Buying advice: your dream Blu-ray setup

Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player [tentative]

Panasonic's DMP-BD50 will be one of the most advanced Blu-ray players you can buy when it goes on sale in June

Choosing a using a Blu-ray player is just the start of your hi-def journey.

To make it really sing you'll need to team it with a decent TV or projector, home cinema receiver and speakers.

Here's our pick from the very best you can buy today, Blu-ray player included:

Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player

The world’s first Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player is a genuine wow. With its slim looks, online capability, picture-in-picture trickery and thrilling audiovisual performance, this is the first BD player that really shows what the Blu-ray format is capable of.

Panasonic’s reputation for reliability practically ensures that you'll be in home cinema utopia when it goes on sale in June. Buy this player and you’re in future-proof fantasyland.

InFocus IN81 DLP projector

Featuring a solid specification, including HDMI v1.3, great optics and a chipset compatible with 1080p resolution Blu-ray discs playing at 24fps, it delivers an outstanding performance for its £2,000 price. Rich in fine detail, with great blacks and greyscale, it’s a corker of a Blu-ray movie machine.

Samsung LE52F96BD LCD TV

If you’re not quite ready for the projection option, then at least treat yourself to a knockout new flatscreen TV. Ordinary LCD TVs use a cold cathode fluorescent backlight for illumination but this Samsung uses a bank of LEDs (light emitting diodes). The result is superb picture contrast, better blacks and improved colour fidelity.

Throw in a gorgeous frame, full 1080p24 HD resolution, 1:1 pixel mapping and three HDMI v1.3 inputs and you can see why this £2,300 Samsung redefines the potential of LCD for largescreen viewing. Unquestionably, a screen to maximize the potential of Blu-ray.

Onkyo TX-SR875 home cinema receiver

Unlike the Olympics, being first in home entertainment doesn’t always make you the best – except in the case of the TX-SR875.

The first AV receiver to feature onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, delivers such a stunning performance it scooped a winner’s gong at the recent Home Cinema Choice Awards.

Whether you’re upscaling standard DVDs or spinning the latest Blu-ray discs, this £1,000 receiver will deliver superior home cinema sound with every genre of movie and every format.

Tannoy Revolution Signature 5.1 speaker package

Gorgeously styled with lustrous woodwork, this £2,900 5.1 system features a dual-concentric tulip waveguide and an earthing system for the drivers. If that means nothing to you, you should still be glad that the 6in cones provide excellent image and staging, while the tower speakers and the ugly-but-punchy subwoofer provide the kick.

Home Cinema Choice magazine described these speakers as delivering ‘delicacy and grace with power, like a boxer with the soul of a concert pianist’ – and it’s not often they’re moved like that. You can add a couple of rears to make a Blu-tastic 7.1 array.

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