The Best TV Shows Available on Bluray

Interested in growing your home theater collection with discs of your favorite TV shows? Not every show makes for good watching on a DVD or Blu-ray, but others are fantastic. Included here for quality, extras and pure watchability are great TV series available on DVD and Blu-ray disc.



For added ease, you might consider downloading a media player, such as VLC Media Player, which is the most versatile media player and according to many, its the best media player over all. The media player allows you to play DVDs from any region without having to enter codes or change your settings some computers only allow you to change your region settings one or two times so this is especially valuable for people who are into foreign films. In addition to DVDs, the VLC Media Player allows you to watch various formats you might download from the Internet.
Battlestar Galactica

Get your best science-fiction TV on DVD or Blu-ray when you purchase the whole Science Fiction Channel Battlestar Galactica offering: the miniseries that premiered in 2003 and the four regular-length seasons that followed. The soundtrack comes out great on Blu-ray, but the video quality is fine on both Blu-ray and DVD some of it is intentionally shot to look documentary-quality. If you havent watched this series before, heres a quick plot summary: Ships from a human civilization in a distant part of the universe flee attackers in search of planet Earth. Its a space opera headed by Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, and was included in Time magazines list of the top 100 TV shows.
Downton Abbey

This surprisingly engaging British historical soap opera has fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Three seasons have aired so far, with seasons one through three available on both Blu-ray and DVD. Buy this show for the entertainment of a well-acted ensemble of characters. You can opt for versions showing the series as it aired here in the U.S., or get the uncut British version. Some DVD sets include the seasons episodes along with the Christmas special, while other sets are sold separately. A quick plot summary: An aristocratic family in England and their servants react to historical events such as the sinking of the Titanic and the beginning of World War I.
Band of Brothers

If you like watching TV in HD and enjoy the finer points of your Blu-ray adapted shows, dont miss Band of Brothers. Gritty, violent, heroic and dramatic, this sweeping historical miniseries will bring you into the battlefield. And if this shows 10 episodes leave you wanting more, theres also the sister program, The Pacific. A quick plot summary: Follow the members of a parachute regiment during World War II from training to the end of the war. Its based on the acclaimed book by historian Stephen E. Ambrose, and produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
Friends

One of TV Guide magazines list of the 50 greatest TV shows ever, Friends is a must for anyone looking to add a little humor to their collection of TV shows on DVD or Blu-ray. Available season-by-season or in a big box set of all 10 seasons, you can bring this popular ensemble show to your living room along with the packaged featurettes, cast interviews and commentary extras which are also on the discs. And, if you want still more after the final season, you can also get the two-season spin-off, Joey. A quick plot summary: Friends is a quick-talking sitcom about six friends in their 20s. Its a perennial favorite because of the snappy dialogue and memorable characters.
Sherlock

The BBCs reboot of everyones favorite eccentric detective has seasons that are unusually short by American standards. Only three 90-minute episodes each, theyre gone too soon. Thats why its great that the Blu-ray and DVD releases of seasons one and two come with extras: making of clips and the unaired pilot A Study in Pink. Though fans of the series say they love the masterful acting by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman and the twisty plots, there are plenty of visuals for Blu-ray collectors to feast upon as well. A quick plot summary: Sherlock reimagines Arthur Conan Doyles colorful characters in modern times. Holmes uses technology and science to help solve crimes that baffle the London police force and to stymie his rival brother, Mycroft Holmes, and his nemesis, James Moriarty.

Downton Abbey cast image from Flickrs Creative Commons by Evian Tsai


About the Author: Shandra White worked at a video rental store in high school and has never forgotten the delicious feeling of having an unlimited amount of shows and movies to watch. She prefers dramas, but her two sons have got her hooked on some of the better science-fiction and action-adventure shows in recent years.

Six Cool Features of VLC Media Player You Might not Know

You surely have been amazed that the VLC Media Player can play movies of any file types, even .mkv files which are really hard to play in other media players without the need to download any codecs. You are probably aware too that it can play any music files too. Theres a lot more things that you can do with VLC, and we have rounded them up for you.

Capture Screenshots

You can easily capture screenshots of the movie you are watching with this wonderful media player. While watching, simply go to the Video options in the upper menu bar then select Take Snapshot from the dropdown and it will capture the frame you are into. You can setup the destination of the captured frame by going to Tools then select Preferences from the dropdown menu. Select the video icon and browse the location on where you want it stored.

Theres a hidden trick with the screen capture option, you can also set the image as the wallpaper of your computer by simply selecting Set as Wallpaper in the Video menu dropdown, cool isnt it?

Play Podcasts

If you are a subscriber to some podcasting blogs or websites, the VLC player can help you listen to podcasts in a much better way. All you need to do is to enter the podcast url. You can add as many podcasting stations as you want.

Play Corrupted Files

When downloading a file from the web, lags and connection interruptions will result into corrupted files and you cannot play them with any other media player aside from VLC. It will just skip over the damaged part and will continue playing the parts of the file that are playable. With VLC being lightweight, the RAM usage is pretty small which provides less lag when playing files.

Play Archived Files

Save time unzipping compressed files and take off that Winrar or your 7zip program from your pc as VLC can play compressed files without the need to extract it which also saves you a lot of space on your computer. Many of us get zipped files from various sources in the internet so this feature is really handy.

Desktop Screen Capture

This feature of VLC is useful for people who want to record the activity of their desktop computers. For example, if you are doing tutorials or instructional materials, you can use the VLC media player to capture whatever is shown in your screen and save it on any location on your pc.

To do this, simply choose Media from the top menu then select Open Capture Device from the dropdown. A dialog box will pop up that will provide you options to record the activity as a video. Select Capture Mode to Desktop. Adjust it to your preferred parameters then select Start to begin recording. When you are done, simply tap the S key on your keyboard and it will stop the recording process.

You can also setup the file type you want as the end result before you start the recording process or simply use the convert feature of this wonderful piece of software to have the file type that you require.

Download Youtube Videos

We all love Youtube and we always wanted to download our favorite videos but there are only few tools that can do this and one of it is the VLC media player. To do this, simply go to your desired Youtube video, copy its URL and paste it to the Open Network Stream option of your VLC. It can be found under the Media menu. After you have pasted it, go to Tools menu and click the Codec Information then copy the location address. Then open your browser, paste the location address you have copied in the search bar then hit enter. You can now right click the video that will appear and save it to your computer.

Thats the six cool features you might not know that comes up with the VLC media player. There are a lot of features actually, but these are the ones that many users dont know they exist. Try it for yourself!