I have long resisted converting to Blu-ray, as I think DVD is perfectly fine and I treasure my collection. However, I have gotten pretty annoyed with a lot of special features being released only on Blu-ray or, at least, most of the special features. I decided it might be time to update. My question is, do most Blu-ray players play DVDs? I don't want to be without a player that doesn't play DVDs as I have a pretty extensive collection, and I have no plans to update those unless a great new special edition of a movie I already have on DVD comes out on Blu-ray. Also, my TV is nearly 20 years old. Blu-ray will play and hook up just fine on that?

Yes, ALL Blu Ray players play DVD's. And you can hook up any player to an old TV using plain old yellow/red/white cables. Of course, you're not going to see the full benefit without an HDTV, but they'll still look as good as, if not better, than DVD's.

That's right, for now at least.

Apparently in the near future Blu-ray players will be HDMI only, according to this:

http://www.digital-digest.com/news-6...estricted.html

So for now, standard RCA (yellow video, white / red audio) will work fine on any player you buy, but by 2013 even those will be removed.

Looks the the idea behind this is if you want HD, it must be all-digital meaning no component video, or use SD with the analog outs and by 2013, it must be HD regardless.

Translation:

If you're going to get a Blu-ray player they aren't that expensive anymore, so BUY NOW!

Okay! Thanks for the info, guys.

I've heard that Blu-ray players do not have the ability to continue from the last stop unless you create a bookmark or something like that.

True?

Any other weird things that we should be aware of? Does a Blu-ray player require an internet connection at all times - what's the story on that?

It is my understanding resume has to do with the way the blu ray disc is authored and not the player itself. Only certain blu rays have this feature.

A blu ray player will play a blu ray disc or DVD without being connected to the internet. It will require an internet connection to use certain features like BD Live, or updated trailers on certain discs. You also would need an internet connection to upgrade firmware.

I should add that in terms of internet connections, people tend to not have their players connected in order to prevent specific Blu-ray titles from accessing the internet for automatic trailer streaming (rather than the usual trailers you see before or after the FBI warnings on a DVD, some Blu-rays will just stream them if the connection is there so the trailer content can change depending on when you watch that specific movie) which is annoying and time-consuming.

Of course a lot of Blu-ray players coming out now have Netflix and other internet-based software available to use, in addition to built-in wireless internet capability but if you want to skip all that, a basic player without those bells and whistles will do just fine, and depending on the player you could upgrade the firmware by downloading it on your computer if you don't want the player online.

Players used to be quite slow because of the internet / BD-J (java) having to load up the advanced menus and all of that but I doubt they are nearly as slow as they were a year or two ago.

If you want to access BD-Live content, the player will either have its own built-in memory, or a slot in the back for a USB flash drive.

Some players can play video files and photos off USB drives as well.

They'll play DVDs without the need for any of that because DVDs and their requirements don't change just because they're being played back on a Blu-ray player, and the same goes for audio CDs.

I have a PS3 and a simple standalone Sony Blu-ray player which is as straight-forward as it gets. You could plug in HDMI, component, analog SD and it'll play the video through all of them at once without having to set it up for specific outputs, even though the options are there. Don't know about current players though, since those older connections are being phased out as I mentioned above.

Basically as it stands now if you wanted to replace your DVD player with a Blu-ray player you could easily do that and never play Blu-ray discs on it if you didn't want to.

No, you do not. To expand on what Nick wrote, you can download firmware updates on any computer and install them on the Blu-ray player with a flash drive or by burning them to CD.

I am a first-time Blu-ray Player purchaser...

I agree the price for Blu-ray players have dropped considerably over the past couple years but to my experience the HDMI cables which to my understand is pretty much required by now are still ridiculously priced. Please prove me wrong.

re: HDMI cables
What brand is recommended for reliability? Cheapest?
I was told the shortest available cable is 6 foot, which I won't need (can't imagine anyone placing their BD player 6 feet away from their TV) but I can understand if anything shorter will cost just as much if not more than the 6'.

Try Monoprice.com they have great prices. For my HT instalation I needed 35 feet of HDMI and I think I paid less than $40. They've got 1.5 footers for a $2, and 6 footers are around $7.

One great thing about HDMI is that all cables must meet certain laid down specifications in order to be called "HDMI". So all the home theater audiophile stuff from the old days about how certain cables sound better than other cables is out the window. If it's HDMI then it meets the spec and that's that. So don't be fooled by $300 cables.

Why do you find it hard to believe? In my current HT I have a projector, but even in my old set up, where the player was right next to the TV, I needed an 8 footer. The cable went from the back of the player all the way to the floor, then several feet across the floor, then up again to the TV. You can use up 8 feet real quick even when the player and TV are only 4 feet apart.

Someone has been feeding you a load of BS.

1.5 feet for $1.97

3 feet for $2.50

As far as the need for 6-foot cables goes, you must not have a very big shelf or TV. My player is two shelves below my TV and on the opposite side from where the TV's inputs are located. By the time I route the cable through the cable management system, 6 feet is just barely long enough.

25 feet for me from the AV receiver to my ceiling mounted PJ. MonoPrice FTW.

I'll keep Monoprice.com in mind if I can't find a reasonable deal in-store. So far the only thing I've found is a 6' cable from RadioShack for $9.99 ($3 more than monoprice.com but I'll have it now and not have to worry about paying for shipping -- plus if it ends up not being long enough I can easily return it for a longer one)

As for finding it hard to believe one would require longer than a 6' cable, I guess I wasn't thinking about people with home theater systems - I have a reasonably small entertainment stand that'll hold a 42" HDTV nicely with 3 shelves below and 1 shelf above. I figure I'd put the Blu-ray player on the shelf below the TV and after measuring it's about 3 feet, so getting a 6' cable will give me an ample amount to manage (I don't like unorganized wires behind my TV).

If you found an HDMI cable for $9.99 at a B&M store and you don't want to wait, I would probably just go with that. It would probably be difficult to find one priced much better in a store because those overpriced cable are where the higher margins are for most stores.

I will also heartily recommend Monoprice. That's where I go for pretty much all my cables and accessories. I've bought HDMI cables there, optical audio cables, component video cables, HDMI/optical audio wall plates, an HDMI splitter, an HDMI switch, Ethernet cables and probably more things that I'm forgetting. All of the stuff I've purchased has been built really well and worked great. I haven't been too happy with the build on the other cheap cables I've purchased, usually bought on Amazon for the speedy Prime shipping. They have felt more flimsy and delicate.

I really like many of the options at Monoprice as well. For instance, I have a 20-foot CL2-rated HDMI cable that I use for my outdoor projector. For inside, I have a different colored HDMI cable for each one of my components, which just makes them easier to identify in the mess of cables behind my TV stand. If you browse around, you'll find that Monoprice has an adapter or accessory for just about everything. Sorry to sound like a shill, but I know I've saved a lot of money there over the years. It's always the first place I recommend to people.