The 12 Best Region Free Blu Ray Players in 2023 – Top Picks

Although film lovers have more and more opportunities to enjoy a good movie, especially thanks to streaming services, a Blu Ray Player cannot be missing in the lounge of a movie buff.

Blu Ray, from the English blue or blue ray, is the natural evolution of the DVD. The disc we take in hand, containing a film, a cartoon or even data to be read on a PC has the same shape as a CD or DVD, but the videos can be viewed at a surprising resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels, in Full HD, a big step forward compared to the 720 × 576 points of the DVD.

Here we had selected the best region free blu ray players that are listed below.

Buyer Guide to Choose the Best Region Free Blu Ray Players

What Does Blue Ray Mean?

4K and Ultra HD are new digital technologies. The resolution increases passing respectively 4096 x 2160 and 3840 X 2160 pixels, an incredible definition.

Currently, the first 4K players have arrived on the market which has the ability to read the help x / h265 encoding ( evolution of the H264 that reads up to 8K and beyond ).

Then there are 4k DVD players that “adapt” the films (scaling), on the packaging of the film disc will appear ” mastered in 4K “. Don’t be fooled it’s not a REAL 4K resolution but an “adaptation”, the pixels are ” doubled “.

The films were taken from the original source, the film in the cinema, with an enlarged chromatic range closer to that contained in the original material.

Native 4k Blu Ray players have arrived on the market at attractive prices and with them even 4K movies. Recall that to fully enjoy 60 frames per second, the TV must be equipped with an HDMI 2.0 socket and not 1.4 or 1.3, otherwise, we will be limited to 30 fps.

The BD, Blu-ray Disc Association, has announced the specifications of what will be the Ultra HD Blu-ray with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 points.

What Capacity Does a Blue Ray Disc Have?

from the point of view of the length of a film, this depends on the compression used, the languages ​​present, the number of audio tracks, etc.

On average, a single-layer disc can hold 135 minutes of high definition video with MPEG-2 encoding, with additional space for 2 hours of bonus material in standard quality. A double layer disc doubles, with 3-hour video available in full HD quality. From a data point of view, a blue ray disc contains 25 to 50 Gb.

If you have a PC you can buy an External Blu Ray burner to be connected to the USB port such as the Samsung SE-506CB / RSWD to create your films in high resolution and make backup copies.

The cost of Bluray blank disks is around 1 euro, it also supports Double Layers that allow you to save up to 50 Gb of data.

The Quality of Vision

A DVD player, excluding models capable of reading Blu-ray discs from the definition, is able to return images with a resolution of 480i (where the “i” stands for interlaced), ie the maximum supported by this format.

At this point it is important to establish which TV you will watch and, at this moment, it is easy to imagine that it will be an HD screen (at 720 or 1080p).

Our advice, therefore, is to focus on a progressive-scan player (i.e. almost all those offered on the market by the best brands) capable of converting the interlaced video of the DVD and sending it to the TV as a 480p signal, therefore with superior quality.

In this mode, in fact, 480 consecutive lines are “drawn” on the screen so as to form the image with a higher definition of the interlaced, in which the image is rendered on the screen by alternate lines (first the even then the odd) with such a speed that the human eye is able to perceive a homogeneous image.

By comparing the prices of the various readers you will notice how some models are more expensive than others.

The explanation is linked to their ability to carry out a sort of conversion so as to “transform” the 480i image into a high definition 720p if not 1080p so that it performs best on a new generation TV.

These devices, therefore, are able to analyze the pixels that make up the video, adding similar ones in order to create a sort of HD effect.

What Do I Need to Watch a Blu Ray Movie

To view a Blu-ray disc you need a TV that is at least Full HD or Ultra HD to take advantage of the maximum resolution, which has an HDMI socket.

The blue-ray player in which we insert the disc purchased with the film must be connected to this socket. Forget about HD READY TVs that have a lower resolution and don’t allow you to take full advantage of a blue-ray disc.

Do Blu Ray Players Read Dvds?

yes, there is no type of compatibility with old DVD movies, obviously, the resolution remains the old one, as well as music CDs and other types of media indicated in the instructions of the individual player.

How to Use a Blu-Ray Player

Home entertainment was once entrusted to VHS support. Since then she has come a long way and gradually moved on to CDs, DVDs and finally to Blu-ray.

For those who are still not very familiar with this format, we can say that it is a system created specifically to supplant DVD media that does not guarantee the storage of files with Full HD resolution (1,920 × 1,080 pixels) and even less Ultra HD, a 3,840 × 2,160 pixel resolution also commonly defined with the term 4K.

Blue Laser

The name Blu-ray derives from the blue laser that reads the disc, with a shorter wavelength than the red laser that is used for CDs and DVDs, allowing to hold about 200 GB of data.

If you have already converted your entire video library to Blu-ray format, you probably already have a high-performance player capable of reading your favourite movies.

If not, however, it’s a great time to do it. Blu-ray has in fact successfully replaced DVDs, becoming the new reference format for high image quality. Their price is accessible to anyone and even readers no longer have a prohibitive cost.

Which One to Choose?

Before choosing the right product for your needs, a distinction must be made between Blu-ray players and 4K Blu-ray players. The latter are naturally newer and guarantee excellent reading of the 4K format, both native and upscaled.

By native resolution we mean the original resolution with which the movie was born on disk, while, when we talk about upscaling, we refer to a procedure carried out by the software that increases the resolution up to 4K.

The effect of upscaling is qualitatively lower, however, an inexperienced or unaccustomed eye to such technicalities will not notice the difference.

Hdr

Some readers also guarantee support for HDR technology, an acronym that stands for High dynamic range imaging, a system that manages to manage the extremes of the range, providing the innovative TV panels with shades of light and shadow that are recognizable only by the human eye.

To exploit this technology, however, as for 4K, the Blu-ray player is not enough but you will necessarily have to have the latest generation TV.

Easy to Start

Turning to the actual use of the player, it does not differ much from those used in the past to read DVDs. You must first connect it to your TV via an HDMI cable and power it by inserting the appropriate cable into the socket.

After this quick connection, you can start it and insert your favourite movie that will start automatically. Most are equipped with a remote control to be able to adjust settings and start discs.

Each manufacturer also has its own software to manage its operation, therefore it is advisable to read the manual carefully.