Market is flooded with numerous digital versatile disc (DVD) players, small devices that play video and music for us. Most DVD players have to be attached to a TV to show video but now some players are arrived with an attached LCD screen and stereo speakers. DVD players play both audio and video format discs.



The quality of any audio or video output on a screen is highly influenced by the format of the disc which is being played in the player. There are some optical disc formats which are supported by one or other disc players and DVD players. They are compact disc (CD) formats, DVD formats, MP3 formats and others. These days some companies are coming up with a next generation optical disc format players. These next generation optical disc formats are known as Blu ray or Blu ray Disc (BD). These are high density optical disc formats. Blu ray Discs store digital information and also High Definition (HD) Videos.

The name 'Blu ray Disc' is quite unusual, this name is derived from the Blu violet laser which used to read and write this type of disc. More data can be stored on a Blu ray Disc than on a DVD. This is because of the shorter wavelength of Blu-violet laser, which is 405 nanometer. Almost 25 Gigabytes (GB) can be stored on a single layer BD. This is over 5 times the capacity of a single layer DVD which can store almost 4.5 GB only. On a dual layer BD we can store up to 50 GB data.

BD optical disc format was jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). BDA is a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers. These include Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson. Blu-ray is supported by 180 of the world's leading technology companies. These companies are major names in consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies.

The BD format has broad support from the major movie studios. In fact, majority of the prominent movie studios have released movies in the Blu-ray format. These are Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM. Six studios are releasing their movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format; they are Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner, Lionsgate and MGM.

Several electronic companies are offering products that can read and write CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. Companies like Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp and LG are coming up with players with BD/DVD/CD compatible optical head. BD players are becoming popular due to that simple reason which is quality. On BD players we can play DVD also, it looks even better than before. So are the latest buzz word in the entertainment scene, it produces clear picture with vivid colours and sharp sound.

Due to the quality it is offering, BD players are on high demand. Day by day, the demand of this next generation technology is increasing. This makes its production cost to fall. Sony Company is taking advantage from this fact and is reducing the price of its BD players. Several companies are coming ahead in manufacturing next generation BD players. Electronics Company Toshiba sells its high-definition (HD) DVD player in much less price than BD players of Sony. Now Sony is trying to get ahead in the market so it has cut £50 off the price of its BD player.

Sony's Blu-ray discs are supported by companies like Samsung, Dell and Apple, while NEC, Sanyo and others are supporting Toshiba's HD DVD. We can say that the war of formats is on. Both HDD and Blu-ray systems have almost equal functionalities, both stores large amount of data, both produce high quality image and audio, and both use a blue laser to read information. Only one difference is there, that is of price. So the price cutting step of Sony can be one added advantage of Sony BD players.