BLU-RAY AND CDS

General Guide for Newcomers

blu-ray discs (BDs) were released in 2005 to succeed the DVD standard. after a brief competition with HD-DVD, they won out and become the definitive HD physical media format for movies and TV. even though streaming is taking over nowadays, there are still plenty of people like myself that enjoy collecting blurays.

some advantages BDs have over streaming:

• they will almost always look and sound better unless you have like a 10 Tbps connection
• you OWN your media. streaming services always take away shows/movies whenever tf they feel like it.
• you can start ripping BDs to store them on your PC/storage if ur worried about them going bad.
• discs are cool and tickle my brain ^u^

choosing a drive/player

a blu-ray drive is useful if you want to watch on your computer and rip discs. otherwise, you can just use an ordinary blu-ray player.

if you have a game console, it can also double as a blu-ray player. personally i'd rec ps3, ps5, or xbox series x, but anything should be fine.

here are some reasons you should avoid dedicated BD players if ur just getting into them:

• EXPENSIVE: good players can easily set u back $500+. and you still have to buy the damn discs!
• NEED OTHER EQUIPMENT: oftentimes, to take advantage of your player's features, you'll need to have a good TV/projector, good sound system, etc. if you don't, then there's no point because that's just even more precious money to spend.
• MARGINAL DIFFERENCE: again, unless u have the right equipment, there's not gonna be much difference between a ps4 and a panasonic UB-420.