Blu-ray Basics

A new wave of Harry Potter mania is just around the corner with the release of “The Half Blood Prince” on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) on December 8. Now this is a movie to buy in Blu-ray format: big action, stunning effects, and telling facial gestures, you’ll see the film just the way director David Yates intended. But you’ll have to have a Blu-ray player or the disc won’t work.

Blu-ray players were introduced about five years ago, going head to head with another high definition format and player, HD DVD. Think VHS versus Beta, but unlike that format war, Blu-ray killed the competition within 24 months, taking even industry analysts by surprise.

But the Blu-ray revolution seems to have barely made a dent in the minds of many consumers who play their DVDs, blissfully unaware there’s a better experience available, and one that can be 50% less expensive than one year ago.

If you answer yes to the following two questions, consider a Blu-ray player with Blu-ray movies.
Do you have an HDTV??
Do you watch movies at home?

A Blu-ray disc holds five times the information of a DVD. That’s more visual data and more sound data. As a matter of fact, with a Blu-ray disc and player you can take full advantage of both an HDTV and a surround sound system. Without them, you’re only getting a fraction of what you could experience.

The Dark Knight’s director Christopher Nolan said, "Blu-ray is vastly superior to DVD. You can actually see the things we did in IMAX ... It's the best possible chance to see what we did technically."

But what about your collection of DVDs? Most Blu-ray players have an upconverting feature, which means the player will convert 480p DVD images to higher resolution 1080p images. The Blu-ray version of a movie is about twice the price of the DVD version, and may be reserved for the big action films, or films you know you’ll watch over and over again. But any movie will look better on Blu-ray.

A common myth: old movies don't look good in high-def because they were shot on film rather than on digital media with HD cameras. False. Film has infinite resolution. For reference, it is sometimes estimated at 4000p or nearly four times the discernable resolution of hi-definition, so you could say old movies are actually shot in ultra HD. As long as the original negatives are used in the translation process, you will see the movie as the director intended. Realize many studios will digitally enhance their Blu-ray versions, a bone of contention among film purists, but most viewers like it.

Newer Blu-ray players incorporate multimedia features such as the ability to stream movies, TV shows, and videos directly to your HDTV using Netfix® and YouTube™. If you select an enhanced Blu-ray player, simply connect it to your broadband home network through the built-in WiFi connection, Ethernet port, or USB port. Whatever you buy, be sure it’s Profile 2, also called BD Live.

We often forget about the software inside our devices, but just like your computer software, Blu-ray players need to be updated. Blu-ray technology may improve and change as frequently as every month. Most manufacturers make these necessary updates easy to locate and install, and many Internet-connected BD players feature both manual and automatic updating functions.

Blu-ray players are easy to use. It’s not any more complicated than your current DVD player, and you’ll get more out of it. There are plenty of brands to choose from, but this one may surprise you: Sony PlayStation 3 Slim. Sure it’s a game console, but it’s also one of the highest ranked Blu-ray players. Now there’s a way to stretch your entertainment dollar.