Will Blu Ray Play HD Discs ?
Blu-ray and HD DVD are competing disc storage formats looking to replace the standard DVD format. In effect, they look to supersede the standard DVD in terms of storage capacity. Although there is always a need to improve on an existing system, these two formats have received much attention because of the imminent appearance of high definition movies, video and television. Notably, high definition movies need more storage space and this is why a search for the next generation of DVD is occurring.
Blu ray and HD DVD are fighting it out to replace the standard DVD. Much research and development has gone into creating each format and various industry giants are adopting one or the other to put into their products.
Sony and Panasonic are two big consumer electronics companies that are going with Blu-ray. All their products will use the blu-ray technology.
Toshiba and NEC are supporting HD DVD and all their products will use HD DVD technology.
In terms of game consoles, the Sony Playstation 3 will use blu-ray and the Xbox from Microsoft will use HD DVD.
All these products will have backwards compatibility whereby they will be able to player the standard DVD's. However, they will not play the competitors format of disc storage. Thus blu-ray will not be able to play HD disks and vice versa.
The truth is that many big companies have so much money invested in their products, that they would want to see the opposition fail, so the last thing they will be doing is making them compatible.
Having said this, Pioneer and LG made an announcement that they would be producing a dual blu-ray/HD DVD player. This will no doubt feature two individual readers, one for blu-ray and one for HD DVD. NEC have also recently announced that they are creating a chip that can be used as the processor behind a universal player that will be able to play both blu-ray and HD DVD's. So things are happening, but you may have to wait a few years before you see products on the shelves and they might be expensive to begin with.
Find reviews on the latest home theater components, including Home theater speakers at http://www.hometheaterreviewed.com . Adrian Whittle writes reviews and features on home theater equipment and accessories.
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