It’s almost Christmas time…which means lots of Blu-rays, DVD’s and video games for all the good boys and girls. But fair warning; if you want to build your Blu-ray collection this Christmas, make sure everyone knows you have a Blu-ray player. I went through that when DVD’s first came out. I bought a DVD player, was all jacked about getting some DVD’s for Christmas and ended up with some VHS tapes. Not cool.

Have a question about DVD’s, Blu-rays or anything regarding home theaters? Send in your questions to:dvddoctor@joblo.com

We have an entire article dedicated to Andy as he gets ready to jump on the Blu-ray train. He had several questions, so let’s get to ‘em.

Hello DVD Doc, I have narrowed my Blu-ray choices to the following players.... Sony BDP-550 or PS3. Now I had a few questions about them both....The BDP-550 has a thing called 24p. What exactly is this? Does the PS3 have this capability? And do you need a spec on the tv that can play this? If so, can the player turn it off?

I’m going to warn you about 24p; it’s complicated. The 24p is a measure of the frames per second. 24p (and it’s integers; 48, 72, etc.) is a native film resolution and will give you the cleanest picture possible. However, to everyone reading this; unless you are absolutely obsessed with having the best picture possible and you’ve poured a ton of money into your system, I wouldn’t worry about this. And yes, the PS3 outputs at 24p. And yes, your TV must be capable of displaying 24p in order to utilize it, much the same as you need a 1080p TV in order to utilize a 1080p player. As far as the player “turning it off”…no, it’s something you would have to set in your TV’s settings.

Andy didn’t ask questions about movies, so you get a random picture of Keira Knightley because…well…I really like her.

Also the BDP has BD Live capabilities. Does the PS3 have this, or can you just download a patch for it to work?

Yes, the PS3 has BD-Live capabilities. If your player can connect to the internet, then it more than likely has BD-Live capabilities. In fact, I can’t think of a player that can connect to the internet, but doesn’t have BD-Live ability.

I have an older HDTV that can only go up to 1080i. I know 1080p is true HD, so my other question is that does current blu-ray players (whether is the BDP or the PS3) play on these tv's? Or do I need to purchase another tv with 1080p? And lastly does blu-ray discs play 1080i as well?

Blu-rays look great on 1080i televisions, so no worries there. Just confirm in your player’s settings that it’s set either “automatic” or to 1080i. Otherwise, it won’t work properly. As 1080p TV’s continue to drastically drop in price, that’s something you can upgrade later on.

Megan Fox…for the same reason as above.

Oh one more question... an opinion on which one should I get? Thanks for any help you can give me, Andy

They’re both excellent players, but if you only have one Blu-ray player, get the PS3. It has more capabilities and like I said, it’s “future-proof”. The BDP-550 is a fine player, but the PS3 has too many options and capabilities not to make it the one to recommend.

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