What is Blu-Ray
Blu-ray is a new high definition video disc format. Blu-ray video's are much higher quality than the traditional DVD's you can buy or rent at your local video shop.
Videos recorded onto a Blu-ray disc will not play in your existing DVD player. To play them you will need a Blu-ray player.
Blu-ray players look very similar to regular DVD players. They have a tray in which the blu-ray disc sits when being played and all have a remote control.
Buying a Blu-ray player
There are not many Blu-ray players to choose from on the market at the moment and they are still relatively expensive ranging from $650 up to $2200. Like televisions, these players are relative complex and have many features to choose from.
An important point to realize is that if you don't have a full high definition digital television which is blu-ray compatible then your investment in a new player will be wasted.
At the moment the following retailers have bly-ray players available.
What to look for
All Blu-ray players will play the standard pre-recorded blu-ray disc format that you can buy or rent from your local video store. The format is known as BD-ROM. The blu-ray title packaging is a distinctive blue colour with the blu-ray logo displayed.
All players are also backward compatible with the DVD-ROM format also so your new blu-ray player can replace your existing DVD player and play all of your existing DVD titles. All blu-ray players will also play your audio CD's.
However, not all blu-ray players will playback recordable CD's and DVD's. So if you make your own home movies and burn them to a DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW or DVD-RW discs then you need to check that the player you are interested in is capable of playing these formats. Here are three models that will playback these formats.
Some blu-ray players have some clever electonics which allow them to play back your regular DVD titles but at much higher resolution and picture quality. This feature is known as DVD Upscaling. These three modules have this capability.
If you are looking for a player than can also record digital video to a recordable blu-ray disc then check out the Panasonic DMR-BW500 Blu-ray Recorder.
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