A Blu-ray Disc is a high density optical disc format that stores digital information. It is primarily used to store highdefinition video.

A single-layer disc is able to hold 25GB of data (five times the storage capacity of a standardlayer DVD), while dual-layer discs are able to hold 50GB.

It was created by the Blu-ray Disc Association, which consisted of nine of the world’s leading electronic companies: Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita, Philips, Pioneer, Thomson, Samsung, Sharp and Sony. The association now has over 250 members with notable corporations, including 20th Century Fox, Apple, TDK, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM, Disney, 20th Century Fox and Lionsgate

BD-J stands for Blu-ray Disc Java and essentially allows for greater interactive access than a standard DVD. Typical examples include access to web content, the use of picture-inpicture and even access to local storage. While all Blu-ray players that support video content are required to support BD-J, the actual specifications are currently incomplete. Profile-1, which will include a secondary video decoder, the ability to support a minimum of 256MB persistent memory and secondary audio is currently scheduled to take effect from the end of the month.

Region codes only exist for
Blu-rays, as HD DVD is currently Region Free. The three codes deal with the following regions: A = Central America, Hong Kong, Japan, North America, North Korea, South America, South East Asia and South Korea; B = Africa, Australia, French Territories, Greenland, Middle East, New Zealand and the UK; C = Central Asia, Bangladesh, India, Mainland China, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia and South Asia.

It was created by the Blu-ray Disc Association, which consisted of nine of the world’s leading electronic companies: Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita, Philips,
Pioneer, Thomson, Samsung, Sharp and Sony. The association now has over 250 members with notable corporations, including 20th Century Fox, Apple, TDK, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.

It’s a little more complicated than HD DVD, but yes, it is entirely possible to play a large amount of American Blu-rays on a UK player. Sadly, 20th Century Fox, Disney, New Line, Sony and MGM are very keen on region protection, though, so most of their new releases will not work. Many of these studios do allow their catalogue releases to be Region Free, however. Luckily, most websites are able to tell you what US films you can and cannot use. At this moment in time there are over 156 Region Free films available, so there are plenty to choose from.

Like a Blu-ray, an HD DVD is a high-density optical-disc format that is primarily used to store highdefinition video.

A single-layer HD DVD can store 15GB of data (three and a half times the storage capacity of a standard-layer DVD) while dual-layer discs are able to hold 30GB of data.

Current studios include Universal, The Weinstein Company, First Look Studios and Paramount, who until recently was format neutral.