As Bob Dylan says, “The Times, they are a changin.” It was hard to imagine that home movie viewing could get any better once the DVD replaced VHS tapes, but now Sony’s Blu Ray disc player has revolutionized how we experience audio, visual and interactive features encoded onto our new DVD movies. With the Blu Ray disc technology, you can finally enjoy all the benefits of the movie theater at home, provided that you have an HD-TV, Dolby Digital Surround Sound and a comfy seat. The picture is clearer, the sound comes in 7.0, as opposed the regular 5.0, and there are more interactive features, than with a HD-DVD.

Perhaps you’ve just purchased your first Blu Ray player and want some quintessential Blu Ray DVDs to jumpstart your collection and showcase all that BR has to offer. “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Peal” is a great high-definition BR disc to start off your collection. The Blu-Ray features include games and activities, a movie showcase, a backstage special, a “making of” feature and outtakes reel. Sea movies in general should only be viewed in top-quality color and 7.0 surround sound. (Given that tidbit, you may want to add “Master and Commander” to your list too). You’ll love the high def detail and impressive audio in the sci-fi classic “The Fifth Element.” For action-packed brag-worthy Blu Ray disc titles, check out the “Spiderman” trilogy, “X-Men” and “Troy” to show off your new machine to guests.

For the forseeable future Blu Ray is going to be king of the hill and if you want to how off that brand new HDTV you are going to want a Blu Ray disc player. Before you go pick one out though, there is an alternative and that’s to buy a Playstation 3 that comes with a Blu Ray player built in. The Playstation makes full use of its Blu Ray capabilities with stunning graphics within its game play so why not get a new games console to go with the new HDTV?

Is this the death throe for the age of the stand-alone movie player? Some speculate that laptops or USB devices and downloading will be the way of the future. The Kanguru Flash Drive Max has created a toothbrush-sized USB device that holds 64 GB of storage, so perhaps further advances will allow a plug-and-play format and faster, more legit software, that can take you from your laptop to your television set in mere minutes. Another idea is that improvements will be made with the cable networks’ “Movies On Demand” feature that has yet to impress. Right now, the prices are basically the same as a video rental, and corporate executives have overlooked the fact that many people actually enjoy going to the movie store to browse the latest releases. Not to mention that the selection of movies is nowhere near as great as Net Flix or Blockbuster Online, nor are the movies as portable. Whatever the future holds, the industry has made up its mind: the Blu Ray disc is in, so either buy it and continue stockpiling your movie collection, or be left behind!