Philips BDP3406 Blu-ray Disc Player - 1080p - Black (BDP3406/F7) -

• BLURAY PLAYER W/ WIFI / NET TV NETFLIX/VUDU/BLOCKBUSTER/FILM FRESH

Having received quite a few BluRay movies as gifts over the past year, and without a way to play them, I decided I wanted a BluRay player. Approximately four years ago we purchased two Philips DVD players for about $50 a piece to put in our kids' rooms, expecting that $50 players would give the kids some use, but we could consider them "disposable" at such a low price. Both players are still going strong and work perfectly! So I decided to look at Philips as a brand name again. I wanted a player that would not only play BluRay, but would have other features and be able to play other file types aside from just BluRay and DVD. I was very surprised to see this player listing .avi, DivX, MKV, MPEG-4, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW-PAL, as well as having the capability to play movies from different regions, not just the US's region.

The player arrived within two days, in a very timely manner. Hookup was very simple -just the power source and an HDMI cable from the player to the TV were necessary for basic set-up and the player was ready to go. BluRay movies are pristine on our TV (we have an LG 1080/120hz LCD set). It provides a beautiful BluRay picture of the highest quality. This player is easy to operate, with only four buttons to have to navigate: power, eject, play, and stop.

I have two issues with this player, which are relatively minor, but are why I'm not giving this player a full five stars.

First, the remote is terrible. So bad! Basically, one has to stand within three feet of the player to get it to work, which defeats the purpose of being able to control the player from across the room or from a distance. One must push the buttons on the remote very hard to get a response from the player and sometimes I have had to hold the remote in different positions (high up, pointing down; upside down; tipped backward at a angle) to get it to work. I'll note that the remotes for the two Philips DVD players I mentioned above are also difficult to use in the same way, so I'll chalk this up to an issue with Philips' remote design. It's really a pain.

My second issue is that the player itself is very lightweight. I don't have a problem with this intrinsically; however the player slides backward when you push any button without any action occurring because the buttons are not getting enough pressure, as the player slides back. I think this problem can be solved with little round rubber anti-slide stick-on anchors that I can stick on the bottom of the unit. Not that big of a deal, but I do have to hold the player down firmly with my left hand to eject a disc or try and press play with my right hand, etc.

Overall, this is a fine BluRay player with a lot of functions that I know I'll find useful. I especially like the alternate file type functions and I'm looking forward to trying the Netflix streaming feature. I would recommend this player to someone looking for a basic BluRay player with nifty additional functions.