Introduction to Blu-ray
Blu-ray is a digital media recording technology developed by a number of companies including electronics giants Sony, Panasonic, LG, Sharp and Samsung among many others. It has been primarily developed in order to replace the currently popular DVD format. Blu-ray has been in development since 2002 and currently it is the front runner in the format war against the competing technology HD-DVD.
It's name is derived from the blue laser used to read and write data on the disc; current DVD technology uses red light. Blue light's shorter wavelength allowed engineers to write more data on the disk increasing storage capacity by an order of 6; current research has shown that doubling this number is a possibility not far off in the future. The additional capacity over the DVD format is required for the delivery of high definition video. In fact, a movie stored on a Blu-ray disc can have a resolution of up to 1920 x 1080 pixels.
Blu-ray discs come in many formats as they can be used to store music, video and any other digital computer data. There are Blu-ray discs that are read-only (expect your movies to be stored on such a disc) and RW discs that will be mostly useful for transferring data on digital computers.
Blu-ray can store video encoded in a number of formats including MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, and SMPTE VC-1. In addition, it supports a number of high quality audio formats including Linear PCM (LPCM), Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS Digital Surround, and DTS-HD.
Current Blu-ray players such as Panasonic's Blu-ray Disc Player DMP-BD30 are also backwards compatible and can play music CDs and DVDs so a transition to the new format will not require that one repurchases their entire digital music and video collection.
Blu-ray's future is bright and many expect it to become the digital format of choice.
Getting Started
There are three things you need if you want to watch Blu-ray discs in high definition: a Blu-ray player, a HD television set, and proper HDMI cables.
1. Blu-ray player - This should be the most obvious object in the list. You need a player physically capable of playing Blu-ray discs. I highly suggest investing in a Playstation 3. Click here to read more on why the Playstation 3 is the best choice as a Blu-ray player. You can also view the best prices online for Blu-ray players in our Blu-ray player section.
2. High-Definition Television - If you want to utilize the power of high-definition, you're going to need a TV that's capable of handling full high-definition. Be sure to view our High-Definition TV sales for quality high-definition televisions at the lowest prices.
3. HDMI Cables - Finally, you need a good set of HDMI cables to broadcast high-definition audio and video from your Blu-ray player to your new TV. Don't spend full retail on HDMI cables when you can get the same HDMI cables for less than half the price you would pay in a major retail store.
Finally, you're going to need some Blu-ray movies and/or video games to play. Click here to view current auctions on new and used Blu-ray movies.