Information Technology

Blu-ray, also referred to as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name associated with a next generation optical disc format. It has the same physical proportions as standard DVDs and Compact disks, however offers over five times the storage capacity of conventional DVDs, holding up to 27 GB of data on a single-layer disc (that's more than 2 hrs of high definition video or about thirteen hrs of standard video) and up to 50 GB on a dual-layer disc. Current developments by Pioneer have pushed the storage potential to 500GB on a solitary disc by using 20 layers.

This extra capacity merged together with the use of advanced video and audio codecs gives consumers an unprecedented HD experience. Additionally, extras such as bonus material and special features may be included in high quality within the same disc, so there's no need for separate bonus discs to accompany the film title.

Blu-ray was jointly formulated by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a collection of the world's top consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Dell, Apple, HP, Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Pioneer, LG, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Samsung, Sharp, Thomson and TDK). It was developed to allow recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data.

Although present optical disc technologies such as DVD make use of a red laser to read and write data, the Blu-ray format uses a blue-violet laser in its place. The advantage of using a blue-violet laser (405 nm) is that it's got a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650 nm), which makes it feasible to focus the laser spot with even greater accuracy. This enables data to be packed more closely and stored in a reduced amount of space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc. However, despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.

During the format war over high-definition optical discs, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. However, on February 19, 2008, Toshiba (the main company supporting HD DVD) announced that it would no longer develop, manufacture, or market HD DVD players and recorders, leading almost all other HD DVD businesses to follow suit, and thus effectively ending the format war. Blu -ray is currently supported by about 200 of the world's leading pc, consumer electronics, recording media, music and video game companies. The format has the benefit of support from all Hollywood studios and other smaller studios as being a successor to the current DVD format. Major blank media producers such as TDK also support the Blu-ray Disc format as the successor to DVD.

Blu-ray provides some of the strongest copy protection methods ever developed for any consumer format, which makes it the best option for any content publisher wanting assurance that their valuable assets are protected from piracy. The format contains a powerful copy protection mechanism, which not only relies on implementation on the playback device, but which also includes precautions at replicator level, which can be strictly controlled. Unlike the voluntary implementation of CSS protection in DVD, the copy protection mechanism for Blu-ray Disc is mandatory and will be governed by strict licensing procedures.