Blu-ray

Blu-ray is a name for a optical disc standard which uses blue-violet laser instead of red laser used in CDs and in DVDs. This allows manufacturers to store more data using the same amount of disc surface.

In fact, Blu-ray got its name from the technology, basically the "Blu" is from blue-violet diode and the "ray" is from optical ray. The "e" was intentionally dropped so that the full term "Blu-ray" could be registered as a new trademark.

There were many developers and supporters of Blu-ray and it is important to note them. The founders of the technology is the Blu-ray Disc Association which now consists of 180 companies worldwide. The Board of Directors of the BDA are:
Apple Computer, Inc.
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
TDK Corporation
Thomson Multimedia
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Pictures
Warner Bros. Entertainment

There are a few formats of Blu-ray Discs available or in the works including BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE. Although HD DVD has had combo discs (one side HD, other side standard DVD), Blu-ray has not yet created such a format, but is planning to introduce it soon.

Videos will be stored on either MPEG-2 (enhanced for new HD), MPEG-4/AVC (High Profile standard) or on the best of all three, VC-1 (HD standard based on Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) technology.)

One Blu-Ray disc will hold appx. 25GB of data (compared to 4.36GB on regular DVD) on one side/layer of the disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc.

BD support many types of audio codecs as well with up to 8 channels of uncompressed audio. The codecs supported are:

Linear PCM (LPCM), Dolby Digital (DD), Dolby Digital Plus (DD+), Dolby TrueHD, DTS Digital Surround, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio.

In mid February 2008, Blu-ray became the victor in the next generation format war, when Toshiba decided to stop production on the rival HD DVD format. Before then HD DVD had proved to be a fierce competitor despite the fact that they had much less hardware sold in comparison to Sony and its Blu-ray including PlayStation 3.

For more information on how the format war ended check these news articles:
Toshiba confirms dropping of HD DVD (19 February 2008)
Warner speaks out about Blu-ray deal (11 January 2008)

Popular Blu-ray players
Sony PlayStation 3 60GB Panasonic DMP-BD30K Sony BDP-S550 Not rated yet Samsung BD-P1500 Not rated yet Sony BDP-S300
All Blu-ray players

Post your comment

Comment this glossary entry!
amru20 9 December, 2005 17:49
more of a question then commment...if technology gets more in depth doesnt then pirating become more of a pain? w/ this blu-ray format it will be much hard to copy movies that will be universal (from dvd to playstation to computer) not so sure if this whole thing is a really grand idea any other thoughts or maybe more educated answers?
psplvanub 24 December, 2007 9:11
dam for my piratin issues ill jus stick wit good ol'-fashion homegrown dvd
camaro17 5 January, 2008 22:15
blu-ray kicks HD-DVD's a$$.
8ternity 15 May, 2008 1:22
Great that Blu-Ray was the leader and unique format in HD. Less confuse and technology is unbelievable!!
BigDLC 22 August, 2008 2:08
Checkout http://www.muvidirect.com for the latest and greatest titles on blu-ray DVD!
Ginard 4 November, 2008 12:35
AAG.November 04,2008. The Industry is playing games with the consumer.... First media was HD,then Blu-Ray came,and now they are going to produce Cinema media1. As my self as a consumer i was in the process to change to Blu-Ray, But now i changed my mind!. I'm NOT going to get into something that it will be Upsolete in a year or so!.. That means on buying againg flat screnn tv's,New palyatation,etc,etc. I'm keeping what i have until the industry quit playing games.!............
joed 23 November, 2008 11:03
The more technology about a product puts me in a great position, I enjoy being able to understand and even make a comment from time to time when I fully understand a products overall function on it's operation and the way it should behave i.e. Blu-Ray thanks for educating me it is indeed a wonderful feeling. Joe.D
ffeefeaf 24 January, 2009 10:21
I found a cool tutorial - 5 different ways to rip Blu-ray movies from http://www.blurayripper.org/ and some ways are completed FREE. Anyone can tell me which solution is the best? I do not want to try these way one by one.
andy4xu 28 September, 2009 23:51
Finally found the hi-tech BD&DVD ripper solution from www.Earth-soft.com~~ In the past days, I have tried several rippers claiming to successfully rip blu-ray and DVD to video, and they all failed. I am so glad to say that Earth Bluray Ripper I bought from earth-soft.com is really a great one, and all the blu-ray work is finished within a short time. Now i can watch my favourite movie in any of my portable device like iPod,MP3,MP4,PSP etc and enjoy them anytime anywhere! I will try other bluray products from earth-soft.com ,they will provide discounts to the return cumstomer!Also free trial and download is provided! Thanks a lot!

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