# Can Blu-Ray Players also play regular DVD's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2025, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207 "2025-01-21T10:32:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/1 "2025-01-21T10:32:48Z")
Can Blu-Ray players also play regular DVD’s or must I have a separate device for both types? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/2 "2025-01-21T11:03:28Z")
Yes. I have played DVDs on my Blu-ray. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/3 "2025-01-21T11:14:33Z")
It’s called downward compatibility: Blue-Ray players will play DVDs, but DVD players will not play Blue-Ray discs. Last time I checked I was surprised how cheap and compact they are. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/4 "2025-01-21T11:30:37Z")
The basic answer is yes, as stated above, but there’s one small wrinkle you may want to be aware of. Region-coding of blu-ray discs is different from region-coding on DVDs. There are only three global regions for blu-rays, and in my experience many publishers and electronics manufacturers are pretty indifferent about applying and enforcing the codes. I have blu-rays from all over the world, and I’ve never had any problem playing any of them in my various devices. DVDs, though, are different. There are twice as many region codes (and they don’t overlap precisely with blu-ray region borders), and in my experience they’re applied and enforced more consistently and more rigorously. When I moved from the US to Europe, the DVDs I brought with me wouldn’t work in any locally-purchased device, so I hung onto an old US Xbox console solely to make those discs playable. And vice versa, the DVDs I acquired after moving don’t play in that US console. (And my Asian DVDs don’t play in either; I rip those to an SSD library.) If all your DVDs are locally acquired and you’ve never collected any imports, then this is a non-issue for you. But if you have DVDs from multiple regions and know about the workarounds to play them, be advised that the blu-ray player may or may not behave in a compatible fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/5 "2025-01-21T13:20:57Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > It’s called downward compatibility: Blue-Ray players will play DVDs, but DVD players will not play Blue-Ray discs. And both will play audio CDs (at least, I’m not aware of any that won’t, assuming they’re the standard format for audio CDs), but CD players won’t play DVDs or Blu-Rays. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/6 "2025-01-21T13:32:36Z")
There’s also region-free DVD discs. IIRC generally these would not be the studio commercial movies, though. My DVD player in my old computer warned that you could change the region once or twice, but after that you could not. For a while, when this was an issue (I presume mainly outside North America) you could buy DVD-players that were region-free. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/7 "2025-01-21T14:08:28Z")
I will gently suggest that it’s not a _technological necessity_ that all Blu-Ray players can always play all DVDs (and audio CDs). (Net of the regional issues mentioned above). The underlying tech of the various formats _is_ different. It’s a common _marketing feature_ of Blu-Ray players that they include the extra hardware and software necessary to also play the older formats. That helps sell new players. The OP might possibly be able to find a Blu-Ray player that won’t play older formats. Especially if they’re shopping for the absolute cheapest possible crapola device. So IMO it’s worth checking the specs before pushing [Buy]. But as a general planning matter before going shopping the OP can assume they can buy a reads-all device without difficulty, and retire their old DVD player when they install the new Blu-Ray player. I will suggest that at some point in the future players will drop support for the ever-increasingly legacy formats. That future is (mostly) not yet. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/8 "2025-01-21T14:41:25Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > It’s a common _marketing feature_ of Blu-Ray players that they include the extra hardware and software necessary to also play the older formats. What extra hardware is required for a Blu-Ray player to also play DVDs? > [@LSLGuy](#): > > I will suggest that at some point in the future players will drop support for the ever-increasingly legacy formats. My prediction is that Blu-Rays will not outlive DVDs, in the sense that there will never come a time when there is essentially no demand for devices that will play DVDs but there _is_ a demand for Blu-Ray players. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/9 "2025-01-21T14:55:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What extra hardware is required for a Blu-Ray player to also play DVDs? My understanding is that different lasers tuned to different frequencies are required. Both lasing devices are actually very small chips attached side by side to the same mechanical actuating arm. And may in fact now be a single integrated chip with two laser outputs. Which would still be distinct and additional hardware required versus a putative Blu-Ray-only device. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > My prediction is that Blu-Rays will not outlive DVDs, in the sense that there will never come a time when there is essentially no demand for devices that will play DVDs but there _is_ a demand for Blu-Ray players. I am pretty clueless about the state of that market, but your ideas sound good to me. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/10 "2025-01-21T14:55:58Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What extra hardware is required for a Blu-Ray player to also play DVDs? DVD players use a red laser to read the discs. Blu-ray players use a different color that I’ll bet you can guess. Besides the different lasers, the optics for each reading mechanism must be unique as well because the differing wavelengths would not focus at the same point in one lens system was used. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/11 "2025-01-21T15:18:44Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > My prediction is that Blu-Rays will not outlive DVDs For what it’s worth, physical media has not died out here in Europe to the extent it has in the US. Most large electronics shops (e.g. Media Markt) still have a sizeable section of the floor dedicated to sales of movies on disc, including in the older DVD format. I speculate (but do not know for certain) that this market is buoyed by the highly fragmented media distribution landscape and the lack of a unified EU-wide streaming option. The single market has knocked down a lot of barriers on other products, but content licensing (movies and TV) is still almost entirely negotiated country by country, making broad cross-border media distribution contractually problematic. (The sole exception, Netflix International, works very hard to make sure its offerings in each country comply with the applicable rules in the enormous patchwork of agreements and regulations.) There are country-specific streaming services, but due to the foregoing limitations, their libraries are often fairly constrained, compared to what American consumers are used to. As a consequence, I strongly suspect, without a clear and consistent digital channel for easy access to large media collections, there’s still a market for buying stuff on disc. And, as a result, there’s a corresponding market for devices that can play these DVDs. So I agree that DVDs and blu-rays will continue to live side by side for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/12 "2025-01-21T15:56:11Z")
Here’s an [article](https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/lg-one-of-the-last-holdouts-ceases-production-of-blu-ray-players/) from last month about LG stopping production of Blu-Ray players. It was considered one of the last holdouts. For example, Samsung left the market in 2019. Apparently that just leaves Sony and Panasonic making the devices but Sony is winding down disc production. The article also gives some info about various Blu-Ray disc types that the OP might find interesting such as UHD. One reason I think that DVD’s will outlast Blu-Ray is that burning DVD’s for video or data storage is probably going to be a thing for a while. Burning whatever on Blu-Rays never took off like that. But new releases on disc media is going away. One classic example is complete seasons of _The Simpsons_ stopped being released on DVD with seasons 19. The last Blu-Ray season was 17. They are currently on season 36. Season 1, btw, was a smash hit seller when it came out on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/13 "2025-01-21T16:07:14Z")
So that sorta suggests Blu-Ray is/was a failed format. Or at least one that didn’t offer enough extra [whatever] to displace, rather than augment, the incumbent format, DVD. Maybe “failed format” is too strong a word and “short-lived niche format” would be a more apt descriptor. I’m thinking of things like DAT or even 8-track that were released to high hopes, only to be slow to adopt, then leaf-frogged by ongoing developments in the same genera niche of e.g. “audio recording”. So maybe it’s “Blu-Ray; the last hurrah of novel physical distribution formats”. Net of @Cervaise’s interesting post about the non-US market. Which leads me to wonder about Chinese manufacturers of players and also what the Chinese market for video entertainment is. Do they stream, or buy, or rent discs, or … ? They’re certainly a large and monolithic market as to taste & language akin to the North American market. And certainly they’re friggin’ huge even net of the much greater number of not-so-wealthy citizens. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/14 "2025-01-21T16:21:28Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > My prediction is that Blu-Rays will not outlive DVDs, in the sense that there will never come a time when there is essentially no demand for devices that will play DVDs but there _is_ a demand for Blu-Ray players. Probably right: Blu-Ray was out for a short enough time, and had few enough advantages over DVD, that there were probably more movies that were released on DVD but not Blu-Ray than there were that were released on Blu-Ray. > [@ftg](#): > > One classic example is complete seasons of _The Simpsons_ stopped being released on DVD with seasons 19. The last Blu-Ray season was 17. Which is an even stronger point, when you realize that complete seasons of a TV show are a good use case for Blu-Ray. The big advantage of Blu-Ray over DVD is that it can hold more data, but a standard-length theatrical movie already fits on a single DVD at fairly good quality. All a DVD gets you is either room for more extras, which customers mostly ignore, or even higher quality, which might not even exist for many movies. With a TV show, though, a complete season is going to be large enough to take several DVDs, so Blu-Ray would let you do it with fewer discs. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/15 "2025-01-21T16:22:58Z")
I have never seen a Blu Ray player that can’t also play DVDs but as the person linked to above, companies are getting out of the player business. It is already harder to find players and that is just going to get worse. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/16 "2025-01-21T16:26:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Or at least one that didn’t offer enough extra [whatever] to displace, rather than augment, the incumbent format, DVD. And the fact that Blu-Ray players can also play DVDs is a big part of the reason for that. The availability of Blu-Ray didn’t render people’s old DVDs obsolete. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/17 "2025-01-21T16:29:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The big advantage of Blu-Ray over DVD is that it can hold more data, but a standard-length theatrical movie already fits on a single DVD at fairly good quality. All a **DVD** gets you is either room for more extras, which customers mostly ignore, or even higher quality, which might not even exist for many movies. With a TV show, though, a complete season is going to be large enough to take several DVDs, so Blu-Ray would let you do it with fewer discs. Bolding mine. I agree with your whole post, but I suspect you meant to type “Blu-Ray” right there here I bolded. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/18 "2025-01-21T16:32:54Z")
Ah, right. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/19 "2025-01-21T19:37:20Z")
Of _course_ my post pointing out a typo contained a typo. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > right there here I bolded. Should be “… there where I …”. 🤦‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2025, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207/20 "2025-01-22T03:24:24Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My understanding is that different lasers tuned to different frequencies are required. Also my understanding, gleaned when the Blu-ray part of a player quit: it still worked for DVDs. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blu-ray-players-also-play-regular-dvds/1013207.md?page=2)