Bunch of questions

[JiJi]

Hi everyone, I'm new here.
I pretty much don't know anything about blu-ray or HD Dvd or any of that, all I know is, I love collecting dvds.

I'm thinking about getting a blu-ray player so I thought I'd come here and ask you guys for your advice.

first of all, which player is the best? I was thinking about getting the Sony player since it looks so pretty lol but I have no idea if it's the best one to get.

second of all, do regular dvds play on the blu-ray player or do I have to keep my old dvd player?

And my final question is, what is the difference between regular dvds, HD dvds, and blu-ray dvds? I'm sure the quality of blu-ray is the best, but are there anymore differences? And is the quality difference between HD dvds and blu-rays that big?

I would really appreciate an answer to any of these questions and thanks in advance.