Some of us are early adopters, always wanting  to be at the forefront of technology, and just have to get the latest thing as soon as it’s released. Others are happy to wait until the creases are ironed out, and jump on board when they’ve had time to research the Pro’s and Con’s.

Now that Blu-Ray has been around for a while, it is becoming more common for viewers to upgrade from DVD. What are the differences, and is it worth upgrading? Blu-Ray sets look similar to DVD players, but the difference really lies in image quality, sound and additional disc features, thanks to the increased storage space available on Blu-Ray discs.

DVDs can hold approximately 8GB of data, whereas Blu-Ray can hold a whopping 50GB. You will notice a better quality image with excellent detail on your Blu-Ray. While DVD displays 720x480 (480p), Blu-Ray displays - Full HD 1,920x1,080 (1080p). You will also experience improvement in audio quality thanks to the increased storage capacity. Soundtracks will be “as-close” to the studio master and let you hear it the way the director intended it because on a DVD the audio needs to be compressed to fit on the disc. On Blu-Ray, it is uncompressed.

Blu-Ray has the ability to add more “Special Features” than can fit on DVD, purely because of the increased data capacity. Although many Blu-Ray discs have not yet utilised this feature to its’ full capacity, you will notice special features increase in content as more consumers convert.

Previously Blu-Ray (both players and discs) were considered expensive, and this prevented many from adopting the format, however now you will notice they have become more affordable. The availability of titles was a frustration when Blu-Ray was introduced to the market, but now you will find that distributors are releasing all new titles on both DVD and Blu-Ray, and also adding previous DVD titles on Blu-Ray release. You will notice that the cost difference between DVD and Blu-Ray discs is usually only a matter of a few dollars, so for the little bit extra, you will almost certainly receive significant additional content.  Don’t worry about your current DVD collection either, because you can still play them on any Blu-Ray player.

So if you’re looking to get more out of your viewing, perhaps now’s the time to plunge into the realm of Blu-Ray.