Blu-ray Disc is the the standard and technology that provides High Definition
DVD and significantly greater optical disk storage for computers. A standard DVD
typically contains 8GBs of data (some formats contain more); a Blu-Ray disc
stores 25GB or 50GB. Panasonic has developed technology that supports storage of
up to 500GB on an optical disk. Blu-ray Disc technology uses a 405 nano-meter
(nm) blue-light laser which supports much finer granularity when reading the
data encoded on an optical disc as compared to a DVD. (For you truly geeky folks
out there, it's actually a violet wavelength, but stay with the crowd on this
one.) Incidentally, a DVD uses a red-light laser at 650nm. As most of the folks
reading this care about the High Definition application of Blu-ray, a standard
DVD only contained enough storage space for a movie picture of around 350,000
pixels. Blu-ray, by comparison, supports over 2 million pixel resolution
pictures, providing those great, crystal clear pictures we all like to see. So
much for the technical geeky stuff -- if you want to know more, Wikipedia has
great write-ups on DVD and Blu-ray.
This is a great time to get into Blu-ray. Over the past year, HDTVs and Blu-ray players have drastically come down in price. Most (all?) Blu-ray players are backwards compatible and can play your DVD collection. For you audiofiles out there, some of the mid-range Blu-ray players have better audio sections than many of the top-line DVD players. It just doesn't make any sense now to buy a DVD player. Of course, you need your media, too. Fortunately, you can get Blu-ray discs now at very reasonable prices. New releases still tend to be a few dollars more expensive than DVDs (they should -- it costs more to master and provide Blu-ray). However, you can get Blu-ray discs on sale at prices that are nearly as low as DVDs -- at you local super market, online (Amazon anyone?), and other places.
What are some of the key features you want to look for?
Great video processing -- Processing information from the disc to produce the great pictures you see is serious business, and takes major computational power. Getting a player with a upgraded video processor will provide you with a better, more vibrant picture with fewer artifacts (bugs).
Great audio processor -- One of the big bonuses of Blu-ray is an improved standard for audio information on your movies, too.
Universal disk -- Blu-ray is the state-of-the-art for both video and audio reproduction. However, there are a lot of formats out there with great content. DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD, WMA, MP3, and many more. A great Blu-ray player will apply it's fantastic technology to these formats so you have a great choice of video and music.
Connections -- There are four key things to keep in mind for connections -- dual HDMI (high definition media interface) ports is really nice; multi-channel audio out; Ethernet; and SPDIF digital. Dual HDMI is nice because it will allow you have one HDMI interface go to your TV and another to your audio receiver. If you get a great player like the Oppo 93 or Oppo 95, you might want to use analog audio out (5.1 or 7.1 channel RCA audio jacks) to get the full benefit of the audio processing the player provides. Ethernet is critical for Internet streaming (WiFi is nice, but also have an RJ45 jack). And finally, relying on the optical SPDIF digital audio is fine. These four options should provide you great flexbility in how you use your Blu-ray player.
Web or Internet features -- Netflix, Block Buster, Yahoo TV, Google TV, YouTube -- all these great web services can be seen on your TV using a Blu-ray player that supports streaming. Unfortunately, this is an area that still has a lot of evolution to go. Web applications on HDTVs and Blu-ray players can be buggy and proprietary -- these aren't computers and they don't have browsers. To ensure you get the most of your player, you want to get one with upgradeable firmware.
Read more....
This is a great time to get into Blu-ray. Over the past year, HDTVs and Blu-ray players have drastically come down in price. Most (all?) Blu-ray players are backwards compatible and can play your DVD collection. For you audiofiles out there, some of the mid-range Blu-ray players have better audio sections than many of the top-line DVD players. It just doesn't make any sense now to buy a DVD player. Of course, you need your media, too. Fortunately, you can get Blu-ray discs now at very reasonable prices. New releases still tend to be a few dollars more expensive than DVDs (they should -- it costs more to master and provide Blu-ray). However, you can get Blu-ray discs on sale at prices that are nearly as low as DVDs -- at you local super market, online (Amazon anyone?), and other places.
What are some of the key features you want to look for?
Great video processing -- Processing information from the disc to produce the great pictures you see is serious business, and takes major computational power. Getting a player with a upgraded video processor will provide you with a better, more vibrant picture with fewer artifacts (bugs).
Great audio processor -- One of the big bonuses of Blu-ray is an improved standard for audio information on your movies, too.
Universal disk -- Blu-ray is the state-of-the-art for both video and audio reproduction. However, there are a lot of formats out there with great content. DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD, WMA, MP3, and many more. A great Blu-ray player will apply it's fantastic technology to these formats so you have a great choice of video and music.
Connections -- There are four key things to keep in mind for connections -- dual HDMI (high definition media interface) ports is really nice; multi-channel audio out; Ethernet; and SPDIF digital. Dual HDMI is nice because it will allow you have one HDMI interface go to your TV and another to your audio receiver. If you get a great player like the Oppo 93 or Oppo 95, you might want to use analog audio out (5.1 or 7.1 channel RCA audio jacks) to get the full benefit of the audio processing the player provides. Ethernet is critical for Internet streaming (WiFi is nice, but also have an RJ45 jack). And finally, relying on the optical SPDIF digital audio is fine. These four options should provide you great flexbility in how you use your Blu-ray player.
Web or Internet features -- Netflix, Block Buster, Yahoo TV, Google TV, YouTube -- all these great web services can be seen on your TV using a Blu-ray player that supports streaming. Unfortunately, this is an area that still has a lot of evolution to go. Web applications on HDTVs and Blu-ray players can be buggy and proprietary -- these aren't computers and they don't have browsers. To ensure you get the most of your player, you want to get one with upgradeable firmware.
Read more....
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