The Blu-Ray Player Buyers Guide

What to Consider When Buying a Blu-Ray Player

Blu-Ray HD is the next level of DVD, but with a higher capacity to store and retrieve information. High definition movies (especially those running for 90 minutes or more) require up to 29 GB of storage space. A single layer of Blu-Ray stores up to 15 GB of data and a double layer stores 30 GB. Blu-Ray discs use a blue-violet laser operating at short wavelengths compared to the infrared laser used by a DVD. This laser produces far more detailed movies and pictures than any other data format (the resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels, the encoding is at 720 x 576 - the level of detail is twice that of a DVD).

Higher quality sound and picture

Blu-Ray players and discs produce superior image quality and sound quality. Audio quality includes Dolby True-HD (a recent audio innovation) that delivers sound that is 100% identical to the original master copy. Similar to DVD’s most titles come with popup menu, providing access to the menu functions as the movie is still playing. It also has picture inside picture video commentary (two videos playing simultaneously with video commentary in one). New content can also be downloaded directly from your player without the need of any special software.

Blu-Ray Movies

 Movies on this format are currently more expensive than the same movie on the DVD format, costing up to £20 per movie. Blu-Ray players can also play DVD movies however so are still a good investment. There are presently around 970 Blu-Ray titles available in the market place. On the other hand, there are about 90,000 DVD titles available in the open marketplace. Loading times of Blu-Ray movies had previously been a drawback (with most discs taking about 3 minutes to load), however presently most movies can load in around 20 seconds (although movies with menu systems can take up to a minute to load). 

Blu-Ray Soundtrack Formats

Blu-Ray has support for five sound track formats as it has more space and higher definition quality in its discs. The sound track formats are Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS-HD Master Audio, and Linear PCM (LPCM). Dolby Digital Plus uses compression to reduce the size of the audio. However, it is better than standard Dolby Digital as it has a higher bit rate (6.144 Mbps vs. 40 Kbps) with more channels. Dolby TrueHD compresses the raw information to smaller file size. And, it does this by not compromising on the disc information. It has both a higher bit rate and sample rate. It is identical to DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. DTS HD high resolution is the next level of standard DTS. It has a bit rate of 6Mbps Vs 1.5 Mbps. DTD HD Master Audio is identical to Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. LPCM is the standard for almost all sound tracks. All soundtracks are eventually converted to LPCM as it is the standard for conversion to AV receiver to play back. LPCM is known to produce high audio quality and occupy high disk space.

Have a look through all the Blu-Ray Players that are offered to you by Euronics