Blu-ray Players | Are They That Good?

Thinking about purchasing one of the new Blu-ray DVD players?  Are they worth it?  If you are a true audiophile, or home theater buff the answer may be in this article.

The Blu-ray players are  the next-generation digital video platform. The players and their discs can record, store and play back high-definition video and digital audio, as well as computer data. Their big advantage being the enormous amount of information a Blu-ray disc can hold.

A single-layer Blu-ray disc is about the same size as a standard DVD.  However it can hold up to 27 GB of data.   This equates to more than two hours of high-definition videoor about  thirteenhours of standard video.

Another difference is: the standard DVD player has a red laser that reads the DVD.  With the Blu-ray DVD player it is a blue laser (technically violet) that reads the disc.

The Blu-ray discs have a much superior picture, and sound than the standard DVD discs.  And, best of all they are indestructible.  Something the standard DVDs are not.  There is a video out that has a fantastic demonstration of this.

First, steel wool was vigorously rubbed over the playing surface of a Blu-ray disc. Then the disc was played, no problem, it played back fine.  Next, came the ball point pen.  They wrote all over the playing surface…no problem with playback.

After the ball point pen came the pizza cutter.  You would think that this would be the end of the disc, but it wasn’t….played back fine.  Then came the butcher knife…..no problem, the disc is still around.  The last demo was trying to burn the Blu-ray disc.  That didn’t work either.  The disc was still in excellent playing condition.

The one thing that movie buffs, or audio buffs worry about is a damaged CD or DVD disc.  I loaned, my bad, one of my favorite DVDs out to someone, who I thought, would take care of it.  They didn’t and I had to replace it.

When you rent out standard DVDs, unless you are the first one to rent them, they usually look like people eat off of them and then use them as Frisbees.  Have you ever gotten a bad DVD and it won’t play on your DVD player when you get it home?

The point being, wouldn’t it be nice to know that, no matter what happens to a Blu-ray DVD disc it will faithfully play back like it is brand-new?

Think about the last time you went to your local movie rental store that there was a small section, off by itself, marked "Blue-ray" DVDs.  Of course, unless you have a Blu-ray DVD player you probably walked right by them.  Right now there is hardly what you would want to call a ton of Blu-ray discs out there, but this is changing rapidly.

It's a new and very exciting technology and one that is here to stay. Oh, by the way, that small section of the movie rental store will be getting much, much larger by the week.

One studio, for example, Warner Brothers has more or less bagged the HD DVD format in favor of a Blue-ray exclusive. This means more movies than ever are going to be coming out in that format from them. Others will follow suit.

The advent of the Blu-ray players and discs are nothing but exciting. We think you will find them exciting, too!  You can purchase a quality Blu-ray player in the  $300.00 price range.  It will even enhance your current standard DVDs to High Definition playback.  Make sure your current TV is compatible to receive the full benefits of Blu-ray players. If playing your CDs or burned CDs with MP3 files are an issue, make sure the model you choose has that option.  Many even in the lower price brackets do.