While our conventional wisdom has told potential Blu-ray buyers to simply stick with the PS3, we're actually rethinking our strict buying advice with some worthy Blu-ray contenders hitting the marketplace this holiday season. Chief among our picks? Blu-ray players for under $200. Read on as we look at our holiday picks for Blu-ray players.

As cheap as possible

While we could give you a laundry list of reasons why these players aren't as great as the PS3, there's one big reason why they're better: the price. So far, two companies have rolled out sub-$200 Blu-ray players that are available at big box retailers.

Memorex

Memorex's MVBD-2510, one of the lowest of the low-end Blu-ray players, is still a decent Blu-ray device. With Blu-ray mainstays like 7.1 surround sound, HDMI out, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, the player is the next step up in quality from DVD. What's missing from the player? Without an ethernet port or other network connectivity, this player won't be able to be updated in the future, and won't support BD-LIVE features that connect the Blu-ray disc to the Internet. BD-LIVE isn't something we're too enthusiastic about, however, without being able to update the profile of the player easily — the actual act would require burning a CD or connecting a USB stick — so therefore it's buyer beware as this player could become outdated and not take advantage of the special features available in future titles. However, at a low price of around $170, it's the first player that we'd consider semi-affordable, which is a pretty big feature in itself.

Magnavox

Also on the sub-$200 tip, we found the Magnavox NB500MG9 Blu-ray player. Just like all Blu-ray players, this machine has support for legacy DVDs, HDMI, all the surround sound options we listed earlier and Java menus. This player's big boon is the ability to read data off of SD cards and display the contents. That means its another device which can output photos to a TV. Not exactly groundbreaking, nor a particular reason to pick up this unit over the Memorex one, but a nice fetaure to have if it ends up in your shopping cart.

Features gallore

So you're ready to plunk down the cash it takes to get more features in your Blu-ray player. Expect to spend in the neighborhood of $300-ish dollars to get these extended features, so you'll have to evaluate whether the added benefits are worth the extra investment.

LG

It might cost a bit extra, but LG's BD300 Blu-ray player is one of our favorites of the year. The reason for the love? LG took a chance and was one of the first manufacturers to include support for Netflix's video-on-demand service along with the player. We've seen the player around for about $349, which isn't too shabby considering its integrated BD-LIVE support in addition to the Netflix. If you've decided on buying a more full-featured player, this one is fairly innovative.

Samsung BD-P2500 series

Samsung's latest series of players, the BD-P2500 and BD-P2550, jump on board the Netflix streaming bandwagon as well, with the P2550 adding support for Pandora internet radio in addition. The latest players have all the other standard support that one would expect from a fully functional Blu-ray player, except DTS-HD Master Audio, which will be added via a firmware update. Expect to pay around $350 for these units.

Best value and compatibility

Surprise, surprise. The best value for Blu-ray players remains the PS3. While it doesn't have the Netflix streaming of some of the other machines, the PS3 does have support for every major codec of surround sound, optical out, BD-LIVE connectivity, and the knowledge that every Blu-ray profile will be supported by the most popular Blu-ray player till the format dies. It's still going to cost $400 at its least expensive incarnation, but that includes an 80GB hard drive, and oh yeah, a PlayStation game console with some really great games.

People looking to spend more than $200 on a Blu-ray player should skip the feature players, unless Netflix is really your thing, and make the jump to the PS3. It's still one of our favorite Blu-ray players around, with or without Netflix. The latest firmware supports Flash video, making it compatible with Hulu's library of films and TV shows.

Is this holiday season the time you'll finally make the jump to Blu-ray? Are you holding out for downloads to surpass Blu-ray? Sound off in the comments. Personally, I'm skipping the Blu-ray era altogether in favor of Boxee and an old laptop.

[Image: Pitzypearl]