Blu Ray Players - 4 Questions You May Be Asking

These common Blu Ray questions pop up every day. Are you ready to see if you know the answers?

1-Explain high definition blu ray players

What is / are blu ray DVD players? Good question. Blu ray technology according to Wikipedia , is the name given to the Blu-ray Disc because of the blue laser used to read and write on these types of discs. Since the wavelength of the blurays light beam is much 's shorter , a lot more data can be installed on a Blu-ray Disc compared to a typical DVD disc which is burned using a red beam light. How much more info can a Blu-ray Disc store? Believe it or not, it can store approximately six times the amount of a two-layer DVD, and even as much as ten and a half times that of a standard DVD. Now you can see why they can put all of the information needed to give you a better , clearer picture on a single disc.

A blu ray player then is simply the piece of equipment that plays blu-ray discs just like a dvd player plays dvd's.

2- Can you play blu ray disks on regular dvd players

So do blu ray dvds work on regular players? Perhaps you have been wondering about that. Unfortunately the Blu-Ray Discs will not play in your run of the mill DVD player. Why is that? Well remeber what we learned in question number 1? The bluray disc uses a Blue/violet beam of light to read the data that a DVD players red laser will not be a able to read.

So it looks like you will have to upgrade your DVD player to a blu ray if you plan on buying and watching your 1080P high def movies the way they were meant to be seen.

And by the way, that goes for HD-DVD technology as well. HD-DVD players use another kind of blue laser that can not read Blu-Ray Discs, just as Blu-Ray players can not read HD-DVD's

3- Can you play regular DVD's in a Blu-ray player?

Now this is some good news if you are outfitting a new home theater room. No you do not have to buy a DVD player as well. Yes, Blu-Ray players can play standard DVDs. And don't worry...they don't change the DVD formatting or alter the disk in any way. In fact they will look even better then they do when played on your old DVD player. Now don't get me wrong, a standard DVD played in a blu-ray player will not have the high definition of a Blu-Ray disc, but they certainly be upconverted to a better quality than they used to.

Here is a nice surprise they might even play your CD's as well! That means you won't need to invest in a CD player either.

4-What are multi region blu ray players?

Were you wondering about what multiregions blu ray players are? Multi-region players play all 3 regions of bluray discs that are available through out the world.

Region 1 is made up of North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia.

Region 2 is made up of Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Region 3 is made up of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mainland China, Pakistan, Russia, Central, and South Asia.

What this means is that if you have a Region "1" bluray player, you will not be able to play a region "2" or a region "3" disc and so on.

A multi-region player will be able to play discs from all 3 regions. Here is the thing though, don't expect to pay $199 for one of these. Prices range from$700- $1,700 bucks for each one.

Learn more about blu ray technology

at our atlanta home theater blog.