Blu Ray Player Reviews

Blu Ray Player

Welcome to the Blu Ray Player website. Our aim is to provide informative information on Blu-Ray Players in an easy-to-understand format, and from an independent viewpoint.

Advances in technology over the last few years have finally brought big screen, high definition entertainment to the masses, with HD TVs at affordable prices making HD video, either broadcast via cable or satellite or watched from a Blu-Ray player, a far more common phenomena. But what is Blu-Ray, what kinds of things should you expect from a new Blu-Ray player and why should you pay upwards of £100 for the privilege? These are some of the questions we will answer here and when combined with our blu-ray player reviews, we hope you find what you came here for.

What is Blu-Ray Technology?

Blu-Ray is a digital optical format that has the same dimensions as a DVD or a CD, so to the untrained eye it's hard to tell between the formats if they are side by side. But that is where the similarities end, as Blu-Ray Discs, or BDs, have six times as much storage space as a DVD, with up to 50GB of space on a dual layer BD. This large amount of space makes them the ideal standard for storing HD video and large amounts of data, and they take the blu moniker from the colour of the laser which is used to read the data stored on them.

Nearly every new film that is released on DVD in the UK will now also be available in HD on a BD, but of course to play the movie you will need a Blu-Ray player and an HD ready TV. The majority of Blu-Ray players will use an HDMI - High Definition Multimedia Interface - cable to transmit the image and sound to your TV, so make sure that your TV has an HDMI port, which will probably be the case with most modern HD TVs.

Alternatively some players may come with a component video output, which is also an input that most HD TVs will support. You will also find that most players tend to have S-Video and composite video outputs. Both of these are old, standard definition outputs that mean that you can use your Blu-Ray player in conjunction with an older, CRT TV, but of course you will not be able to watch the content of the Blu-Ray DVD in HD. There are even different standards of HDMI available, but you needn't worry about this provided you are buying a Blu-Ray player from the most current range available.

Blu-Ray Movie Playback

There are literally thousands of top titles currently available in Blu-Ray format, and of course this number will continue to increase exponentially as the popularity of Blu-Ray Players increases and prices of the hardware fall. Most Blu-Ray players should be able to display films in a number of HD resolutions, but look for a player that clearly advertises full HD or 1080p output, as this is the maximum potential output resolution of Blu-Ray and the largest HD TVs will be capable of this, so you will want a Blu-Ray player that is too. 1080i and 720p are more common HD resolutions supported by HD TVs of under 37 inch, and most Blu-Ray players will support these as well as 1080p. As a result it's best to check your existing TV's technical specifications and abilities and pair it with a Blu-Ray player that best fits these abilities.

The best advice for someone looking for both an HD TV and a Blu-Ray player to go with it is to buy both from the same manufacturer in order to ensure the best results and compatibility. You will probably also want to buy a Blu-Ray player that is compatible with 24p. This indicates that it can output at 24fps, frames per second, which is the frame rate that nearly every Hollywood movie is captured in, and as a result will provide the most faithful recreation of the cinematic experience that you can find. Blu-Ray players are really the new best friends to movie fans because they offer the best quality pictures and the most realistic representation of a film available today.

Blu-Ray Players and Sound

Some of you may already have a home cinema system with surround sound set up at home, and some of you may want to know that in the future you would be able to install such a set up and have a Blu-Ray player ready to interface with it. Thankfully surround sound is supported by most, either through outputs on the player itself or via the HDMI cable, allowing all sound to be output directly from your HD TV set. 7.1 Dolby digital is standard on most, but check the specifications carefully to ensure you're not disappointed or that you're not paying for something you don't actually need.

Blu-Ray Backwards Compatibility

Like most people you will probably have a collection of films that you have built up on DVD over the years, and unless money is no object you will probably want to retain this collection and keep it usable. Though it's not a requirement of the format, most Blu-Ray players will have built in backwards compatibility with DVDs and CDs. Furthermore, most will come with the ability to 'upscale' your old DVDs to HD resolutions. This means that even your DVDs can look great and take advantage of the technology of your HD TV, and you won't need to spend loads of money rebuilding your collection of classics on the new BD format to get the most out of your Blu-Ray player.

Blu-Ray Player Accessories

There are a couple of extras that come with some Blu-Ray players but not others that you might consider important depending on your knowledge and needs. Sony often includes a USB port and/or a Flash memory card slot on certain players within their Blu-Ray range. This allows you to watch movies that you have downloaded or stored on your PC on your HD TV if you transfer them to a USB drive or SD memory card. Bear in mind that you may need to encode the video to a particular format as Blu-Ray players may not be compatible with every available video codec, and if you've got limited knowledge or confidence with computers this may not be a selling point.