Can I Play a Blu-ray Disc in My DVD Player?

"I have an HDTV and want to watch more movies in HD. Blockbuster says it rents high definition Bluray movies. My question is, can I play a Bluray disk in my DVD player and watch it on my HDTV?"

Unless your current DVD player is a Blu-ray player, it won't play Blu-ray discs. Blu-ray discs, while similar in appearance to standard DVDs, require a special blue laser to play the contents of the disc. Unfortunately this is somewhat complicated because there are several versions of Blu-ray discs and not all Blu-ray players can play all Blu-ray discs. If you're planning to buy a Blu-ray player in the near future, the PlayStation 3 game console is the only safe choice - it's currently the one Blu-ray player on the market that's software upgradeable to support any future changes to the format.

It's also worth pointing out here that your current DVD player will not play HD-DVDs either. You would need an HD-DVD player. Also, except for a couple of overpriced units that play both, you'd need a separate HD-DVD player for HD-DVDs and Blu-ray player for Blu-ray discs.

More on HD-DVD and Blu-ray.