Sharp - BDHP20U Blu-Ray Player Review

When I bought my HDTV, of course, I needed a Blu-Ray player to go with it.  :)  I have to admit, I didn't put a lot of research into a Blu-Ray since I was so focused on getting the right HDTV, so, I really just ended up getting this Blu-Ray player because it was one of the ones in stock where I got my HDTV and I got a great deal on it since I also got my HDTV at the same time.  All I knew about Blu-Ray at the time was that it won the war over HD-DVD and it wasn't cheap, but, I needed it to get that really great picture on my new HDTV.

After owning this one for awhile, I have to say I'm impressed.  The picture quality is amazing, we love our Blu-Ray on our HDTV.  The unit looks nice and is very easy to use.  I only had a compatibility problem with on Blu-Ray, but, that was easily resolved with a firmware update on our Sharp Blu-Ray player, never a problem since then.

I don't know if this is an issue with all Blu-Rays or not, but, my only gripe is if there is a disc in the player when I power it on, it takes awhile to read what format it is, doesn't matter if it's a blu-ray or regular DVD in the player.  I've never timed it, but, it seems like it takes a good minute, much longer than a regular DVD player would.  This is the only blu-ray player I've had experience with, so, I don't know if it's normal behavior or not.

Oh, don't skimp on your HDMI cable.  You probably spent over 1-2k on your HDTV, another few hundred on your blu-ray, the HDMI cable is not the time to go cheap when hooking up your blu-ray.  I had to many people tell me to just get the $10-20 (or less) cables, there's no difference.  Funny thing is, these are the same people that know there is a difference between Cat3, Cat5, Cat5e, & Cat6 network cables, why they can't accept there's a difference in HDMI is beyond me.  Get the better cable, shop online for it though, you'll pay to much in a store.