Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc is the name of the dominant next-generation optical disc format. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc.

The theoretical advantage of Blu-ray is its ability to play high definition video up to 1080p in resolution. In theory 1080p resolution offers up to 5 times the detail as standard DVD at 480p. At present there are hundreds of Blu-ray discs available with hundreds more on the way, as opposed to hundreds of  thousands of DVDs.

In practice, Blu-ray can look better than DVD and often does,depending upon what Blu-ray player and what DVD player and which Blu-ray disc vs. which DVD are being compared.


On the other hand with many of the better DVD players out there like the Arcam and Esoteric models which upsample DVDs 480p output to 1080p, the DVD actually appears more lifelike playing a DVD than the Blu-ray player does playing a Blu Ray Disc. THE BETTER DVD PLAYERS ALWAYS LOOK BETTER THAN THE BLU RAY PLAYER DOES PLAYING A  DVD because even though Blu-ray is backwards compatible, the Blu-ray machines out there at present really are optimized to Play Blu-ray, leaving DVD as a poor cousin.

At present none of the really quality AV companies make Blu-ray players in no small part cause they are still working on the problem of making one player equally adept at playing both formats. So, until they succeed and until the Blu-ray disc library reaches critical mass, it will remain both a Blu-ray and a DVD world.