What is Blu-ray? No, it's not a creature of the deep or any mythical beast. Blu-ray is a third-generation digital media or data storage technology from the Blu-ray Disc Association, an assembly of corporate media and electronics technology leaders. Blu-ray discs are currently competing with HD-DVD to become the new optical disc format. They have much more storage capacities and data transfer speeds than conventional DVD's and CD's.
Blu-ray Disc Versus Other Optical Discs
A Blu-ray disc, looks much like any other optical disc, including first-generation CDs, second-generation DVDs, and the competing third-generation HD DVDs.
A Blu-ray disc system uses a blue-violet laser with a wavelength of 405 nanometers to write and read data on the optical disc. This laser is the source of Blu-ray's name and the technology which differentiates Blu-ray from previous generation optical media. The 405 nanometer blue-violet laser is also used for writing and reading data on third-generation HD DVD discs, which have smaller data storage capacity per layer. Older optical media require a red laser for data storage and retrieval.
Blu-ray Storage Capacity
The Blu-ray disc system uses a shorter wavelength than conventional optical discs (CD systems use a red laser with a wavelength of 780 nanometers whereas DVD systems use the same red laser with a wavelength of 650 nanometers). The shorter wavelength means more precise data recording, which allows more data to be packed on the Blu-ray disc surface than a comparable CD or DVD surface. In fact, a standard single-layer Blu-ray disc can store as much as 25 GB of digital data, more than five times the storage capacity of conventional DVDs. A dual-layer Blu-ray disc can store a maximum of 50 GB of digital data. On the drawing board are quadruple-layer Blu-ray discs with 100 GB digital data storage capacities.
Blu-ray Support
To enjoy the considerable benefits of a Blu-ray disc, one must have a Blu-ray disc player (either standalone or software-based) that supports reading of the Blu-ray disc. Blu-ray video players need to have an MPEG-2 codec (which makes a player capable of playing DVDs and HD DVDs), a VC-1 codec, and an AVC or MPEG-4 codec. Movies stored in Blu-ray discs will use any one of the above-mentioned codecs. One movie can also have more than one codec, as long as each codec used is supported by Blu-ray technology.
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They carry up to 5 times more information than the standard DVD which means Blu-ray can offer more interactive features and bonus content. The discs are highly durable, resistant to dirt and scratches.
The Big Picture Discs and Players provide 6 times better picture quality than DVD with a resolution display of 1080p. It allows colours to be shown more accurately, the textures richer and the clarity sharper.
Enhanced Sound As Blu-ray has up to 7.1 channels of high definition surround sound, the audio is deeper and far more powerful with any form of surround-sound set-up.
Durability Blu-ray is protected by a hard-coat layer that resists scratches, dust, and fingerprints that cause discs to skip and freeze.
Storage Capacity Blu-ray discs store up to 50GB of information. As the storage capacity is higher than standard DVDs, the picture has much more detail, better quality sound and more room for bonus features and content.
Why is the format called Blu-Ray? The name Blu-ray comes from the blue lasers that read and write data from the discs.
Will Blu-ray be backwards compatible with DVD? Yes! You can still watch all your favourite DVDs using a Blu-ray Player
What do I need to watch Blu-ray?
The basics for Blu-ray:
A High Definition TV A Blu-ray player or Playstation 3 An HDMI cable A Blu-ray disc
Check out our Blu-ray store for great deals and the latest releases.
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