WE know you want to make the most of your new HD-ready flat screen TV and spanking new home cinema system, but there is no point in shelling out for a new Blu Ray movie, when you can just rent them instead.
The leading online DVD rental services already have large selections of Blu-ray Discs in stock. Some UK DVD rental comparison sites will even list the number of Blu Ray titles you can rent from the various DVD rental sites.
A Blu-ray Disc is expensive to buy, roughly four times what you would pay for a standard DVD, but if you rent online you will pay nothing extra for the considerable benefits the Blu-ray Disc offers, including extraordinarily detailed images, amazing colour and crisper sound than ever before.
Five times the detail
To play Blu-ray Discs you need a Blu-ray compatible DVD player or Playstation 3, and a HDTV to give you the most effective quality.
Blue laser technology porvides up to 50 GB of storage space, five times the capacity of a normal DVD giving 9 hours of HD (high definition) video or 23 hours of SD (standard definition).
HD gives five times the clarity of standard definition and allows you to watch your favourite blockbusters at home with the same dynamic effect and explosive sound you would get in a cinema.
It seems that, in future, exciting features will include the ability to watch live broadcasts of special events, the ability to update content via an internet connection and also download extras.
The major film studios - Disney, Warner, MGM and Fox - are starting to launch Blu-ray Discs simultaneously with Standard Definition DVDs but generally the Blu-ray films fall in the category of popular thrillers, adventure or action.
A good example is Daniel Craig's first outing as 007 in 'Casino Royale', which recently broke high-tech records in North America with sales of 100,000 during its first release as a Blue-ray Disc.
New comedy is proving popular and in addition some old favourites have been converted to the Blu-ray system. We tracked down Steve McQueen's classic 'The Great Escape' for example.
Rent Blu-Ray, don't buy it
In due course Blu-ray is likely to replace standard DVDs altogether, but it doesn't make sense at this stage to get rid of your standard DVDs.
Since Blu-ray is still a lot more expensive to buy and probably will be for a while yet, the smart choice for avid movie fans then is to rent for the time being.
A spokesman for Blockbuster DVD rental, one of the larger and more popular rental sites, has indicated that it intends to buy every Blu-ray DVD that is released.
He also emphasised that they will still buy and supply back catalogue DVDs to members and when Blu-ray versions of those films are released, they'll buy and supply them as well.
You'll need to find a DVD rental site that offers Blu Ray rental (not all of them do).
Shirley Stevens is a movie lover, avid DVD renter and popular entertainment journalist. You'll see many of her pieces on UK DVD rental sites, which let you compare DVD rental services and also includes a useful guide to UK Blu Ray rental.
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