Blu-ray is great technology but it isn't as simple as one-would think.

If you haven't heard...the short war is over; HDDVD is dead and all those people who spent hundreds of dollars on this technology, now has to throw it in the trash and go-out and buy a new Blu-ray player in order to enjoy full 1080p.

Have you been to Hastings, Blockbuster or Hollywood Video lately?  If you have, you'll notice that there are several shelves of Blu-ray movies slowly starting to be populated.  And, this trend is ony going to continue. 

Why?  Well, if you haven't seen the picture quality differnce between SD (standard definition) and HD (high defintion; full 1080p) movies, you won't be missing anything.  But, for those that have recently purchased a new TV with a HD tuner in it...you know what I'm talking about. 

Bad thing is that most people who want to watch Blu-ray movies don't understand how it all works and it isn't as simple as buying a HDTV...nope, it is little more complicated than that.  Let's talk about Blu-ray Movies and then we'll discuss normal TV watching.

First, you can't watch Blu-ray w/o a 'Blu-ray' player.  These run about $400 and pricing seem to be dropping.  Secondly, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, you CAN NOT watch Blu-ray without an HDMI cable (about $60 for 6ft).  So, you can't use your standard yellow, red and white cables or any other pre-made coax cables.  Sorry.  Component cables won't work for Blu-ray.

My suggestion for a Blu-ray play is the Sony Playstation 3 80GB version.  This player let's you not only play games (or your kids) but will also allow you to watch non-Blu-ray movies and the player will digitally upconvert the old technology to HD (not as good as tru HD but better)...the point here is that you can use only 1 player.  We just did it and we love it.  Only downside is...the wireless remote is Bluetooth.

If you won't to watch TV in HD don't call CableOne.  They only have 17 channels available.  DirecTV and Dish now have over 100 channels and are adding more every quarter.  Why?  See my next blog...

Blu-ray is great!  A little complicated yes but get used to it, as HDTV is here to stay.  1080p is only the beginning.