HDTV blew people out of the water in the late nineties when they saw how clear the HDTV screen actually was. Millions have jumped onto the HDTV bandwagon, finally able to enjoy their wide screen DVD’s, as well as high definition cable TV broadcasts. There are some people that haven’t switched over just yet, but those who have been putting it off, have been noticing something different. They have seen the capabilities of Blu-Ray players, and realized that the resolution of HDTV’s could finally be pushed to a new frontier. No one knew that Blu-Ray would win over DVD, but now that it has, it’s time to start thinking about adding Blu-Ray to your television at home

Research on the Blu-Ray technology started in the year 2000, but it wasn’t until six years later that a final product was finally unleashed on the masses. Many wonder why it is called the Blu-Ray player, and in all actuality it is just referring to the blue laser that is used to read the disc. In addition to this change, the Blu-Ray discs also had much more space than their DVD predecessors. They hold a whopping fifty gigs of data, while DVD’s could only hold eight. This meant higher resolutions and more extra content. If you have purchased an HDTV, then you could surely benefit from buying a Blu-Ray player in the near future.

On release prices for Blu-Ray players were well beyond what an average user wanted to spend. Prices between $700 and $1000 were common for first generation Blu-Ray players. Plus, there was another competing standard on the market that created a lot of confusion. Toshiba and NEC introduced their own DVD successor with release of the HD DVD format. HD DVD, with a capacity of 15 gigabytes, was an improvement over standard DVDs but didn’t match the specifications of Blu-Ray. But HD DVD did have some market advantages. First, they made it to store shelves 3 months before Blu-Ray. Second, HD DVD devices where a little cheaper to produce and were sold cheaper as a result. Finally, HD DVD had more movie studios on board at launch than Sony did which meant more movies were initially available while Blu-Ray remained scarce.

But you cannot expect the creator of the highly successful PlayStation 2 to stand by and take this beating. In fact, they did not. They released the Playstation 3 with full Blu-Ray capabilities, making it the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market. The sales of Blu-Ray movies crushed HD DVD’s, and it wasn’t long before movie makers chose the superior Blu-Ray format. HD DVD’s were rapidly phased out to a point that only a few companies still use them. They have finally gone the way of the Betamax player, and a footnote in the hsitory of multimedia.

Now days the prices are much lower. Brand name Blu-Ray players are available at extremely low prices, some of them being a mere hundred dollars. Recorders are only a little bit more than that. If you have an HDTV, then you must buy one of these players to unlock it’s full potential. Not only do they hold more data, the quality is utterly amazing.

Anna Sussman delves into the complicated world of cable providers to find the offers that deliver the biggest savings for consumers. Anna looks for the lowest Time Warner digital cable rates and discounts on Time Warner bundled services.