Don't throw away your old DVD player yet--Blu-Ray & HD DVD Players Still Having Compatibility Issues

Don't throw away your old DVD player yet! 

Ok, you have HD (high-def) programming on your new 50-inch plasma tv, and the picture is terrific.  You love being able to watch Bill O'Reilly in 1080p resolution as well your March Madness basketball games. Great!!! Now what about your DVD movies? 

The good news is that the big electronic companies, namely Sony, have developed a format for watching movies in HD. That format is called Blu-Ray (HD-DVD was killed last year in a highly publicized HD format war). The bad news #1 is that your current collection of DVD movies is not Blu-Ray. 

Does this mean that you cannot watch those movies anymore? No, it doesn't. You should still be able to watch those standard-definition movies (SD) on those players (check with your player first). They won't be in HD, but the picture will still look fantastic (the promise of ''upconverting" does not mean your SD picture is now HD) and you will be very happy. So you do not have to go out and repurchase all your favorite movies in Blu-Ray, unless you want to (I'm still waiting for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings to be released on Blu-Ray and will repurchase when they are). 

Now for the bad news #2 (and to me the most significant problem)--these new players still have compatibility issues with "burned" DVD's. 

For everything that these new players do, they won't correctly play your home movies, film transfers, DVD slideshows, and just about everything else that is burned onto a DVD (DVD-R, DVD+R, etc.).  The most common problem that I hear is while one can see the video, they can't hear the audio. This is a common symptom of non-compliant units. Last time I heard, only about 40% of the units on the market today are compliant with all standards. 

But I bought this new player to watch my home movies in HD, you say. Well, given the fact that most of your content is recorded SD (if even that) and not HD, playing them on a Blu-Ray and HD-DVD player won't make them HD.  You can't take a #3 pencil and make it a #2 by using a different pencil sharpener--it just doesn't happen. Likewise, you can't take a VHS tape that was originally recorded in 240 lines of resolution and make it 1080 or 720 by putting it in a new player. 

So, if you don't have a Blu-Ray player yet and playing your burned discs on them is important to you (i.e., not having 2 players in your cabinet), wait on that purchase until a few more "electronic generations" have passed. Otherwise, go stimulate the economy and purchase that new player and blu-ray discs and enjoy your new picture quality. 

Blessings to you, 

Chris. 

www.mckennavideo.com