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What Is Blu-Ray?

It's the successor to DVD, offering high-definition pictures and better soundtracks on movies, documentaries and TV series. A DVD can hold, at most, 8Gb of data. A Blu-Ray disk can hold up to 50Gb. To get the best from watching blu-rays, you need to watch them on a high-definition TV. Just as well that practically all TVs 37" and larger, are high-def ready.

Can a DVD Player Play Blu-Ray Discs?

No. They're a different technology. Blue lasers (hence the name blu-ray) are used to read Blu-Ray disks whereas red lasers are used in DVD players.

But My DVD Player Can Upscale - Isn't That Like Blu-Ray Quality?

Close but not quite there. Upscaling DVD players process the picture coming off a DVD and display the image at a higher resolution. But to do that, the image processors have to fill in the gaps between DVD resolution (720x480 pixels) and Hi-Def resolution (1920x1080 pixels). It's exactly the same if you blow up an image like a photo in image editing software. The image gets a bit soft and fuzzy the more it's blown up. Upscaling DVD players also have sophisticated hardware to make the image look it's best and the results on a HDTV are certainly better than watching a non-upscaled DVD.

However, Blu-Rays pictures contain much more information than DVD pictures, so with them you'll see much finer details in a picture. Blu-Rays provide a level of detail that DVDs just cannot match (not even if upscaled).

Can Blu-Ray Players Play DVDs Then?

Yes they can. Blu-Ray players were designed to be backwards compatible with DVDs. All Blu-Ray players can play DVDs and pretty much all of them include a DVD upscaler, so you get the best of both worlds.

Aren't Blu-Ray Disks Expensive?

Not any more. When Blu-Rays were first launched, they were certainly at a premium price but that was a couple of years ago. The price difference between a Blu-Ray release and a DVD release was much less than the difference between a VHS tape release and a DVD release when DVDs first became available. Today, Blu-Rays are maybe $5 more expensive than their DVD equivalents. In some cases, the prices are the same.

Most Blu-Rays can now be bought for under $20 - box sets and special editions will cost more - and there are now plenty of bargains to be found online with disks costing just under $10. The price of disks is not a reason you shouldn't upgrade to Blu-Ray.

Aren't Blu-Ray Players Expensive?

Not really. Certainly, when they first came on the market a couple of years ago, you were looking at prices of $500 and above for Blu-Ray players. These days, as the technology has matured, prices have fallen substantially and the cheapest Blu-Ray players cost about $100.

I Don't Want To Have To Replace My DVD Collection

You don't have to. If your happy with your current DVDs, then hang onto them. Maybe only buy new releases on Blu-Ray or buy select movies - the ones you really enjoy and watch over and over - on Blu-Ray.

What About Region Encoding?

When DVDs were first launched, they were region encoded. There were six regions defined for the world and DVDs from one region wouldn't play on a DVD player in another region. Hardware mods them started to appear that allowed DVDs from any region to be played on players in any region, thereby removing the region block imposed by Hollywood. Since that time, most DVD players can now be region unlocked by entering some codes on the player handset.

dvd region codes
The six DVD Regions

Blu-Ray is in the position DVD was early in its life. There are three "zones" for Blu-Ray - A, B and C. Some Blu-Rays are released zone free which means they'll play anywhere in the world. Others are zone locked (still referred to as "region-locked" in some places). Hardware mods to allow Blu-Ray players to play disks from any zone soon started appearing and many players can now be modified in this fashion. However, these mods are still a specialist item and you cannot buy zone-free Blu-Ray players in normal outlets. The only one I'm aware of is the Oppo 93 which can be bought in Amazon, but that's a high-end player and certainly not one of the cheapest Blu-Ray players around.

Zone-free Blu-Ray players are also region-free DVD players.

So far there's no sign of a player being made region free though a remote control hack. It will probably be a couple of years before we see such players hit the marketplace.

A zone-free Blu-Ray player will cost $100-$150 more than a zone-locked player.

Do I Need To Worry About Region/Zone Encoding?

If you're in the USA, probably not unless you enjoy European or Australian movies. However, sometimes a title that's released in one zone is better quality than in another. This is probably down to the plants where the Blu-Ray disks are manufactured. Or maybe there's an extended cut of a movie available in one zone only. In other cases, more extras can be included in one zone but not another. This time, that's down to how certain material is licensed in the different zones.

If you're in Europe or Australia, titles are usually released earlier in the USA, so you might want to get a hold of them rather than waiting until it becomes available in your region. Extended or special editions of movies are more likely to be released in the USA and you may want to get a version of a movie that hasn't been subject to the censor in your zone. Alternatively, some movies or box sets may not be released outside of the USA so the only way of getting them is to import.

blu ray zones
The three Blu-Ray Zones

Is It Worth Getting A Blu-Ray Player?

If you don't have a HDTV, then no, there's no point.

If you have a High-Definition TV and you want the best movie-watching (or TV series watching) experience then, in my opinion, yes it is worth the expense to upgrade.