Remember when DVD was the new thing? The price of the drives and the movies themselves were crazy. Eventually the price did drop and one can now pick up a fully functional DVD player for around twenty-five bucks.
One of the main reasons those players are getting so cheap is the emergence of the new high definition media format known as Blu-ray. Blu-ray won the war for new standard against HD-DVD only just over a year ago. Many of us were glad to see that war come to an end. Now we can all reap the benefits from Sony's victory.
With the standard in place, movie companies can now concentrate on the single format. This means that they can start releasing all of their movies in blu-ray format. Before, while the war was going on, movie makers were relunctant to distribute movies in any single format. Now it is easy to see, with a visit to a local media outlet, that the vendors are pushing blu-ray.
So what's so great about blu-ray?
Firstly, a blu-ray disc has the same size and shape as a CD or DVD. This is great for backward compatibility, allowing the blu-ray player to play CDs, DVDs, and BD(blu-ray disks). At one point there were players on the market that could play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but those are probably rare now.
Also, blu-ray disks can hold much more data than a standard DVD. A standard single-layer DVD has a capacity of 4.7GB. A standard single-layer BD disk has a capacity of 25GB. Most DVD movies are on dual-layer disks which have a capacity of 8.5GB. Dual-layer BD disks have a capacity of 50GB. In other words, over 9 hours of HD quality video can be stored on a standard dual-layer BD, and over 25 hours of standard definition video can be stored on one. There are also plans for multi-layer disks capable of much more storage capacity.
What does all this extra capacity mean?
Well in relation to movies and home theater, it means higher bit rates for both audio and video. Higher bit rate means better picture quality and better sound quality. In other words, BD movies are beautiful.
Lastly, blu-ray brings that HDTV to life. Plugging a good blu-ray player into a standard TV won't produce the desired results. HDTVs have been around since 1998, but DVDs don't take full advantage of them. So for everyone who already owns an HDTV, blu-ray will finally make it worth the money.
For best results, one should find an HDTV that supports 1080p resolution. The TV should also have component and/or HDMI inputs. HDMI is preferable. Many people opt for the Sony Playstation 3 as it comes with a built-in blu-ray player. This provides a game console and a player in one.
When searching for a cheap blu-ray player, one should check here first:
http://bluray.gotmineforless.com/
