HD DVD and Blu-ray players

This shelf was named for both high-definition disc formats. By the time of the 2010 catalog, Blu-ray had won the format fight and HD DVD players were leftovers. The row still carried the combined name.

A Blu-ray player reads Blu-ray and, on most models, DVD and CD. An HD DVD player does not read Blu-ray. Discs are not interchangeable. Picture output needs an HDMI port on the television if you want the format the disc was authored for. Component outputs on players of that period were often limited. Blu-ray region codes are letters. DVD region codes are numbers. A player that updates its firmware over the network can refuse a newer disc until that update runs, which looks like a bad disc and is a software gate.