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Blu-ray has taken over from DVD players and if you are a home theater enthusiast, they are a must have item. Blu-ray offers better video quality and Audio for HDTV owners. If you do not have a High Definition TV, it is best to stick to a regular DVD player.

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) was set up to determine a set of standards when Blu-ray first appeared on the market. However, because manufacturers were keen to launch Blu-ray, they were allowed to implement certain functions that were not within the prescribed standards. The first Blu-ray Profile 1.0 players are very primitive. The first published standards required support for the Java programming language that enables interactive features as mandatory, but there was no requirement for onboard memory on these first players. Because of this, Profile 1.0 players have trouble doing much more than playing a movie.

Profile 1.1 Bonus View players followed. These include at least 256 MB of memory and adds secondary audio and video decoders to enable functions such as Picture-in-Picture. All players since October 2007 must meet these standards as a minimum.

Profile 2.0 or BD-Live adds an Internet connection and 1 GB of storage. These features provide a Blu-ray the ability to download additional content such as trailers and other extras. They also enable online shopping and games. Additional memory improves the responsiveness of the players. Although this is not compulsory, many Blu-ray already have this capability. Some players are sold as "BD-Live Ready", meaning that storage is not built in and you must provide storage by adding memory via a USB drive or memory card.

Something to look out for when looking for your Blu-ray is that the audio is HD. Most players can pass the high-resolution audio via bitstream over HDMI to receiver broadcasting, but only the latest receivers have decoders necessary and HDMI outputs. Players with there own decoders can switch to high resolution audio to any AV receiver that can accept and process audio via HDMI.

Blu-ray can also read discs in standard definition, but not all play well. If you have a great record collection, it is something to watch out for.

Most Blu-ray players can accept the latest modifications via firmware, a capability that allows manufacturers to fix performance problems or add new features for players once you've purchased them. It is easier to do this if your drive is wireless and has an Ethernet connection. BD-Live players will need an Internet connection and many players have wireless connections. Some of the cheaper players still need a wired connection.

To get the best of your Blu-ray you need an HDTV with 1080p resolution ideally. Some HD TV's have only 720p resolution. On these TV's you should reduce the picture size in order to get the highest quality pictures. Whatever the resolution of your HD TV you should still get great HD images with the help pf a blu-ray player.