Just thinking about buying a Blu Ray player

Just a quick question or two

1) Will Blu Ray players play normal DVD discs

2) Are Blu Ray players region free ?

Sony BDP-S300 , buying

Thanks

Yes Blu-ray players will play DVD's but at this time a UK player will only play R2 DVD's, as far as I know there are no multi-region (DVD) Blu-ray players.
It may not matter to you but be aware that Profile 1.1 is being rolled out and not all players will support those functions.

Region coding on Blu-ray disks does exist so you can only play Region B on a UK player or disks that have no region coding (tend to be catalogue titles so still plenty of choice from the US market)

Thanks for the info, the information is very helpful.
The two films I am purchasing are Jailhouse Rock and Viva Las Vegas, which are both american

Both those titles are Region-Free. All Warner Bros titles are.