What is Blu-Ray, and Why Should I Care?

Everyone's talking about Blu-Ray, but what is it? If you plan on replacing your DVD player sometime in the future, you'll probably be buying a Blu-ray player. Here's what you need to know.

What does it do? A Blu-ray player uses a blue laser to read the disc, instead of a red laser, which is used in older players.

According to the Blu-ray Disc Association website, a blue laser can be focused into a finer point - so discs can hold more pits of information. That leads to discs with tons more storage than your typical DVD, and higher picture quality. The Association says picture quality depends on the number of megabits per second you're seeing -- DVDs have eight megabits per second, HDTV broadcasts can reach ten, but Blu-ray discs can reach up to 48. They brag, "Quite simply, Blu-ray Disc is the best home video source ever."

Will I have to throw out my old DVDs? No. Blu-ray players will play the DVDs you've accumulated over the years.

What about an HD DVD player? If you see an HD DVD player on sale, walk right by it. Toshiba announced, that they won't sell or market HD DVDs. Their decision followed announcements by several major movie studios and stores like WalMart. The companies said they wouldn't support HD DVDs, they chose Blu-ray.

Will a Blu-ray play an HD DVD Disc? No. The Blu-ray and HD DVD formats don't get along at all, which is part of the reason one (Blu-ray), knocked the other (HD DVD) out. Two competing formats couldn't exist with movie companies and retailers wanting to focus on just one thing.

What do Blu-ray players cost? A quick check of several retail websites finds Blu-ray players for $200 and up. Most cost much, much more than that. (Regular DVD players can be purchased for under $50 dollars.) Several different companies are making the Blu-ray players, including Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Sharp. And, lots of movies are already available in this format.

The best advice, unless you're a "gotta have it first" type of person, is to wait a bit and hope Blu-ray prices come down. You may recall, CD and DVD players, and even VHS players were very expensive when they first came out, but then prices dropped. Hopefully it will be the same type of thing with Blu-ray.

And, get ready, because they're probably already working on something to replace Blu-Ray in a few years -- so people will have to buy something else.