Why You Should Upgrade to Blu-Ray

Many of you are new to high definition and are wondering whether or not Blu-Ray really is better than your current DVD’s. I’m not a person who will try to overwhelm anybody with a bunch of technical specifications, so don’t get mad at me for trying to keep it simple.

 Picture! Picture! Picture! 

Yes, the picture really is much better than on a DVD as long as you have properly calibrated your HDTV after getting it home and setting it up. If you simply bring home your new HDTV from the store without properly calibrating it, you WILL NOT be getting a very good HD picture.

Once you have calibrated your new HDTV (or your old HDTV if you haven’t done so already) the color difference will be the main thing you notice on Blu-Ray. The colors on Blu-Rays will really pop out at you, making it seem much more like you’re watching at the theater.

The other difference in the picture quality is much more subtle. Blu-Ray enhances the detail that you currently see on the screen that no up convert DVD player can ever give you. You should be able to see signs, leaves, building details, etc. in the background of scenes clearly. Also, if you look closely you will notice each strand of hair on actors and actresses faces and heads (as well as any wrinkles or other flaws with their face).

 Better Sound Quality 

This advantage will only matter to you if you have a surround sound set-up. If you hook up your Blu-Ray player directly to your TV, it will sound nearly identical to a DVD.

Blu-Ray has the ability to transmit high definition audio codec’s. They are Dolby True HD, Uncompressed PCM, DTS HD, and DTS HD Master Audio. They are all basically the same as one another, just encoded differently. They all produce a much more rich and full surround sound experience, and many also include 7.1 speaker audio tracks. Once you have heard these HD audio tracks, the standard Dolby Digital and DTS don’t even come close to comparing.

Did I forget anything? I know this was a very basic article, but I would love to hear from you if you feel I didn’t list something that you find to be an important advantage of Blu-Ray. Tomorrow, I’ll continue the theme by talking about the Disadvantages of Blu-Ray.