If you think you’re ready to buy a Blu-ray player, it’s worth spending a little time understanding basic Blu-ray terms and features. There are subtle differences between players and it’s best to know what you’re looking for.
Blu-ray is the standard high definition (HD) format now adopted throughout the national film market. High Definition means that the image you see is of a much higher resolution than the previous DVD standard.
The standard DVD resolution (NTSC) is 720 pixels wide by 480 screen pixels.
Standard DVD resolution (PAL) is 720 pixels wide by 576 pixels screen.
Blu-ray 1080i and 1080p refers to the best vertical resolution that Blu-ray offers, which is 1080 pixels down and 1920 pixels wide.
Most current LCD and plasma TVs will display the full resolution of Blu-ray, but it’s best to make sure your TV can achieve this. First, your TV must have an HDMI socket on the back, and second, check your user manual for references to 1080i or 1080p. If any are missing, you probably won’t be able to achieve full Blu-ray resolution. HDMI is the connection through which HD video and audio is transmitted.
That’s the basics of HD explained, now for the finer differences between Blu-ray players.
Upscaling to 1080p via HDMI means you are playing lower resolution media such as DVD on a Blu-ray player which is then upscaled to 1080 resolution. The picture is slightly better than the original DVD if played via of a DVD player, but it doesn’t quite reach the full clarity of Blu-ray.
As with DVD players, there are regions that the players will cover. DVD uses regions 1 to 8 and 0 is region free.
Blu-ray uses Regions A, B, and C.
Region A: North and South America, South and Southeast Asia, including Japan, Korea, and Malaysia.
Region B: Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the Middle East and Greenland.
Region C: Central and South Asia, including China; Russia and Mongolia.
Virtually all Blu-ray players have online functionality. This is provided through a LAN or Wi-Fi interface to your internet router. Internet connectivity is completely optional as it is not always convenient to connect. If you decide to get, there are various services available connected to you depending on the make and model of the player you decide to buy.
Sony’s BD-Live allows you to download additional movie content.
Samsung and LG players provide access to YouTube movies and MKV files.
Panasonic has Viera Cast, it’s an on-demand TV service and more and more services are appearing as manufacturers bring ever-evolving services over the internet.
Now for me the online functionality is a very small advantage as I live in the country and my bandwidth is quite poor but for those of you who have access to good bandwidth the online services available at through your Blu-ray player are well worth it.
The features available are vast, but I hope the ones I showed you above are helpful and give you a good starting point for choosing your Blu-ray player.