Blu-ray players with built-in Netflix streaming

Matthew Moskovciak, November 23, 2009

Blu-ray was originally all about pristine, high-def video quality, but--somewhat ironically--the format is spurring the popularity of low-resolution streaming services like Netflix. Samsung and LG have included Netflix streaming on all of their standalone Blu-ray players this year, making it easy to mix the eye candy of Blu-ray with the instant gratification of streaming video.

The ratings of these players reflect their overall capabilities as Blu-ray players. If we were judging them strictly based on Netflix performance, they'd get identical scores, as we've found the Netflix streaming experience to be virtually identical on all the products we've tested. In other words, if you just want a basic Blu-ray player that streams Netflix, feel free to go cheap.

As for the Netflix experience overall, we're generally fans, although be forewarned that the selection of movies available for streaming is much smaller than Netflix's DVD catalog. That being said, the selection of TV shows is improving, with content deals from ABC and CBS bolstering an already strong library.

Image quality ranges from mediocre to near-DVD (the "HD" content comes closest, but it's still a minority of the selections offered), assuming your Internet connection is fast enough to stream at full quality. It doesn't come close to Blu-ray, but for most people we'd say it's well within the critical "good enough" marker.

If paying a monthly subscription fee for Netflix isn't your style, Panasonic features the pay-per-view Amazon Video On Demand streaming service on its recent Blu-ray players. LG also offers CinemaNow and Vudu streaming.

If you're still not ready for Blu-ray, but want to get Netflix streaming, you can get the service on both the Roku Digital Video Player and Xbox 360--though the latter requires an additional yearly Xbox Live fee above and beyond the Netflix subscription.

More Resources

Netflix tells all about video encoding process,

Hands-on with Netflix streaming on TiVo,

Netflix-compatible video devices compared,

Hands-on: Netflix streaming on the PS3