Well I suppose that all depends on how future proof you want to be. The future for optical media is limited and the future is streaming, although how long this change will take could be anywhere between 5-15 years.

Blu-ray is a great format all the same and here are my personal opinions on what to look for in a player. I like players that not only have built in Wi-Fi or an ethernet port for updating, but also those that offer built in apps for streaming. I just setup a player for a neighbor that had Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu and a handful of other apps for catching and playing online content. This is really, in my opinion, the way to go.

Don't get too distracted by price, aim for $100 and up when shopping for a player. The prices have come down but the quality of players ranges from those that last a year to those that you'll be using for the next five years. If money is no barrier you can find some really nice players with great tech support in the $400 to $500 range.

I'm still not convinced that 3D is ever going to be more then fad. Don't get me wrong here, on the right display, with passive glasses and a well filmed movie it's impressive to see but it's not worth the money.

What you need? Hmm I'm not sure how to take that but I'll through some info out here.
First and foremost a good HD 1080P display with 120Hz refresh rates is about as good as it gets unless you want to spend the cash on Sony's new 4K technology, and that starts at around $5000 and doesn't have much content in native 4K, not to mention the time it takes to download as no current physical media can hold it. Although it's pretty standard I'll mention that you want something like 4 or more HDMI ports to hook up all your gadgets.

Don't waste money on expensive HDMI cables, they won't make anything look any better. HDMI is a digital signal so unlike the old analog cables we used on VCR and DVD it either works or it doesn't and shielding doesn't matter unless you are running ten feet of cable.

Most Blu-ray players will play DVD's and will upscale them as well, they even do a pretty good job at it now days. That being said make sure the model you get will do upscaleing if you are looking at lower end models.

I hope some of this helps, better late then never.

Thanks a bunch.

As I don't have internet in the traditional since, most of that kinda stuff is mute. However, my biggest obstacle is a compatible TV or computer/monitor system.

I hope 3D is a fad. Too expensive!

A lack of internet could be an issue here. With some new movies you might find that you pop the disc into the player and it tries to connect to the home server to get updates for it's firmware to allow for better playback. In most cases it'll play the disc anyway but this is something to think about.

Ok, kinda like the Wii