Learning About the Blu-ray Disc

With the advent of high definition televisions, people like to make the most of their expensive pieces of technology. The Blu-ray disc makes that possible, since it plays graphics and sounds in stunning, crystal clear HD.

The Blu-ray Disc Association is responsible for creating the Blu-ray standard. It is comprised of almost two hundred mega-corporations, all of which have a stake in Blu-ray’s success. They developed the format over a period of years before completing it in 2004.

Unlike DVDs, Blu-ray discs can hold a whopping twenty five gigabytes of data, which is why it can play movies in high definition. The amount of data also determines other things, such as sound quality and special features.

The storage capacity of Blu-ray discs can be increased by adding more layers to the disc itself. Each layer adds 25MB of space, and as of now, only single and dual-layer discs exist, so the maximum capacity is 50GB. In the future, as many as eight layers could be installed in each disc, meaning the maximum capacity would reach two hundred gigabytes!

Such massive storage is only made capable by the type of laser utilized by Blu-ray. As the name suggests, a blue-violet laser is used to record and read data, and because the light has a shorter wavelength, it can cover more distance.

The current standard speed for Blu-ray discs is known as 1x. As movies become more defined, rates can be increased to 10x or 12x, but that is difficult to reach due to limitations in hardware.

Blu-ray can take a number of different forms, just like the computer form of a DVD is a CD, roughly. All discs share similarities, which enables some formats to be combined, such as a proposed Blu-ray and DVD disc, which could be played on either type of respective hardware. DVD is bound to become obsolete in the near future, so many people wonder what the point of making such a format would be.