Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Top 40 must-have Blu-ray discs - inlcuding Lord of the Rings



'The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Edition)' has finally arrived on Blu-ray in a 15-disc package.

Many people have waited many months for the arrival of "The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Edition)," and now that it's finally here in all its 15-disc glory (682 minutes of which are the actual films), we've taken the opportunity to update our list of must-have Blu-ray movies.

Though my face is at the top of the column, the list was compiled with input from editors John Falcone, Matthew Moskovciak, and David Katzmaier, who look at a lot of content in their day-to-day testing of products. We also keep an eye on AVS Forum's Blu-ray picture- and audio-quality threads and have always appreciated the site's "tier" rating system.

This list is not set in stone, and we'll be adding and removing discs as new ones come out. As always, feel free to make comments and suggest your own personal favorites. They may get added to the list in the future.

Also: If you're someone who likes demoing your system and skipping around between scenes, you'll want a fast Blu-ray player. Right now, some of the two fastest 2011 players we've tested so far are the Panasonic DMP-BDT210 and Samsung BD-D6700. We'll be testing the speeds of more players in the coming weeks and you can always check to see which players are at the top of our best Blu-ray players list.

Watch the Slideshow