Weekly Analysis 3: Blu-Ray Disc

Blu-ray discs began production in the late 1990's and first introduced a prototype in late 2000. It was a man by the name of Shuji Nakamura who invented "blue laser diodes" and helped begin the design with Sony and started UDO (Ultra Density Optical) and DVR (Digital Video Recording) Blue, which would be later called Blu-Ray. It wasn't offically referred to as Blu-Ray until February of 2002 when the Blu-Ray Disc Association was introduced. As of October 2007, there has been over 300 Blu-Ray discs released to the public in the U.S.

Blu-ray discs are referred to as the next generation of dvd because the two are closely related, but technology has found a way of making the same media hold a larger amount of data. First of all, the Blu-ray discs are written using the blue-violet laser listed above, but with a shorter wavelength(405nm) versus the dvd(650nm). The shorter wavelength allows for a larger amount of data to be stored. A basic DVD can store a maximum of 4.7GB of data and a dual layer DVD can store 8.5 GB. Writing with a shorter wavelength allows the a regular Blu-Ray disc to be able to store 25GB (over 5x DVD storage) and a dual layer Blu-Ray can store 50GB (almost 6x the storage of a DVD). The larger size is needed for the new format of High Definition. Relating to high definition, the Blu-Rays biggest competition currently is with HD DVD. They are in "format war" with each other to determine who will provide the best high-definition content. Blu-Ray has currently outsold HD DVDs two to one.

Blu-Ray disc manufacturers are also coming out with blank Blu-Ray discs so users can burn movie clips to discs at their homes. These discs are referred to as BD-RE. The only bad thing to burn these discs you would have to purchase a blu-ray disc burner which averages from $400 to over $800 right now. Rewritable drives for the PC are now available, introduced in 2006, for BD-R and BD-RE. One product introduction that has become popular is the Playstation 3. The PS3 was introduced as being a Blu-Ray disc player, that has also boosted the sale of Blu-Ray movies.

Reference:

What is Blu-Ray? (2007). Retrieved November 21, 2007, from Blu-ray Disc Association
Web site: http://www.blu-ray.com/