Can I Play a Blu-ray Disc on a DVD Player?

Blu-ray Disc players can play Blu-ray discs, DVDs, CDs, and some can also play other types of discs, such as SACDs and DVD-Audio Discs.

However, although you can play a DVD in a Blu-ray Disc player, you can't play a Blu-ray Disc in a DVD player. Anyone that claims otherwise is misleading the consumer.

Why DVD Players Can't Play Blu-ray Discs

The reason that you can't play a Blu-ray Disc on a DVD player is that the discs are embedded with more video and audio information than a DVD player is designed to read.

The "pits" used to store the information on a Blu-ray disc are much smaller than a DVD, which requires a blue laser to read the information, whereas DVD players use red lasers.

Blue lasers produce a shorter wavelength light beam, which is needed to focus on the smaller pits of a Blu-ray Disc. The pits on the disc are where the video and audio information of Blu-ray Discs (as well as DVDs and CDs) is stored.

Why Blu-ray Disc Players Can Play DVDs

The reason that a Blu-ray Disc player can play DVDs is that manufacturers decided that all Blu-ray Disc players included both blue and red lasers so that they could play both Blu-ray Discs and DVDs.

A red laser produces a light beam that is of a longer wavelength than a blue laser, enabling it to read the larger pits imprinted on DVDs and CDs.

When you place a DVD into a Blu-ray Disc player, it activates the red laser assembly so that the DVD can be read.

When you place a CD into a Blu-ray Disc player, the same red laser assembly used for DVDs is refocused to read the CD.

You Don't Need to Buy Blu-ray Discs If You Don't Have a Blu-ray Player

If you don't have a Blu-ray Disc player, you don't have to purchase a Blu-ray Disc version of a movie. However, if you have a Blu-ray Disc player in your main room and one or two DVD players in other parts of the house, you will have to buy both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the movie if you want the full benefits of both formats.

To assist in solving this problem, and as means to make purchasing Blu-ray discs more acceptable to consumers that have both a Blu-ray Disc player and DVD player in the house, studios often include both a Blu-ray Disc and DVD version of a movie in the same package.

The Blu-ray / DVD Flipper Disc

In 2009/2010, Universal Studios experimented with a test-run of so-called "flipper discs" (Blu-ray on one side and DVD on other). The titles included three entries in the Bourne series: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum – they were only offered individually – not as a boxed set. Other "flipper disc" titles included Traffic, Letters to Juliet, and possibly a few others.​ For additional details, read the article from Blu-ray.com

Ultra HD and Blu-ray Blu-ray Disc Players

Another disc format is also available: Ultra HD Blu-ray.

The Ultra HD Blu-ray format is actually different from both Blu-ray and DVD. You can't play ​Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs on standard Blu-ray Disc or DVD players. However, Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc players can play Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and Music CDs.

The Bottom Line

If you still purchase and collect DVDs, a DVD player is fine, and if you also own a Blu-ray Disc player, you can still play those DVDs. Since most Blu-ray Disc movies come with a DVD copy, you have both options for playing the same movie on Blu-ray Disc and DVD players.

However, Blu-ray Disc players are very inexpensive these days, so, if you desire to play Blu-ray Discs in other rooms in the house, getting another Blu-ray player is an affordable option, when you take the added convenience into consideration.

If you get a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc player, although you can't play a 4K Ultra HD disc in either a Blu-ray or DVD player, most Ultra HD disc movies also come with a Blu-ray Disc copy, which softens the blow of jumping to another format.