You do not need a Blu-Ray DVD player, however, if you have a ten year old DVD player you will notice a difference with either a standard definition up-converting DVD player, or a Blu-Ray DVD player, which will up-convert standard definition DVDs to 720p/1080i/1080p standards through interpolation. Your television will also up-convert the standard definition signal, and look quite good, but the DVD player can perform a better conversion while the video is still in it's original MPEG2 video format. BTW - Quite a few of the older titles being released on Blu-Ray today are still only standard definition formats up-converted to HD formats by the studio prior to the Blu-Ray authoring of the disc - and basically using the same technology as your DVD player or television.

I am sorry i seem to have been a bit misinformed i was surer i was right ,but the older 1.0,and 1.1 should still play futur discs it will just lack the full use of special features,i just read this article on cnet. (The easiest way to avoid all these headaches is to buy a Profile 2.0 player, which is currently the most future-proof option there is. In particular, we recommend the PS3--not only is it the best Blu-ray player according to our reviews, but it also has traditionally been updated with new features before other Blu-ray players. Additionally, because the PS3 has such a fast processor inside, we've found that special features just work better, with faster load times and smoother playback. If you're the kind of person that never fiddles with special features and you've found a great deal on a Profile 1.1 player, there's no reason not to buy it as long as you know what you're giving up. Profile 1.1 players should have no problems playing back future Blu-ray movies, you're just won't be able to get additional content online. Profile 1.0 players are increasingly rare these days, so unless you find a fantastic deal, you can probably find a Profile 1.1 player for a similar price.) for some morer info check out cnet for yourself ,again sorry for the bad info,will not happen again!

I just spent a little more time on the netflix site, and I agree that the quality of the downloadable stuff isn't spelled out clearly. I have comcast cable and they have some SD and HD movies that are truly on demand and start pretty much right when you select them. There will be a delay in downloading content off the netflix site, it seems like it could be 10-15 minutes. Not sure of that though. The netflix print, to paraphrase, says something along the lines of "the quality of your movie will depend on the speed of your internet connection. At 3mps, the quality will approach that of a DVD." I have a fast connection so I should get the best they have to offer. But that tells me it won't be HD (1080 or 720), and that it may barely be DVD (480). So yes, I take from that that the downloadable stuff on Netflix isn't HD. And with a fast connection you just might get DVD, which is 480. What's standard-def TV, something like 320, right? And VHS tapes were 240? I guess the good news for me is that my projector has a pretty decent upconverter in it, but the question begs as to how well it can upconvert what I download from netflix. A plus for me is that if the picture quality isn't great at 133", I can choke the projector down to display a smaller picture and improve quality. There are a variety of boxes you can use to download content from netflx. Personally if I was going to get a box I'd probably go for a blu ray player. But my wife wants to be able to also play games for the kids, so we'll probably go with PS3 or Xbox, more likely xbox. She wants to get dance dance revolution for my daughter! I don't have a real good feel for just what movies netflix has available for download. They claim 12000 out of their offerings of 100000. We were very happy with netflix when we just used them for discs years ago. We switched to blockbuster more for the kids, they liked being able to go into the store and pick up a DVD (a couple free in-store pickups per month) on their way home when they were having friends over. But blockbuster has gotten away from that feature, and blockbuster always seems to send discs in the que out of order. Makes it tough when you're watching a series. So I guess what it comes down to is that we're changing back to netflix for the DVDs via snailmail. At this time we look at the downloadable content as bonus stuff, and an excuse to get an xbox, and by getting an xbox it will allow us to watch bluray and work on our dance steps via DDR. One big slippery slope! But I do have a bit more head scratching to do...

I've never had any problems with any of my Current DVD Players, playing any DVD's (Newer or Older). We have 2 x Sony 5 Disc 5.1 Surround Sound Systems (All-in-One) and a Philips DVD Player, all are older units, nothing New. None of these players are capable of playing the Blu-Ray Discs! Many, Many years back, we had a GE DVD Player (our first DVD Player). We ran across one DVD, that no matter what we did, it wouldn't play Disney's "The Kid" with Bruce Willis. This was a Brand New DVD Player and the DVD had just been released. We retuned the DVD 4 x before finally giving up on it. I even went as far as taking the GE DVD Player to Wal-Mart, so they could see that the DVD wouldn't Play. It played on the (their) Same Model GE DVD Player on the store shelf, but wouldn't play on mine. This DVD Player was a Gift and wasn't purchased at Wal-Mart, so I couldn't return it to Wal-Mart. Never did try returning it, it played every other DVD just fine! We do however have an LG Blu-Ray Player that we just started using this past summer. Hooked it to my New Sony 5.2 Surround Sound Stereo Receiver. We also have 2 Sony PlayStation 3 Gaming Consoles (1 x Fat and 1 x Slim) that have Blu-Ray Players Built-In. BTW, Blu-Ray is Backwards Compatible and will play all your DVD's.