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Sharp introduced the BD-HP20U, their first Blu-ray player - and so far, their only one - in late 2007. The date is important because at that time, Blu-ray players didn't need to be Profile 1.1 compliant.

Basically, a Profile 1.0 machine like this Sharp doesn't include all the interactive bells and whistles that the newer Profile models do. But if you are like me and just simply want to sit and watch your movie without any distracting pop-up windows or picture-in-picture features or web-enabled extras, then the BD-HP20U is all you need.

This Sharp is a fundamental DVD player that does a very good job playing back Blu-ray content and upconverting standard definition DVDs.

With that said, the Blu-ray format continues to mature, it is now touting Profile 2.0 (BD-Live). In practical terms, very few Blu-ray movies have been released that take advantage of all the BD-Live capabilities.

But they are coming and if you are the type who likes to stay on the leading edge of technology, then I would suggest that you consider a Profile 2.0 player like the multipurpose PlayStation 3.