How to upgrade to Blu-ray

Over the past year or so Blu-ray discs have moved from being a niche product for movie buffs to one that is seen in just about every supermarket and record store. If you like to watch films you may already have a player sitting alongside your television ­ but do you have one in your computer?

Even if you already have a player there is a great reason to add a Blu-ray drive to your PC.

Blu-ray discs were designed to hold high-definition (HD) video footage that takes up substantially more storage space than standard television-quality video, so the same discs can be used to store loads of files ­ up to 50GB on a single disc.

This makes them brilliant for storing a movie collection, music or a backup of everything on your computer.

We will explain what Blu-ray discs are, why it’s worth upgrading and, crucially, how to do so.

Big benefits
Blu-ray discs look just like DVDs and CDs, but they can hold up to 50GB of files, almost six times more than a DVD or over 60 times more than a CD.

Although they look like a CD or DVD, Blu-ray discs must be played in a special drive as they require a different type of laser than the ones used to read and write DVDs.

Blu-ray discs are predominantly used for holding HD movies and TV shows, which provide a clearer and more detailed picture than the standard definition movies found on an old DVD discs.

Although there was a competing HD disc, HD DVD, that format has now died, leaving Blu-ray the best way to get HD movies.

The price of Blu-ray drives for computers has dropped remarkably. Two years ago one would cost more than £400, but today read-only drives can be found for as little as £60, with writers costing around £130.

Fitting a read-only Blu-ray drive to your computer can turn it into a great way to watch movies in HD.

Of course, watching films on the small screen isn’t always the best way to enjoy them, but if you own a television with a computer input you can connect the two and enjoy some entertainment on the big screen.

What’s more, watching movies this way is remarkably cheap: with the least expensive standalone Blu-ray players costing around £200 and a PC drive around £60, you’ll be saving enough money to buy a whole library of movies.

Upgrade to a Blu-ray writer and you’ll be able to do all this and more. If you have a camcorder that records HD video, a Blu-ray writer will allow you to burn and share your home movies at the highest quality.

What’s more, the massive storage capacity of Blu-ray discs makes them ideal for storing backups. The average home PC can usually be entirely backed up onto one or two Blu-ray discs, so if your PC’s hard disk fails you will have a copy of all your important files stored safely elsewhere.