Blu-ray Player Under $300

[tazman]

The PS3's work great for playing the Blue Ray DVD's...  However the lazer head in the PS3 is not the same as what Sony puts into the regular Blue Ray player meant for playing DVD's.  The PS3 player is only meant for light duty use,  loading and playing games and such.  Yes they will play Blue Ray DVD's.  But continuous playing of DVD's will burn them out very quickly.  I know at least 4 people who had used theirs for DVD playing and have burned out the drives in less than a year.  Just a word of caution mind you.:OnAir:

[gparris]

I put my PS3 right next to my old Toshiba HD-A1 that I use for playing DVDs - it does decent playback and for the several dozen HD DVDs I have, another place to play them in the game room.

The neighbours next door have PS3 in use for DVD playback (including their BD collection) all the time and are planning a "backup" PS3, just in case because it does so many things very well.