Can blu ray DVDs work in standard DVD players?

Question

Can Blu Ray DVDs work in standard DVD players?

Answer 1

It's not an idiotic question and one that has been asked before. The answer is no but you can play a regular dvd in a blu-ray player. Blu-ray is a dvd which I think causes some of the confusion. It's a dvd that has a lot more info on it and that info is squeezed in. The regular dvd laser can't pick up the info because it's too wide. Granted we are talking about thickness in the parts of a human hair context but they're too wide none the less.

Answer 2

No sorry they cant be played. The Blu-Ray standard uses a different colour laser and a much finer focus so the density of the tracks is much higher. The data is burnt onto the disc in layers in a similar way holograms are made. Both DVD and Blu-Ray discs use similar but not compatible.

You can play DVD's on a Blu-Ray player, and some players use upscaling to improve the definition of the output.