What you need to know about this high-def disc format
They might look like a DVD player, but those boxes with the shiny words "Blu-ray" on the front mean this machine was designed for your high-definition TV.
This is because a Blu-ray Disc player can deliver true high-definition quality on a compatible television, whereas a DVD player cannot.
Here's a quick primer on what Blu-ray is all about.
Blu-ray offers outstanding clarity and colour when connected to an HDTV. This is because a movie on a Blu-ray Disc delivers up to 1,080 lines of resolution, compared to 480 lines of resolution on a DVD. A more accurate way of thinking about it is a Blu-ray Disc can display up to 1920 x 1,080 pixels (the little dots that make up the image) compared to about 720 x 480 pixels for a DVD.
How is this possible?
Blu-ray Discs can hold up to 10 times more data than a DVD. This extra space on the disc is required to deliver these gorgeous visuals, along with other benefits including better-sounding audio tracks, many bonus materials and in some cases, online features, too (which we'll get to in a moment). A Blu-ray player uses a blue laser to read these discs, which is where it gets its name, instead of a red laser used for reading DVDs. But don't worry, you can also watch your DVD collection on a Blu-ray player.
What you need
To get going, you need a Blu-ray player (starting at about $200), which you would connect to your television (or audio-video receiver) using either component cables (the red, blue and green cords), DVI cable or the preferred HDMI cable, which is capable of delivering high-quality video and audio in one cable. You don't need an HDTV to watch Blu-ray movies (nor do you need a surround sound system) but it's recommended in order to get the most out of it. Finally, you need to buy or rent Blu-ray Discs from your local store or online, which tend to cost a little more than DVDs.
Extra features
Along with a better picture (up to 1080p video quality on a compatible HDTV) and better-sounding audio tracks (if you have an audio-video receiver and surround sound speakers), Blu-ray Disc players often ship with added functionality - if the movies support it. One is picture-in-picture functionality, also known as "BonusView," which allows for a small window with video commentary while watching the feature film. Even cooler, though, are Blu-ray players with wired or wireless connectivity so you can connect them to the Internet and access "BD-Live" content on certain discs, such as trailers to current theatrical releases, downloading additional language packs for the film, chatting with other film fans or playing online multiplayer games related to the movie.