- Laser Wavelength: 405 nm (nanometers)
- Numerical Aperture (sharpness of laser beam): 0.85
- Storage Capacity: 25GB for a single layer disc, 50 GB for a dual layer disc
- Supported Video Codecs: MPEG-4 AVC, VC-1, MPEG-2
- Supported Audio Codecs: Dolby Digital (640 Kbit/s), DTS (1.5 Mbit/s), Dolby Digital Plus (1.7 Mbit/s), DTS-HD High Resolution (6.0 Mbit/s), Linear PCM, Dolby TrueHD, DTs-HD Master Audio
- Maximum Bitrate: Raw Data Transfer (53.95 Mbit/s), Audio+Video (48.0 Mbit/s), Video (40.0 Mbit/s)
- Interactivity: Blu-ray Disc Java
- Maximum Video Resolution: 1920 x 1080 24p, or 50/60i HDTV
- Region Code: Restricted to 3 Regions
- Hard Disk Protective Coating
Yes, your DVDs will play on all existing Blu-ray Disc players.
All Blu-ray Discs are digitally encoded with a "region code" (A, B, or C, sometimes referred to as 1, 2, or 3), which allows the disc to play only in a Blu-ray player with the same region code. This system is similar to that for DVDs and was developed to enable studios to control various aspects of a title's release (content, date, price, etc.) according to region. A "region-free" disc is one that can play in all players around the world. As of late 2008, almost 70% of all released discs were region-free.
Yes, the Playstation 3 includes a built-in Blu-ray drive that plays Blu-ray Discs. Additionally,
a standard remote control similar to a DVD remote can be purchased separately.
No. Blu-ray Discs play on Blu-ray players, Playstation 3, or Blu-ray drives for computers and will not play on DVD players.
No. While your 720p won't maximize the native 1080p picture of your Blu-ray discs, the high definition picture produced by your HDTV and Blu-ray player will still look very good, significantly better than whatever you were used to watching.
No. An internet connection is not needed to watch Blu-ray.
Blu-ray movies are delivered in the original theatrical aspect ratio, which is known as widescreen (also known as 16:9 aspect ratio). Since all HDTVs are also widescreen format, generally your movies will fill up the screen. However, depending on the film, sometimes you will see small black bars on the top and bottom of your screen, but significantly smaller than you would see when watching a widescreen movie on a standard definition TV.
No. Playing a DVD on an HDTV will still produce a standard definition picture, since DVDs are standard definition. You need a Blu-ray player, HDMI or DVI cable from your player to your HDTV, and high definition content from a high definition disc such as Blu-ray in order to see a high definition picture.
No. An upscaling DVD simulates a 1080p picture by doubling the number of lines displayed on your HDTV. Since the content on the DVD is not high definition, it will not match the picture quality or clarity of true 1080p source content on a Blu-ray Disc.
