Blu-Ray: What's That?

If you ever come across an article on Blu-ray (such as this one), just know that you are reading it correctly. And the mispelling of blue is correct, by the way.

So, what is Blu-ray? Blu-ray is the next generation in optical discs. It's name is a spin off on its underlying technology, which uses blue violet laser and optical rays for recording data. It's poised to overtake its predecessors, the CD and the DVD in the arena of media recording. You may not hear of it now, but expect to find a Blu-ray Discs (BD) to be put on sale on the market how many years from now.

DVD vs BD

Aside from the spelling, BDs differ from DVDs in terms of storage capacity. While the average DVD can store up to 4.7 GB of data on a single layer disc and twice that on a dual layer disc, a BD can store up to 25GB of data and 50 of data on a dual layer disc. Now that is a LOT of disc space.

The BD can store that much data because of its use of a blue-violet laser instead of red laser. Blue violet laser has a shorter wavelength than red laser, thus making it possible for write data with more precision than a red laser. Greater precision means that data takes up less space since it is written more tightly. Setting the numerical aperture of laser to 0.85 allows BDs to hold that much information.

If you are not convinced that BDs will take over what you are accustomed to, then consider history. Vinyl records did give way to the CDs and the Cs then gave way to the DVD. What's to stop BD from taking over DVD?

If you're still not convinced, then consider this fact: the BD was developed by Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which is composed manufacturers of consumer, electronics, PCs and media manufacturers. The BDA currently has 180 member companies. The group is now being led by a Board of Directors composed of Apple Computer, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, LG, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Mitsubishi Electric. Pioneer Corp., Royal Philips Electronics,

Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Sun Microsystems, TDK Corporation, Thomson Multimedia, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney and Warner Bros.

BDs Are Big, And They Are Getting Bigger

Pioneer recently developed a BD that can store up to 500 GB of data on one disc by using 20 layers. This new development could render mega hard drives obsolete. It would also be possible for companies and ICT professionals to store back up copies of their data on BDs.

So what does this exciting new development mean for the average consumer like you and me? It can mean a lot of things, buying a BD with four movies in one disc is just one of them. Currently, many movie studio have announced they be releasing feature films on BD and DVD.

Try out the new BD releases and see if they are any different from movies releases on DVD.