What is Blu-Ray?
"I've seen ads for movies on Blu-Ray discs but I'm not sure what that means. What is Blu-Ray and how is it different from a regular DVD disc? Do I need a special player to view a Blu-Ray disc?"
Blu-Ray Technology
Think about Blu-Ray as an advanced version of a DVD disc. Blu-Ray optical discs are used to store large amounts of data, which is suitable for high-definition video and high-density data. It's the next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by a group of computer and consumer electronics companies, called the Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA).
Compared to a traditional DVD or HD DVD, a standard single-layer Blu-Ray disc can hold much more data -- 25 GB versus 5 GB for standard DVD or 8.5 GB on a dual-sided HD DVD. A dual layer Blu-Ray disc can hold up to 45 to 50 GB of data. This means a dual layer disc can play 8 hours of HD video. But wait… there's more! Researchers are also developing 100 GB and 200 GB Blu-Ray discs. (Sorry, no steak knives.)
A Blu-Ray disc gets its name from the blue-violet laser used to store data on the disc. This shorter wavelength of the ray (405 nm) and tighter track pitch facilitates more precise storage of data, and higher storage capacity. A conventional DVD reads and writes data using red and infrared lasers at 650 nm while a CD uses the same lasers at 780 nm. (How small is a nanometer? For reference, there are 25.4 million nanometers in an inch.) Read the Blu-Ray FAQ for more technical details about this next-generation optical disc format.
How Will The Consumer Benefit?
Needless to say, the larger storage capacity of the Blu-Ray disc offers consumers a lot of benefits when it comes to storing data in their personal computers. You'd need a stack of about 32,000 floppy discs to equal the capacity of a single dual-sided Blu-Ray disc. We've come a long way in just a few years!
Also, Blu-Ray technology will change the way we see movies and high definition videos. Although the Blu-Ray disc players are costlier at the moment, they are expected to become less expensive as the production increases. Sony is using Blu-Ray drives in the popular PlayStation gaming systems, which could help to boost the Blu-Ray market.
Before switching to this new technology, you should make sure that the new Blu-Ray disc player plays your traditional DVDs too. Manufacturers and video content producers have yet to embrace this technology on a large scale and not all video content is available on Blu-Ray discs. If your new Blu-Ray disc does not play normal DVDs, it may be of limited value in the short run.
Blue-Ray Versus HD DVD
Another advantage of using a Blu-Ray enabled player is that it enables a 36Mbps data transfer rate and MPEG-2 Transport Stream. If all that techno-speak makes your eyes glaze over, translated into practical terms, this means HDTV owners can record their favorite broadcast without any quality loss.
When it comes to the future of video formats, Blu-Ray is not the only whale in the fish tank. Remember the days of VHS versus Betamax? Customers didn't know which type of machine to buy while that battle raged. In a similar scenario, backers of the Blu-Ray (Sony, Panasonic, Dell, Disney) and HD DVD (Toshiba, Hitachi, Sanyo, Universal/Vivendi) technology are each hoping to triumph in the marketplace.
Due to the conflict between both the two camps, content owners are divided as well. That means you have to be careful when you buy or rent a movie. Is it in DVD, Blu-Ray or HD DVD format? And which discs will work in your player?
Blu-Ray technology is poised to change the digital world. But Blu-Ray may flop in the marketplace, just like Betamax, even though it was regarded as technically superior. My advice is to stick with plain old DVDs for a while. Let the technology and entertainment behemoths duke it out, and hopefully we'll end up with a winner (or a compromise) in the next year or so.
Got comments or questions about Blu-Ray? Post your thoughts below…
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Posted by Bob Rankin on March 30, 2007 07:57 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- What is Blu-Ray? (Posted: March 30, 2007 07:57 PM)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/what_is_bluray.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "What is Blu-Ray?"
Posted by:
David
03 Apr 2007
One of the advantages of HD-DVD is that it plays DVD's too. As you mention, BluRay requires other technology to play them. Its better technology in certain ways but not backwardly compatible. HD players are also cheaper to make and are more broadly licensed. Same sort of issue as with Betamax.
There is talk of dual format discs but LG has released a dual format player - it will handle all 3 types of DVD's. Perhaps that will be the solution?
Posted by:
Warren Betanko
03 Apr 2007
It's not true that Blu-Ray has more storage than HD DVD. A single-layer HD-DVD disk holds 15 GB, while a dual-layer one holds 30 GB. If you double-side it (which is possible), that goes to 60 GB.
EDITOR'S NOTE: You're not camparing apples to apples. See the "HD DVD / Blu-ray Disc Comparison" near the end of this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD
Posted by:
John
12 Apr 2007
Warren, Blu-Ray has far more capacity than HD DVD.
Each layer of HD DVD is only 15GB where as each layer of Blu-Ray is 25GB. HD DVD only has a design depth of two layers 30GB. OK so you can double side it. But Blu-Ray has a design depth of ten layers, giving 250GB of storage, Now double side that! Blu-Ray was designed to be re-writable on all layers! HD is not.
Posted by:
David
20 Nov 2007
Bob, we must be of the same generation. I stumbled across your article today and i have talked a number of people out of buying a blue ray player using the VHS-Beta wars as reference, plus they don't play the dvd's you might already own. Good article. I appreciated the one on SAT tv for the pc also. Glad i found your page before i purchased. I live in Europe and am looking for a way to watch football and nascar. Nascar you can subscribe to like baseball, but not football.
Posted by:
Michael Hughes
10 Dec 2008
Its all very well fighting the numbers game over which disk can store most. But the main consumer application is recording and watching pre-recorded films. I don't need 500Gb to do that.
blue ray won, no doubt, but i'm paying for an advanced technology i don't need to watch Cameron Diaz falter thru her lines in the next mildly funny hollywood forget-it-after-a-year-film. Any DVD is good enoguh for that.
people are trying to convince us that we need blueray, we don't. what we really need is films that make us WANT to watch them in HD
Posted by:
Scott
07 Jun 2009
I am on my 3rd Dell Desk Top. The first one completely crashed and Dell did send two diffreent techs out to my home to repair. Both times, the Techs. replaced everything in my PC to no avail. This system was an XPS 710 and I paid close to $4,000.00 for it. Dell sent a replacement about 7 weeks later I received an XPS 730. It was missing my TV card as well as a few other things that my original PC had. This replacement unit showed up in a box big enough for a miniature refridgerator along with "SIX HEX HEAD BOLTS WEIGHING 1lbs. Each. These bolts obviously banged around during shipment and banged up the outside case of the unit as well as broke a front door which exposed inserts for a floppy disc, MIDI input & UBS ports. I Spoke with Dell for months about theses issues plus the fact that this PC was not working properly. Dell asked me to take photos of the damage as well as the shipping container. I did so and sent. I waited, I waited, I waited, I waited. After about 4 months I called but once again and actually spoke with a gentelman that actually spoke and understood "ENGLISH"! WOW, I was thrilled, he explained that there had been some past issues in the company and that he would handle my replacement issue from now on.
I was amazed as this Dell Tech. found the photos that I had sent months earlier and pulled up all of my corespondence about all of the past issues. He immediately dispatched a new unit to be built and sent to my home.
Although missing some components that were ordered with the original, Dell keept sending the latest and greatest including this unit that is actually liquid cooled. Wow, pretty cool (no pun intended) yet was lacking my TV Card and 3.5 Floppy Disc.
I'm willing to give the above components up for a "Blu-Ray" Player\Recorder for my system. I just need to know if anyone out there can advise on the best system to go with?
EDITOR'S NOTE: I'd just look for a reputable vendor (Sony, LG, Panasonic...) and buy the drive for around $100.