Question about Blue Ray DVD's...

[Blue Meanie]

Won this auction for a movie that is not available here in the states...one of all time favorite movies:

The Black Shield of Falworth (Blu-ray) - eBay (item 260482125327 end time Oct-02-09 03:28:26 PDT)

It has only been released in the UK...Last year as a Full Screen version and as of last week or 2 in Widscreen on the Blue Ray DVD. It's gotten great reviews online and states in the Reviews that the Blue Ray is region Free.

1st question: Is there such a thing as a Blue Ray DVD that is region free??

2nd Question: Can a Blue Ray DVD be played on a normal DVD Player?

Thanks in advance for any help on the Blue Ray DVD question.

[mego73]

Blu-ray DVD's can be region free depending on the disc. But your movie is from a major studio (Universal) and I am reasonably sure it will be region coded. But there are multi region blu ray players that are a bit more expensive

2009 JVC BLU RAY ALL Multi Region Code Free DVD Player - eBay (item 400076575733 end time Oct-11-09 15:39:44 PDT)

But a blu-ray disc cannot be played on a DVD player since the whole point of the blu-ray disc technology is use the blue laser to be able to read much smaller digital info on a disc. That way you can fit 25 gigabyte on a single layer blu-ray disc (and 50 on a double layer) as compared to 4.5 gig for a single and 9 for a double layer DVD. The extra capacity gives enough space to comfortably fit high definition format movies which have a file size too large for DVD's.

Finally, you do not need to have a HDTV to be able to see stuff played off a blu ray player. All blu-ray players I have seen have regular video (composite) and super video outputs which supply normal NTSC video even from blu-rays.