With the invention of DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), people start getting access to the digital sound and video which have provided too much enjoyment for home gathering and business conveniences, etc. But driven by the eager for the high-definition videos, people have stepped their feet on the way for Blu-ray disc which has owned its reputation for the higher resolution and larger capacity. Watching Blu-ray discs on a standalone Blu-ray player is one of the most attractive ways for leisure. For some beginners, you can find more advanced information about Blu-ray from this post.

Part 1: What is Blu-ray Technology

As an optical disk storage medium, Blu-ray disc is used to store audio, video and other play-station games in high-definition quality. The name Blu-ray is a combination of the laser's color "blue" and the "ray". At the manufacturer's request, the letter "e" in "blue" was deliberately dropped because everyday language cannot be used as a trademark. Blu-ray disc is one of the next generation DVD standards with SONY and Toshiba as the dominant and Panasonic and Philips as the core. The storage principle adopted the groove record mode, using the traditional groove record with the help of the more advanced shaking addressing to achieve a larger capacity of storage and data management. Compared with traditional CD or DVD storage forms, BD disc obviously brings better reflectivity and storage density, which is the key to its capacity breakthrough.

The disc stores the digitally encoded video and audio information in a groove, a spiral groove from the center of the disc to the edge. Lasers read the back of these grooves and then can be able to play movies or shows stored on a disc. The more data the disc contains, the smaller and more compact the grooves can be. The smaller the notch, the more accurate the reading laser can be. Unlike DVDs which currently use a red laser, Blu-ray discs use a blue laser which has a shorter wavelength (405 nm) than the red laser (650 nm). Smaller beams focus more accurately, therefore, can read information recorded in grooves which are only 0.15 microns (m) long. This is less than half the length of the grooves on a DVD. In addition, the Blu-ray disc reduces the gauge from 0.74 micron to 0.32 micron. Due to the combination of smaller grooves, beams and shorter gauges, then it allows single-layer Blu-ray discs to hold more than 25GB of information, which is five times as much as a DVD can hold.

What-is-Blu-ray-Technology

Part 2: Top 5 Basic Blu-ray Players to buy

Impressed by the HD videos and larger capacity that Blu-ray can provide, I am sure you can't wait to buy a new Blu-ray disc for enjoyment. Well, before enjoying the Blu-ray disc, you have to make a Blu-ray player that is compatible with the Blu-ray discs you've bought. For the beginners, you can buy some basic Blu-ray players which can offer you the basic playing functions with ease and accuracy.

No. 1 Samsung BD-J6300

If you are only here to search for a very basic Blu-ray player, then I strongly suggest you not to spend a large sum of money on it. Here, I will first recommend you to buy Samsung BD-J6300 because it has an adorable price for you with $110 only. It can be regarded as one of the best budget Blu-ray players among peers. Samsung BD-J6300 is able to offer you the 4K, Blu-ray, DVD watching experience with ease. It has the basic surround audio sound and 4K-capable HDMI 2.0 cable. Its built-in Wi-Fi connector can allow you to stream various online and offline resources and popular apps. Since it is cheaper, its outlook designing is not quite outstanding.

Samsung BD-J6300

No. 2 Samsung BD-J5100

Another Blu-ray mode also made by Samsung, Samsung BD-J5100 can be another option besides Samsung BD-J6300 due to its lower price. You can take a try on it with such a low price. It is really a basic Blu-ray player because it can only play the standard Blu-ray and DVD discs, which has no 4K support and no Wi-Fi either. However, Samsung BD-J5100 can allow users to stream apps with the help of an additional wired Ethernet cable. You can also use it to upscale DVD to 1080P resolution. Even though its functions and features are less professional and comprehensive than others, its price can be really affordable for most people.

Samsung BD-J5100

No. 3 Sony BDPS3700

As one of the dominants for the Blu-ray technology, Sony has also produced many excellent Blu-ray players in the past years. Among them, Sony BDPS3700 is one of the most popular and affordable players. This player is quite simple in the outer design which is a basic black box. With the support of Dolby TrueHD technology, users can easily obtain superior sound and audio quality from it. It is quite easy for you to play Blu-ray, DVD or CD on Sony BDPS3700. When this player is connected with the local Wi-Fi, then it can stream the online content, while at the same time, the process can be accomplished on the smartphone or tablet.

Sony BDPS3700

No. 4 LG BP350

With LG BP350, you can enjoy the TV shows, movies in both DVDs, Blu-ray discs and other online resources. As a quite simple and lightweight Blu-ray player, LG BP350 is mostly featured for access to Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and so on with the support of 1080P resolution. You can be quite surprised to obtain a Blu-ray player with such a low price which is only for $74. You don't have to worry about the complex playing process. This player is quite easy to handle because it doesn't contain too many functions. If you only would like to play the Blu-ray disc as the main purpose, LG BP350 can easily meet your requirements.

LG BP350

No. 5 Panasonic DMP-BDT360

Last of all, Panasonic have also created an excellent Blu-ray player for you. That is Panasonic DMP-BDT360. This player is very slim but quite powerful in the playing function which is good in both the simple outlook and comprehensive features. It is compatible with all kinds of Blu-ray discs and can also allow you to stream other resources in various platforms with the built-in Wi-Fi connector. Compared to the above players, this one is much faster in the loading speed which is also sold at a higher price. But if you have very high requirements on the 4K upscaling or superior output video or audio effects, it may let you down to some extent. Overall, it can be your first player item if you have the urgent need to play the Blu-ray disc.

Panasonic DMP-BDT360

Part 3: How to Make a Region-free Blu-ray Copy

These Blu-ray players that have been mentioned above can be your choices if you are a beginner user. However, some users may have encountered that the Blu-ray discs can't be read or played on the Blu-ray players. Aside from the damage of the Blu-ray discs, one of the main reasons for this issue may fall to that the Blu-ray player is not compatible with these Blu-ray discs that come with region codes protection. In order to prevent the Blu-ray discs from being commercially used in various areas, the manufacturers have applied different region codes to the discs which can only be played in the specific legal zones. The question is some basic Blu-ray players are not capable of reading the discs with region codes. In such a case, what would you do if you insist on playing the Blu-ray content on the player? Are there any possibilities to decrypt the disc or make another region free Blu-ray copy? Well, it is entirely possible to make a region free Blu-ray copy here once you are provided with a powerful Blu-ray copy program. Here, please take a reference on this Blu-ray decrypting software - Leawo Blu-ray Copy for the further steps.

Step 1. Download Leawo Blu-ray Copy from its official website and install it on your computer.

Step 2. Run the copy tool and insert the Blu-ray disc to the drive on your computer. Then click "Add Blu-ray/DVD" to load the Blu-ray.

Leawo-Blu-ray-Copy 1

Step 3. Choose relevant settings. Here you can choose the output Blu-ray copying modes including Full Mode, Main Movie and Custom Mode, or the Subtitle, Audio based on your own needs.

Leawo-Blu-ray-Copy 2

Step 4. Start copying the Blu-ray disc to a region-free. Once set all the parameters, you can click the big green button "Copy" on the top-right corner. Before copying, you will be required to set the "Copy to", "Disc Label", "Save to" options.

Leawo-Blu-ray-Copy 3

If you only have one CD-ROM drive, you can firstly rip the Blu-ray disc content to hard drive and then copy the content onto your blank Blu-ray disc.

Once you have copied the Blu-ray disc, just insert the new region-free Blu-ray disc to the disc drive and you can play the new disc on your Blu-ray player immediately.

Part 4: Conclusion

If this is your first time to play Blu-ray discs on Blu-ray player, you have to be clear what features you cannot miss for a Blu-ray player such as 4K upscaling and Wi-Fi. At first, just take a breath and calm down. There is no need to spend a large sum of money in buying a professional Blu-ray player. Turn your eyes to some simple ones and you can upgrade it whenever you want.