Group test: Midrange Blu-ray players

As the Blu-ray market matures, it's becoming all too obvious that all HD digital players are not the same. More expensive players can offer superior picture and audio quality thanks to improved processing components, as well as a steadily increasing range of useful features. The players in this test sit firmly in the midrange, a step or two above their manufacturer's most basic offerings.

Overview Price: £400 More info: Denon Size: 44x11x31cm Connections: HDMI, component out, digital audio out, coaxial digital out, analogue phono out, Ethernet port, SD card slot Playback: BD-R, BD-RE, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, CD-DA, WMA, MP3, JPEG, DivX HD, AVCHD Key features: BD-Live, BonusView, DVD upscaling to 1080p, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD, PCM Memory cache: No Load time: 1min 40 secs Denon DBP-1610 Denon's DBP-1610 isn't svelte in the manner of some of the sleeker looking models here. It's all subjective of course, but the 1610's blocky aesthetics and portly appearance imply smack or two by the ugly stick to us. Still, its bulk and bluff appearance implies a player that has reproduction quality at its heart, which is just as well, since it's far from being the most broadly featured device here. There's a two-channel audio output and a digital coaxial output but perhaps surprisingly at this price, there's no S-video output, no optical digital output and no multichannel audio outputs either - you'll need to move up the range to Denon's DBP-2010 for those. There's an Ethernet port of course for accessing BD-Live material but there's no memory onboard, though you can add up to 8GB via SDHC card. However, it can upscale standard DVD pictures to 1080p and there's a separate audio-only using 24bit/192KHz Burr-Brown DACs to provide superior sound free from interference from the video componentry for CDs. It can do the HD audio decoding donkey work onboard, or send it unadulterated to your AV amp via HDMI if that's what you'd prefer. Performance-wise, there's little to criticise. Pictures are pin-sharp with impressively realised colour balance and strong motion handling, though it perhaps lacks just a smidgeon of definition at the edges. Black levels aren't quite as well realised as the best here and there's just a little bit of bleaching in very bright scenes, but this is still a very strong contender.

Verdict Plus points Top-notch audio components Minus points No multichannel analogue outs, bulky build, video performance not the best here, expensive

Overview Price: £240 More info: LG Electronics Size: 44x11x31cm Connections: HDMI, component out, composite out, S-video out, digital audio out, coaxial digital out, optical digital out, analogue phono out, Ethernet port, USB Playback: BD-R, BD-RE, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, CD, WMA, MP3, JPEG Key features: Wi-Fi (802.11n), BD-Live, BonusView, internet content (YouTube, Netflix, Vudu), DVD upscaling to 1080p, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD, PCM, Deep Color, x.v. Color Memory cache: 1GB Load time: 1min 05 secs

It's a sleekly good-looking beast, with mirrored front and slim chassis and around the back are a broad range of connections including 7.1 analogue output channels, which you'll need if your AV receiver doesn't do HDMI, component and composite outs, S-video, digital optical and coaxial options, an analogue phono out and front-mounted USB.

It can upscale DVDs to 1080p and handle all the usual HD audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, plus there's an Ethernet port for accessing BD-Live material, firmware updates and YouTube. It even has its own internal memory of 1GB, unlike several models here. Not that you necessarily need the Ethernet port, since the BD390 has Wi-Fi on board, so there's no need for a dongle to connect wirelessly to your home network. It has DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certification too, so you can stream content straight from your PC or NAS server.

It's by far the best-featured device in our test and we're chuffed to say it easily makes the grade in terms of quality too. Black levels are reassuringly pitch-like, while still retaining impressive levels of detail, colours are vibrant and edges sharp. And if the audio performance perhaps isn't quite up there with the Denon, it's certainly not an embarrassment.

It was just about ahead in the load-time steeplechase too, beating its nearest rivals by about five seconds.