Blu-Ray Basics

Blu-ray is an optical disc format which is set to rival HD-DVD in the race to be the

de-facto standard storage medium for HDTV. The HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray battle resembles

that between Betamax & VHS & DVD+RW & DVD-RW.

Currently, the major Hollywood film studios are split evenly in their support for Blu-

ray & HD-DVD, but most of the electronics industry is currently in the blue corner.

The key difference between these new players & recorders & current optical disc

know-how is that Blu-ray, as its name suggests, makes use of a blue-violet laser to read

& write knowledge than a red. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red

light, & according to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which is made up of,

amongst others, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, & Pioneer, this means that the laser

spot can be focused with greater precision.

Blu-ray discs have a maximum capacity of 25GB & dual-layer discs can hold up to

50GB - for hours of HDTV. Like HD-DVD, Blue laser discs don't need

a caddy & the players & recorders will be able to play current DVD discs. Codecs

supported by Blu-ray include the H.264 MPEG-4 codec which will form part of

Apple's QuickTime 7 & the Windows Media 9 based VC-1.

The BDA says that although blue laser discs & players are already shipping in

Japan, they won't ship in the US until the finish of 2005 at the earliest. It is likely

that players will be expensive initially, compared to DVD players. In Japan, they

cost the equivalent of $2000. However, as with all new know-how, prices will

quickly fall - as Blu-ray will be competing with HD-DVD for that space

under your TV.