults say they’ve skipped or postponed getting the care they need simply because of the cost.
Compared with other developed countries, the U.S has a different, “very piecemeal” approach, Gounder said.
“Many other countries have what we call socialized medicine,” Gounder said. “By the way, Medicare is socialized medicine, and even that socialized medicine is the most expensive in terms of health care for the elderly in the world.”
Many different proposals have been made to improve the situation, she said, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to negotiate down the price of drugs.
“We’ve already seen one round of price negotiations. The incoming administration wants to eliminate the Inflation Reduction Act, at least many of the provisions of that. So whether that will continue, we don’t know,” she said.
There have also been mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare industry, which means less competition.
“Biden administration has really been trying to pursue antitrust suits to block some of these,” Gounder said. “The Trump administration, the prior administration, tried to make health care pricing more transparent. That was another way of trying to make things better. It’s not enough. These are all sort of chipping away at a bigger problem.”
What you can do if a claim is denied
In posts to social media, doctors are sharing their experiences with more and more claims being denied — something Gounder is seeing too.
“What we’re also seeing now is increasing use of AI by the insurance companies to deny claims, and then you have competing AIs being developed by healthcare systems to fight the health insurance AIs,” she said. “Me as a doctor, I have to spend a lot of time on the phone with various different companies to try to explain why my patient is in the hospital.”
If you are finding your claims to be denied, Gounder suggests following a few steps:
- Collect all of the paperwork you can to make your case
- Review very carefully the statements that are sent to you and what the issues are
- See what your doctor can do to start in terms of filing an appeal
- Consider state insurance commissions that regulate insurance that you can also appeal to. Go to naic.com and look up your state.