What is Blu-ray ?

A Blu-ray Disc (Frequently misspelled as Blue-ray) is an optical disc storage medium designed to eventually replace the standard DVD format.

With their high storage capacity, Blu-ray discs can hold large amount of digital data. With Blu-ray you can play back large quantities of high-definition video and audio, as well as store large amount of photos, software and other digital data.

A standard DVD can hold 4.7 GB while a dual layer DVD can hold 8.5 GB of data. That's about the size of an average 2 hour, standard-definition movie and some extras. But a HD (high definition) movie, which has a much higher resolution to make it look more clear and crispier, takes up about five times more space. As TV and movies go towards HD, and software becomes larger and complex, consumers are going to need playback systems with a lot more storage capacity. Blu-ray discs can store up to 25GB of data on single layer discs or up to 50GB data on dual layer discs. Hence the need for Bluray discs will increase and eventually replace the DVDs.

History

Sony started two projects in late 90s applying two new new technologies: UDO (Ultra Density Optical), and DVR Blue (together with Pioneer), a format of rewritable discs that would eventually become Blu-ray Disc.

The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled in October 2000. On February 19, 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray and Blu-ray Disc Founders was founded by the nine initial members.

The first consumer device was in stores on April 10, 2003. This device was the Sony BDZ-S77, a BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan. However, there was no standard for prerecorded video, and no movies were released for this player. The Bluray Disc standard was still years away, as a newer, more secure Digital Rights Management (DRM) system was needed before Hollywood studios would accept it.

The first BD-ROM players were shipped in mid-June 2006, though HD DVD players beat them to market by a few months. HD DVD (High-Definition/Density DVD), similar to Blu-ray is a high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was also designed to replace the standard DVD discs. However, in February 2008, after a long format war with Blu-ray, Toshiba abandoned the format, announcing it would no longer develop or manufacture HD DVD players or drives.

The first Blu-ray Disc titles were released on June 20, 2006. Sony released PlayStation 3 in November, 2006 which came standard with Blu-ray drive. Many believe the popularity of Playstation 3 was a big factor in making Blu-ray more acceptable and eventually helped winning the format war with HD DVD discs.

The first movies using (50 B) dual-layer discs were introduced in October 2006. Since then the prices of Bluray players and Blu-ray discs have dropped significantly. Blu-ray players can be now bought for prices around or less than $100 and Blu-ray Movies from range of $10-$20 in the US.