Blu-Ray and HDTV: An Unbeatable Combination
When HDTV was released in 1998, people could barely believe their eyes. There was a time when people thought that any new technologies couldn’t make that much of a difference, but suddenly they realized they were wrong. Since then millions have made the switch to HDTV and enjoyed thousands of hours of entertainment. But then something even better came along. High definition players such as Blu-Ray have pushed HDTV to it’s limit. Many people knew that the last generation DVD’s were going by the wayside, but they had no idea what it would be replaced by.
Research on the Blu-Ray technology started in the year 2000, but it wasn’t until six years later that a final product was finally unleashed on the masses. Many wonder why it is called the Blu-Ray player, and in all actuality it is just referring to the blue laser that is used to read the disc. In addition to this change, the Blu-Ray discs also had much more space than their DVD predecessors. They hold a whopping fifty gigs of data, while DVD’s could only hold eight. This meant higher resolutions and more extra content. If you have purchased an HDTV, then you could surely benefit from buying a Blu-Ray player in the near future.
On release prices for Blu-Ray players were well beyond what an average user wanted to spend. Prices between $700 and $1000 were common for first generation Blu-Ray players. Plus, there was another competing standard on the market that created a lot of confusion. Toshiba and NEC introduced their own DVD successor with release of the HD DVD format. HD DVD, with a capacity of 15 gigabytes, was an improvement over standard DVDs but didn’t match the specifications of Blu-Ray. But HD DVD did have some market advantages. First, they made it to store shelves 3 months before Blu-Ray. Second, HD DVD devices where a little cheaper to produce and were sold cheaper as a result. Finally, HD DVD had more movie studios on board at launch than Sony did which meant more movies were initially available while Blu-Ray remained scarce.
But there was something that Sony had planned, and it was something that would destroy HD DVD. They took their new Playstation 3 and gave it the ability to play Blu-Ray movies. It was suddenly the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market, and it gave more and more people reason to buy Blu-Ray movies. It wasn’t long before it crushed HD DVD without any effort, and soon movie studios chose Blu-Ray as their format. It wasn’t long until the major movie outlets stopped carrying HD DVD movies, and though some companies still produce HD DVD movies, they have all but fallen into the past.
Now days the prices are much lower. Brand name Blu-Ray players are available at extremely low prices, some of them being a mere hundred dollars. Recorders are only a little bit more than that. If you have an HDTV, then you must buy one of these players to unlock it’s full potential. Not only do they hold more data, the quality is utterly amazing.
Anna Sussman presents consumers with Time Warner Cable TV reviews and deals. If you’re thinking about purchasing digital cable services check out Anna’s articles first.
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