For many years people in US enjoyed their movie time at their home by playing their VCR machine. They came to rental store or buy their movie always on VHS Tape. The picture are good and clear. The sound is great. For many years the technology on VHS was refined and perfected, but the format had not been change. The picture recorded analog and the sound was never more than 2 channels (Stereo).
Then in 1997 Sony introduced the first DVD player on US market and the price was staggering high. With the price was so high people believe that DVD won't replace the VCR in a shot time or even people were willing to buy the DVD player. Also there were not many dvd movie yet on the market. However DVD manufacture did not believe to what people want to believe. In about 5 years since the release the DVD become phenomenon. The price was becoming reachable for most of the people and the movie industry was producing DVD movie on every VHS title they sold. Therefore as you know right now, DVD player is a must in the house, the price is very cheap and you can buy every electronics store for just $15 -$30. The movie industry now even only recorded their movie only on DVD format.
Everything happened so fast and we are not even know it that in April 18, 2006 Toshiba electronics introduced to the market a new format for us to enjoy our movie, by selling HD-DVD player. The new kind of thing of enjoying movie changed forever. With high definition digital picture and sound which are so much better that DVD Format. Now people started thinking so this was the dead of DVD movie. However HD-DVD did not last very long. Toshiba announced that the company discontinued the production of HD-DVD on February 19, 2008. Now Blu-ray player just left alone and conquered the market in the world as a successor of the DVD player.
Talking about Blu-ray it self. The project was started by Sony and Pioneer. On mid June 2008 some major manufactures released the Blu-ray player on the market in US. During the same time Blu-ray and HD-DVD were on format battle to get accepted at the world market. Unfortunately HD-DVD was lost because lack of support from major retailers and movie Industries. Therefore Blu-ray is the winner. Even though their equipment is more expensive but the public choose it.
After winning the format battle over HD-DVD, the Blu-ray player is trying to be the next King of entertaiment in the house of the people in US. Everyone must have it, but it is not quite yet, because there is a DVD player that is still sitting at the home entertainment center for every house in US. Even though the price of the Blu-ray player was drop significantly since the first release but it still can't beat the DVD player price. Also since the HD picture is still relatively new to the people, Then people still thinking twice to buy Blu-ray as the same happen when people bought DVD player over VCR.
In my conclusion about the question, "do I need to buy Blu-ray now?" my answer is not yet except you are the freak of all movies and you own a home theater in the house. If you only had cheap LCD and 40" less don't bother to buy Blu-ray. It is a waste of money because DVD player right now can upscale the dvd movie into HD format. Also small TV is just perfect to enjoy DVD player. However it is all up to you, I enjoy my HD movie on my 24" monitor and I love the detail of the picture and you will feel the different while watching HD movie compare regular DVD quality movie.
Fact about Blu-ray player: Maximum resolution of the picture is 1920x1080 or simply 1080p. Frame rate is 23.976p or 59.94i. Audio support tracks are Dolby Digital (AC3), DTS, Linear PCM, Dolby Digital plus, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD as well as DTS-HD Master Audio. The Disc storage capacities are 25GB (single layer) and 50GB (dual layer). Video formats are SMPTE VC-1, MPEG-2 Part 2, and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. Use Java Software as the main programing menu.
The major manufactures for Blu-ray player are Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Sharp and so on.
